Eliza Dushku's Return to Boston

We were lucky enough to get some No R Lifestyle gear to Boston’s hottest actress while she was in town shooting her independent film “Valediction.” Here’s my buddy and No R Co-Founder’s account of the fortunate meeting (please excuse his attempted dig on me in the opening paragraph):

“The quest to bring the No R Lifestyle brand to national prominence continued 2 weeks ago. While putting a few back at the local watering hole with the work crew, I received a phone call with some interesting information. The excited voice on the other end informed me that they were filming a movie outside his work in Boston tonight and it was starring Eliza Dushku. Thinking that my buddy/co owner was just a huge fan of Bring it On or Wrong Turn, I did not see what this information had to do with me. “She’s originally from Watertown and loves Boston give her a shirt!” My buzz was instantly gone and I quickly turned into No R promotion mode. I excused myself from the cluster of beautiful women around me and raced home. I got home in record time to my buddy waiting for me in his car ready to put our plan in motion.

As we got to the set, with No R shirts in hand, we wanted to confirm that this was an Eliza Dushku flick. I asked the cop on detail what was going on here and he quipped “it’s a truck backing up.” (He was directing one of the trailers backing up.) I gave him a fake chuckle and left the guy who probably got picked on in high school so he became a cop to get back at all the bullies behind. After a few minutes of searching we got confirmation from a union truck driver, who had a hoop nose ring, that this was her movie. He then proceeded to tell us what he would like to do with Eliza and we quickly realized this was our time to leave.

After a half hour of searching, (mostly standing around hoping she would walk right into us), we decided it wasn’t meant to be and started to leave. On the walk back to the car we were passing several trailers. As we got to the last trailer in the doorway was a former Celtic by the name of Rick Fox. I remembered that Rick Fox was doing to Eliza exactly what the truck driver wanted to do to her and figured she had to be close. When we got by the trailer I looked back and could see that she was in the same trailer with him. We quickly circled the block to complete our assignment. We turned the corner and saw her trailer and three security staff blocking our opening. With Jason Bourne like moves I found myself only a few trailers away still unsuspected. I continued my way weaving in and out of trailers as if I was Calvin Borel. Finally I see the three security guards with there back to the trailer. I make my move. I get to the doorway and I see Eliza (she’s even hotter in person) and Rick. I tell her my No R Lifestyle story, very quickly knowing that security will notice any second, and hand her two shirts. She held it up and replied “Thanks. Cool idea, I like it.” I made some joke to Rick Fox that we didn’t have them in triple XL, who unlike myself with the cop, genuinely laughed. I thanked them and they said no problem as security apologized to her and escorted me out.”

It was really nice to see celebrities so chill with my buddy approaching their trailer like that. Whether it was because she was back in her hometown, or if she is always so receptive to fans, it was cool to see first hand what a genuine person Eliza Dushku is. Here’s to hoping that her movie comes out great and gets nominated for some Independent Film awards, and also that she is seen sporting the No R Lifestyle apparel!

FORE! Run First About Par For This Course

Although the Sox acquisition of John Smoltz brought one of MLB’s best golfers to Boston, Theo and company are more concerned with what he’ll bring to the diamond in the second half of the season and beyond. Four run first inning in his debut after more than a year off? Expected. Smoltz’s “firsts” throughout his career have been well below par for this future Hall of Famer. In his second appearance of 2002, the year he became a closer, he was throttled for 8 runs in 2/3 of an inning against the Mets. He would finish ’02 with 55 saves. After three years as a lights-out closer and compiling more than 150 saves, Smoltz would return to the rotation, welcomed by the Marlins with a 1.2 inning appearance in which he allowed 7 runs. He would go on to compile a 14-7 record in ’05 with an ERA just over 3. So, when at the age of 42, John Smoltz debuted last night against the Nats, it was not all that surprising that his first first inning as a member of the Sox included a hit batsman, a walk, a few hits, four runs, 34 pitches and every batter in the Washington lineup. The next four innings were a completely different animal; Smoltz needed only 58 pitches to record 12 outs, and he looked a lot more like the #29 Boston was hoping to see. Although he took the loss, it was still a decently encouraging debut. 5 Ks, 1 walk, 1 hbp over 5 innings I’ll take; it’s the 5 runs and 7 hits I hope to not see too often in Smoltz’s future starts.

Most encouraging about last night’s game, were Smoltz’s words in his post game conference. “All in all, most times if the line score is the way it is tonight, I'm going to be very disappointed, but I really can't be at this point," said Smoltz. "A lot of hard work went into this. Although I'd like that mulligan in the first inning, that's just the way it happens. Now everything will be normal for me." He seemed comfortable with all of his pitches, sitting between 90-93 with his fastball, although he mentioned his two strike spots can and will improve. He was very poised and positive during and after the game, and he spoke with the self-assuredness of one of the best pitchers in baseball for the last couple decades. Whether this was all lip-service will only be determined with every start Smoltz makes from here on out, but lets hope he wasn’t faking the confidence and optimism. And hey, if this return doesn’t work out for him, he always has his scratch golf game to fall back on.

