ESPN’s Mel Kiper Talks NFL Draft

ESPN’s Mel Kiper talked to Matty about UMaine’s Jovan Belcher and his chances of making it to the next level, the FCS division as a whole in terms of draft prospects, and a whole lot more. Enjoy!

Yankees Sign Burnett, May Be Out on Lowe

In an e-mail from ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, I asked him if he thought the Yankees would still be in on Derek Lowe now that they have signed AJ Burnett. His response…

I don’t think the Yankees want to make another long-term commitment for a pitcher. They’d like to bring in Andy Pettitte or (if that doesn’t work out) Ben Sheets on a short contract. But after investing $243 million in two guys, I don’t think they want to spend $60 million more on Lowe.

I’m not sure how Lowe’s market is going to shake out. The Red Sox would only be interested if he comes cheap, the Phillies just spent $30 million on Raul Ibanez today, and the Dodgers don’t expect to bring him back.

Everybody thought the Braves were the likeliest fit, but they’re not interested.

To me, that leaves the Mets as the best fit for Lowe. But I don’t think he’s going to sign for anything close to what Burnett received.

ESPN Should be Blown Up

It’s amazing that no one is talking about it, but I will spill the beans. ESPN’s staff is clairvoyant. It’s true. Why just today Wendi Nix broke the story that the New England Patriots, the same organization that responds with “we have to look into that” to the question “is grass green”, are upset about Tom Brady’s choice of doctor to perform surgery on his knee.

But let’s not give Nix all the credit. Remember 5 years ago when Lawyer Malloy, the Pats Pro-Bowl safety and team captain, was cut 5 days prior to the start of the 2003 season, and Tom Jackson said that the players in the Pats’ locker room “hated” Bill Belichick. Well he sure was right. The players were so pissed that they decided to go out and win consecutive Super Bowls. Oooo, that showed the Hoodie whose boss didn’t it Mr. Jackson? Where did this “knowledge” come from? Did you use a magic 8 ball? Did it come to you in a dream? Did the divots in John Clayton’s face spell out a message for you?

So while ESPN would not at first cover the Brett Favre story, despite it being broken and substantiated by Fox Sports and other media outlets, they had no problem covering the alleged Rams walk-through tape based on “an unnamed source”. Huh, so while you could ride the back of the Herald on the Walsh story and the additional surgeries needed by Brady, Fox Sports is not good enough?

So what’s the lesson in all this? If you have never worked in the media, are uneducated and unemployed, then all you need to do is head down to ESPN with a brick-red crayon to fill out an application and you too can make up stories. (editors note:Milwaukee’s is currently attending anger management with Larry Johnson)

Lyman Bostock 30 years later

Most of you in New England and those of you under 40 probably have zero idea who Lyman Bostock is. Hell, I might not have even known who Lyman Bostock was unless I had seen highlights of a Sox/Twins series in 1976 when he just smashed the ball all over the Sox and promptly dug out my baseball cards to see if I had him. I did…what followed was my 1st man crush on an opposing player. I followed him in the newspaper, followed him on Strat-O-Matic (lets go all you geeks and see who remembers Strat-O-Matic) and followed him on This Week In Baseball.

Lyman Bostock was a player every team wanted, a versitle outfielder with a sweet swing that could hit for average. He was granted free agency from the Twins in 1977 and signed with the California Angels promptly there after. It was too bad he left the Twins, because Bostock and Rod Carew together for a few more years, could have been very formidable. Anyway my man crush reached its zenith, when, as a 10 year old boys dream came true, I was to attend my 1st Red Sox game. As fate would have it, the Red Sox were playing the California Angels…August 27, 1978, a glorious sunny Sunday. I will never forget the 1st time my own eyes laid sight to the Fenway green. Walking up that ramp, to the right field grandstand seats, will give me goose bumps the rest of my life. There, warming up was Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans and Jim Rice…OH MY GOD….I WAS IN FENWAY PARK!!!! As we all know, the 1978 Red Sox were loaded! Rice, Evans and Lynn in the outfield, Yaz was the DH, Pudge catching. The infield was some combo of Rick Burleson, The Rem Dog Jerry Remy, Butch Hobson, Jack Brohamer, George Scott and the immortal Frak Duffy. WOW! Luis Tiant was warming in the Sox bullpen and wowsy wowsy it was on…then..out of the corner of my eye I saw my opposing man crush, Lyman Bostock. Man did I wish the Red Sox would trade for him…although who knew where the hell they would play him, I still wanted him. Anyway, it was a game for the ages, went 12 innings, Fred Lynn hit a HR 15 rows in front of us, my hero Pudge Fisk drove in what we thought would be the winning run in the bottom of the 8th. El Tiante tired in the 9th and allowed the tying run, then the Angels went ahead with Don Baylor singling home Rick Miller in the top of the 12 off of..you see it coming…don’t you..Bob Stanley. The Sox then had a great bottom of the 12th,when Fisk, Evans, George Scott, Jerry Remy all had hands in getting on base and ending in Butch Hobson’s single to center ending the game. What a 1st game experience. The Sox won in extra innings, and I got to watch Lyman Bostock play right field for 12 innings…unreal!

Fast forward 1 month later, September 22 1978, sitting down to watch Frankie Fix on the WGAN Evening News and hear him tell me Lyman Bostock had been shot and killed the night before in Gary, Indiana. Stunned! A little boy had lost his 1st sports star to a murder of all things. I struggled to understand the story, but I knew someone, in a sport I loved, and a player from another team I followed, had seen 1 month prior, was gone, dead. For a few days I forgot about the Red Sox totally losing their minds and the Yankees gaining ground, I was consumed by Bostock’s death. It was most definitely one of those watershed moments in sports for me as a child. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember Frankie Fix doing a commentary on Bostock, maybe i just want to remember it that way so that someone else in this area knew the kind of ballplayer the game had lost. All these years later, ask anyone I run with, Bostock’s name comes up often as I want people to understand the player he was. I will always remember Lyman Bostock.

The reason I write this piece now is that ESPN.com’s Outside the Lines has posted an in depth story on Bostock and will run the story Sunday’s television program. I felt some pub needed to be given to this story. Please take a few minutes, it is long, you won’t be sorry you read it.