Author: BostonMac

Ryan is a teacher, writer, journalist, basketball coach, sports aficionado, occasional real estate agent, and political junkie. He graduated from both the College of the Holy Cross (bachelor's) and Boston College (Master's), and knows anyone who has never heard of Holy Cross probably would never have gotten in there anyway. He is an unabashed Boston sports fan and homer who, according to lore, once picked the Patriots to win for 25 straight weeks on the "NFL Picks Show," which he co-hosts with Vin Diec, R.J. Warner, and Burton DeWitt. He is also an original co-host of SportsColumn's "Poor Man's PTI." He is married, lame, and a lifelong Massachusetts resident (except for a brief sojourn into the wilds of Raleigh, NC) who grew up in North Attleboro and currently lives and works in Everett.

Categories
NBA

Boston Basketball in Literature Part I: Review of Michael Connelly’s “Rebound”

By Ryan McGowan

Neil Swidey and Michael Connelly have a lot in common, it seems.  Both grew up in Boston or the surrounding area, write for local media outlets (Swidey for the Boston Globe and Connelly for the Boston Herald, and both have recently written books about sports, culture, and racial issues involving the city and its basketball tradition.  One thing they don’t have in common: Swidey’s book The Assist: Hoops, Hope, and the Game of their Lives is a must-read, while Connelly’s Rebound! Basketball, Busing, Larry Bird, and the Rebirth of Boston pretty much sucks.

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Categories
Arizona Cardinals NFL Pittsburgh Steelers

In this wacky season, no option possible but Cards win

By Ryan P. McGowan

It snowed in New England on Wednesday, with some nasty freezing rain and sleet.  Good thing the Arizona Cardinals aren’t playing Super Bowl XLIII in Boston this week.

It’s a big week for the Cards and their long-suffering fans, at least all 27 of them that have been following the team for years, as opposed to the millions of Valley of the Sun wannabes who claim to be long-time fans after Arizona dismantled the Eagles in the NFC Championship game.  Hell, Vin and I have been on the bandwagon longer than most of these yahoos.  90% have no idea that they used to be called the Phoenix Cardinals.  They heard that a guy named Bill Bidwill was the owner, and their reaction was, “When did Bill Belichick leave the Patriots to become an owner?”

And yet these soulless, fair-weather, Johnny-come-lately solar worshippers are about to be celebrating a Super Bowl parade through the strip-mall paradise that is downtown Phoenix.

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Categories
Uncategorized

Jesus on Poor Man’s PTI tonight

Jesus, known by over a billion Christians around the world as the Son of God and the founder of Christianity, will be our guest on Poor Man’s PTI tonight at 8:00 PM EST.

Tune in and call us at 718-664-6869 to talk sports and ask questions to Jesus.

Categories
New England Patriots

Congratulations, Super Bowl XLIII Champs*

By Ryan McGowan

There will be a head coach from some NFL team who will raise the Vince Lombardi Trophy at Raymond James Stadium on February 1, 2009.  It very well might be Tony Dungy and the Colts for a second time.  Perhaps it will be Mike Tomlin of the Steelers, or Tom Coughlin of the Giants in a repeat.  Maybe even a dark horse rookie such as the Falcons’ Mike Smith or the Ravens’ John Harbaugh.   One thing is certain, though–whoever it is will have a giant asterisk next to his name.

The 2008 NFL playoffs (or “the tournament”, as Bill Parcells likes to say) will be conducted for the first time in six years without the New England Patriots, and the rest of the league can breathe a sigh of relief.  

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Categories
General Sports

Manny (Brett- and Chichester) being Manny (Brett- and Chichester)

By Ryan P. McGowan

They say celebrities always die in threes, such as my personal favorite celeb death trio: Jacques Cousteau, Jimmy Stewart, and Gianni Versace in June/July 1997.   And since Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes died within one day of each other, if you’re an overweight, middle-aged black comedian, I’d make sure you are within an arms’ reach of a defibrillator over the next few days.

Apparently, celebrities get overexposed in the media in threes as well.  Like George Costanza in velvet, I have ensconced myself in wall-to-wall coverage of Manny Ramirez, Brett Favre, and “Clark Rockefeller” over the past couple of weeks.

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Categories
All Other Sports

A Masshole Degenerate Gambler in King Arthur’s Court… er- Reno

By Ryan McGowan

Perhaps it was when I had to ask the guys from the Mine Rescue Simulation team how the hell you simulate a mine in a hotel casino.  It could have been when the cab driver asked me if I wanted to tag along with his next customer out to the Bunny Ranch.  But in hindsight, I think the moment I realized that Massholes don’t belong in Reno was when I was walking down North Virginia Street and realized I was out of place because I was actually wearing a shirt.

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Categories
General Sports

It’s a Boston Sports World- and Everyone Else is Just Paying Rent

By Ryan McGowan

Vin has been heckling me for the lack of quantity of my writing lately.

And by “lack of quantity,” I mean I haven’t posted a column since February 2007 when I wrote some diatribe about how NASCAR, and by extension the South in general, sucks.

Even though I’ve been a loyal and regular contributor to Poor Man’s PTI, my absence from the printed word has been somewhat unexplained.   So I think I owe it to the readers and especially to my colleagues Vin, Trevor, R.J., Billy, Kris, et al, to explain my writing void.

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Categories
All Other Sports

Gentlemen- Start Your Blenders… er- Engines

By Ryan McGowan

On Sunday afternoon, I rediscovered my Southern roots.

OK, I lied.  I was born in Rhode Island and grew up in Massachusetts.  I fit in south of the Mason-Dixon line about as easily as Charlton Heston at a vegan convention.  But for one day, I was Southern.

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Categories
Detroit Tigers

Believe it- Folks; The Tigers Are Living Their Destiny

Maybe it’s because they took it hard to the franchise of evil incarnate, the New York Yankees, the vaunted “Murderer’s Row and Cano” that was supposedly going to mash its way through the 2006 playoffs en route to a coronation in the Bronx for a 27th World Series title.

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Categories
MLB General

RPI Index All Stars – AL and NL

By Ryan McGowan

I devised a system of ranking players in each league based on their relative standing within their league in ten offensive categories: batting average, home runs, runs batted in, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, bases on balls, doubles, stolen bases, runs, and hits.  I then looked to the inspiration of the college football and basketball polls for the scoring system; a first-place ranking in any one of the categories gets a player 10 points, a second-place ranking is worth 9, all the way down to 1 point for a tenth place ranking in their league.

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