Author: Dave Long

The Big Story – Celtics Begin Playoffs: The playoffs were not expected to begin with this amount of enthusiasm around here, or hopes for title 19. But with Jayson Tatum back and quickly more productive than most thought possible, they’re at worst co-favorites to win the East with top seed Detroit. It started swimmingly with a 123-91 thumping of the Joel Embiid-less 76ers in Game 1, as Tatum (25-11-7) and Jaylon Brown combined for 51 points.

Sports 101: Name the school and the record six players it’s had taken first overall in the NFL draft.

News Item – The NFL Draft: Story No. 2 for the week is the draft. It will be the biggest upset since 1980’s Miracle on Ice if the QB-needy Raiders don’t take Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza with the top pick. Meanwhile the Patriots will be looking to fill their three biggest needs — edge rusher, O-line and No. 1 receiver — with picks or picks used in a trade.

News Item – Red Sox Week:

Good –Ranger Suarez allowed no runs in two starts and 14 innings.

Bad – They’re collectively hitting .228 as a team and have the fewest homers in baseball with 13.

Ugly – Garrett Crochet had his two worst Red Sox starts when he gave up 15 earned runs and 16 hits in 6.2 innings to raise the ERA from 2.64 to 7.88.

News Item – NBA Playoff Notes: With retirement rumors all around, will this be the last we see of LeBron James? Ditto for GS’s trio of Steph Curry, Al Horford and Steve Kerr. And speaking of GS, he certainly has been a productive player on a historic team. But given his toxic act on and off the court, getting tossed and taunting the crowd on the way out as Golden State’s playoff hopes (and its mini-dynasty) were ended by Phoenix, it seems like a perfect way for the career of the always obnoxious Draymond Green to end.

Markelle Fultz Factoid: The failed 2017 first overall draft pick has an interesting connection to the Boston-Philly series by delivering each team’s best player to them. Danny Ainge traded that pick to Philly for their third overall slot where he took Tatum. Then after Fultz’s disastrous two years in Philly they dumped him to Orlando for the 20th pick in 2019 Round 1, which they used to take Tyrese Maxey out of Kentucky.

The Numbers

.542 – best batting average in the entire minor league as the week started, belonging to No. 2 Red Sox prospect Franklin Arias. He also has three homers, nine RBI, a .613 OBP and .875 OPS in AA with the Portland Sea Dogs.

11 – losing streak for the NY Mets, which left the team with the second highest payroll in baseball ($350 million) with its worst record at 7-15.

12 – straight years the Celtics have been in the NBA playoffs.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Jaylen Brown: He delivered one of the greatest step up performances to meet the challenge for a team that lost its best player before their year with his best year as a player and a leader.

Stat Day: Must have been something in the water Wednesday for the F-Cats and the SNHU baseball team. The F-Cats scored 30 times in a 20-1 and 10-0 doubleheader sweep of the Chesapeake Baysox, while for the Penmen it was a 24-0 demolition of crosstown rival Saint Anselm.

Sports 101 Answer: USC has had the most first overall picks in the NFL draft starting with tackle Ron Yary followed by O.J. Simpson, Ricky Bell, Keyshawn Johnson, Carson Palmer and Caleb Johnson.

Final Thought – Pats Name Hall Nominees: Even though it made sense to do it at the time, fan voting is what started the descent of baseball’s All-Star system into the death spiral it finds itself in today. It gave us simpleton fan-boy homerism ballot stuffing for favorite players over the guys who earned it and it hasn’t been the same since.And it’s about to happen with the Patriot Hall of Fame after Rob Gronkowski, Logan Mankins and Adam Vinatieri became this year’s Hall of Fame nominees, where the wildly popular Gronk will win the vote ahead of a most deserving guy, who, by the way, is already in Football’s Hall in Canton.

I know how great Gronk was in arguably being the greatest (and definitely the most fun) tight end ever. But, but, but how can Adam V, who started the dynasty with three of the greatest clutch plays/kicks in history, not get in ahead of Gronk? Especially after already having been elected to the tougher Pro Football HoF?

That there isn’t a sense of order to honor the players who started the Pats’ amazing run, like Julian Edelman getting in before Wes Welker, who is only the most productive receiver in Patriots history, doesn’t make sense. There should be an order to it. To be disrupted only by supreme Patriots like Tom Brady, Drew Bledsoe and Coach B.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story (a three-way tie): The most immediate was Rory McIlroy winning his second straight Masters despite blowing a huge lead after setting a two-day record of -12. He hung on to grab the lead down the stretch and win at -12, one shot ahead of Scottie Scheffler.

