WHAT A DEAL!

Patriots Day, 2006: Can we finally stop the idiot callers on WEEI from calling in and complaining about the Doug Mirabelli-Mark Loretta trade? In case anyone missed it, just like the Josh Beckett trade, Boston cleaned-up in a lopsided deal. (I see Hanley Ramirez lost the game for the Marlins with an error late in the game the other night. Hmmm, I wonder if they would want Wily Mo Pena in their outfield?)

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SPEAKING OF WILY MO:

Highlight of the season: Watching the Sox game the other day, my two-year old, Emmalee, turns to me and says: Daddy, I like Wily Mo.

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SUCCESSFUL OFFSEASON FOR THE PATRIOTS:

Big Sey in the fold, and Deion Branch is opening the savings account. What an amazing deal signed by Seymour. The amount of cash he receives in the first two years is insane, yet amazingly he does not kill the cap over the length of the deal. By next March, according to ESPN.com writer Len Pasquarelli, Seymour will have received over $24 million. The cap hit this year is under $5 million and only $8-9 million until 2009 when it is $11 million. By then, they will likely be working on the next big payday for Seymour.

A deal great for the player and good for the cap. So rare in this day and age in the NFL, but great to see us fans in New England.

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NFL DRAFT DAY SUNDAY:

Peter King had a great article about the crapshoot that is the draft and how it just wastes trees to write about who will go when where and for whom and how. So anyway, I have my dream draft for the Patriots (note: this will NEVER happen, but what the heck. I can write a REAL entry about the draft another time):

Round 1: LenDale White, RB USC: The best running back in the NFL draft lands in our laps. Rickles & I celebrate by running laps around the house and chanting WHITE, WHITE, WHITE until the cops take us away for upsetting the one token black family in my suburbanite neighborhood.

(A trade up by the Pats to the middle of the second round)

Round 2: Mathias Kiwanuka, DE BC: The best defense end/linebacker/hybrid/Willie McGinest wanna-be in the draft inexplicably has dropped from a pre-season top 5 pick to a consensus second rounder. As Nancy Kerrigan once asked: Why? I saw consensus top 5 pick Mario Williams in one game only (against BC) and he was manhandled the entire game by the BC O-line. Kiwi, on the other hand, was the best player on the field that day. This guy is the Lofa Tatupu of the 2006 draft.

Round 3: Maurice Stovall, WR Notre Dame: The Charlie Weis connection. Stovall, likely gone in round two, inexplicably drops (well, he drops because this is a DREAM draft) to the third round where Scott Pioli packages some flotsam and jetsam picks to move up and grab him one spot before the Jets get their slimy hands on him after trading up previously.

Round 4: Cedric Griffin, FS Texas: Yeah, I do not ever remember any Longhorns in the Patriots camp other than Major Applewhite a few years ago (and he did not even last through mini-camp). But this guy did nothing but make plays for a winner. Sounds like a Patriot to me. Hey, the Patriots ALWAYS have a need for another safety.

Give the Patriots any of these guys, and it will be a heck of a draft.

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THE MERCIFUL END:

THIS is what it is like to be a Kansas City Royals fan today. Memories of those wonderful teams of the seventies and eighties when they were the top of the pecking order; retired numbers for all those stars of the past; a consistent message of NEXT year being the year the youngsters put it together and the team begins surprising some people around the league; and finally those bizarre moves made by the front office that just make you scratch your head.

I give you the 2005-06 Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics.

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