Celtics, Champs, Chills, and More

Here are some thoughts that are rattling around my head this afternoon.
Kevin Garnett is officially back. He might have missed nine games with an injured abdomen but last night against the Detroit Pistons one could hardly tell he had ever missed a beat. Garnett’s intensity is so great that it has the ability to have an early March regular season game seem as though it is a playoff game seven. No matter what Al Jefferson ends up being as a basketball player it will be hard to argue with Ainge’s trade simply based on the life that has returned to Celtics games as a result of Garnett’s presence.

Steve Phillips of ESPN brought up the amazing fact in Thursday’s broadcast of the Red Sox spring training game against the Dodgers that 23 players out of the 25 players from the Red Sox 2007 roster are still around going into 2008 spring training. That is a 92% pretension rate. In the free agent era, I can’t remember when a championship team went into the next season with so many hold-overs.

The contrast of the 2007 retention rate was even more illuminated by the fact that the Dodgers starter Thursday was former Sox hurler Derrick Lowe. With the mass exodus of 2004 that was led by Pedro Martinez and Lowe it is hard to believe that the Red Sox are still under essentially the same exact ownership and management.

During the same ESPN broadcast the fact was brought up that every Red Sox home spring training game since 2003 has been sold out. Every game has been sold out at Fenway Park during this same exact time. It is hard to imagine this streak coming to an end any time soon.

And now for the creepy portion of this post--MSNBC had a special last night entitled “The Mind of Manson” chronicling the the life and times of Charles Manson. The program relied heavily on a 1987 Today Show broadcast which featured an interview with Manson and analysis from a former F.B.I. crime profiler. I have to admit that watching this interview was one of the most chilling, yet gripping, things I’ve watched in a while. People the likes of Manson often seem inhuman and beyond comprehension and while the program did nothing to completely remove this about Manson—it was fascinating to hear the psychological analysis of the interview that was provided throughout the program.

If anyone is looking for something to do this weekend they might want to look into the Harpoon Brewery’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration. The cover of $15 is a bit steep but it does include a free pint glass and hours of music. For anyone busy the actual St. Patrick’s Day weekend it might be a nice alternative.

One week until I leave for Florida and Red Sox Spring Training!