Beanpot, Burritos, And Bernie

Good morning Fackers. If August is the dog days of summer, then we need a name for this time of year. Spring Training is still sixteen days away and there's virtually nothing in the way of baseball news right now. We have the Super Bowl next Sunday and then football is gone until the fall. I won't care about NCAA basketball until conference tournaments start next month and I have zero interest in the NBA at any time of year. The NHL goes on its Olympic break in two weeks. The Olympics will feature a killer hockey tournament surrounded by a bunch of other garbage I don't care about, out of which NBC will painfully try to squeeze overwrought human interest stories. In short, this is the worst time of year sports wise, and that Old Man Winter has had a death grip on the tri-state area for the past several days makes it all the worse.

That said, this Monday and next will offer a little flicker of sporting hope for me as the annual Beanpot tournament will take place in Boston. Held on the first two Mondays of February each year, the tournament features the men's ice hockey teams from the four major Boston schools: Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, and Harvard.

Clearly this isn't of major interest to the majority of our readership, but it's slim pickings this time year. Despite what some may say, the Beanpot is a great sporting event. For the schools involved, winning local bragging rights in the Beanpot is as important as winning their conference. For those of you with DirecTV or those in New England, you can catch the games on NESN. Harvard-BC is tonight at five, with BU-Northeastern at eight. The consolation game will be next Monday at five, with the championship at eight. If history holds, it will be BC and BU squaring off for the pot, with my Eagles looking to avenge losses to their arch rivals last Friday and last month at Frozen Fenway. And if you're looking for a remote Yankee related angle on the tournament, Harvard is coached by former Bruin, Islander, and Ranger forward Ted Donato, whose brother Danny spent three seasons in the Yankees' minor league system.

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Of course, the Beanpot is big business for our friends in Beantown, and local business are seizing upon it. Local restaurant chain Qdoba Mexican Grill is sponsoring a Rice & Bean Pot Burrito-Eating Contest for the students of the four participating schools. Aside from being an excuse to binge on delicious burritos, it's for a good cause. Proceeds from ticket sales to the contest finals will benefit the Kevin Youkilis Hits for Kids Foundation. We spew an awful lot of venom at Mr. Youkilis in these parts, but I think we can all agree that this is a worthy cause. If attending a competitive eating contest isn't your thing, you could still get in on the act by purchasing the "Youk Burrito" at Massachusetts Qdobas. Not only will a portion of the sale benefit the Foundation, but consuming the burrito is thought to help you grow hideous looking facial hair and develop a ridiculous looking batting stance. We encourage all our Massachusetts Fackers to take part.

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Lastly, in NYC-based charity news, Bernie Williams be performing tonight at Feinstein's at Loews Regency, located at 540 Park Avenue. The show starts at 8:00 PM, and all proceeds benefit Ed Randall's Bat for the Cure, dedicated to prostate cancer awareness, education, and prevention. Also on the bill for tonight are guitarists John Pizzarelli and Earl Klugh. Klugh has recorded and performed often with Derek Trucks Band drummer Yonrico Scott, but Yonrico does not appear to be on the roster for tonight.

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)

One More Hockey Post

Tuesday we ran a post congratulating Yankee fan and former first pitch tosser Brian Leetch on his being voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In my haste to make sure that Leetch was one of the four members that the Hall allows to be inducted anually, I overlooked the inductee in the Builders Category - a man who has a more concrete connection to the Yankees than Leetch. So indulge the puck head in me one more hockey post this week (unless something really interesting happens in the draft tonight) .

New Jersey Devils CEO/President/General Manager Lou Lamoriello will be inducted this fall in the Builders Category. Lamoriello is one of the more fascinating sportsmen of recent years. He's most well known in the metro-NYC area as the strong-willed President and GM of the Devils for the past twentytwo years and the architect of three Stanley Cup Champion teams. But Lamoriello has a host of other accomplishments in the sports world beyond his career with the Devils.

While a student at Providence College, Lamoriello was the captain of both the baseball and ice hockey teams. During his collegiate summers, he played in the Cape Cod Baseball League, the most prestigious wooden bat amateur league in the country. In the days before baseball had an amateur draft, Lamoriello was offered a contract by the San Francisco Giants, but elected to pursue a career in coaching. At age 21 he became player-manager of his Cape League team, managing three summers there and winning the 1965 title. One of his Cape League players was Bobby Valentine. Lamoriello was named to the Cape League Hall of Fame earlier this month.

At the conclusion of his collegiate career, he became an assistant hockey and baseball coach at Providence, then became the head hockey coach in 1968. He held the head coach position for 15 seasons, making 11 postseason tournaments, four NCAA tournaments, and reaching the Frozen Four in his final season. He remains the all-time wins leader at Providence and is a member of the Providence Hall of Fame.

For the final season of his coaching career and four years thereafter, he served as the Athletic Director at Providence. In that position, he hired Rick Pitino to coach the Friars' basketball team. He was also instrumental in forming Hockey East, arguably college hockey's most powerful conference. He served as Hockey East Commissioner for four years and the conference championship trophy bears his name.

In April 1987, Dr. John McMullen, owner of both the Houston Astros and the New Jersey Devils, as well as a former limited partner of George Steinbrenner, hired Lamoriello as President of the Devils. By the time training camp opened in September he was also the G.M., a post he holds to this day, making him the longest tenured G.M. in the NHL.

In 1989, Lamoriello brought defensemen Slava Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov to the Devils from the USSR. They were the the first crop of NHLers to come from behind the Iron Curtain and opened the floodgates for the Eastern Europeans that proliferate the game today.

He was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy, given for dedication to hockey in the United States, in 1992. On the international stage, Lamoriello served as the General Manager of championship 1996 World Cup of Hockey and 1998 Winter Olympic teams. Leetch played for both teams and won the Lester Patrick Trophy as well in 2007.

By 2000 Lamoriello also owned a small stake in the Devils. The short-lived YankeeNets conglomerate purchased the Devils from McMullen in April that year. After the acquisition, Lamoriello was named CEO of the Nets as well.

YankeeNets fell apart in 2004 and sold off the Devils. A new company, Yankees Global Enterprises, was created to serve as the holding company for both the Yankees ballclub and the YES Network. Lamoriello has served on the Board of Directors for Yankees Global Enterprises since its inception and has been on the Board of Directors for the Yogi Berra Museum since 2006. He's also been a frequent guest of George Steinbrenner at Yankee Stadium through the years.

So that's my Lamoriello biography. He's had an extremely interesting sporting life, with some loose connections to the Yankee front office over the past several years. He's certainly deserving of this most recent honor bestowed upon him.