Main page | April 4, 2008 »

Pats announce 2008 exhibition schedule

The Patriots released their exhibition schedule today, with the highlight being a Super Bowl rematch against the Giants at the Meadowlands on either Aug. 28 or 29.

With the exception of one game -- a Sunday, Aug. 17 matchup at Tampa Bay, which will be televised by the NFL Network at 8 p.m. -- dates and times will be announced later. The league released which opponents the Pats will be playing each week of the exhibition season, with the potential dates:

WEEK ONE (sometime between Aug. 7 and 11): vs. Baltimore at Foxboro
WEEK TWO (Sunday, Aug. 17 at 8 p.m.): at Tampa Bay
WEEK THREE (sometime between Aug. 21 and 25): vs. Philadelphia at Foxboro
WEEK FOUR (either Aug. 28 or 29): at N.Y. Giants

Posted by Art Martone  at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Faxon joins television crew

Brad Faxon is back with the PGA Tour, although not in his usual capacity.

The Barrington resident, who remains unable to play after surgery on his right knee, has joined the announcing team for The Golf Channel for this week’s Shell Houston Open.

As might be expected, Faxon seems more than comfortable in the job. He just told a story about how he spent part of his morning in a putting contest with Phil Mickelson, at Mickelson’s request. Faxon spoke about how Mickelson, who is preparing for next week’s Masters, set up a game that involved not only trying to make putts, but also getting the ball past the hole.

Faxon had to dig into his pocket when the contest was finished.

This week’s event marks the first time all season all five Rhode Islanders on tour are at the tournament site. The other four are playing. Brett Quigley is in excellent shape after a morning 4-under 68 and Billy Andrade also had a nice day with a 71.

Patrick Sheehan and Brad Adamonis are both out in the afternoon group, both off to slow starts. Adamonis is playing for the first time in more than a month. He is battling major health issues himself including a disk problem in his neck and a rare disease called nystagmus that involves an inner ear problem.

Posted by Paul Kenyon  at 3:40 PM to Paul Kenyon on Golf | Permalink | Comments 0

URI AD gives coach Baron a thumbs-up

By MIKE SZOSTAK
Journal Sports Writer

Despite an epic collapse that resulted in nine losses in his team's last 11 games and disappearance from the national rankings, Jim Baron has received a vote of confidence from his boss.

Not that the University of Rhode Island's basketball coach needed one. His 10-year, $4.3 million contract runs through 2013, and his team did finish with a record of 21-12.

"We have a heck of a basketball coach," Thorr Bjorn, URI's director of athletics, said yesterday during an interview. "We have a heck of a team returning and a heck of a class coming in. I'm really excited about next year."

Click here to continue reading the story.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 1:18 PM to URI Basketball | Permalink | Comments 0

Send us your pictures from McCoy Stadium

We'll have a photographer at tonight's PawSox season opener, but we want to see your pictures, too. Upload them tonight, tomorrow, all season long to our Family Fun at McCoy Stadium slideshow, which you can find on our PawSox page.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 12:52 PM to PawSox | Permalink | Comments 0

Projo SoxTalk with McAdam: Wrapping up the Oakland trip

Click the play button below to hear Sean's comments, recorded this morning, as he was headed for the San Francisco airport and a cross-country flight back to New England. (Steve Krasner will pick up our Red Sox coverage this weekend in Toronto.) Sean discusses Jon Lester, David Ortiz, the Oakland A's future and Bartolo Colon.

Here are some excerpts from Sean's comments:

On Lester:"Even though he did walk three, he did get ahead of most of the hitters and put himself in control to sort of dictate what was going to happen in the at-bats, and you can do that when you can throw strikes with multiple pitches."

On Ortiz: "He did not feel great in Japan -- kind of battled the bug, or a flu, or something -- and wasn't at full strength, in addition to all the demands of the travel. And then you factor in the fact that Ortiz has traditionally been a slow starter; by his own admission it usually takes him a little while to get his swing together when the season starts. So all those things conspired to get him off to a slow start. ... But to be able to knock the first one out and have it be the hit that gave the Red Sox their first two runs yesterday in the seventh inning, must have been something of a relief for him."

On the state of the A's: "They made an awful lot of moves in the offseason, trading Danny Haren, Swisher, Kotsay, and it's clear that they are in a rebuilding mode. When you talk to people in the game, they maintain that Billy Beane did a good job in getting a good inventory of prospects back for those guys, particularly the Haren deal ... and those are the kinds of guys that are going to dictate how good this franchise is going to be in another two, three or four years."

What to expect from Colon tonight: "His velocity was pretty good at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. He was up pretty regularly at 91-92, which is certainly enough for him to be effective at the big-league level. In terms of workload and pitch count, I think they want him to get up to about 75, maybe 80 pitches maximum."

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 12:34 PM to Red Sox | Permalink | Comments 0

Frank Galasso cartoons: Those rampaging Celts, and the Sox are back

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments 0

Follow Colon's debut in Pawtucket tonight

Joe McDonald will have an inning-by-inning blog of tonight's start by Bartolo Colon in the Pawtucket Red Sox' season opener against the Indianapolis Indians. Colon, who could be destined for Boston in the near future, is a former Cy Young Award winner trying to make his way back to stardom following an injury-plagued 2007 season. You can find Joe's reports tonight on our SoxBlog.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 10:00 AM to Red Sox | Permalink | Comments 0

Download today's sports cover

On today's sports cover, Kevin McNamara and Bill Reynolds dissect Jim Larranaga's decision to decline the PC Friars job, Sean McAdam writes the final story on the Red Sox' four-games-in-nine-days series against Oakland, and Robert Lee describes the Celtics' 60th victory of the season.

Click here to download the file in pdf format.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments 0