As I sit down to write this, it’s been exactly a week since terrorists detonated two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. As somebody who’s been writing a Boston sports blog for a long time now, I felt compelled to weigh in with my take on this story. Given the sensitive nature of the subject matter, I decided to wait a little while before publishing my thoughts – I didn’t want to write anything overly political or have my fresh-from-the-gut emotions spill onto the page without careful consideration.

In lieu of all the events of this past week, I’m happy I waited. Suspect #2, whose name is not worth printing, was finally captured – everyone could not be more relieved about that. While the investigation is ongoing, for the residents of Boston and the neighboring communities, there’s no doubt a chapter of sorts was closed when Suspect #2 was pulled from the boat without harming anyone further.

As far as my own experience last week goes, I took Marathon Monday off from work to head down to the race (something I’ve done each of the last three years). When the attacks occurred I was at Rattlesnake Bar and Grill, which is on Boylston street a few hundred yards from where the bombs went off. I had walked directly through the corridor where the bombs exploded just an hour or so prior. I was in the bathroom when the explosions actually occurred, and I did not hear them. We were asked to stay at the bar, so despite my proximity to the attack I did not see the carnage or aftermath that everyone watching on TV saw. The sounds of ambulance sirens and helicopter traffic soon washed over me, but for someone who was so close I could not have been farther away. Eventually we were led through the kitchen and out the back entrance of the bar, and were told to get out of the area promptly. With public transportation shut down I walked to Boston Common and eventually found a cab home.

That wasn’t the end of my close (only in proximity) encounters with this event. On Thursday night I was riding the subway (we call it the “T” here in Boston) home when we paused for a bit at Kendall Station, which sits directly below MIT. I was sitting underground, with just a few stories of concrete separating me from the terrorists as they killed the MIT officer who was responding to the scene. As we now know, the terrorists would eventually take off from the area, leading police on wild chase while engaging them in a firefight and hurling explosives out the window. Again, I had no idea of the mayhem happening in my immediate vicinity when it was occurring.

On Friday, work was canceled and I spent the day, like everybody else, largely locked inside watching the news as law enforcement officials worked furiously to capture Suspect #2.

There’s no doubt that last week was the craziest week I’ve has while a resident of Boston. Following Suspect #2′s capture on Friday evening, the atmosphere in the bars throughout Boston resembled a championship celebration for one of the city’s sports teams. Chants of “USA, USA!” lingered throughout the night. But as I walked a couple of blocks home that night, down very safe streets, I couldn’t help but notice that something felt different. The streets that have long been so familiar to me, part of my everyday routine, just didn’t feel as safe as they once had.

It seems clear to me that the older brother became a follower of radical Islamic beliefs in the past few years while living in the US. I hate to speculate, but I’d be shocked if his trip home in late 2012 didn’t include some sort of meeting or training with other followers of similar beliefs. He then imposed his views and will on his younger brother, who it sounds like was a much more “normal” kid of just 17 or 18 at the time. When you’re that age a 26-year-old brother’s influence, I imagine, can be quite substantial.

Whatever the beliefs are that led to this attack, and whether you believe them or not, the attack was cowardly. I don’t care if you pray to Allah or your pet rock, killing innocent bystanders is never admirable in the eyes of any person, group, or entity capable of rational thought. But I do think that American’s need to be  less naive with regards to where this anger may all stem from. There are countless countries, sects, and groups of people who lived much more suppressed lives with much less freedom than we are afforded in the US.

The US military is engaged in countless countries throughout the world at this very moment. Whether we’re there to take down the Taliban, stop genocide, or play peacemaker in some capacity – really regardless of why we’re there – to the people of those countries not directly involved in the conflict our presence can be terrifying. They are looking outside their windows and seeing army men with automatic weapons walking by. When we miss a strategic target (and we do) we are killing innocent bystanders. While we can (and do) rationalize our involvement, the reality is that we’ve often brought terror to innocent people in those areas. It’s not “terrorism,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not terrifying. And while Boston got a taste of what that feels like this past week, there are places throughout the world that deal with similar (and much worse) incidents on a nearly daily basis.

There’s no doubt that Boston’s reaction to this tragedy was incredibly heroic, coordinated, and impressive. Barack Obama, Jon Daily, and Steven Colbert all shared some pretty spectacular sentiments about Boston this past week, sentiments that definitely were heard and appreciated by the city’s residents. Trust me everyone – I’m already starting to get annoyed with the “Boston Strong!” slogan just as you are. And yes, I think that the residents of any major US city would have responded just as heroically as the people of Boston did.

