Welcome to Patriots World

As a San Diego Chargers fan, I can certainly attest to their ability to screw up even the most well-organized two-car funeral without anyone's help.

But then ... this.

"On Jan. 14, 2007, the Chargers hosted the Pats in an AFC Divisional Playoff Game. San Diego was 14-2 and the No. 1 seed, winner of 10 straight. New England won 24-21. Did the Chargers screw it up? Sure. They were better than those guys and it got Marty Schottenheimer fired.

Did the Patriots cheat? Well, it fell into that ESPN time line.

The next year the Chargers lost again to the Pats, this time in Foxborough, 21-12 in the AFC Championship Game. Quarterback Philip Rivers had knee surgery a few days before. Tailback LaDainian Tomlinson, injured, had two carries and sat sulking on the sideline. Tight end Antonio Gates played on one foot and decoyed. Still, the Bolts trailed only 14-12 after three quarters. Healthy, no question, they were better.

Did the Patriots’ cheat? We’ll probably never know. Possible? Absolutely. You have to be incredibly naïve or blinded by the Patriots’ light to believe they didn’t."

"Did any of this cost the Chargers Super Bowls? Can’t say. The Chargers had superior personal and should have played better, especially in the Divisional game. If they had won one or two, would we even be talking about L.A. or Carson today? I think we’d already have a new stadium."

Are Nick Canepa's grapes more than slightly sour? Perhaps, but without any evidence that anything untoward happened to the Chargers other than an ESPN report that covers the time those two games were played, he was able to say there's a possibility San Diego was not only cheated out of a Super Bowl, but potentially its NFL team.

And I'm willing to bet he didn't even have to try that hard.

This is the world that the Patriots (with, it appears, a healthy assist from Roger Goodell) have created.

I will grant that the Patriots haven't been too popular outside New England for a while, but now it's getting far too easy for everyone but the people who think Tom Brady was "freed" -- and I will continue to ask, "What prison was he in?" -- when his Deflategate suspension was overturned to think they literally haven't been able to win anything on the up-and-up.

The NFL has been able to withstand Michael Vick's dog-fighting, Ray Rice cold-cocking his future wife in an elevator, Adrian Peterson beating his kids, Greg Hardy's domestic violence case, players fans and media would be screaming "STEROIDS!" about if they picked up a baseball bat instead of a football helmet, Junior Seau's suicide and a seemingly incompetent commissioner.

And while I don't think this will bring the league down, either, believing the marquee franchise with the most-powerful owner, the brilliant coach (who, by the way, how can you talk about how brilliant he is as a strategist if you think his strategies are developed by breaking the rules?) and the face of the league are a bunch of cheaters isn't a bad way to alienate fans.

Rain, rain, stay away, at least on baseball days

Ever since I was a small child, rain has been an enemy.

Why? Because rain meant no baseball.

Through my youth, there was probably nothing I loved more than baseball. I loved watching it. I loved practicing it. I loved playing it. I loved being around it. I used to look forward to my brother's practices and games, just so I could be at the field.

But rain (well, rain or cold, growing up in the Northeast and all) was the one thing that could take it away. If I was home, and the forecast was for rain, I'd hope that it was only raining where I lived, and not the town where we played our games, about seven miles away. I actually think that delusion bore fruit at least once or twice.

Now that I'm older, baseball has fallen down a little on the list. For one thing, I'm married, which is obviously on top, and I realize that rain is a necessary part of life, especially when I see stories about the epic drought in California. (Ironically, even during the massive drought, the Angels had their first home rainout in 20 years in July ... because baseball is like that.)

So rain is a thing that has to happen sometimes.

Just not on baseball days.

* * * * *

Last night, I was ending a boycott.

I had vowed that I would never attend Lowell Spinners game. Why? Because the Red Sox single-A team had something called the Yankees Elimination Project, where they bought uniforms for local youth baseball leagues that dropped teams with the name Yankees and replaced them with Spinners.

Yes, the rivalry is the rivalry and there's a lot of stuff on both sides that's largely in good fun, but this actually made me angry. As a Yankees fan who has lived in Massachusetts since 2003, most of what I've seen has been relatively harmless, but there is that group who believes any association with the Yankees means there's literally something wrong with you.

The Yankees Elimination Project, in my mind, was teaching kids that the Yankees were so bad, they literally had to be cast out. So, I decided I would never go to one of their games.

It wasn't that much of a problem, though. I had the Cape Cod League. Pawtucket was only an hour away. I should have gone to more Brockton Rox games. 

I even made a few trips to Fenway. (While I obviously dislike the Red Sox, baseball games are baseball games, and if their games or their affiliates' games are what's around, I'll go, except for Lowell.)

I've even been able to hit Yankee Stadium for the thrill of seeing Stephen Drew play instead of that no-good Jeter guy.

Then I moved, and guess which team is the closest to where I live now?

Yup, the Lowell Spinners.

Fortunately, the problem was solved with an email ... the one that I believe actually came from the owner of the team, answering my query about the Yankees Elimination Project by letting me know they stopped the program a few years ago. If memory serves, interest had dropped off, and I think he was actually a bit sad about it.

