It wouldn’t be the Fourth of July without something Steinbrenner related. As you know, today is George’s birthday and I hope Papa Stein is coherent and happy despite his team’s 9-0 shellacking at the hands of the Sox last night.

Well, thanks to Hank, we’ve got another Hank-ism to throw into the mix on this holiday. From yesterday’s Post.

“Maybe a little less outside distractions, and a little more concentrating, and they’ll start hitting better. I thought they would go on a consistent tear, and it hasn’t happened yet.”

As much as you might want to, I don’t think it’s time to panic in regards to the Red Sox just yet. Sure the bullpen is in dire need of a kick in the butt, especially Okijima, and they lost five in a row on the road, and were swept by the Rays, and are now 3 1/2 games back. Did we get it all?

It’s only July 3. David Ortiz hasn’t played in about a month. Last time I checked he was the most feared hitter in that lineup, and they definitely miss him. But, they’re a much better team at home and I think they’ll turn things around at Fenway.

It’s funny, I was finally able to start spending time with the Red Sox again, and look what happens. Hasn’t really endeared the team to me, but I’m going to chill and wait. They’ll be fine. Getting back home is just what this team needs.

And, even though it goes against everything we know to be true, at least in the past, the Rays are good, maybe very good.

Not only can Tampa boast of Bubba The Love Sponge, Hulk Hogan and a one-time Super Bowl title. The Rays are worth crowing about right now. They’ve got some fantastic pitching and very good young position players.

At the end of the year, I still think the Sox are a better overall team and will win the division. The Rays are young, and they probably won’t be able to hold up over the long haul. But, maybe they’re just young enough to not know that. We shall see, but it will be interesting to see the Sox and Yankees have another team to battle for the next three months, other than just one another.

*****

Other stuff

Saw Pearl Jam at the Great ComTweet Center Saturday and Monday night. If you’ve never seen them live, and you appreciate rock n’ roll, you really need to go the next time they’re around. Obviously I’m biased, because they’re my favorite band, but they put on some of the best concerts you could ever ask to see.

What I loved was that they just know how to ride the line between placating the diehards and the casual fans. Sure they played some of the stuff that you’d expect to see at a Pearl Jam show. The repeated nine songs over the two nights: Alive, Once, Betterman, Elderly Woman …, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Do The Evolution and Why Go. I could have done without two or three of those the second night, but if you’ve never seen them before you want to see certain songs.

What’s cool is that they break out stuff that the diehards want to hear, that they don’t usually. Songs like Who You Are, Education and Bee Girl I’d never seen performed before, but I got all three of those the second night.

And they play with an energy unrivaled by most acts that are out there. They may be closing in on middle age, if they’re not already there, but they’re playing with the vigor of 20-somethings.

My buddy Ando and I had a half-hour conversation about how it’s the experienced bands that are the ones worth seeing these days. He’s a big Bruce Springsteen fan, and he’s seen The Boss a couple of times the last few months, and all of the things I love of Pearl Jam is what he echoed about Bruce. Certain acts understand their fan bases and know how to make them happy. Heck if you’re going to charge $75 for a ticket, you’d better make it worth it.

There aren’t many other bands I’d spend serious dough to see. U2 for sure. Maybe REM and the Foo Fighters. I’d like to see Coldplay once, although I still find most of their stuff too whiny, but Viva La Vida is pretty good.

****

Took Jellybean to see Wall*E the other day. If you’re looking for something to take a kid to, this is the movie. Heck if you just want to see a fun story, that’s wholesome and fun, this is perfect.

I really believe that this movie is going to win some awards, and not just animation ones. Pixar nailed it, this might be the best offering they’ve ever produced.

Wall*E is a story of a robot left behind on Earth to clean up the mess left behind after nuclear fallout, of course they never say there was a war or anything, but the adults can figure that part out easily. A small part of humanity, apparently just Americans, got on a spaceship and floated around space for like 700 years.

Eva is a robot sent back to Earth to search for signs of plant life. She finds that, and also a friend in Wall*E.

What follows is a story about two “people” that fall in love, but sacrifice for the greater good. There are also sub-plots that center around “Green” issues and also people’s over-dependence upon technology.

The messages aren’t too heavy-handed, but they’re certainly there. But they hardly overpower what is excellent story telling, great cinematography and, most importantly, fun. I really loved Wall*E.

