Perhaps its not too bad...

There have not been good tidings in the Boston sports world of late:

- The Sox lost out of Teixeira. On the surface this looks like a case of someone simply picking New York over Boston. But there seems to have been some underlying forces at work here. Teixeira, in his news conference the other day which announced the finalization of his deal with the Yankees, said that he had chosen New York before Christmas. Which begs the question, why did he meet with Sox brass after Christmas? It sounds like a blatant ploy to drive up his price. If that meeting after Christmas had yielded a bigger offer than the one that he received from the Yankees you can bet your job that he would have gone right back to the Yankees (or rather Scott Boras would have) and said that the asking price had gone up even though he had already made the decision to go there. After the press conference Scott Boras was on camera saying that the Yankees and their willingness to spend was great for baseball. Really? Great for baseball? Or does he just mean great for his inflated ego and wallet? How is driving up the price of decent players (A.J. Burnett) so that anyone who wants to sign someone similar needs to pay that inflated price good for baseball? C.C. Sabathia will be making more over the next few years than some teams have on their payroll, period. The Yankees have more money in 5 players than half the teams have for an entire roster. How is this good for baseball? A executive in the Yankee organization claimed it was sour grapes and that the teams voted in the current collective bargaining agreement with no cap and that they can't now bitch about that same lack of a cap. But I think he is missing the point, I think some teams truly felt that the luxury tax that teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Mets would pay for having inflated payrolls would discourage them from overpaying for free agents and that the redistribution of that money would actually help the lower market teams compete for the big talent. That has not happened. Now it appears even the Red Sox (the second deepest pocket in MLB) can't compete with the salaries that the Yankees are doling out. Scott Boras and his ways are ruining baseball and the Yankees seem to be willing participants in this foolishness.

- Coach Jeff Jagodzinski is fired from BC. On the surface this is a head scratcher. My friend, Fishfan, wrote me an email expressing outrage that the school would threaten to fire someone simply for interviewing for another job. I must admit I was a little taken aback at first myself. But then I thought about it. Here we are, beginning of recruiting season, and your head football coach is looking for another job. Not exactly the type of message you want to show recruits out on the trail...

Coach Jags - "So DT X, you should come to BC to play football."

DT X - "Why? You don't even want to be they so why should I bother?"

Coach Jags - "Um...well...you see...."

Not exactly inspiring young minds there. The school needs a commitment from someone who wants to be there and wants to advance the program and make a difference. Jags clearly was not interested in doing that. In his defense, he has not said anything negative about the school or about his firing or anything. He clearly still yearned to be a part of the NFL and coaching a college program was not for him. I think BC made the right decision in letting him go. Now they should reward Frank Spaziani for his commitment to the program and the excellent job he has done over the years as defensive coordinator and make him the head coach.

- BC basketball beats UNC only to lose to Harvard the next game. To say I saw this coming from a mile away would be an understatement. This is a typical pattern with this team even back to the Jim O'Brien days. They follow up a great effort against a top opponent with a dismal effort against a weak opponent. Not sure why. Maybe just the nature of having a bunch of kids who are prone to emotional highs and lows. What will be interesting will be to see if they can rebound and refocus now that the ACC schedule starts. No more out of conference cupcakes left to pound. You have to bring your best effort every night if you want to make the tourney. Personally I think this team is headed for the NIT. They need at least 7 wins in conference to make it and I'm not sure they have it. The losses to St. Louis and Harvard will be difficult to overcome. They might need 22 wins to get in.

- Bruins and Celtics struggling. After both getting off to fantastic starts the Celtics are 2-6 since Christmas and the Bruins have lost 2 in a row at home. The Celts look tired and unable to dig deep to put teams away late in games. The Bruins on Tuesday night look like the scuffling team of last year - good goaltending, neutral zone turnovers, bad passes, no consistency on the power play - basically not the team I have watched all season. Neither team was going to be able to keep up the pace they started the year with but over the next couple of weeks we will see if they can right the ship and get back on track.

....OK - I was wrong. It's pretty bad. But the Celts & Bruins have a long season ahead to get over this bump (the Bruins having a much bigger cushion to play with than the Celts). There is still hope for the BC basketball team to find more nights like their night in Chapel Hill. Jags was fired early enough in the recruiting season that it should not make a big difference in who comes to the Heights. There is always an outside chance Bud Selig will hire some psycho to assassinate Scott Boras and save baseball. Besides, the Sox did pretty well last year with the line up they had and they return almost everyone - hopefully with less injuries so they should at least be able to compete for the wild card (yes I am conceding the division to the Evil Empire). All that and the BC hockey team returns to the ice this weekend after the long Christmas break. There has to be a silver lining somewhere.