Then there’s the start of the NBA play-in tourney. Not sure who the C’s eventually will play, but after seamlessly bringing Jayson Tatum back into the lineup by going 13-3 in games he played since returning on March 6 they look like the favorite to come out of the East.

Finally, the NFL Draft comes your way this weekend starting with Round 1 on Thursday night. The Pats pick 31st at the moment. But stay tuned, as I feel a trade up or down or a big deal coming.

Sports 101: Name the only team since the NFL and AFL began drafting in the same year in 1960 to draft a QB in both the first and second rounds in the same draft.

News Item – Red Sox Update

Going into the series with St. Louis four Red Sox starters were hitting under .200.

Ceddanne Rafaela has the second highest chase (out of the strike zone) rate in the majors according to Boston Globe analytics wonk Alex Speier. Which is supposed to be bad. Yet he’s hitting .326 with a second best of the starters .396 OBP.

Garrett Crochet is 2-1 while striking out 11.4 batters every nine innings.

Nice return to St. Louis for Willson Contreras by going six for 13 with a double, a homer and six RBI.

In case you missed it, my No. 1 free agent target, Pete Alonso, hit .188 with one homer and three RBI with 15 k’s in his first 50 Orioles at-bats. For Alex Bregman it’s .213 with 6 RBI in 69 at-bats.

News Item – Pre-Draft Notes

Notre Dame has never had two RB’s taken in Round I in the same year. But Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price have a chance to become the fourth RB teammates to do that.

Another reason to like Fernando Mendoza: The expected first overall will watch the draft with family/friends at home in Miami instead of preening for the cameras at the draft when he gets picked.

The Patriots have 11 picks in this draft including their own at 1, 2, 3 and 5 along with several others below the fifth round.

The Numbers:

2 –despite the Red Sox Nation pearl-clutching during their awful 6-9 start, games out of first place in the AL East for Boston.

5.43 – MLB’s all-time high average salary in millions.

69.4 – million bucks earned by NCAA Basketball champion Michigan.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Joe Mazzulla: Hate his game coaching and resting policies. But no one expected 56 wins without Tatum. He got them to play hard and brought along/trusted young players better than any Celtics coach I remember.

Thumbs Down – NBA on Prime Video: Yet another reason to dislike Jeff Bezos and the ever greedy NBA was being unable to watch the Knicks-Celtics last week unless you’re a subscriber. Boooo!

‘Those are the Breaks’ Award – Ichiro Statue: Nice to see the great hitter see the humor of the bat his statue was holding break in half when unveiled last week by saying, “I didn’t think Mariano [Rivera] would come out here and break the bat.”

Trade of the Week – Angel Reese: The thoroughly unlikable petulant WNBA big will take her toxic personality and petty jealousy of Caitlin Clark to Atlanta after Chicago got two first draft picks.

Random Thoughts:

The Masters – it’s just a nice golf course. Not St. Patrick’s Cathedral like so many suck-ups act like it is.

I got SGA, The Joker and Jaylen Brown 1, 2, 3 in the MVP race.

Sports 101 Answer: The 1965 NY Jets drafted Joe Namath first and then took 1964 Heisman winner John Huarte in Round 2.

A Little History – John Huarte: Came out of nowhere to win the 1964 Heisman while leading Notre Dame to a shocking 9-0-1 season and a national title. Shocking because ND had been struggling for a decade. But the pro career was a different story, as Huarte lasted just two seasons in NYC and six overall in the NFL, where he completed just 39.1 percent of his 58 passes for one TD.

Final Thought – The Caitlin Clark Effect: Hope those jealous crybabies in the WNBA noticed that the rating for the Women’s NCAA title game between South Carolina and UCLA was a 9.8 share as compared to the record 18.87 recorded in Clark’s final year of 2024. That was the only year the women have beaten the men, let alone been within solar systems of the men’s ratings. This year the UM-UConn Men’s Final had a 20.4 share.Conclusion: Wake up, WNBA, Clark is your meal ticket to higher ratings and ticket sales, which leads to more money for you.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – The Masters: Get ready for feeling like spring is here, as the cathedral of golf is back at center stage, with the usually dominant at Augusta National Scottie Scheffler going off as the Masters favorite and 2025 winner Rory McIlroy a bigger threat than usual after shaking off his history of close losses and collapses with last year’s win. And thanks to his latest move, Tiger Woods will not foolishly be included in talk about who could win.

Sports 101: Name the four pitchers to have struck out 4,000 or more batters in their careers.