As many of you know, I am a movie fan, especially sci-fi and action, you know, guy stuff. So it comes as no surprise that above all other movies I’m looking forward to Batman: The Dark Knight. That’s the one this summer that I’ve been pinning my hopes on being the best flick of the summer, and it’s still a few weeks away and we’ve got reviews started to come in and they’re doing nothing to make me any less pumped up.

You’ll remember way back when in the late 80s when they first launched Batman, with Michael Keaton as Bruce/Bats, it was Jack Nicholson that everyone talked about. His over-the-top antics at The Joker had the world raving. Basically, though, if you look back, it was Jack playing Jack with a purple suit and green hair. Nearly 20 years later, you watch that movie and it’s a bit under-whelming. It’s not bad, but it isn’t the be all to end all. It’s campy and fun, sort of like the old TV show. It holds up okay, but it doesn’t compare to Batman Begins.

But now we’ve got TDK to look forward to, and apparently Heath Ledger steals the show in his final big movie appearance. Check out this story and you’ll see why I’m so pumped up. Apparently Heath owns The Joker. It’ll be interesting to hear what Nicholson has to say.

That’s it for today. Be back tomorrow, probably with a little Pearl Jam review.

Eagle One loves to chide me and say “you’re the best poker player on Cape Cod” or “wow, you moved up to No.1 in the Cape poker rankings.”

He knows I take my game seriously and enjoy it. He also hates the fact that he taught me how to play and the student has surpassed the teacher. No longer the learner, now I am the master (sorry, but when else am I ever going to get to use a good D Darth Vader line? It’s not like I named my son Luke).

Thursday night was one that i had looked forward to with great anticipation for some time, the Dino’s Poker League Main Event. For those of you that don’t know, the local sports bar runs a league on Monday and Thursday night. It’s a $10 buy-in and it pays the top three finishers. The top two also earn seats into the main event. Over the last couple of months the top-ranked player on Cape Cod had won four seats into the ME, it’s just too bad you can only use one of them.

So Thursday came and both myself and Donny Camera headed over to play in the big game. We’re both what I call TAG (tight-aggressive). That’s my style all the time, and that’s what he forces himself to be, even though it’s against his nature. He likes to say “I swear, I’m playing Maclone style tonight.”

Well Maclone style wasn’t working for the first hour of the big game. I played all of two pots through the first hour and a half and saw my stack dwindle from 3,400 to 2,200, it was getting ugly. Finally I told myself that I had to make something happen or just go home. I didn’t want to simply get blinded off.

I noticed that the guy that would be sitting in the big blind on the next hand was someone I respect as a player a great deal, someone who’s game I know, and someone that knows I don’t play rags at all. With all of that knowledge I forced myself to shove all-in with any two cards that I got if it folded to me, knowing that Mike was not calling without a monster hand.

So it folded to me and I look down at Q5 offsuit and decide to employ my gambit.

Bad decision, he woke up with pocket queens. To give you an idea of how bad of shape I was in, the poker math says that I will win that hand once in about every 19 hands.

It was that one time, and did I luck out. Flop brought a five, then the turn card was a five. Mike looked at me like I had defiled his sister. I explained my thinking of knowing that he’s need to have a monster to call me, blah blah blah, but he didn’t care. I had just put a monumental bad beat on him in the biggest game of the year.

And it propelled me. I ended up finishing third overall for a nice score of money and bragging rights. I’d love to talk about the final table, but doing that could have bad ramifications. Let’s just say it got spirited, heated and scary at times, to a point where they had to move us away from the crowd. It was like a modern-day wild west game, and yes I did think that at some point someone might eat a six-shooter.

Shaquille O’Neal is one funny dude. First of all, we know he’s got personality, but he loves to give interviews in that flat, monotone voice that has less delivery than an in-car GPS. In fact, if his voice was the GPS voice people would never get where they were going because they’d tune him out pretty quickly.

But the guy actually is full of humor. And, he’s got a vendetta against everyone’s favorite fake family-obsessed superstar, and his former teammate, Kobe Bryant.

All you have to do is visit either TMZ.com or youtube and do a little searching and you’ll find the freestyle rap that Shaq did at a concert this past week. I’d link to it directly, but the bosses like family content, and some of the language is a little strong. But, it’s worth watching just for the chorus “Kobe, tell me how my a** taste.”

