DHL Dan CCL - Titletown?

Remember when Boston sports teams were winning all those titles and going deep into the playoffs? Shank sure does:

We’re used to titles, and let’s face it, right now the Celtics are all we’ve got, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while thinking hard about the Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, and Bruins . . .

⋅ When all four of our main professional sports teams are good, this can be the best time of the year. Remember those April/May/June springs when the Celtics and Bruins were deep into the playoffs, the star-studded, big-market Red Sox were jousting with the Evil Empire, and the Tom Brady Patriots were reloading at draft time, bound for yet another AFC Championship showdown with the Colts, Steelers or Ravens?

We lived so well so long.

The New England sports world is very different now.

The once-stable Patriots are coming off back-to-back four-win seasons, working with their third coach in three years, and selected Will Campbell, an offensive tackle (whee!), with the No. 4 pick in the draft Thursday night. The Bruins just failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016, and this fall will have their fifth head coach since 2017 (unless interim coach Joe Sacco is retained). The Red Sox have been a .500 team and finished last three times in five seasons since trading Mookie Betts in 2020, and they go into this weekend one game over .500.

DHL Dan CCXLIX - It Don't Come Easy

In thi week's Picked up Pieces column, Shank weighs in on the 2024 - 2025 Boston Celtics and their chances of repeat championships:

Since the dynasty of the ’60s many Celtics teams have failed to repeat, so this won’t be easy, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if DOGE recruited its staffers from Driveline …

Your 2024-25 Boston Celtics are hoping to win back-to-back NBA championships.

Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale never did it. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen couldn’t do it. Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White couldn’t get it done, either.

No. The only Celtics teams to win consecutive championships were the Bill Russell-led teams of the 1960s.

And they did it a lot.

Put it this way: When I walked into first grade at Groton Elementary School in September 1959, the Boston Celtics were defending NBA champs.

Bailing Out Early

The 2025 Boston Red Sox are off to a rough start of the season. Here's Shank taking a dump on them:

Recovery helps, but I was expecting so much more from these Red Sox, and they’ve been frustratingly bad so far

Feeling any better about these Red Sox?

After beating the Rays, 1-0, Wednesday night, the Sox come home this weekend to play the White Sox four times. As bad as they’ve been (losses of 11-1 and 16-1 since Friday), your Red Sox could be in first place by the time the Marathon starts Monday morning.

I had faith in them this year. After ripping the Sox for five seasons, I took the cheese. Spent nine days in Fort Myers, Fla., madly applauded the Alex Bregman signing, felt good about ownership getting back in the winning business, and picked these goofy guys to finish in first place in the American League East.

After five years of abject neglect, I was convinced that Boston’s absentee owners were back in the hard-chargin’, Lucchino-driven, contest-living that was the trademark of the first decade of John Henry and the vaunted Fenway Sports Group.

DHL Dan CCXLVIII - Joined At The Hip

That would be Shank and former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, and their apprarent shared disdain for Patriots owner Robert Kraft:

Bill Belichick shows no love for Patriots owner Robert Kraft in new book, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if anybody else is worried about Jaylen Brown’s knee . . .

⋅ Bill Belichick’s new book, “The Art of Winning,” arrived in the mail this past week and I could not wait to pore through it.

Imagine. Two hundred and eighty-nine pages of Bill telling us about the secret sauce of 24 seasons at the helm in Foxborough. I couldn’t wait to read what he really thinks of Bob Kraft and how he’d explain Malcolm Butler not playing in the February 2018 Super Bowl against the Eagles in Minneapolis.

Sorry, it’s not in there.

As an author of many books, I’d estimate this one’s about 80,000 words.

Two words not in the book: Robert Kraft.

OK, this is somewhat predictable, I guess. The obvious snub is yet another demonstration that things often end badly here on the Boston sports scene.

That's right, and sometimes Shank helps out to make that happen.

DHL Dan CCXLVII - Break Out The Bell Bottoms

That's right, folks - let's take a trip back to the disco era!

Red Sox turning back time to the memorable 1975 season and the best World Series ever, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while thinking about the magical Red Sox summer of 1975 …

It forever ranks with the most unforgettable seasons in New England sports lore, sculpting memories that still reside in the minds of Boston baseball’s greatest generation.

Aging Boomers who prayed at the altar of Ted, celebrated the Impossible Dream, and made it to the Promised Land in 2004, have fond recollections of the summer of ‘75 and the greatest World Series ever played.

Early Friday afternoon, before the Red Sox’ 13-9 win over the Cardinals, those gods of ’75 gathered at Fenway for the Red Sox home opener. It was a day to celebrate the Man We Call Yaz, Dewey, Rico, Gold Dust Twins Jim Rice and Freddie Lynn, Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk, and the late, great Luis Tiant, who controlled Sox Nation’s hearts and tears all those years ago.

Back in the day, they wore two-toned, red-and-blue caps and won 95 regular-season games. They swept the three-time defending Series champion A’s in the ALCS, then took the 108-win, Big Red Machine to a seventh game in a Series that temporarily rescued baseball. In a hot Boston summer pepped with busing-stoked racial tension, the colorful and talented Sox gave us daily thrills and a common cause.

Check out the picture - jerry Remy with the porn moustache!

Assume The Position

With the first serious losing streak for the 2025 Boston Red Sox, you can count on Shank to write a column about it:

After just one series, Red Sox find themselves in a familiar position

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Red Sox are in sole possession of last place in the American League East.

Imagine.

After the legit full-throttle winter which saw newly-urgent ownership open the vault and Craig Bres-Lowball trading prospects and handing out one-year contracts like candy . . . after the earth-shattering acquisition of veteran leader/winner/Fenway wrecking ball Alex Bregman . . . after newfound love from pundits across Baseball America (some see the Red Sox playing in the 2025 World Series!) . . . the Sox are back where they’ve lived for much of the post-Mookie era:

Sole possession of last place in the American League East.

Admittedly, this is knee-jerk nonsense, wild hyperbole, and social-media-level overreaction.

Exactly what Shank has made a career out of doing.