All of that said, there is something unique about this city and its residents. You all know our city’s loyalty to our sports teams, and we have been something of a different bread from the get-go. We did up and move to this place (America) in the first place. We did throw a bunch of English tea into our Harbor, and we did fight the American Revolution. It certainly has something to do with the size of this city, but there’s just a sense of community in Boston that I’ve never found in another city and know that I never will.

I’m leaving Boston to move to San Diego in a month, and it didn’t hit me how much I’ll miss this place until very recently. All the things that have long pissed me off about Boston I’m now looking at with a sense of nostalgia. And all of the great aspects of the city remain. I’ll always be happy to return.

So a note to all those TITs out there (terrorists in training) – “this is our fucking city” – David Ortiz said it best. And if you fuck with us, then you’re fucking with all of us. That goes for Boston, that goes for America, and that should go for everybody who realizes the cowardice of people who turn to terrorism in an attempt to make their own voice or rational heard.

The recent shark attack in Truro, Cape Cod – the first on the Cape since the 1930′s – hit particularly close to home for me. My parents live in Truro, and I’ve been going there each summer for 20+ years at this point. Ballston Beach, where the attack actually occurred, is likely the beach that I’ve spent more time at in my life than any other.

So what contributed to the attack, which was thought to be by a great white shark? First off, far and away, is the influx of seals in the area. When I was young, we’d see seals from the beach from time to time but for the most part it was a rare and exciting event. That’s changed drastically in the past 10 years or so. I’ve been to beaches in Truro on 5-6 occasions this summer and I’ve multiple seals every single time – it’s never taken me more than a minute or two to locate one. I was recently surfing at Head of the Meadow beach, probably a couple of miles at most from Ballston, and as a wave rose up in front of me no fewer than five 400+ pound seals were within 10 or 15 feet of me. That proximity to large sea creatures, shark or not, is still a bit disconcerting when you’re in the water.

The seal population aside, the attack victim was swimming close to a quarter-mile off the beach – that’s pretty damned far out. The day was a bit overcast, and the ocean side of the Cape was particularly seaweedy this past week – all of which suggest that limited visibility could have caused the shark to mistake the victim for its usual prey.

So what’s the lesson to be learned here? Swim when there’s good visibility in the water, stay relatively close to shore, and be aware of your surroundings out there. Also, the victim did note in another interview that he felt the shark release him from its grasp when he was able to kick it with a free leg – if you are ever unfortunate enough to get grabbed, do everything you can to hit the shark any way you can.

You’ve still got an infinitely greater chance of dying in a car accident than even being involved in a shark attack. And let’s give it up for this guy – not only for his savageness in swimming that far back to shore while his leg drained of blood, but for the remarkable attitude he’s shown since.

Consider my fear officially heightened.

So here we go – my one post per year that gets mildly political. I apologize in advance…

Occupy Boston, unfortunately, has become an unavoidable part of my life these past couple of months – only because I work next to Boston’s Federal Reserve building, which lies directly across the street from the movement’s Dewey Square home. During the course of my morning commute I emerge from the subway into the midst of the movement, and frequently need to cross the park on my lunch break excursions. I’ve seen rallies over there, I’ve seen lots of hullah-hooping, and I’ve seen way to many bored looking cops.

This past weekend, Boston Mayor Tom Menino decided to be a boss and throw the movement out of Dewey Square. Thank God. At the very least the camp was a major eye sore, but to me the argument to evict the protesters from the park is much more simple. Sure, everyone has the right to assemble, the right to protest, freedom of speech, etc. All good things. But those rights do not give you the right to squat, permanently, wherever the hell you want. How would you feel if a hobo pitched a tent in your front yard? Or in the park directly across the street from your house? That was always the real issue to me, amidst an array of other issues.

Let’s get one thing straight – I tend to be far from conservative, and I’m not hear to hate on the Occupy movement. I generally agree that banking regulations need to be changed, that the rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer, and that greedy corporations are being bailed out left and right while the general population – say for example, the recent grad struggling to make ends meet with school loan debt up to their eyeballs – receives no such bailout. Those are all issues I agree with, but I think it’s unfortunate that the Occupy movement has operated as it has. It’s been one of the more pitiful and least effective movements that I know of. Doesn’t one of these yahoos have a parent that can teach them something from the March on Washington?