News Item – NCAA Championships: On the women’s side it was about shocking blowouts as UCLA buried South Carolina 79-51 for its first ever title, after SC stunned undefeated UConn in the semi. For the men it was the UConn-Illinois (71-62) barn-burner that sent the Huskies on to face Michigan, who’d blown out Arizona. Then UM hung on to beat the Huskies 69-63, driven by impressive size and D. UConn’s loss denied it legitimate dynasty status, as it would have been their third title in four years and seventh since 1999.

News Item – Jayson Tatum Update: Those silly folks who thought adding him would upset the karma in the surprising season, guess again. The team is now 11-3 in the games he’s played. The best one came when they scored 53 points in the first quarter in a 147-129 win over Miami where Jaylon Brown and Tatum meshed perfectly, with JB going for 43 and JT a 25-18-11 triple double.

News Item – Red Sox Update: Not exactly a great start in losing five straight after their opening day win. They start the week at 2-6 with the pitching, D and hitting all underperforming.

The Numbers:

1 – hit allowed in his pitching debut when Shohei Ohtani went six innings and struck out six in a 4-1 win over Cleveland.

19 – years old when Dallas rookie Cooper Flagg scored 96 points in two weekend games and became the youngest in NBA history to reach the 50-point plateau on Friday vs. Orlando.

50 – million dollars wasn’t refunded to customers who bought during the promotion by Jordan Furniture that would give them their money back if the UConn Men and Women both became national champs this year. It ended when the women lost.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Chandler Morris: The latest moment that tells us college sports has lost its way ended on a sane note for a change last week when a federal court judge offered a shard of common sense when he denied an injunction to allow the 25-year-old to play a seventh season of college football. Yup, the guy who has played at, and transferred from, Oklahoma, TCU, North Texas and now Virginia somehow thinks he should be able to play college football in perpetuity and finally someone said no to him.

Defensive Player of the Week – Jo Adell: I know — who? He’s the Angels RF who no one ever heard of until he made three hanging over the wall home run-saving catches Saturday, including tumbling into the stands in the ninth to preserve a 1-0 win over Seattle. Anyone ever seen anyone do that three times in one game? Didn’t think so.

Temper Tantrum of the Week – Geno Auriemma: Got a kick out of seeing the guy who’s been running up huge victory margins for years on his opponents not exactly showing grace under fire after UConn’s hopes of another undefeated went down in flames Friday.

Sports 101 Answer: The 4,000-strikeout club includes Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Steve Carlton.

Final Thought – 1989 Bird vs. 2026 Tatum: As mentioned earlier, they’re 11-3 since he’s come back, a winning percentage of 78.5%, which projects to a 64-win season. The fun, though, is comparing the winning percentage without him as compared to how the 1988-89 Celtics fared in the year Larry Bird missed all but six games because of heel surgery.

Before Tatum returned the C’s were an admirable 41-21 for a 67.1%. The C’s were40-36 without Bird, 52.6% and 2-4 with him.

Does that mean Bird meant more to them? Or could it be Jaylen Brown has been a much better new leader/No. 2 than Kevin McHale was? KM had a good season averaging 22.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game while getting no MVP votes. Brown has hit career highs in points (28.6), rebounds (7.0) and assists (5.3) while being in the MVP conversation for driving them to a surprising season without JT.

I think it’s the latter. Brown has been great.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Final Fours: Down to the Final Four in both NCAA basketball championships this weekend. Can the only school to already do it, UConn, see their men’s and women’s programs both win the same title in the same year for the third time after doing it in 2004 and 2014? On the women’s side it’ll be UConn vs. the South Carolina-TCU winner and UCLA vs. the Texas-Michigan winner. For the men it’s UConn vs. Illinois and Michigan vs. Arizona. If the Michigan women won after deadline on Monday we could have Michigan-UConn both going for the double in the Finals. How cool would that be?

Sports 101: Name the five highest individual player scoring games in NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament history.

News Item – NCAA Tournament Notables:

• Biggest Shot – There were a lot, but since Braylon Mullins’s three with seconds left sent UConn to the FF over 1-seed Duke, he gets it.

• MVP So Far – Tarris Reed Jr. has averaged 21.8 points and 13.5 rebounds in four games for 2-seed UConn.

• Record Set – Hannah Hidalgo: After going for 31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals, 7 assists and a near quadruple double, as Notre Dame upset 2-seed Vanderbilt 67-64 the ND guard set the all-NCAA record with 199 career steals.

News Item – Early Baseball Stories to Follow:

• The spring batting average for Merrimack’s Mickey Gasper was .358 with a triple, two homers and seven RBI in 28 at-bats and it still wasn’t enough to make the Red Sox varsity, even though the guy in front of him at second base, Marcelo Mayer, hit .196, and .220 his rookie season. So Gasper starts in Worcester.

