2010: A Boston Sports Year Review

It's been another exciting year in sports, proving there is never a dull moment in Boston.  As the 2010 year comes to a close, let's look back at the best and worst moments for Boston sports teams in the calender year.

January

• The Bruins open the year by playing an outdoor game at Fenway Park, defeating Philadelphia 2-1 in overtime.  It helps get fans excited about hockey again.  Ok, so some of the people in the crowd showed up thinking the Red Sox were playing, but it was still a packed house nonetheless.
• Tom Brady completes a successful return from knee surgery to lead the Patriots back to the playoffs, only to be blown out on their own home field in the first round against the Ravens.  A playoff loss at home once seemed unfathomable for this team.  The devastating loss was the first of many factors that led to massive changes the following season.
• After starting the season on a spectacular 23-5 streak culminating with a statement win against Orlando on Christmas Day, the Celtics got off to a rough start to the new year.  Paul Pierce entered the month banged up, and Kevin Garnett hyper-extended his surgically repaired knee, costing him 10 games.  The injuries kept piling up and the Celtics hobbled to a 27-27 record in their remaining games, falling to 4th in the Eastern Conference.

February

• Fans in New England don't get to see their wishes come true of the Patriots playing in the Super Bowl, but get to see the next best thing - watching Payton Manning lose.  The Saints surprising season ends with the franchise's first Super Bowl victory.

March

• Spring training begins, giving Boston fans something to get excited about to distract them from the bitter taste left by the Patriots playoff letdown and the frustration of the mediocre play of a hobbled Celtics squad.

April

• Baseball season begins!  The Red Sox come into the season praising the importance of pitching and defense, having added Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron to their starting line-up as well as John Lackey to their rotation.  Many media outlets rank the Red Sox as the best team in baseball and are projecting them to finish with the most wins in the league.  Well, we know how that turned out...
• David Ortiz gets off to another frustratingly slow start, prompting Red Sox Nation to demand that the team bench or release the fading star.  Or at least get him to take steroids again (kidding!).
• Jacoby Ellsbury injures his ribs in a collision with Adrian Beltre.  The injury is initially misdiagnosed, leading to Ellsbury missing the majority of the season.  A failed come back return mid-season didn't last long after team doctors discovered more broken ribs that never fully healed, which ended up putting a riff between Ellsbury and the team.  This in turn leads many fans to complain about his lack of toughness (sure, you try swinging a bat with broken ribs!) and wish for him to be traded.

May

• The Celtics flip the switch once the playoffs start and catch fire at just the right time.  Putting themselves on cruise control for the final few months of the regular season appears to have paid off, as the team looks healthy and hungry.
• Rajon Rondo plays out of his mind in the post-season, highlighted by an eye-popping triple-double in the second round series against Cleveland - 29 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists.  I was actually at that game, and as far as I could tell, I'm the one that started the MVP chants for Rondo that were later heard throughout the TD Garden.  He put the team on his back and helped carry them through the first few rounds of the playoffs, in which he nearly averaged a triple double.
• The Bruins suffer an epic post-season collapse.  Leading the Philadelphia Flyers 3 games to none, the B's went on to drop the next three to even the series.  They led 3-0 early on in Game 7, but ended up blowing the lead, and the series.  Now Boston fans know how the Yankees felt in 2004.

June

• The Celtics return to the NBA Finals for a re-match against the Lakers.  The teams appear evenly matched throughout the grueling 7 game series.  The turning point came in Game 6 when Kendrick Perkins crumpled to the floor after battling Andrew Bynum for a rebound in the first quarter.  A torn ACL would sideline him for the rest of the series (as well as at least half of this season), tipping the scale in favor of the Lakers.  Without Perk's size and defensive presence, the Celtics get killed in the paint and on the glass.  In a series in which each game was won by the team that won the rebounding battle, the trio of Gasol, Bynum and Odom was too much for the undersized Celtics to handle without Perkins. 
• While the outcome of the series may have been depressing, there were still plenty of bright spots, including a coming out party for the bench players - most notably, Glen Davis and Nate Robinson, who coined themselves new nicknames of Shrek and Donkey.
• The Red Sox season begins to unravel due to an endless amount of injuries.  It began earlier in the season with Ellsbury, but the injury bug went on to catch Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, among others.  In one three game series in San Francisco the Sox lost Pedroia, Victor Martinez and Clay Buchholz to injury.  19 players combined for 24 seperate DL stints during this season, with 6 of those players coming from the opening day starting line-up.  No team can overcome that many injuries.
• The string of injuries opens up opportunities for other players to step in and perform on the big stage.  While none of them could make up for the loss of the key players that were stuck on the DL, some of these unknown replacement players shined in big moments.  The best example being Daniel Nava, who hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw in his major league career.
• The Bruins have something to be excited about again when they select Tyler Seguin with the second overall pick in the draft, which they obtained from Toronto for Phil Kessell.  Seguin should be a star in the near future, while Kessell hasn't done anything to make Toronto any better.  Considering they still owe Boston another (likely) high draft pick, I think it's safe to say we won that trade.

July

• David Ortiz continues to prove that his career isn't over yet by making the All-Star team and winning the Home Run derby. 