Local College Talent at the Next Level

Kudos to Tony Sanchez (and his agents – Seth and Sam Levinson), who along with Matt Ryan and his successful, issue-free rookie season, is doing his part to clean up the somewhat marred image of past Boston College athletes. After being drafted 4th overall in the 2009 MLB draft, Sanchez wasted no time with the all too familiar chess match between baseball brass and greedy agents, signing less than a week after his name was called by Bud Selig only after those of Strasburg, Ackley, and high school phenom Donovan Tate. Reportedly signing for $2.5 million, Sanchez has already begun play for the Pirates’ single A affiliate State College Spikes. Playing a week after the draft is almost unheard of for first round guy these days, and although $2.5 million would be more than enough for you and me and all of our friends combined, that is sadly not always the case with these first-rounders. After a successful ACC campaign in 2009 and the 4th overall pick in the draft, Boston College is officially on the national baseball map, and other New England colleges may start to get more attention in the near future.

Another local draftee, Mitch Clegg (Woburn, MA) of UMASS Amherst, is off to a solid professional career, picking up a win in relief against the Lowell Spinners in his first appearance for the Vermont Lake Monsters – the single A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. I remember losing to Clegg 2-1 in the summer of 2003 in the Middlesex Senior Babe Ruth League semi-finals. I still blame my catcher for throwing down the 1 on a full count in the last inning with a 1-0 lead instead of singnaling for the splitter, and he still blames me for not shaking him off, but that’s not the point of the story. Clegg was a tall, lanky lefty who we could not square up all game. It seems as though he’s been able to repeat his effectiveness at every level for the last 6 years, and I hope he continues pitching successfully for the next couple decades.

Jeremiah Bayer and Sean Killeen, both from Greenfield, MA, and former Trinity College (CT) teammates were quickly reunited last week on the Sox single A affiliate Lowell Spinners. Hopefully these local D3 ball players can both wear the Boston uni some day in the future. Best of luck to all four of these guys in their new professions!

Boston Pitcher Completes Successful Rookie Start in World Series

World Series of Poker that is… Sean Gildea (Haverhill, MA), one of the top pitchers in Boston’s Yawkey Baseball League, and former Colby-Sawyer standout, transitioned nicely from the mound to the felt and made the most of a satellite entry into WSOP event #13 last week in Vegas. Here’s his account of the experience.

"As I prepared for my trip to Las Vegas and the Rio, I was getting a little worried about my game. I had not played well in about a month and I knew I was going to have be at the top of my game for Event #13, the $2,500 buy-in event that I put my winnings towards.

I arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday and figured the best way to prep for the event was to play some live cash games and go back to basics. That's right, I sat down at $1/$2 NLHE at Caesar's on Wednesday night and Thursday night as a confidence booster. With how loose I knew these games would be, I wanted to mix up my play and forget about the money. I made about $500 over the two nights playing great, and I felt like I was prepared for the tourney.

When I sat down on Friday at Noon, I was ready for battle. Several unknown pros at my table and some older amateurs, as well as one very talented female amateur. Starting stack at 7,500 and 25/50 blinds, with increases every 60 minutes. Well within the range to remain patient and wait for hands. After my stack shrunk to about 3,500 with a big K-K to A-J loss, I knew I would need to make a move. Fortunately this happened early enough to remain in the game.

In the second hour of Day 1, I picked up Ah-3h in the SB, calling a raise from middle position and a loose-aggressor. Flop Jh-10h-2d, I decided my opponent would not be able to make a big bet call without at least a set, A-J, or top 2. Unfortunately for me, my opponent snap-called with J-10 and I was drawing to a heart. The turn 5c picked up the straight draw for me, but the 2h on the river got me back up to 9,000 chips. Then the rush came....

With Roland De Wolfe coming to my table, everyone loosened up heavily as he was open-raising almost 60% of the pots. This was my time to shine as I started to pick up premiums (high PP's, A-K, A-Q). My chip stack grew to about 12K and Erik Seidel came into the table. De Wolfe raised to 600 from 2nd pos. (blinds 100/200) and Seidel moved all-in from the button with 5,600. In the BB, I looked down at A-K and went into the tank. At this point, De Wolfe had me covered and I can't just flat call and have De Wolfe come over the top for the rest. I decided to make my stand and push it in. Seidel flipped over 6-6, while Roland SHOWED his 7-7 and he would've been in the lead. Fortunately for Roland, the A was right in the window and he would've missed his set. I knocked out Seidel and chipped up to over 20K right after dinner. Now I could play poker. Some well time bluffs and picking up A-A in the BB later in the night put me up to 63.7K and 34th place heading into Day 2.

