Social Icons

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Ski and Party With SnowRiders?



So I got an email from these guys at SnowRiders. They are new UB readers, and they are looking for UB to potentially join them for their Sunday River College Week. I mean, I don't foresee myself organizing any kind of UB group to attend this, but if a lot of people are interested, we might potentially be able to work out further discounts with SnowRiders. Who knows. But either way, you can watch this video of their last event and you can read the details on the website linked above. I'll need some feedback -- how many people would be interested in this?
 

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

It's Been More Than 5 Hours

If you read DRob's article regarding Crawford, you will note that my pre-teen take on the situation was given at the end. I said that the bullpen can wait for 5 hours. Well, it's been about 5 days, and that is far too long.

The winter meetings are over and the Red Sox are the clear winners this winter. The line-up just got exponentially better and scarier. Theo has worked his magic and brought huge talent to Beantown.

But more work needs to be done. For example (the only example, really): the bullpen.

We don't have one. Well, a full one, anyway.

Papelbon should (I hope...ugh) have a good final season in Boston. But it will be his last. He's going to walk and try to make some money. Bard still remains, so the 8th and 9th innings shouldn't be any problem (the word 'should' is making me cringe).

Phillies Land Lee

After the Red Sox grabbed Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford over the winter meetings, many baseball pundits, and myself, were about 95% sure that the New York Yankees would land ace lefty Cliff Lee.

Well last night, after countless days of experts going between the Yankees and Texas Rangers as the top contenders for Lee, the Philadelphia Phillies nabbed the pitcher who had left the team for Seattle only a year before. Lee's move to the Phillies will be the fourth time he is moving in the past two seasons. Can you say journeyman?

The addition of Lee makes the Phillies rotation un-Godly. Lee will be joining aces Roy Oswalt and Roy Halladay (two Roys, that's funny) and a top level starter in Cole Hamels. I mean, the Phillies rotation looks like one that would be in an MBL 2k game with fair trades off. Can we give the NL to the Phillies now? They have the best rotation in a pitcher-friendly league. They are going to absolutely dominate on defense this season, bank on it.

The best part about this? The Yankees are left without the biggest free agent ont he market this off-season. Their best signing? 36-year-old Derek Jeter, who is past his prime and overpaid. What an awesome off-season for Sox fans; Gonzalez and Crawford come to town, and the Yankees are thwarted in their attempts to grab a top-level free-agent. It seems as though players aren't biting on the Yankees money-flashing ways anymore.

I cannot wait until opening day.
  

Study Break

My goal is to be this kid after Saturday afternoon. However, this kid couldn't simultaneously keep up a Boston sports blog while achieving these high academic marks! Therefore, I am taking my second notable vacation from Ultimate Boston. I mean, it kind of started already in the sense that I haven't been posting as frequently. But from now until Sunday, I wouldn't expect anything from me. My fellow bloggers may have finals, too -- so I can't make guarantees. But just because you aren't reading the blog, that doesn't mean you can't play your part. Don't forget to VOTE for the 2010 ULTY Awards. People, you can vote up to 25 times per valid email address. I know you have several emails for spamming and whatever. Use that to your advantage. Get your votes in now. How can you miss the giant memo at the top of the blog? Beats me. Anyway, get voting and I'll see you Sunday. Go Bruins (vs. Habs Thursday night).
  

Monday, December 13, 2010

Makes Total Sense

Not surprisingly, the big news around the NFL this Monday morning was not about how the Patriots absolutely shellacked the Chicago Bears. It was about Jets strength and conditioning coach tripping Dolphins' corner-back Nolan Carroll during a routine punt-return. Alosi intentionally stuck his knee out to trip Carroll, as the tape and picture (above) show.

ESPN was shocked at the actions of Alosi. Not I, I say. My first reaction was "makes total sense." Because it does. The Jets are a gritty, borderline dirty team, from the players to the coaches. Whether it's Braylon Edwards doing the "dougie" in front of Devin McCourty for a penalty (he's not dancing now, especially after losing to Miami) or Alosi's sophomoric trip, the team really is cheap. Almost like the "Dirty Dozen." And lest we forget the most recent season on "Hard Knocks."

I'm surprised Carroll was only tripped and not hit with a crowbar or something, because the Jets are not only dirty, but they are now a desperate team. They had everybody fooled with there rough-and-tough act, and people were putting them in the Superbowl already. But after an ass-beating by the Pats and a tough defeat by Miami, the team has regressed it seems. I mean, they barely beat the Texans and Browns, but they've still regressed. Though the team will most likely make the playoffs, this tripping incident is another dirty chapter for the NFL's dirty dozen.
 

Streak Over, Yahoo Confused?


297 straight games. That's the number that will officially be etched into the record books with Brett Favre's name next to it. I'm not going to hate on Favre in this post. It will be the only time I honor him. But first, I can't help but wonder -- is Yahoo on foreign drugs?

The above screen shot is from the Yahoo homepage. In the little tab, they have it correct: Brett Favre's streak ends. That would be a suitable name for the article; however, in the enlarged version, the title reads Water main breaks, encases house in ice. I searched for the metaphoric representation in the ensuing description, but it just doesn't make sense. When you click through to the story, it brings to you a regular old article honoring Favre's accomplishment. Weird. Those damned Yahooligans.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Jealous of Snow, Not Football Squad

Sure, I'll admit it -- I'm jealous that Chicago has awesome snow storms right now and New England has warm, gross, December rain. But just to clarify -- Chicago's snow is the only thing I'm jealous about.