Also, look for disses on Pat Ewing and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in that rap too, which got a lot less press, but are still funny. And, you’ve got to love the over-sized ‘BIG’ chain that Shaq busted out for the show.

The chances of seeing Shaq show up at the concerts I’m going to this weekend are very slight. I’ve got Pearl Jam tickets to the two shows they’re playing at GreaTweetCast Center Saturday and Monday. But, I have seen Theo Epstein go up on stage and play guitar on Rockin’ In The Free World. Personally I’m hoping that we’ll get a Peter Gammons jam, which would be great. I’m sure we’ll get a few Larry Bird and Celtics references as well. I’m chomping at the bit for these concerts to get here. I’ve actually lost count as to how many times I’ve seen Pearl Jam, but I think these are either shows 14 and 15 or 15 and 16.

It’s Saturday night and we’re officially old, doing nothing and not caring. I’m wasting time on the computer and Lyra is watching a move in which English people argue in their annoying English voices. I’d like to force her to turn the table, but then we might argue in annoying New England voices.

Anyways, thought you might enjoy this video of KG and Pierce still in the afterglow of winning it all. “I realized something, we live in Titletown.”

Tiger Woods is something special, not that you need me to tell you that. Watching the man play golf is a treat, and I for one am going to miss him over the rest of the calendar year.

There’s only so much hyperbole that you can use before it gets lost and worn out on the masses. The dude is tougher than any other golfer in the world, that’s for sure. Eagle One and I were talking about his feat, capturing the US Open title despite two stress fractures in his tibia and having a blown ACL. Most people simply couldn’t walk through that pain. Tiger Woods, by our estimates, walked somewhere around 30-35 miles during that week of golf. He played 91 holes of championship golf, and kept making clutch putts and shots, even though just to line up over the ball had to make him grimace.

There’s really nothing else to compare it to. True a basketball player, or baseball or football or hockey player, simply couldn’t perform their sports with those injuries. It would be career-threatening. I don’t know if Tiger could have hurt himself considerably more than he was already banged up, but it sure wasn’t career-enhancing to tough it out for the week. Well, maybe in terms of money, fame (like he could gain more of that at this juncture), and championships, but not longevity and quality of life.

Eldrick Woods is without a doubt the definition of what it means to be a champion. The guy carries himself with class, and delivers time and time again. I heard people were betting against him to make that putt on 18 at the end of Sunday’s round. Did you really think he would? Maybe at some point he’s due to blow up and not come through, but I don’t know when. Even hurt like he was, he’s the best golfer in the world.

I’ve heard other people say that rooting for Tiger is like rooting for the house in Vegas, or the Yankees, or OPEC. I don’t think so at all. Rooting for Tiger Woods is rooting to see something special. We watch him because he can make shake our heads in disbelief. We watch him because we want to see him stand over that impossible putt and rattle in off of the back of the cup and then pump his fists with authority. There is a joy in watching the best in the world. I used to love to watch Pedro pitch in the late 90s. I loved watching Larry Bird shoot jumpers, or Michael Jordan drive to the basket. I imagine it was the same watching Jimi Hendrix play guitar, or Bobby Orr skate in the free, or Stu Ungar dominate a card table.

Certain people are given gifts in life that others can’t contemplate. Instead of being jealous of those gifts, we should sit back and enjoy what we’re seeing, because eventually it all has to end. Sure someone else will come along to create in unfathomable ways, but it’s never quite the same.

They have their gifts to perform. Our gift is being able to watch and enjoy.

So, yeah, I’m going to miss watching Tiger for the next couple of months.

When you’re 12 years old and your team always seems to be in The Finals, you just expect that they’ll keep that up. You don’t know any better. ‘Oh, the Celtics won again, that’s great.’ Ho Hum.

But then as you get older the team you always expected to be at the top of the mountain can’t seem to even make it halfway up anymore. At first it’s no big deal, but then after a while you start to have those thoughts. ‘Will we ever see them win again? Are they just as cursed as the Red Sox?’

To appreciate what the Celtics accomplished last night you have to know where they were, and understand and appreciate it. Len Bias’ overdose started it all. Then The Big 3 v1.0 began to break down. Then Reggie Lewis died. Then the losing really started. For a while they were still able to get close, but then they were a middle of the pack team, and then they were a lower tier team.

