Fack Youk Field Trip: Frozen Fenway

Friday I took a field trip up to the heart of enemy territory. The ball park which the Yankees organization held the mortgage on for several years was hosting its final two hockey games of the winter, with a Hockey East doubleheader. My alma mater, Boston College, faced their arch rivals, Boston University in the nightcap.

As our friend 'Duk from Big League Stew told hockey blog Puck Daddy over the weekend, college hockey is one of America's best kept sporting secrets. It doesn't get much attention in the NYC metro area, or even in my home state of Connecticut, but it's pretty big stuff in the rest of New England, as well as the Midwest and the Great Plains. BC hockey was one of my favorite parts of my collegiate experience (1 National Championship, 3 Frozen Fours, a Beanpot title, and 2 Hockey East tournament championships and regular season championships). So the chance to see the Eagles take on the hated Terriers in an outdoor game was pretty a cool experience.

Pre game ceremonies featured former Major Leaguers and current Boston-area men's league hockey players Richie Hebner, John Tudor, and former Yankee Bill Monbouquette. Honorary captains for BU included Miracle on Ice hero Mike Eruzione, former Ranger Tony Amonte, and Travis Roy. Honorary captains for BC were Marty McInnis, Craig Janney, and former Ranger Brian Leetch.

Despite light snow and frigid temperatures (around 10 degrees with the wind), I had consumed enough anti-freeze at Game On prior to the game to keep me warm. Our seats in the centerfield bleachers offered a decent enough vantage point of the ice, better than those in field boxes whose views were obscured by the boards.

Both teams featured special sweaters for the event. BC rolled out a special gold jersey, featuring a green stripe (to represent the Green Monster) between the standard maroon stripes and baseball diamond logo above the numbers on the back. BU replaced their standard lettering with the Red Sox font and featured a hockey skate version of the Red Sox hanging socks logo on the shoulders.

Unfortunately for me, there wasn't much to celebrate in the game. BU jumped out to a 3-0 lead just more than halfway through the game. BC got a power play goal late in the second to get on the board, and then scored a shorthanded goal with just over 12 minutes to play to cut the deficit to one. That would be it for scoring on the night though, as BC went just 1 for 8 on the power play and wound up losing 3-2. Despite the victory, BU is just sixth in Hockey East, while BC is in third - five points off the pace and six points ahead of their rivals.

Somewhere in the crowd was the fan antithesis of me. You may have won this round buddy; we'll see what happens at the Beanpot next month. In the meantime I'll try to remain content with the World Series championship.

While it's looking increasingly less likely that Yankee Stadium will host a hockey game next year, or perhaps any time in the next three years, they could learn a lesson from the way Fenway handled their Winter Classic experience. Typical of the Henry ownership group, they squeezed every penny they could out of their three weeks with a rink. In addition to the Winter Classic and the Frozen Fenway doubleheader, they hosted two public skates for Boston residents, a prep school game between Taft and Avon Old Farms, a BC-BU alumni game, and reportedly rented out the ice, at a very lucrative rate, for local teams to use. Despite a shortage of area D-I collegiate squads, I hope the Yankees can manage to do something similar if and when they get to host some hockey games.

(Sweater and fan photos courtesy of Puck Daddy)

College Football Friday: Bowl Game Edition

After a week plus of relatively mediocre bowl games, we're entering the homestretch for college football season. By this time next week the mythical National Champion will be crowned. The big time bowl games start in earnest today, with a day long slate of worthwhile match-ups to help you while your hangover away.

Outback Bowl: Northwestern vs. Auburn, 11 AM ESPN - Northwestern had a nice season for themselves at 8-4, but the Big Ten hasn't fared too well against the SEC in recent years. Either way, both these teams are probably better than the Sunday tenant of Raymond James Stadium.

Capital One Bowl: #12 LSU vs. #13 Penn State, 1 PM ABC - Probably the best non-BCS game remaining on the bowl slate. Joe Paterno ushers in his 86th New Year's Day on the face of the planet by taking on a very tough LSU team. And, just in case you're interested, Erin Andrews will be covering this game.

Gator Bowl: Florida State vs. #16 West Virginia, 1 PM CBS - Speaking of ancient football coaches, this will be the final game for FSU head coach Bobby Bowden. It's a shame that the legendary coach is being forced out in this way, but his time has clearly passed him by. As a consolation prize, FSU vaulted over more deserving teams (Clemson, BC, Miami, UNC), and received the Gator Bowl nod. Hopefully it'll be a nice send off for Bowden, as he gets to coach his final game in Florida and against the school where he spent ten years prior to getting the FSU job.