Here’s the unfortunate part in my eyes – I know that there are a few highly knowledgeable, passionate, and motivated protesters at the movement’s epicenter. But in my travels through Dewey Square, these folks were always overshadowed by the crazies, the homeless, and the ranting and raving. The guy in the picture above was something of a ring leader for the movement – I saw him rally his supporters with angry chants directed at the police, I even got a lecture I never asked for on how the entire encampment was so sustainable and progressive. Did you know that they created their own electricity? They even had a library!

Again, I’m not here to mock. But save me the sustainability lecture when you’re producing electricity to heat the tent where the heroin selling goes down (there were multiple drug related arrests in the encampment). Save me the BS about the city not being fair with you, when all along you’ve promised to restore Dewey Square to it’s original pristine condition upon your departure. In the past few days the city has spent close to $60,000 sodding and repairing the park – with dependable old Occupy Boston kicking in a measly $3,000. All of this is not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax-payer money that went towards paying police to sit around in the cold and stare at the park, rotting in their shoes and growing their doughnut-laiden bellies in the process.

I’m all for ideals, and those at the core of the Occupy movement aren’t so bad. But like Tom Brady says, it’s all about execution – and the Occupy Boston movement dropped a touchdown in the end zone.

Just one man’s take.

By Buster Paris, howiGit Boxing Writer, Boston, MA

“All I gotta say is one thing …”

Floyd Mayweather Jr leans forward. He’s talking to HBO’s Max Kellerman and sitting directly across from his next opponent Victor Ortiz.

“…what I always tell them…”

The cocky smirk makes the days thousandth appearance and the Mayweather haters brace themselves for what’s coming next.

“They put 41 in front of me …”

Mayweather leisurely leans back as if surveying his kingdom.

“…and 41 came up short.”

On cue comes that million dollar smile that his fans love and his haters hate. In addition to hating what and how he said it, the haters seethingly despise the truth of what he just said.

This Saturday, September 17, 2011 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada – Floyd “Money” Mayweather (W 41, L 0) will face off against the young and hungry “Vicious” Victor Ortiz (29 W, 2 L & D 2)

This is one of Mayweather’s most interesting fights in a long time. It’s interesting because of who he’s fighting … well, more to the point, there are certain traits that make the fighter he’s mixing it up with intriguing.

Let’s look at the major factors that have boxing fans chatting:

• Ortiz is younger, bigger, stronger and hungrier.
• Mayweather has been out of the ring for almost a year and a half – AND he’s 34 years old.

Benny “Big Dog” Henderson Jr, Senior Writer for BoxingTalk.com and the host of Big Dog Radio, as usual sums it up well:

“You have a younger, much more hungry fighter in Victor Ortiz, but you have a seasoned much more experienced veteran in Floyd Mayweather. Ortiz is the naturally bigger guy as well as a southpaw, with Mayweather fighting the better opposition.”

Benny is spot on. Ortiz is young; he’s only 24 years old (Floyd is 34, which is old in the sport of boxing). Victor is bigger than Floyd, he’s in his physical ass-kicking prime, and he is a tough, hard-hitting fighter.

Also, there’s a theory out there that Floyd struggles against Southpaws.

The Big Dog goes on to say that:

“Mayweather is coming off a layoff, along with all this hoopla surrounding him with his life out of boxing. Ortiz is coming off the biggest win of his career and should have a nothing to lose everything to gain attitude.”

The layoff has everyone speculating. Floyd’s been out of the ring for almost a year and half (since May 2010). He’s 34 years old now, does he still have it? Has he lost a step? And IF Floyd has lost a step can Ortiz be effective where all the others have failed? Will Ortiz be at all successful even against a somewhat diminished Mayweather?

Fellow Bleacher Report contributor James Foley has a fantastic article: Floyd Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz: 10 Bold Predictions – well worth a read. Foley says:

“I do think there’s a way for Ortiz to be effective and successful, however a lot of that hinges on my suspicion that Mayweather may have lost a step. That’s pure speculation of course, but what worries me is that in the last three years he’s only been up against Marquez and Mosley, two older fighters who Floyd could [run] circles around. Being in there against a guy with size, speed, and a powerful punch is going to be a challenge and a great barometer for how much Floyd’s got left. His inactivity makes me leery because fighters tend to grow old overnight.”

It’s that last line “fighters tend to grow old overnight” that has both the Mayweather fans and haters in need of a handkerchief. The haters need it to wipe the drool off their chins and the fans need it to wipe the sweat off their brows.

