Charles Bisbee's Kansas City Royals Fan Profile

Celtics Thoughts posted on 10/01/2012

Here are some thoughts on the Celtics as training camps open:

·      It’ll be interesting to see how much KG has left in the tank. His numbers have regressed across the board from just a couple seasons ago. Nonetheless, the intangibles and the desire remain intact and it’s impossible to discount the role they’ll play on a young Celtics squad. Rondo may be the C’s best player, but KG remains the team's heart and soul.

·      Here’s hoping Garnett can effectively light a fire under rookie Jared Sullinger, the talented but scatter-brained big man from Ohio State. Sullinger impressed during Orlando Summer League action, scoring 20 points and grabbing 6 rebounds in just 24 minutes of action during his first game. Talent, however, has never been the issue. If KG can continually keep Sullinger focused and dedicated, the Celts may have the answer at power forward over the next 10-15 years.

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Another Unpredictable NFL Season On the Way posted on 09/05/2012

With the 2012 NFL season fast approaching, pundits are busy serving up another round of fearless predictions. I enjoy reading these predictions because 1. they are bold and 2. more often than not they prove be woefully inaccurate.

This is the great thing about the NFL: no one has a clue and anyone who says they do is full of baloney. The league has mostly been a crapshoot over the past 10 years (save for the Pats, Steelers, and Manning-lead Colts), with teams jostling for position like ping pong balls in a lottery draw.

And still some writers insist on using phrases like “up and coming” and “back of the pack” in an attempt to project a team’s un-chartable trajectory. History should have taught us that in the NFL the up and coming team is generally an illusion. Look at the Buccaneers, for example, who went a “promising” 10-6 in 2010 and then fell to 4-12 in 2011 (despite having largely the same roster). Now Si.com’s Don Banks predicts new head coach Greg Schiano  “easily will better the Bucs’ record of last year and have [the] club being identified by year’s end as one to watch in 2013.” Only in the NFL can a team go from up-and-comer to bottom of the pack to up-and-comer again in the span of 12 months.

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Seismic Deal Cleans Sox' Slate posted on 08/29/2012

As you may have heard, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto were traded to the Dodgers last week for James Loney, pitching prospect Rubby de la Rosa, and an assortment of water-logged baseballs. (I kid, obviously, though baseballs- fresh ones at least- could eventually prove to be more valuable than the players the Sox received).

On paper and from an overall talent perspective, the deal looks atrocious. James Loney is a utility player for a middling squad and the best prospect the Sox received (de la Rosa) projects as a mid-rotation innings-eater. Dan Shaughnessy compared the trade's magnitude to the infamous sale of the Bambino in 1920. 

While the gulf in overall baseball talent is wide, this is a deal that needed to be made. It doesn’t take a chemistry major to have noted the growing toxicity within the Sox clubhouse over the past couple of years, or to understand that Beckett and Crawford in particular were lightning rods for the vitriol directed toward the squad, both from fans and the media. Crawford was always hurt and could never live up to his $142 million contract. Beckett was inconsistent and seemingly lazy. If success were to be reclaimed by these players, it was not going to be in the hub. 

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Youkilis Trade Needed to be Made posted on 07/25/2012

Keeping your finger near the pulse of the Boston sports scene while living in Seoul, South Korea is no small task. News is generally filtered through the same outlets, but there is a certain level of detachment. Kevin Youkilis’ departure, for example, didn’t resonate with me in a way it might have were I still living in New England.

Anyway, this trade seemed inevitable for a while. The poorly-disguised bad blood between Youkilis and Bobby Valentine, the emergence of Will Middlebrooks, and the steady deterioration of Youk’s all around game made the decision, if not easy, certainly a clear one for the Sox’ front office. To his credit, Youk handled the situation professionally, thanking the organization and the fans and managing to steer clear of the Valentine topic completely.

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Previewing (Or Reviewing?) the Super Bowl posted on 02/06/2012

I’ve been avoiding the internet like a plague all day, albeit a plague that I would desperately like to get a piece of. Previewing a super bowl that has already occurred is a first for me. 

Anyway, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about this game that has already happened (call it post-causal optimism). I haven’t breathlessly followed every minute’s Gronkowski update, nor do I know the name of Tom Brady’s childhood goldfish, but I’d like to consider myself an informed supporter. And I think the Pats, with or without Gronk, match up favorably with the fighting Coughlins.

The biggest reason (and I don’t think enough writers have covered this) is the revenge factor. The 2007 Super Bowl was the most painful moment in my life as a Boston sports fan. (So painful, in fact, that I slugged a hole in my wall after Plaxico Burress burned Ellis Cobbs on the final play.) The loss left a putrid taste in my mouth and I can only imagine how it tasted to Belichick and Brady, neither of whom has been known to take a loss lightly. This year's rematch features quite a few holdovers from the 2007 game, from both teams. While the Pats have never been a team to publically engage in smack talk, I would wager a goodly sum that there was a surplus of motivational profanities being hurled in the locker-room, pre-game speech. You can never discount the effect and power of the more-motivated squad, especially on the grandest stage.

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