So I could go to see the Spinners in good conscience, and once my work set up a night at the ballpark for last night, off to LeLacheur Park we went.

Even better, last night's opponent was the Staten Island Yankees.

* * * * *

My wife had noticed the raindrops first. We had just finished eating in the Home Plate BBQ when the sprinkles first fell.

The sprinkles quickly turned into a downpour that didn't stop for about a half-hour. We went inside and talked to a couple of my co-workers, but mostly I fumed, and not quietly. The delayed start was obvious, but we decided to check out the scene when we saw the tarp was off the infield.

It was not promising. The crew appeared to be five or six guys with squeegees and another with what looked like a leaf-blower, and it was all they could do to clear the standing water off the grass in shallow left field. It was no fault of the crew; it's not like the Lowell Spinners have the resources available to the Red Sox.

However, the longer it took, the more likely it was that there would be no baseball, even though the rain had stopped, and that became clear once the crew stopped out in left field. The game probably would have been called off sooner, but they had a bit of business to do first.

There was a WORLD RECORD at LeLacheur Park tonight. #BumpOutCancer http://t.co/SXuSSF9DMk pic.twitter.com/dv3yaPqNYE

— Lowell Spinners (@LowellSpinners) August 22, 2015

The world record was for the most people fist-bumping at one time, trying to "bump out cancer" in honor of Liam Fitzgerald, known for doing fist bumps with the Boston Bruins. My wife and I made our contributions, although the woman next to me, realizing I was wearing a Yankees hat, wondered if it would count if she "accidentally" punched me in the nose. I think she was kidding, and she accepted it when I said my fist-bump counted as much as anyone else's.

As soon as it ended, the announcement came that the game was called off. I was so ticked, I didn't even stay an hour for fireworks, and I never pass up a chance for fireworks.

Our tickets are good for any home game the rest of the season. I hope we go.

By the way ... today's weather? Perfect.

Of course.

Roger Goodell can be a hero ... if he wants to ... but he probably won't

It's safe to say Roger Goodell's reputation isn't the greatest.

However, I have an idea for him that will instantly raise his standing among football fans, even here in New England, where he's the devil incarnate if he doesn't rescind Tom Brady's Deflategate suspension yesterday and grovel for forgiveness for daring inconvenience him in any way.

He can ask the Pro Football Hall of Fame to let Sydney Seau speak.

We learned today that no one will be allowed to speak on Junior Seau's behalf during the Hall's induction ceremony, not even his daughter Sydney, who was listed as his presenter. According to the Hall, it's their call, not the NFL's, and it's simply a fairly new policy that deceased honorees get a longer-than-normal highlight video, but no speakers.

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt ... really, let's swallow hard and do it ... and assume there was no pressure at all from the NFL to sweep aside the whole "unpleasantness" of how and why Seau died and that it's just policy.

There's no way they wouldn't let Sydney speak if Goodell asked them to, policy or not.

But we all know that's not very likely.

It's not even as simple as whether Sydney would have called out the NFL about its concussion problem, and the fact that its players are destroying their bodies and their brains. She has said that wasn't her plan.

No, it's that every second spent on Junior Seau is a reminder that he's not there, and why he's not there, no matter the content.

So it's in the interest of both the NFL and the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- which is, after all, an institution that primarily honors the greats of the NFL and therefore has something to lose if the league's reputation is sullied -- to make sure that time is as short as humanly possible.

What if Pedro's right?

According to Pedro Martinez's estimate, 60 percent of Major League Baseball players were using performance-enhancing drugs during his career.

I have no idea if he's right, but let's say he is. Instead of focusing on how great he was to have been so dominant during the Steroid Era, consider that if 60 percent of players were juicing, we know only a fraction of them (and only really care about the ones that trigger the selective outrage machine: A-Rod, Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, etc.) ... which means the odds are good that some juicers will end up with Pedro in the Hall of Fame.

That's bad news for the keep-the-cheats-out crowd, unless they want to argue that everyone already in the Hall from that era was clean and that no one else should be inducted ... you know, just to be sure.

Today in silly A-Rod arguments

Jon Paul Morosi writes that Alex Rodriguez shouldn't be in this year's All-Star Game, even though he's worthy.

It's not that he doesn't have the numbers, because he does, and Morosi points out that the numbers should be the thing.

It's not even the PEDs, as he notes that his fellow Biogenesis list members Nelson Cruz and Jhonny Peralta were elected starters, by the fans -- many of whom I'm sure would throw A-Rod out of the game if they could -- this year. (That whirring noise you hear in the background? That's the selective outrage machine. Don't worry; you get used to it after a while.)

No, in addition to the fact that no one elected him to the game -- which I'm sure had nothing to do with the selective outrage -- the problem is that he'll be (cue drama-sting music here) ... a distraction.

"If A-Rod had been named to the All-Star team, he'd dominate much of the pregame discussion in Cincinnati. Would the debate draw greater attention to this year's Midsummer Classic? Perhaps. But it would drain plenty of oxygen from what people who love the game should be discussing: the tremendous influx of young talent to the sport.