Is Floyd “aging” as a boxer? In Money-May’s last fight against Mosley (May 2010) we saw him get seriously rocked by Sugar Shane. What if Shane was 24 years old and was physically capable of following up on that almost devastating blow? Would Floyd have hit the canvas?

Ortiz wont miss those opportunities. Vicious Victor is dangerous.

Does the possibility exists that Victor could knock out Floyd?

HBO’s Jim Lampley put things into a sobering perspective:

“In every fight he has had in recent memory, Victor Ortiz has knocked his opponent down.”

Henderson mentioned earlier how Ortiz is coming off the biggest and greatest win of his career. It was a particularly special kind of win for the young warrior. The type of win that puts a fighter in a special mindset and in a special ‘zone’.

Clearly Ortiz is powerful. Clearly Ortiz is hungry and clearly Victor Ortiz is dangerous.

How will this all end?

The Big Dog says:

“I do not root for Mayweather, but you cannot discount his talents, and all though Ortiz is the hungrier of the two, experience can starve the inexperienced. I feel that Mayweather with his defense will keep him out of trouble, and if Ortiz cannot keep his cool and not be too aggressive, Victor could possibly wear down in the later rounds and Floyd could rack up a late round TKO. Not a one hitter quitter, Ortiz has the power, but Floyd has the talent. Mayweather keeps the streak alive, with a UD or late round TKO.”

I’ll take it a step further.

Floyd Mayweather is boxing’s version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He is THE most talented, gifted and blessed boxer fighting today. There is simply no equal to Floyd in his skill, in his discipline, and in his practice of the art and craft of the Sweet Science. There is no one that comes close to him in his natural abilities and in his God-given physical and mental genius in that squared circle.

Here’s how the fight unfolds:

Rounds 1, 2 and 3 we’ll see pretty much what we saw with Mayweather vs. Zab Judah, i.e. we’ll see Floyd somewhat uncomfortable in dealing with a Southpaw and with toughness. We’ll see a bit of what we saw with round 1 and 2 of Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley, which is Floyd dealing with power. We’ll see a new element too of Mayweather dealing with a young, energetic fighter. We’ll see Floyd taking some shots, but all the while studying his prey.

Round 4:

“…what I always tell them…”

Mayweather will shut Victor Ortiz down.

“They put 41 in front of me …”

The rest of the fight will look almost easy. It will look like a grown man toying with a child.  It will look like every single Mayweather victory.

“…and 41 came up short.”

Make that 42.

By Matt Moore, howiGit Contributing Writer, Boston, MA

Last week the reigning English Premier League champion and soccer icon, Manchester United, visited Foxboro for an exhibition match against the New England Revolution. I was in attendance for what was likely my only opportunity to see Manchester United play live. Although some players were absent, and others played sparingly, Manchester displayed its ability to play top class soccer, and further prove just how far American soccer has to go.

I of course did not expect the Revolution to defeat United, despite the Revs being in the middle of their season, and it being United’s first game since losing the Champion’s League final to Barcelona back in May. Add in the fact that the Revolution are a struggling team in the MLS, and it was clear they didn’t stand much of a chance. What I did not expect was United to be so effective, crisp, and display seemingly no sign of rust. That may have been due to the quality of opponent they were facing, but nevertheless they showed how dominant of a team they are from top to bottom. Tied 0-0 at halftime, United ultimately won the friendly 4-1, thanks to a pair of goals from 19 year old Federico Macheda. United’s passing was usually on point, and they moved the ball through the Revolution defense with ease. From the midfield, they were able to play the ball over the top and constantly had chances inside the box. Watching them live, it was amazing to see how well they moved as a team and just how good they truly are. I have seen my fair share of professional soccer games, but nothing compared to seeing a team like Manchester United play. Watching the skill of stars like Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov,and Ryan Giggs was just a small sample of the level of talent the team has.