August

• The dog days of summer are at times difficult to watch as the Red Sox send out a AAA line-up and fall further back in the AL East.  Meanwhile the Yankees and Rays are still going strong and looking like locks for playoff teams.
• The Celtics sign Shaq!  The Big Shamrock comes to Boston for the veteran's minimum, claiming he's ready to accept being a role player on a team filled with veteran stars.  Maybe he likes hanging out with other old guys (which the Celtics have plenty of) or maybe he just really wants a chance at another ring (mostly to shut Kobe up). 
• The C's wrapped up a busy off-season.  Doc Rivers' decision to return to coach at least one more year was the spark needed to get the ball rolling.  Pierce re-signed a team friendly 4 year deal to ensure he'd retire a Celtic, followed by Ray Allen spurning bigger offers to return on a 2 year deal that lines up well with Boston's plan to rebuild in 2 years when the Big Three era will likely come to an end.  They also bulked up the bench with several short term options.  In addition to Shaq, the C's also brought in Jermaine O'Neal and Delonte West.

September

• Football season starts up again as the Patriots are ready to redeem themselves after last season's upsetting ending.  Most of the early season talk revolves around Wes Welker's remarkable recovery from knee surgery as well as a group of exciting young rookies that the team expects to rely heavily on, including: Devin McCourty, Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski.
• The early season excitement takes a step back after a week 2 loss to the Jets.  The team fell apart in the second half thanks to an offense that couldn't move the ball as Brady tried to force the ball repeatedly to Randy Moss without success.

October

• The Patriots shock the football world by trading Randy Moss to the Vikings.  Rumors had swirled for weeks about Moss' attitude, which had led to run ins with coaches and teammates.  One unconfirmed story even claimed he got into a fight with Tom Brady over their hairstyles.  The trade was met with a lot of criticism by people who thought the Patriots offense could not thrive without Moss, but as it turned out it was the best thing for them.  Belichick sensed a storm brewing with Moss and did what he had to do to remove a potential headache that threatened to drag down the team.  They made a separate trade to bring back Deion Branch, who has gotten back much of his old form from his previous tenure with the Pats after wasting away for a few years in Seattle.  Without Moss the Patriots have gone on to become the league's best team with the league's highest scoring offense.
• With the Sox missing the playoffs, Red Sox Nation must settle for watching the Yankees fail to make the World Series.

November

• After last season's crushing defeat in the NBA Finals, the Celtics are back.  Their hot start to the season has put them at the top of the Eastern Conference, despite a rash of early season injuries.
• Rajon Rondo puts on a show in the early going by dishing out 50 assists through the first three games and breaking John Stockon's record for assists to open the season.  In a game against the Knicks he had an unbelievable triple-double that included 24 assists, good for the second best mark in team history.
• Paul Pierce scored the 20,000th point of his career, joining the exclusive company of 36 players to reach that plateau in NBA history.  Only two other players have reached that mark in a Celtic uniform (Bird and Havlicek).
• The Patriots are humbled by a humiliating defeat to the underdog Browns.  The silver lining that came from the loss is that it tought the team that they can't afford to be overconfident and must play their game for 60 minutes every week.  They haven't lost a game since, including big wins against the Steelers, Colts and Jets.
• After losing the starting job late last season and having off-season hip surgery, not many expected big things from Tim Thomas.  Yet the veteran goalie has taken the league by storm, re-capturing the form that made him the Vezina award winner two years ago.  By leading the league in Goals Against Average and Save Percentage through the early going, Thomas has sent the message to the team that he's not ready to give up the job to youngster Tukka Rask just yet.

December

• The Red Sox steal the show in the off-season by making two blockbuster moves.  First they traded prospects to San Diego for Adrian Gonzalez and then signed the best free agent hitter on the market, Carl Crawford.  They join an already formidable line-up to create what should be the best offense in the league.  Well, at least if everyone can stay healthy this time.  Knock on wood!
• Nearly as important to the Red Sox off-season was the lack of impact made by the rival Yankees.  The team that typically throws out big money to lure in the top free agents was devastated when Cliff Lee chose Philadelphia over them.  The Yankees are left to beg Andy Pettite not to retire to prevent their pitching rotation from being dangerously thin on the back end.  With all the potential big name free agent targets off the board it looks like it will be a quiet off-season in the Bronx.  The Tampa Bay Rays lost Crawford, as well as half their roster, to free agency.  While the Red Sox substantially improved, the Yankees and Rays got worse.
• The Patriots continue to roll, winning all of their games this month and clinching the top seed in the AFC.  Tom Brady set a record for consecutive pass attempts without an interception and the team hasn't turned the ball over at all in over a month.  Brady appears to be a lock for the MVP award and the Pats have a clear path to the Super Bowl that will go through Foxborough.
• The Celtics remain in first in the East, but are starting to show signs of breaking down under the strain of an increasing number of injuries.  Sound familiar?  They've been without Perkins all season, but have also have dealt with large chunks of games without Shaq, Jermaine O'Neal, Delonte and Rondo.  Worst of all, the Celtics stagger towards the end of the calender year by losing defensive anchor and MVP candidate Kevin Garnett.  The extent of the injury is still unknown, but losing KG for any significant period of time would be a huge loss for this team.  If the Celtics ever gets healthy then they may very well be the best team in the NBA, but will they ever come close to being even reasonably healthy?  We'll have to wait to find out in 2011...