Rose Bowl: #8 Ohio State vs. #7 Oregon, 4:30 PM ABC - The Granddaddy of Them All. This one just isn't the same without Keith Jackson calling it. The Buckeye seniors have not won a bowl game in their collegiate careers. This is their final chance, but they'll have to beat a very good Oregon team that managed to take the wild wacky PAC-10.

Sugar Bowl: #3 Cincinnati vs. #5 Florida, 8:30 PM FOX - Does anyone want to coach this game? Cincy head coach Brian Kelly left to take the Notre Dame job last month. The Bearcats will be led by offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn, but this will be his last game on the Cincy sideline as he will be Buffalo's head coach next year. On the other sideline Urban Meyer resigned last Saturday, then un-resigned Sunday saying he would take a leave of absence instead - except no one knows how long that will last. In the interim, offensive coordinator Steve Addazio will lead the program. Addazio's last head coaching experience came more than 15 years ago at the Connecticut high school that Brad Ausmus and Brian Leetch once attended. Addazio got the nod by default, as Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong will depart to take the head coaching job at Louisville following the Sugar Bowl.

That aside, we get the treat of listening to Thom Brennaman call this one. As you may recall, Brennaman paid an inordinate amount of lip service to Tim Tebow during last year's BCS Championship Game. I can only imagine what he has in store for Tebow's final collegiate game.

Enjoy the games Fackers.

Some Evening Links

While the General Managers' Meetings continue at the O'Hare Airport Hilton, there's not much worthwhile to pass along other than irresponsible rumor mongering based on vague and non-specific quotes. MLBtraderumors.com can keep you up to date with what's going on outside the nation's busiest airport. Here are some links to get you through the night:

• AL Gold Gloves were announced today. Mark Teixeira took home his third, Derek Jeter his fourth. The gnashing of teeth over this has already begun, but let's remember, the Gold Glove is largely popularity and reputation based and not steeped in the evolving, if imperfect, defensive metrics. Hey, at least a designated hitter didn't win this year.

• Joel Sherman reports that Johnny Damon won't give the Yankees a home team discount. I'm not going to put too much stock into this at this point. First of all, it's based on what Scott Boras says. Secondly, this is typical early posturing in free agent negotiations. Thirdly, we'll continue to discuss this at length here as the Hot Stove League moves on.

• Over at River Ave. Blues, Joe Pawlikowski expresses far more succintly what I was driving at yesterday morning. This morning, Joel Sherman wrote that it appears to be the Yankees' current preference.

• Our buddy Jason at Heartland Pinstripes has a great look back at his favorite moments of this very enjoyable 2009 season.

• Rebecca Glass at This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes has an in depth four part series in an attempt to quantify just what Mariano Rivera has meant to the Yankees in the post-season. She consolidated all four parts into one post over at RAB.

• This one came through BBTF over the weekend (I swear on all that is holy that I don't read OK Magazine). A-Rod's special lady friend's kind-of-dad, Kurt Russell, weighs in on the Yankee third baseman. Normally I would dismiss this as just another Hollywood asshole giving us his opinion on something we didn't ask for in the first place, but Russell actually knows a little baseball, spending three years in the Angels' organization until a shoulder injury ended his career. He's also the uncle of former Met Matt Franco.

• Hideki Matsui reportedly will not return to Japan for next season. Be that as it may, his former club - the Yomiuri Giants - won their 21st Japan Series over the weekend. The Giants have often been called the Yankees of Japan, and not surprisingly, the two clubs have had a collaborative agreement over the past seven years.

• In non-baseball news, the Hockey Hall of Fame held its induction ceremonies yesterday. Earlier this year I took a look at the two inductees with area ties: former Rangers defenseman Brian Leetch and Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello. You can watch the acceptance speeches here, or read about how these two nearly teamed up after the lockout.

That's it for tonight Fackers. See you in the AM.

Off Night Viewing

Hey there Fackers. Once again, sorry for the slow drip of content here today. We're now approaching night three of four Yankee baseball-less nights, so at least we'll have something to talk about again soon. As for me, I've been fairly well tied up at the office today.