With 180 players left and some well-knowns still in the field (Beth Shak, Phil Ivey, Roland De Wolfe, Joe Sebok), I was a little worried about Day 2 table draw. Luckily, I drew a pretty timid table (to start) and I was able to chip up over 100K rather quickly. We entered the cash mark (117 cashed) and I was just over 140K and in top top 25 still in chips. After the dinner break, I chipped up to 200K and was right in the mix. I slowed down heavily right after though and with blinds at 3K/6K with a 500 ante, I needed to start picking up hands and/or making moves. Unfortunately, my raises with A-Q and A-K kept missing and my continuation bets couldn't get my opponents off the flops (shown almost every time and was told they would not fold if I came over top).

I drew thin when we got down to 4 tables and my stack shrunk to 120K as other players were now in the 400K, 500K range. After a few rounds of blinds, I decided to make my move with 10h-7h and called by one of the worst hands I could see, A-7, drawing my 7 dead. After a 2d-4h-6d flop, I was packing up, but the 8h hit on the turn for my double belly AND heart draw, but the 2s on the river sealed my fate in 32nd place. I took home $11,886 for my efforts and my first 5-digit score of my career. And it happened in my first WSOP event!!!

I couldn't ask for more out of my first trip to the WSOP. I made it through Day 1, knocked out a former world champ, made the money, and made my first five digit score.

Full Tilt really did a great job in taking care of the Bracelet Race players and the Pros, providing us with a suite in the Amazon Room to relax at breaks and pick up some drinks and snacks.

"AlCantHang" also wrote a nice article on my run at: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/bloggers-on-the-rail/2009-world-series-poker-throwing-perfect-game"

Rubbing Elbows with the Sox... Kind of

While on the constant quest to spread the word about No R Lifestyle this past weekend, I was presented with an excellent opportunity to get some Hub of Champions Shirts to some well known guys in the Boston area – Mike Lowell and Jason Bay. While neither of these two men are from New England nor speak with the Boston accent, they are prominent Boston figures, who now reside in beantown, and more importantly, a lot of adoring fans want to wear what they wear. There was a baseball card show in Wilmington all weekend, and Red Sox players, both past and current were there signing autographs for the steep rate of $99 a piece (except for Youkilis who was $129, but we’ll get to him). While Lowell was adding his signature to a bat of all-time Sox ranging from Jim Lonborg to Andre Dawson, I told him I would like to give him a shirt from an up and coming Boston apparel company. He replied, “Thanks man. That looks great… I love it.” This would have been awesome had he unfolded it, and checked out the Hub of Champions skyline with championship trophies intertwined with Boston skyscrapers, rather than commenting on a black XL tee shirt folded up 4 times in a neat square on the table 3 feet to his right. Despite his generic response, I’m sure on his way back to Fenway, he fell in love with the shirt and has worn it for the past 3 days.

Jason Bay’s response was a lot more encouraging. After delivering an outstanding introduction of No R Lifestyle and letting him know I’d like to welcome him to town by giving him this wonderful piece of Boston Apparel, he sat back, unfolded the shirt, took a good look at both front and back, and gave a nice little chuckle while thanking me, adding that he would “see if I can get it on TV for you.” After leaving the Bay encounter satisfied, I spotted Youk’s shiny bald head walking into the room. When the hundreds of others in the room saw the All-Star first baseman taking his seat at the front of the autograph line they began letting out the familiar yoouuuuuuuks that are heard every time he steps to the plate. He did not wave, smile, look around the room, or speak to anyone; he just sat and grabbed a sharpie and prepared to write his name a few hundred times. Maybe he was having a bad day, he might have been tired, hungry, sore, and annoyed, but he definitely looked like he did not want to be there. Now I don’t want to paint Youkilis in a bad light, because he is a really great ball player, and just as good of a person. He and his charity do endless work for kids in need, but I have always heard some interesting stories about odd encounters in which Youk acted more like the angry Shrek than the lovable ogre enjoyed by millions.

This is one of those stories... After posing stonefaced for a picture with a 4 year old girl, Youkilis took from me an oversized picture of the 2004 World Series celebratory dog pile. Now I’m sure he’s signed tens if not hundreds of thousands of these pictures in the last few years, and he may be annoyed with them by now. Perhaps he was perplexed by the fact that I was a 24 year old man asking for his autograph—a valid point brought up by my buddy. Whatever the reason, our conversation was this. Thanks a lot Kevin… Yup. Keep up the good work this year… Yup. Good luck tonight… Yup. And that was it, I walked away without even attempting to give him a shirt. On a positive note, he signed a great clean autograph on a good spot on the photo. Bottom line is if you can hit major league pitching like that, you can act however you want, and the people of Boston will still love you.