• Roki Sasaki – It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the 21-year-old Japanese phenom this spring after an up and down Year 1. This spring the ERA was an astronomical 15.58 in four starts with 15 walks in 8.2 innings.

• Prediction – Forgot to say this last week, but I’ve got Ceddanne Rafaela having the breakout year to hit 25 homers.

The Numbers:

2.25 – ERA of the Boston bullpen over three games and 12 innings with a loss and a blown save by Greg Weissert.

21 – combined winning streak ended last week by the streaking Celtics since Jayson Tatum’s return when they beat Oak City (12) 116-106 and Atlanta (9) 109-102 two nights later.

188 – opening day Red Sox payroll in millions down from 240 in 2025.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Down – Roman Anthony Leading Off: Yes, he’s likely to have their best OBP. But, even with that, how can leading off make sense? It guarantees their best RBI guy comes to bat 162 times with no one on base. And if they have their lowest-OBP guys bat 8 and 9 like usually happens, it’ll be closer to 300. That’s nuts.

Quote of the Week: “All I’m saying is, ‘Young fella, we’ve already got one ‘Iceman,’” one-of-a-kind ABA/NBA scoring genius George Gervin told the Chicago Sun-Times after Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams tried to trademark/steal his nickname.

The Phew Moment – Brad Stevens: It was when Top 5 in the league Celtics GM said he’s staying after his name surfaced as a possible at UNC after Hubert Davis was fired on Tuesday.

Comedic Hiring of the Week – Luke Murray: When Boston College hired son of SNL legend Bill Murray to leave as UConn assistant to be new head basketball coach at BC.

Random Thought: Before you complain about the Sox payroll, remember Milwaukee had 2025’s best record with just MLB’s 23rd highest payroll at $115 million.

Sports 101 Answer: The Top 5 NCAA Basketball Tournament scoring games are 61, Austin Carr, Notre Dame; 58, Bill Bradley, Princeton; 56, Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati; and Carr again, who scored 52 twice.

Final Thought – Who Acquired 2026 Red Sox: Most teams are a composite of acquisitions by the current GM and their predecessors, like the curse-busting 2004 Red Sox, where key guys like Manny, Pedro and Damon were Dan Duquette’s doing, while Theo Epstein found Big Papi, Schilling and Varitek among others. Here are the key guys in the 2026 edition acquired by Craig Breslow and company:

Chaim Bloom draftedRoman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Kevin Teel (traded for Garrett Crochet) and Kristian Campbell, traded for Abreu, and acquired FA Trevor Story.

Dave Dombrowski drafted Rafaela, Brayan Bello and Jarren Duran.

Breslow tradedfor Crochet and Sonny Gray, and signed Willson Contreras.

Future: With five OF/DH guys, a boatload of starting pitchers here and in AAA, and talented but under-achieving young’n Triston Casas headed to the minors, they have the pieces to make a major trade this summer to fine-tune the Fenway team.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Red Sox Season Opens: It gets started Thursday, March 26, at the home of baseball’s first organized team, the Cincinnati Reds. An interesting season lies ahead, in part because of a change in team style to something Red Sox Nation is not accustomed to. We’ll see if GM Craig Breslow’s emphasis on improving the pitching and infield defense at the expense of adding the power most (including me) felt they needed will succeed. Or if passing on free agent slugger Pete Alonso (who’ll be in the AL East with Baltimore) and jettisoning Rafael Devers last year was just the result of owner John Henry being cheap.

The other reason for excitement is being led into 2026 by a parade of blossoming young talent like Garrett Crochet and guys who came up big in the WBC: Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran and Brayan Bello. Should be fun.

Sports 101: Of the 33 who have 3,000 career hits, only four from the 20th century and beyond never had a 200-hit season. Name them.

News Item – March Madness Marches On: The opening weekend provided the usual thrills.

• BestIndividualGame:UConn’s Tarris Reed going for 31 points and 27 rebounds in a R1 win over Furman.

• Biggest Upset: 15-seed High Point taking out 2-seed Wisconsin. Iowa taking out defending champion Florida on a last-second shot by Alvaro Folgueiras wasn’t farbehind.

• MIA Award –Rick Pitino: Back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015.

News Item – Proposed Trade for Eagle A.J. Brown: No way the Pats should give up what Denver did (first, third and fourth) to get Jaylen Waddle from Miami for Brown. They have bigger immediate needs at OL and edge rusher and need to use the 2026 draft (or trades of them) to get them. If a trade for the speedy Brown can be done after June 1 for a 2027 second and 2028 third, done.

