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As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
New features: Bigger type, more graphics, comments that load 10 times faster and a larger and more recent photo that makes me look pretty doggone old. I think you’ll like it (the blog, not the photo). But I am, as we know too well, often wrong.
Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > April > 21
Monday, April 21, 2008
Tale of two sports cities: Beantown trumps Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boston — Steve Mitchell stands on the corner of Lansdowne Street and Brookline Avenue. It is 9:45 a.m., and he has his Patriots Day planned. He’s about to enter Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play Texas — first pitch is at 11:05 a.m. — and then he’ll make his way to Kenmore Square to watch the runners in the 112th Boston Marathon chug past.
“I have a lot of friends running,” he says.
And then he’ll head home — he’s from Dorchester, south of Boston proper — to top off the local holiday by watching the Bruins play Game 7 of their playoff series in Montreal. Smiling, Mitchell says: “It’s a pretty good city.”
Even if you believe there’s no arrogance quite like a Bostonian whose team is winning, you must admit it’s a high old time to be a Bostonian. The Red Sox are reigning world champs. The Celtics, who trashed our meek Hawks in Game 1 on Sunday night, could well win the NBA title. The Patriots nearly went undefeated. The Bruins have pushed top-seeded Montreal to the limit. And don’t forget the Marathon, which is both a civic tradition and a day-long party.
Please pardon a touring Atlantan for feeling the pangs of that green-eyed monster — envy. (Not to be confused with the Green Monster, which towers above Lans-downe Street.) After a fall and winter that saw Michael Vick go to jail and Bobby Petrino take a powder and the Braves finish third in their division and the Thrashers finish next-to-next-to-last in their league and the Hawks post a ninth consecutive losing season … what must it be like to live where teams not only win but feed off one another?
“To be an athlete in this city is something special,” says Jonathan Papelbon, the Sox closer. “The fans are passionate for sports. There’s an intensity in Boston that’s unlike any other city, and it makes us want to go out and kick [butt] every night.”
An example: The Sox trailed Texas 3-2 on Saturday night when a result — the Bruins had scored four third-period goals to beat Montreal in Game 6 at the TD Banknorth Garden — was flashed on the message board. The Fenway crowd went wild and, Papelbon said, “it electrified the entire game.”
On frenzied cue, the Sox rallied — Manny Ramirez hit the winning homer — in the bottom of the inning. Said Papelbon: “This is the city of champions. No other town can come close.”
On Sunday night, four famous Sox — David Ortiz, Mike Lowell, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia — sat courtside at the Hawks-Celtics game. John Henry, who owns the Sox, hunkered down alongside Wyc Grousbeck, who owns the Celtics.
Speaking before his team opened its series, Celtics coach Doc Rivers said: “I’m not a hockey fan, but I watched that [Bruins-Canadiens] third period. That was phenomenal. It was great sports.”
In Boston, is there any other kind? Nowadays it isn’t enough to wear the regalia of only one team: The local fashion is to cross-dress, to mix a blue Sox sweatshirt with a green Celtics cap. Or, in Mitchell’s case, to wear a black Bruins sweater (with Ray Bourque’s No. 77 on the back) to a baseball game.
Does a Bostonian feel superior to someone, say, who must make do with following the middling Atlanta teams? Says Mitchell: “You can’t be fair-weather. I went to the Celtics opener last year, and I was so disgusted. They only won 24 games. But you have to keep being a fan.”
And maybe there’s hope for us Atlantans yet. The NFL draft is this weekend. The Falcons have the No. 3 pick. Their new general manager, imported from the regal Patriots, could well address a need by taking the highest-rated quarterback, who played for … Boston College.
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Even brief playoff visit worth noting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boston — OK, so it wasn’t the thrill that came with the first World Series game in Atlanta or the sight of the Falcons in an actual Super Bowl. But when a franchise goes nine excruciating years without a playoff sniff, the novelty of that team taking the floor for an 83rd game carries enough of a jolt to make us sit up and take note.
So sit up. Take note. The Hawks are in the NBA playoffs at blessed last. At issue now: Will they stay long?
If Game 1 of this Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against Boston was any indication, they’ll stick around for three more games. Yes, that would be the minimum. And “minimal” is the only way to describe this return-to-the-postseason engagement.
The Hawks played Sunday night like a team unaccustomed to the pressurized pace. Boston was somewhat better. Given that the Celtics won 29 more games than these Hawks, this was no huge surprise. What was shocking was how little Mike Bibby, the Hawks player who has had the most postseasoning, offered.
Bibby was roundly outplayed by Rajon Rondo, one of Boston’s lesser lights. Bibby would finish with five points and one assist to Rondo’s 15 and nine. Said Bibby: “The stat line’s terrible. I didn’t help my team at all. I’ll take the blame for this.”
He also said this: “I don’t think there’ll be another game like this.”
He meant things will get better. Truth to tell, they could get worse. The Celtics didn’t play at peak capacity Sunday: Ray Allen had a quiet first half, and Paul Pierce accomplished little after an early flurry. And still Boston won by 23 points.
“We came out with the same mindset as they did,” Marvin Williams did. “At the end of the day, they just made more shots.”
Well, yeah. Part of that is because Boston has better shooters. Part of it is because Boston takes better shots. The biggest part, however, is that Boston makes it harder for the other team to shoot. Joe Johnson needed 22 shots to score 19 points. The Celtics aren’t great just because they have great talent; they’re great because they’ve managed to turn talent into a team.
With the Hawks, greatness remains several light years away. This is, after all, a bunch that finished six games under .500 and entered the postseason having lost four of five. For all the local giddiness over qualifying for the playoffs, it would have been really hard to do any less. And now we’ll see if this bunch has within itself the capability of surprising us even a little.
In the Hawks’ locker room afterward, a sign still bore the notice of a pregame chapel service. The topic: “Making what seemed impossible happen.” Right now it seems impossible that the Hawks will give Boston any sort of a run, but in the pressurized postseason things can change overnight.
“There’s a lot more series left,” Bibby said. “Somebody has to win four games.”
Off the strength — or, more precisely, the weakness — of their Game 1 showing, the Hawks will do well to win even once. “You always have a chance,” said Dominique Wilkins, whose greatest moment as a player came in that famous lost series against Boston in 1988. “What our guys have to do is absorb the first blow. We can’t panic.”
The Celtics landed a massive Sunday punch. The Hawks now have two off-days to muster some sort of counter. That could be even tougher than we thought it would be. In Game 1, mighty Boston gave every indication of being a team that knows all the answers, and their opponent didn’t appear to have understood a single question.
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