As someone who has played and followed soccer for most of my life, I was happy to be part of the 51,000+ fans that watched the game from Gillette. I’m well aware of soccer’s popularity, or lack thereof, in this country. Most of my friends give me a hard time about it, and generally don’t care for the game. This is fine with me, and I make no attempt to convert them to soccer fans because I know it is a lost cause; the same way a NASCAR fan would have no hope in turning me on to racing. And I also understand some of the major complaints people have about soccer: the lack of scoring, diving, it’s not a spectator sport, and an apparent lack of excitement. But as we saw with the recent women’s World Cup, America usually gets behind the national teams every few years and even more so when they are successful. However, this has never completely helped soccer turn the corner in the eyes of American sports fans. Soccerwill never compete with any of the major four sports, or even golf and tennis in this country; but I don’t think a league like the MLS is trying to take American fans away from other sports. Rather, they are still doing what they’ve always done: attempting to expose different parts ofthe country to soccer at a (relatively) high level. It then affords fans the opportunity to see a world class team like Manchester United. When you see a team of that skill level play live, it’s hard to say that soccer can’t be a spectator sport.

Seeing the turnout for the United/Revolution game, I realized there are still plenty of passionate soccer fans around; they just need a quality product on the field to rally around. But as United exposed, it will be a likely be a long wait before any MLS team provides that.

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In all of the time I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve never once even dabbled in writing about motor sports of any variety. That said, as I watched Sportscenter this weekend I couldn’t help being impressed by JR Hildebrand’s interview after the rookie driver unnecessarily crashed on the final turn of the Indy 500, thus loosing the race. Hildebrand had the race in the bag when he tried to pass a slower moving car on the outside on the final turn of the race; essentially his crash was completely unprovoked and falls completely on his own shoulders, which has to be tough to swallow. Nonetheless this kid showed a ton of class in his interview immediately following the race – if I owned a racing team or any other sports franchise this is exactly how I would want my driver or player to respond. In an era where so many athletes look act like punks, I think the good guys should be celebrated from time to time. Although I’ll never watch racing, I hope this kid wins a big one soon.

Dan Wheldon eventually won the race, capturing $2.6 million to Hildenbrand’s $1.1 million for second place – adding $1.5 million of salt in a rookie’s already horrific wound.

howiGit.com has landed at long last — sexy ain’t it? The internet may never be the same, and we’re certainly planning on stirring up the Boston sports blog scene (sorry BarTool).

While you can still visit the old site (http://howiGit.wordpress.com), that site will soon be set to automatically redirect you to howiGit.com. If you’ve got the old site saved or bookmarked somewhere, do me a favor and change the bookmark to howiGit.com.

We’ve still got a few kinks to work out on the new site, but readership is growing faster than Joba Chamberlain’s gut — keep tuning in and keep your eyes out for a Philly writer joining the team soon.

-G

That’s right — on March 12, 2010, I wrote my first post introducing howiGit’s blog to the world. I wasn’t completely sure why I was blogging, and I certainly didn’t expect that this is what would become of it.

On that first day, howiGit’s blog had 11 readers — on a recent day past we had 2200+ readers. We’ve had articles reach #1 on Google searches, we’ve had 300+ posts, 3500+ comments, and subscriptions are growing every day. I started out solo and the site has grown to having 6 steadily contributing writers. We’ve certainly come a long way and I’d like to thank the following people for being a part of the action.

howiGit Writers

• Jimmy Cunningham
• Alan Raff
• Matt Moore
• Thalia Bardell
• Buster Paris

Other Contributors

• Mark McCormick
• Patrick Klimm
• John Levine

Fellow Bloggers

• Rob Lunn
• Chris Ross
• The Sports Minion
• The Sports Glutton
• Chris Kelley
• Big Dan

Publications

• The Dirty Water News

All of our regular readers and commenters, led by:

• Teck
• A.Rab Money
• Kevin Youkilis
• Some dirty kid I went to college with…
• And the lovely, Kelley Shelpman

Big things are coming down the pike for howiGit’s blog in 2011 — you’ll be seeing a new redesigned version of the site launching this upcoming week. The redesigned site will help us grow even more, and we’ll also be adding a Philadelphia writer in the upcoming weeks as well.

Keep tuning in, and we’ll keep on bringing it. Between the Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox, and Patriots there’s got to be a championship on the horizon for 2011.

Merry Christmas to all of howiGit’s readers. I’d recommend basking in the glory of Christmas morning with a glass of eggnog and two fantastic NBA games. We know the stockings in Rex Ryan’s house were hung up long ago….

Ho-Ho-Ho-rrible joke.

But seriously, Merry Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving howiGit readers! I’m very thankful that all of you consistently take the time out of your day to come to howiGit’s blog for endless, quality entertainment……and lots of Tom Brady/Eli Manning arguments. Eat up, it’s good for you, and enjoy the Tom Brady show.

-howiGit