News Item – Red Sox Stories to Watch

Roman Anthony: Will he live up to what runaway imaginations have him becoming?

The Outfield Jumble: They’ve got five guys to play the outfield and DH. Can Alex Cora find enough at-bats for everyone or is a trade coming?

Aroldis Chapman: At 38 can he possibly be as good as last year (32 saves, 1.17 ERA and 67 k’s in 43 innings)?

Most Intriguing Prospect to Follow – Justin Gonzalez: Is the 6’6”, 272-pound 19-year-old mountain of a man more Aaron Judge or Wily Mo Peña? What’s most appealing are his New Age stats (that are actually useful) like his percentages on strikeouts and hard contact to at-bats. He starts his Year 2 in AA. Keep an eye on him.

News Item – Predictions for Red Sox

70 – combined homers from Anthony and Abreu.

180 – K’s from 15-game-winner Sonny Gray to make it a record five teams he’s done that for.

275 – league-leading K’s Crochet whiffs on his way to winning the AL Cy Young Award.

Sports 101 Answer: The four with 3,000 career hits and no 200-hit seasons are Dave Winfield, Eddie Murray, Rickey Henderson and Yaz.

Final Thought – Red Sox Season Prediction – 92-70: I might be talking myself into it, but they’re gonna be better than last year’s 89-win team. If you’re going to Vegas to bet, you should know I missed my Red Sox predictions in each of the last two years by one win because of the outcome of each season’s final game. Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story — NCAA Tournament or WBC: Take your pick. Office pool brackets all over America say the tournament is the single biggest participation sports event in the U.S., and after 20 years the World Baseball Classic finally got some real traction this time, likely because electric Shohei Ohtani has become the Babe Ruth of the 21st century drawing card and many of the 13 Red Sox in the WBC did such big things.

Sports 101: How many of the eight to win basketball’s Triple Crown — Olympics gold plus NCAA and NBA titles — can you name?

News Item — WBC Update: With USA headed to the title game as I write this it’s been a captivating event. Here are a few highlights:

• Despite making the final out as Japan was eliminated, Ohtani hit .462 with three homers and seven RBI in 13 WBC at-bats.

• Jarren Duran’s three homers in 15 at-bats tied him with Ohtani and KC’s Vinnie Pasquantino for most homers in the WBC.

• Wilyer Abreu hit the three-run homer to put Venezuela ahead for good as it upset Japan to make the semifinals.

• Beep, Beep, Beep Award: U.S.A. backed into the knockout round. After seeing them on the bad side of arguably the biggest upset in WBC (8-6 loss to Italy) they needed the Italians to beat Mexico just to make Round 2. Phew! That got manager Mark DeRosa off the hook for his gigantic mistake of so not knowing WBC rules he used a this-game-doesn’t-matter starting line-up in that critical Italy loss because he somehow thought U.S.A. had already clinched a spot in Round 2, which they hadn’t.

• KevinTeel, the catching prospect Boston traded to get Garrett Crochet, hit .667 overall for Italy.

• Roman Anthony’s two homers knocked in the game-winning runs in wins over Mexico and the huge win over the Dominican Republic.

News Item — Alumni News — Rick Pitino: If you’ve been wondering what happened to Little Ricky since slinking out of Boston — three jobs and two (at least) major scandals later, he’s revitalizing St. John’s basketball, who knocked off UConn 72-52 to win the Big East title, sending him to his 25th NCAA Tournament.

The Numbers:

10 – out of 10 rating for Bill Lee’s very entertaining talk at last week’s Manchester Boys & Girls Club fundraiser.

40 – most ever freshman points scored in a Big 12 Tournament game, scored by Brockton, Mass.’s A.J. Debansta in BYU’s 105-91 win over Kansas State.

127 – consecutive games when Shai Gilgeous Alexander scored at least 20 points, to move him past Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time record.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up — Boston Legacy FC: For Boston’s return to Women’s Pro Soccer Sunday. It came in a 1-0 loss to defending champion NYC’s Gotham FC before an astonishing Gillette Stadium crowd of 30,231.

Thumbs Down — Patriots in Free Agency: Have no idea what they’re doing. Did little to fortify the glaring OL problems with an injury-prone, under-achieving Jets castoff, replaced Stefon Diggs with a guy who caught 30 fewer balls for 200-plus fewer yards and let the best pass rusher walk.

Prediction — Not quite informed enough to fill out an entire NCAA’s Women Tournament bracket, but I’ll take UConn for title number 13.

Sports 101 Answer: The basketball triple crown winners are Clyde Lovellette, Bill Russell, KC Jones, Jerry Lucas, Quinn Buckner, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Anthony Davis.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.