The All-Star Game has a complicated identity: It determines home-field advantage for the World Series, yet its heritage is as a summertime exhibition for fans. It's supposed to celebrate the greatest players in the game, while also leaving room on rosters to honor breakout stars of the first half. In some years, the Midsummer Classic does an admirable job of satisfying its many constituencies. In other years, it doesn't.

But in 2015, with a new commissioner and evolving sports preferences in the U.S., it is paramount that MLB leverage its All-Star Game into a stage for Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant and Joc Pederson, Manny Machado and Nolan Arenado. We need to learn more about their stories. By now, we're familiar enough with the tale of Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez." 

If Alex Rodriguez was selected to the All-Star Game, he would be a story, and oh by the way, he should be. After all, he missed an entire year because of a suspension to come back and play any better than anyone expected. And so far, he has managed to do it without (so far) doing anything dumb.

But "dominate much of the pregame discussion," to the point where Trout, Harper, Bryant and the other great young stars of baseball would be overshadowed? Now who would be responsible for that if it happens?

Between Monday and Tuesday, the whole of the baseball media is going to decamp in Cincinnati. Surely MLB Network will have wall-to-wall coverage, and I'm guessing the various Fox Sports networks will give the game quite a bit of airtime, since their network is covering it. ESPN will probably also make an appearance.

And while they're there, they can literally cover anything they want. They can devote hours to Brock Holt if they want to. They can spend as much time as they like on the guy who's banned from the game for life but is still being allowed to participate in the festivities in spite of recent reports that he bet on baseball while he was still playing. (And Alex Rodriguez is a distraction?)

As for the game itself, A-Rod is a DH. He wouldn't be in the field and likely wouldn't get more than a couple at-bats, so the only time anyone would have to talk about him is when he hits. Sure, he could do something huge with his at-bats and be chosen MVP, except that wouldn't happen even if he hit grand slams every time.

In other words, Alex Rodriguez would be as much of a distraction as Morosi and his fellow media members let him be.

It's the Baseball Hall of Fame ... that should be enough

A shrine for everyone to see.

Kevin Paul Dupont has a story in the Boston Globe about the Baseball Hall of Fame, specifically that there's so much Red Sox-related stuff there that it justifies a Boston fan going. 

"It would be virtually impossible for a true Boston fan not to fall immediately into a state of awe and wonder over all the Hall’s offerings specific to the Sox. It blends the good and the bad, the splendor and the horror, including exhibit odes to such icons as Cy Young, Babe Ruth, and (Ted) Williams, along with other greats such as Carl Yastrzemski, Bobby Doerr, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice, and others."

'“It’s not unusual to see adults walking around in baseball uniforms here,'’’ said (Hall of Fame president Jeff) Idelson, noting the Hall’s ability not only to turn back time, but turn adults into kids. 'It’s like you or me going out on Halloween and wearing our Carl Yastrzemski Little League uniform. Hey, this is the place to do it. This is the ultimate fantasy camp for baseball.'

Especially for those who wear their Red Sox."

People actually sent this stuff to Jackie Robinson

My first thought was that here was another parochial Boston piece, because it seems that nothing in this town matters at all unless there's some sort of local connection. Not that localizing a story isn't common in the media, and there is an obvious Red Sox connection with Pedro Martinez being enshrined in the Hall of Fame soon, but to my mind, there are some things that shouldn't require a local hook.

But then again, the night of the Kentucky Derby, it was one of the lead stories on a local newscast, not because it was the Kentucky Derby, but because a bunch of Patriots players partied there!

I met Nolan Ryan in the days before he was enshrined. You can imagine how I felt about this.

Then I had a second thought -- what if this wasn't yet another sign of Boston parochialism, but another sign of what we've become as sports fans?

We live in a world where more sports are available than ever before ... until the next thing that happens to make even more available. As a whole, this is, of course, awesome. However, I think a side effect is that you don't actually have to be a fan of a sport anymore; you can be a fan of a team.

Baseball seems especially vulnerable in this regard. Thanks to regional sports networks, which draw big ratings even as national ratings are low, and MLB.TV, most people can watch all 162 games of their favorite team (unless you're a Dodgers fan in Los Angeles, which is cruel, because you miss out on Vin Scully).

I even find myself mostly watching Yankees game these days, even with my online package.

Pete Rose is in the Hall of Fame, even if he's not. (And I think he will be eventually.)

But none of that should matter, whether you devour all the baseball you can or stick to one team. It's the Baseball Hall of Fame ... just go.

Do you know what you'll be doing an August weekend five years from now? He does.

Sitting around ... talking sports

I was at a family wedding the other day, and during the reception, my brother, cousin and I got talking about sports.

We talked about the Yankees (especially Alex Rodriguez and PEDs), the Buffalo Bills (my brother has to get used to liking Rex Ryan), college basketball (my cousin was a star basketball player in high school, his daughter has done some coaching, and her boyfriend is a young college assistant coach) and probably a couple other topics I can't think of right now.

This lasted 15 minutes or so, maybe a little longer, and ended when my cousin got up, smiled, patted me on the shoulder and said, "Listen to us, solving everything!"

Yup ... because that's what sports fans do.