All in all, it was a successful day for me and No R Lifestyle, getting shirts to Lowell and Bay, and it was pretty cool to have a conversation, albeit brief, with each of these Red Sox stars.

The 2007 New England Patriots: 35 Seconds From Perfection

I'm the youngest of three boys.

Known as the "baby Jesus," a term coined by my brothers, they always assumed I was the favorite due to the unusually large portions of presents found underneath the Christmas tree every year. It's been a funny joke for every Christmas however, there is no way my parents played favorites.

How can you choose a favorite son?

Well, that's how I feel about picking my favorite New England Patriots' team. 

The 2001 bunch changed my life, shocking the Rams for my first ever Boston championship, which was—without a doubt—the most exciting moment as a sports fan. 

The 2003 team was equally exciting because it proved it wasn't a fluke in winning another Super Bowl, and it showed the type of dominance associated with the late 90's Yankees or Jordan's Bulls.

The 2004 Pats cemented the status of "Best Team of the Decade" and this was the first time I went into a season absolutely knowing my team would be the last one standing...and they were.

Over the course of those seasons, my whole outlook as a Boston sports fan turned from hoping my team would make the playoffs to expecting greatness.

Unfortunately, the next two years ended in absurdly frustrating fashion, with a playoff loss to Denver where Ben Watson knocked the ball out of Champ Bailey's hands through the end zone for a touchback. And the following year to Indy—Troy Brown's missed third down conversion still haunts my dreams.

Then came my all-time favorite team—the 2007 New England Patriots.

It would seem to go against all conventional wisdom to pick a team that dominated every game except the only one that really mattered, but this was the best team I have ever seen in any sport.

My favorite season? 2001 and there's not even a close second.

But when it comes to teams, I don't think I will ever see a team as dominant as the 18-1 Patriots.

They were a Super Bowl caliber team before this season. Then they decided to add Randy Moss and Wes Welker, giving Tom Brady his first weapons of mass destruction. Everyone in the league knew this was going to be a team to be reckoned with, but nobody realized just how dominant they were going to be.

The first game of the season against the New York Jets was the catalyst for the play of Belichick's squad, as they went on to win by 24 points. They were accused of taping signals illegally which caused a firestorm of anti-New England sentiment.

You may know it as "Spygate," a term which means next to nothing to me, but seems to be the be-all-end-all for everyone else—the justification for our dominance to those who think the Pats were average without those tapes. 

For a team that has never needed bulletin board material, this incident sparked a fire under an already unbelievable team. From this point on, they went into each game with absolute resolve to leave no doubt.

Through the first eight games, they never scored less than 34 points and their closest contest was a victory by 17 over the Cleveland Browns.

In that stretch, they beat the supposedly vaunted Cowboys by 21, the Redskins by 45, and at no point were ever even close to challenged in an NFL that supposedly had more parity than any other professional league.

Whispers of a perfect season began to permeate throughout the NFL, especially after a closely fought win over Indianapolis, kicking off the second half of the season with their toughest opponent and first tough game. They were tested multiple times down the stretch, with three wins over the Eagles, Ravens and Giants that most likely should have been losses—yet they continued to get it done when it mattered.

By season's end, Tom Brady had put together the best season by any QB in NFL history. Throwing for 4,806 yards with a record 50 TD passes and an anemic eight interceptions. His rating was 117.2, and for those who doubted his ability to compete with Peyton Manning regarding stats ate a nice helping of humble pie.

Randy Moss lived up to the billing, with 98 catches for 1,493 yards and a league record 23 TD catches.

Wes Welker, a seemingly discarded member of the Dolphins, caught 112 passes for 1,175 yards and 8 TD's, making him one of the most productive slot receivers in history. 

The bottom line is that the Patriots didn't just go undefeated, they annihilated the competition unlike any team before them.

Their achievements had been questioned and neigh-sayers across the country wanted an asterisk next to their championships due to the ridiculously overplayed Spygate saga, and what do they do? Go 16-0.

That is why they are my favorite team of all time.

Unfortunately for me, this story has a tragically painful ending, as the Patriots ended up losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl. They had a perfect season until 35 seconds remained, but that's all it took to topple what would have been the greatest season by any team in NFL history.

Their season of winning by large margins was eventually the thing that probably did them in. They relied too heavily on their offense and ability to put up inordinate amounts of points, and moved away from stalwart defense and ball control.

The Giants put a ton pressure on Brady and, when they couldn't adjust, it turned into a dogfight that either team could win. If the Patriots played the G-men 10 times, I'd guess they would have won eight of the games, but that and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee.

People will disagree with me, and that's fine, but this was the best team ever to play in the NFL.

They don't have the hardware to show for it, which is what matters, but it doesn't change my feelings. They came as close to true perfection as a team can come before falling short.

This was my favorite group of Patriots...that is, of course, unless they go 19-0 in 2009.