Then there was last year. Oh goodness, last year couldn’t have been any worse. Every night it seemed like they’d lose by more and more. And the feelings of when you were younger were the direct inverse. Instead of seeing them win all the time, all they did was lose. Apathy nearly set in. People didn’t wonder if they’d win again, they started to wonder if they’d be relevant around these parts again.

Oh they’re beyond relevant. They’re the 2008 NBA Champions.

Let’s put aside the 2004 Red Sox. For many of us nothing will ever top that run to a title. It was on a whole other level. It was downright cathartic. It was special. It was cleansing.

But this was so much fun. I can’t remember the last time that I’ve had so much fun watching a team play, in any sport. This playoff run was joyous. Sure the first two rounds were closer than they could have been, but they were great games and fun to watch. Remember Game 7 against LeBron and the Cavs. Remember Game 7 against Atlanta. How about the Detroit series. The whole run to The Finals was a non-stop nail-biting joy to be a part of. You looked forward to each game’s tip-off, and hated how long they had between games just because you wanted to see them play again.

When they got to The Finals so many ‘experts’ picked LA to win it all. They said that the Celtics couldn’t handle the Lakers quickness. They couldn’t stop the Black Mamba.

But this team was more about what they could do. First and foremost, they played defense at a level that LA simply couldn’t handle. Sure Kobe had some nice games, but how many times did he miss jumpers that he usually makes. He wasn’t missing them because he suddenly forgot how to shoot. He was missing them because the Celtics made him shoot further from the hoop than he wanted to, with a hand in his face at all times. He couldn’t get the separation that he likes to get that shot off. And, the Celtics owned the glass. In the first half of Game 7, the Lakers had ZERO offensive boards. No second chance points.

This Celtics team is just tougher than the Lakers, and it really comes down to that. They played with much more passion. They dove for every loose ball. They fought for every rebound. KG said “the defense is our backbone” during his post-game interview, and he’s right. They did everything off of that defensive and rebounding edge.

Now they’re champions. Who’d have thunk it? And, they’re the best kind of champions, the kind that did it because of a complete team.

It all starts with Paul Pierce, the MVP. Before the other Big 2 arrived, this was his team, but so what. Do you want ownership of something that stinks? When the help arrived, he became The Man. KG and Ray Ray didn’t exactly defer to him, but he was still Mr. Celtic, and he cemented himself as a guy worthy of having his jersey number retired in those rafters with his performance in The Finals. He wasn’t the MVP of Game 6 (that was Rajon Rondo in my opinion), but he was unreal throughout the entire playoffs.

It wasn’t so long ago, in this space, that I was wondering what the heck was wrong with Ray Allen. Jesus Shuttlesworth couldn’t hit the side of a building with a basketball for a two-week stretch, let alone put it in the basket. But in Detroit he got hot, and they wouldn’t have done it without him.

KG didn’t really explode until Game 6, but he was solid throughout as well. I type this while wearing my No. 5 T-shirt jersey. I’ve always loved his passion, which at times might have kept him from playing his best because he tries almost too hard. But, there’s no way that they win without him. He changed the culture in Boston. He’s the reason that defense became cool at the Gahden. He’s the emotional engine that made this team run. And, he turned in the moment that we’ll remember most of this clincher when he shook off a hard foul by Lamar Odom and banked in a shot one-handed shot while horizontal to the floor. That highlighted the 23-point halftime lead. And from there, it was just a coronation.

It’s been a long time since we got to see the C’s win a title. I know you’ve got your friends that are excited about it, and so do I. Caddyshack Aaron, first and foremost, is beside himself. This is his team. He bleeds green and tonight I’m sure that tears were present at his place. Eagle One, Easy Elias, Scotty Doesn’t Know, Dave Fone, and the list goes on and on and on of my buddies that are dancing a Papelbon-like jig right now.

That’s all for now. We’ve got a parade to get ready for.

Tonight I think we’ll be seeing them earn their 17th one of these. Go Green …

Hank Steinbrenner is more and more like the old man every day. When I heard that he went off about the National League’s rules I first wondered when the last time it was that we had an edition of Hankisms. Wouldn’t you know it, very close to one month exactly. So Jr. is pretty ticked off about the NL rules, and we’ll let him explain like only he can.

“My only message is simple. The National League needs to join the 21st century. They need to grow up and join the 21st century.”

“I’ve got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He’s going to be out. I don’t like that, and it’s about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s.”