Friday, June 20, 2008

Settle Down Boston and the Big Finish

Jeff and I pulled a reverse summer Friday but nevertheless ...

Brian: In his column yesterday towards the end of the article, Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy suggests that the Red Sox will be playing in the World Series again and the Patriots celebration parade figures to be on February 3, 2009. Honestly, Boston, can we tone down the chest thumping just a little? I mean, BC has it tough enough getting any respect in the ACC. Last thing we want is to be lumped in with this insufferable lot, right?

Jeff: Boston does need to tone down the chest thumping a little. The Red Sox still have a lot of baseball to play and the Patriots are going to be worse next year than they were this year as they continue to get older. And for those of you who have forgotten, the Patriots lost the Super Bowl last year. Nationally though, BC is absolutely lumped in with the Boston pro teams and people think Boston wins enough that I doubt any impartial fans around the country will start pulling for BC if BC makes a decent run in football or basketball next year because they've just seen enough of the Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox.

Brian: Red Sox / Celtic / Patriot Nation isn't doing us any favors. I mean, we already get picked for bowls 2-3 spots lower than we should annually. We don't need to be lumped into the bragging, chest thumping crowd. We won't win any friends in ACC land this way.


Jeff: NY Times previews our first ACC opponent Georgia Tech in at #73 . So far, the NYT's blog has previewed Kent State #99 , NC State #80, and Central Florida at #79 - totalling 4 of our 12 opponents this year. Not including Rhode Island (I-AA), there are 7 opponents left to preview. How many of the remaining 7 will be previewed before BC?

Brian: I would expect North Carolina, Maryland and Notre Dame to be previewed before BC so I'm going to say 3. I don't expect to be previewed before Virginia Tech, Clemson, Florida State or Wake Forest. But if they put us ahead of Notre Dame, I wouldn't be surprised about that either. Mainstream media pandering to god's gift to college football? Never!


Brian: Boston College is filing their institutional master plan with Boston City Hall that claims we will house all undergrads on campus within the next 10 years. Yet neighbors are still complaining? What gives?

Jeff: It's un-f-ing-believable and those neighbors are just going to complain for the sake of complaining no matter what BC does which is quite unfortunate.

Brian: Not sure what is more sad, the neighbors of the fact that we kowtow to most all of their demands.


Jeff: Last one, off topic, the Yankees have won 7 in a row and are 3.5 back of Tampa Bay for the wild card and 5 back of Boston for the AL East division lead. They'll make the playoffs again, right?

Brian: They gotta have the pitching which right now they don't. This weekend should be promising though as the Reds come to town. Believe it or not, Tampa Bay has arrived. We'll see if the Rays can make it last through the dog days of summer.

6 comments:

Joe Grav said...

Are you really using Dan Shaughnessy as an indicator of Bostonian opinion? Nobody likes him. He wrote a similar column back when BC was 7-0 last year, about how BC would be polishing off the nat'l title just as the Pats completed their undefeated regular season and the Sox would be world series champs.

Brian said...

they might not be emblematic of all boston fans, but the triumvirate of shaughnessy / ryan / simmons is certainly getting a little insufferable.

JP from Dorchester said...

Believe it or not, there are BC students and alums who are from Boston and root for both BC and the local teams.... Also, some people have lumped in our national championship and successful football season with the recent Boston sports success.

Brian said...

jp - i am all for celebrating your teams championships. i think this is just another case of the few overshadowing the actions of the many.

for better or worse, sports writers like shaughnessy, bob ryan and simmons are the voices and faces of red sox / patriot / celtic nation for the rest of the country outside of boston. when they go on and on about how there's another super bowl championship and world series in sight, it's a bit annoying.

i say boston can claim our hockey national championship and football success and lump it in with the boston pro sports success when they let us do what we want with the brighton campus. ;)

JP from Dorchester said...

I'll have to agree with you on the Brighton thing.

And Joe is right.... no one really likes Shaughnessy in Boston.

Jeff said...

There are plenty of alum and residents in Boston that support BC and the pro teams. But, there are only so many hours in a day and so much time and money you can spend attending sporting events that the more success the Patriots/Celtics/Red Sox have, the fewer people watch and attend BC games.

Look at basketball this year. Conte was half full at best every game, yet you couldn't even buy season tickets this year nor next year. Many of the same people that own BC tickets also attend Celtics/Patriots/Red Sox games and they'd rather go see a team compete for a championship.

BC is not going to get much support locally if they go through rebuilding in football and basketball the next few years while the Celtics/Red Sox/Patriots are taking home titles.