One would have suggested I may have been jealous of their football squad after today's game between the Patriots and Bears. After all, in such horrible conditions, the Bears would have the advantage via their ability to pound the rock on the ground and play tough, rugged defense. Once reality transpired, though, fans saw New England convincingly take down a 9-win opponent for the second straight week. And the total score in those two weeks? A mere 81-10 advantage for the hometown heroes.

For anyone who questioned which team was the best in the NFL right now, that question was loudly answered today. In a hostile environment with less than favorable weather conditions, the Patriots put on a massacre of the Bears from the start. After a 33-0 score at the half -- already the most points Chicago had given up all season -- and the rest was history.

How's Your Eye?

After months of trash-talking on TUF 12, claims of greatness, and more trash-talking, Georges St. Pierre finally shut the cocky Josh Koscheck up at UFC 124, in which GSP defeated Koscheck by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45, 50-45, 50-45), retaining his welterweight championship.

As a huge GSP fan (and an ardent Koscheck hater), this was about as satisfying as a victory goes. Would a knockout have been more satsfying? Well, yes, but look at Koscheck's right eye. That's where GSP mechanically hit him throughout the five -round rout. That image is satisfying enough for me.

And The Winner Is ...

USA Today - Auburn quarterback Cam Newton was the runaway winner of the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night. Newton beat out other finalists Andrew Luck of Stanford, LaMichael James of Oregon and Kellen Moore to become the 76th winner of college football's top individual honor.

I must say, I'm pretty excited about this. Not because I got the prediction right (because anyone with two eyes that's ever seen a college football game could have predicted this), but because I love the way that Cam Newton plays and I respect him for pulling through this year when his team needed him the most. Now we just have to wait until January for his (perhaps final) college test.
 
 

Sample text

Sample Text

Sample Text

Ultimate Boston knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy very seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our privacy policy. By visiting our website, you are accepting the practices outlined in this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy covers Ultimate Boston's treatment of personal information that Ultimate Boston gathers when you are on the Ultimate Boston website and when you use Ultimate Boston services. This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that Ultimate Boston does not own or control, or to individuals that Ultimate Boston does not employ or manage.

Information Collected by Ultimate Boston

We only collect personal information that is relevant to the purpose of our website. This information allows us to provide you with a customized and efficient experience. We do not process this information in a way that is incompatible with this objective. We collect the following types of information from our Ultimate Boston users:

1. Information You Provide to Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or provide to us in any other way. You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but then you may not be able to take advantage of many of our special features.

2. Automatic Information:

o We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. Ultimate Boston and its authorized agents automatically receive and record certain "traffic data" on their server logs from your browser including your IP address, Ultimate Boston cookie information, and the page you requested. Ultimate Boston uses this traffic data to help diagnose problems with its servers, analyze trends and administer the website.

o Ultimate Boston may collect and, on any page, display the total counts that page has been viewed.

o Many companies offer programs that help you to visit websites anonymously. While Ultimate Boston will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these programs are available.

E-mail Communications

Ultimate Boston is very concerned about your privacy and we will never provide your email address to a third party without your explicit permission, as detailed in the "Sharing Your Information" section below. Ultimate Boston may send out e-mails with Ultimate Boston-related news, products, offers, surveys or promotions.

Cookies

Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and tell us how and when pages in our website are visited and by how many people. Ultimate Boston cookies do not collect personal information, and we do not combine information collected through cookies with other personal information to tell us who you are or what your screen name or e-mail address is.

The "help" portion of the toolbar on the majority of browsers will direct you on how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to command the browser to tell you when you receive a new cookie, or how to fully disable cookies. We recommend that you leave the cookies activated because cookies allow you to use some of Ultimate Boston's coolest features.

Ultimate Boston's advertising partners may place a cookie on your browser that makes it possible to collect anonymous non-personally identifiable information that ad delivery systems use to present more relevant ads. If you would prefer to opt-out of this standard practice, please visit our advertising partner Platform-A's privacy policy and opt-out page.

Sharing Your Information

Rest assured that we neither rent nor sell your personal information to anyone and that we will share your personal information only as described below.

Ultimate Boston Personnel: Ultimate Boston personnel and authorized consultants and/or contractors may have access to user information if necessary in the normal course of Ultimate Boston business.

Business Transfers: In some cases, we may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, user information is typically one of the business assets that is transferred. Moreover, if Ultimate Boston, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred.

Protection of Ultimate Boston and Others: We may release personal information when we believe in good faith that release is necessary to comply with a law; to enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other policies; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Ultimate Boston, our employees, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Syndication: Ultimate Boston allows for the RSS syndication of all of its public content within the Ultimate Boston website.

With Your Consent: Except as noted above, we will contact you when your personal information is shared with third parties or used for a purpose incompatible with the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, and you will be able to opt out to prevent the sharing of this information.

Children Under 18 Years of Age

You must be 13 years and older to register to use the Ultimate Boston website. As a result, Ultimate Boston does not specifically collect information about children. If we learn that Ultimate Boston has collected information from a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. We recommend that minors between the ages of 13 and 18 ask and receive their parents' permission before using Ultimate Boston or sending information about themselves or anyone else over the Internet.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Ultimate Boston may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time, at its sole discretion. Use of information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used. If we make changes to the Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting an announcement on the Ultimate Boston website so you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances if any, it is disclosed.

Conditions of Use

If you decide to visit Ultimate Boston website, your visit and any possible dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of California state law.

Effective Date of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is effective as of 2/2/2011 and last updated 2/2/2011.