Categories
MLB General

Fans’ Guide to Playoff Insanity

By Ryan McGowan

A little over a week ago, I was in Ann Arbor, visiting this guy Bill, one of Jennifer’s friends from New Hampshire who is a doctoral student at the University of Michigan.  Bill wanted to take us to the Big House to see a Michigan-Iowa game, and since my appreciation of big-time college football had previously been limited to a few NC State games and such Division 1-AA epic wars as Hofstra vs. Northeastern, I was salivating at the chance to experience a real college game, amid 111,000 spectators at a packed-to-the-gills Michigan Stadium.

Categories
General Sports

The Weekend That Wasn’t

By Ryan McGowan

If you let it, rain can do a lot to dampen your spirits (pun intended, I guess).  In July, on the morning of the annual McGowan Open golf tournament, I woke up to a drizzle that eventually turned into a torrential downpour on the eighth hole.  Fearing a lightning strike akin to the Bishop on the 18th green in Caddyshack, we took an unscheduled hour and a half break in the clubhouse, during which a bunch of us cracked open some Bud Lites at 8:30 AM on a Saturday.  My team was leading the tournament at the turn; a cancellation of the tourney after nine holes would have given Team Brewsaders our first-ever possession of the McGowan Cup trophy.  

Categories
New England Patriots

McGowan’s Running Diary: Opening Night- Pats vs. Colts

By Ryan McGowan

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2004, 8:04 PM: We’re live from Gillette Stadium in scenic Foxboro, Massachusetts.  Well, we’re not actually live from there, we’re live from my living room in the just-as-scenic Oak Square neighborhood in Boston.  But we can pretend we’re in the Big Razor tonight for opening night of the 2004 NFL season between the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and last year’s AFC Championship finalists, the Indianapolis Colts.

Categories
Boston Red Sox

Realism Be Damned: We Want the AL East!

By Ryan McGowan

I ran into Dan Shaughnessy, sports columnist for the Boston Globe, a few weeks ago while I was waiting for an order at a Chinese restaurant in Newton.  “Shank” is somewhat of a personal hero of mine, not as much for his writing ability (though I do think he is a good writer, even if many disagree with what he has to say) but more so for his status as a fellow Holy Cross graduate/ex-writer for the HC Crusader student newspaper.  As there were only four people in the restaurant at the time (myself, Jennifer the Lovely Better Half, and two restaurant employees), you can imagine my startled expression when I was interrupted from reading a crusty 2001 back issue of Newsweek and listening to Muzak versions of “Sweet Home Alabama” by the grand entrance of a tall, lanky, curly-haired man, surrounded by his family, whose face I have seen countless times on TV and headlining the Globe columns bearing his name.

Categories
General Sports

QUICK TAKES – August 26- 2004

Casual thoughts I was contemplating while noticing how the letters of Doug Mientkiewicz’s last name wrap almost 180 degrees around his number, and wondering what would happen if an athlete had such a long last name that it made a full circle around his back…

Categories
New England Patriots

COUNTERPOINT – Patriots: Classy- Courageous- and Champions

By Ryan McGowan

In part one of this two-part series, I examined the question as to which team is tops in Boston, the Red Sox or the Patriots, and explored the issue from the point of view of the Sox.  Today, the Patriots have their turn in the sun for rebuttal.

Categories
Boston Red Sox

POINT – Red Sox: Still the Top of the Hub

By Ryan McGowan

It’s Olympic time, so let’s figure out who’s really number one.  Americans are a rather competitive lot.  Nothing in America can be appreciated for what it is; everything has to be quantified in a list as either better than or worse than something else.  This is probably the reason why we get lists such as the "Top 25 Sports Movies," "America’s Most Wanted," and cookie-cutter value meals from McDonald’s.  The Olympics would be a great topic for today in debating whether America, as many establishment types would lead you to believe, actually produces the best athletes in the world.  But since I find watching most Olympic events about as riveting as a six-cassette set of "NPR’s Greatest Hits", today we’ll tackle a question which has been burning up the airwaves on WEEI today: Which team is REALLY number one in Boston, the Red Sox or the Patriots?

Categories
NFL General

Terrell Owens: Go Back to Fourth Grade

By Ryan McGowan

My writing colleague here at SportsColumn, "geeefunk7," wrote today in a piece about Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens: "The fans in Philadelphia do not care if Terrell Owens calls out former teammates on their sexual orientation. They do not care whether the accent goes on the beginning of his name or the end. They do not care if he openly despises the mandatory team rule, requiring all players to wear shorts over their tights during training camp. They do not even care about his history of touchdown celebrations, and his sure intentions on creating some new ones for this upcoming season."  Certainly, the Philly faithful have every right to overlook some of the baggage that T.O. brings to the table, and instead take the very Dan Duquette-esque philosophy that a player’s performance on the field is all that matters.  They certainly have every right to embrace Owens’ considerable talent, his top-notch football skills, and his acceptance of his anointed role as the savior of the Eagles from their three straight NFC Championship game heartbreaks.  But for Philly fans in particular and NFL fans in general, if they are human beings with any sense of compassion or conscience, they should certainly take umbrage to Owens’ ignorant, savage, unfounded innuendoes regarding former teammate Jeff Garcia’s sexual preferences.

Categories
General Sports

MINI-TAKES – August 9- 2004

By Ryan McGowan

Quite a few topics that merit mentioning have arisen in the past week, but I don’t think any of them are worthy of an entire column, so I have decided to sell out and write a condensed "short takes" column.  If I like it, maybe I’ll turn this into a weekly or semi-weekly feature here on SportsColumn, the Revolution in Sports Journalism.  Hey, if it works for Bill Simmons and Bill Reynolds of the Providence Journal, then why can’t it work for me, right?

Categories
General Sports

The Problem of THAT DAD

By Ryan McGowan

Every kid who grew up playing sports knew at least one of them, if not more.  They are all over youth sports, as much a part of the landscape as concession stands and old men with fungo bats wearing tight sweatpants.  They might be a bigger threat to amateur sports than drugs, steroids, participation fees, and youth soccer combined.  One of them who achieved prominence this week turned out to be a rather famous athlete in his own right.  When I was growing up in North Attleboro, if you were one of these people, you were known simply as "THAT DAD."