The company that employs me was purchased by a British corporation fifteen months ago, just like on Mad Men. The Board of Directors is coming across the pond to meet at our office for the next two days (though I'm not sure how they're traveling, we've worked out a one if by land, two if by sea signaling system). Everyone here has been a bit on edge getting things prepared for the meetings. I'm just hopeful that ours here go better than when the Brits came to visit on Mad Men (jump to the 1:40 mark).

Speaking of television, here are a few options to get you through another night without baseball:

• College Football: #5 Boise State at Tulsa, ESPN 8 PM. The other undefeated Broncos will likely have to stay that way if they expect a trip to a BCS game. This is the first of back-to-back games away from the blue field. Tulsa is 4-1, with their only loss being a 45-0 drubbing against then #2 Oklahoma. This is the first of back-to-back Wendesday night ESPN games for the Golden Hurricanes. Boise State opened the season with a weeknight game on ESPN and someone got punched in the face, so this could be fun.
  
  I spent most of last Saturday at the office getting ready for this week, so I didn't catch much college football. Being at the office did give me access to ESPN360 though, so I was able watch BC get completely destroyed by Virginia Tech while I worked - talk about adding insult to injury. I'm looking forward to watching tonight on an actual television, from the comfort of my own couch, with a few frosty cold ones.



• World Cup Qualifying: USA vs. Costa Rica, ESPN2 7:30 PM. The U.S. has already punched their ticket South Africa for next year's World Cup, so this one isn't of much consequence to them. Costa Rica on the other hand is still trying to hold off Honduras for the third and final guaranteed CONCACAF berth, so they have something to play for. A win clinches that berth for them, a tie and a Honduras win against El Savador tonight forces a tie for the spot.
  
  The U.S. will be without striker (and former BC Eagle) Charlie Davies, who was involved in a horrific one car accident early yesterday morning. Davis required five hours of emergency surgery and will likely miss the World Cup as a result. He was one of the lucky ones; one of the car's passengers did not survive the crash.



• NHL: Kings at Rangers, MSG 7 PM. I haven't yet watched too much hockey this year, but I'll try to catch a bit of this one. New Ranger (and former BC Eagle) Brian Boyle will face his former team in this one. The guy is 6'7" without skates on. The Kings feature Rob Scuderi who played for the Stanley Cup Champion Penguins last year, and the National Champion BC Eagles in 2001. Kings goalie Jonathan Quick is a local guy and attended the same prep school as former Ranger (and former BC Eagle) Brian Leetch. The Rangers have a defenseman named Dan Girardi, but I've yet to hear anyone in the NYC media make some sort of poorly conceived connection to the Yankee skipper.



• Yankees Classics: 1976 ALCS Game 5, YES 7 PM. The Chris Chambliss game.



• Lastly, the second episode of the new season of South Park airs on Comedy Central at 10 PM. This one's apparently about Butters, who happens to be my favorite character.

That's it for us tonight. See you in the A.M. In honor of the British coming, here's a little Paul Revere.

Congratulations Brian Leetch

We're going a bit off the baseball beat with this one, but congratulations to former New York Rangers defenseman Brian Leetch, who was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame this afternoon, along with Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, and Luc Robitaille. Arguably the greatest American born hockey player ever, Leetch was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame last fall.

Despite making his retirement home in Boston, Leetch is an avowed Yankee fan, having grown up in Cheshire, CT, about 20 minutes from where I live. Leetch starred in both hockey and baseball in high school, first at Cheshire High (my high school hockey rival), then at Avon Old Farms prep school. As a high school pitcher he was clocked in the 90s and pitched Cheshire to a state championship as a sophomore.

Leetch went on to my alma mater, Boston College, where he led the Eagles to the 1986-87 Hockey East title, winning Hockey East Rookie of the Year, Hockey East Player of the Year, and the Hockey East Tournament MVP award. He was also named an All-American.

He left BC after his freshman year to join the U.S. National team, and played for the U.S. at 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, the first of three Olympic teams for which he would play. He won a silver medal in Salt Lake City in 2002, and also captained the U.S. team that won the innaugural World Cup of Hockey in 1996.

Following the 1988 Olympics, he joined the Rangers, and won the NHL's Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year for the 1988-1989 season. He was also a two time Norris Trophy winner (91-92 and 96-97) as the NHL's top defenseman, and was the first American to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason MVP, as he led the Rangers to the Stanley Cup in 1994.

After the Cup victory, the Yankees honored the Rangers at a game, and Leetch, Mark Messier, and Nick Kypreos threw out the first pitches. I'm sure Leetch could bring the heat better than either Canuck.