THE ATHLETES OF LOST?

LOST, ABC's popular drama has gained quite the reputation for twists, turns, and all out craziness that often overtake its storylines. The current season, the show's fifth, is even more imaginative and intriguing than previous years, and the interweaving stories in each episode continue to amaze and bewilder even the show's most ardent fans. But why, you must be asking, am I writing about a show on a sports blog? Well, it turns out, many of today's most well-known athletes and sports people relate quite well to some of the show's main characters. Here are five of the LOST protagonists along with their counterparts in the sports world.

Kate Austen- Brett Favre

Kate, one of the most popular characters on the show, just can't make up her mind. She loves Jack. Now she loves Sawyer. Now Jack. Now Sawyer. Pick one already! Her indecision is reminiscant of Favre's will he or won't he retire sentiment that seems to envelope NFL storylines each offseason. That, and they both absolutely love attention.

Ben Linus- Scott Boras

Ben Linus is evil. Everything he does, he does for his own personal gain. He doesn't care about people, their feelings, or their lives, he only cares about himself. He embellishes, tells "half truths", and often just flat out lies in order to get what he wants. All of that (and more) is true about Scott Boras. The superagent, who represents some of Major League Baseball's most talented and well-known players, is not above making up stories to get more money for his players. Earlier this offseason, Boras said the Red Sox were the front runners to land prized first baseman Mark Teixeira after Teixeira had already decided he wanted to become a Yankee. This drove up the price for New York and caused outrage in Boston. Linus is the Scott Boras of LOST.

John Locke- Paul Pierce

Locke spent the first few seasons of the show looking for his place, his calling. Always valuable, Locke only recently ascended to being a true leader, and is constantly willing to do whatever it takes for his people. Pierce toiled on terrible Celtics teams for nine years before KG and Ray Allen came along. Pierce, Boston's captain, is driven by his superstar teammates and has turned himself into one of the NBA's best players. Coming back from a knee injury during the NBA Finals isn't quite walking again after being paralyzed (a la John Locke), but his value to the team can't be questioned.

Aaron Littleton- Sidney Crosby

I know what your thinking. How can Claire's baby (born on the Island in season one) be compared to Sid the Kid? Well, much of the plot of the current season revolves around him. The entire storyline regarding Kate and (now) Sun and Jack have to do with Kate being able to keep Aaron. He's young, but incredibly important to the entire show. Crosby is also young, and just as important to the league. Since he was drafted first overall by the Penguins, Crosby has been known as the savior of the NHL. Everything (at least from a marketing standpoint) revolves around Sidney Crosby. Without him, the NHL is completely different. Without Aaron, the show changes considerably as well.

Jack Sheppard- Michael Phelps

Jack is, without a doubt, the main character of the show. He is only doctor among the survivors, and becomes their leader in season one. Everybody looks up to Jack, and more often than not, he delivers for them. Phelps' rise to fame during the Beijing Olympics put him at the top of the sports world. For quite awhile, America followed Phelps carefully, waiting with baited breath for every word (especially the media) he spoke. He led all American athletes at the Olympics with his eight gold medals, but has recently been getting criticized loudly. Both have gotten into drugs since returning (Jack from the Island, Phelps from Beijing). Jack's addiction to painkillers and booze hurt his relationships with the rest of the Oceanic Six. It's unclear, at this point, how the photos of Phelps ripping a bong at a friend's house will affect his relationships (with sponsors mainly) at this point in his career.

NO SHOW TOMORROW

There will be no show tomorrow, Saturday, January 24, 2009. We'll be back next week at noon on 1550 am WNTN and WNTN.com.

RED SOX ALL-TIME GREATS TEAM

The newly formed MLB Network was recently showing Red Sox: All-Time Greats, a show about the three best players at each position to ever play for the Sox. Here is my team roster for the ultimate Red Sox team, complete with a starting nine, a bench, a five man rotation, and a bullpen.

The Starting Lineup
1. Bobby Doerr- 2B
2. Wade Boggs- 3B
3. Jimmie Foxx- 1B
4. Ted Williams- LF
5. Fred Lynn- CF
6. Carlton Fisk- C
7. Dwight Evans- RF
8. Johnny Pesky- SS
9. Pitcher's spot

The Bench
Nomar Garciaparra- SS/IF, Tris Speaker-CF, Carl Yastrzemski-LF, Jason Varitek-C, Joe Cronin-IF

The Starting Rotation
1. Cy Young
2. Pedro Martinez
3. "Smokey" Joe Wood
4. Roger Clemens
5. Bruce Hurst

The Bullpen
Bill "Spaceman" Lee (Long Relief), Luis Tiant (Long Relief), Dennis Eckersley (Middle Relief), Ellis Kinder (Middle Relief), Bob Stanley (Set Up), Dick Radatz (Set Up), Jonathan Papelbon (Closer)

There it is. The Red Sox ultimate 25-man roster, complete with starting nine, rotation, bench, and bullpen. Any disagreements? Let us know.

CHECK OUT "THROUGH THE FIVE HOLE"

Since I was writing primarily about the Bruins and the NHL for awhile, I decided it was time to start a blog entirely devoted to the sport. Check out "Through the Five Hole" for all your hockey needs. Of course, we will continue to post on here as well, and remember to listen to Saturday Morning Sports, noon to one every Saturday on 1550am WNTN, and WNTN.com.

BOSTON'S MOUNT RUSHMORE

One of ESPN's new features is a state-by-state "Mount Rushmore of Sports" debate in which fans can decide on who would make their state's monument. The Boston sports scene is one of the hardest to do because so many superstar athletes have passed through this town, and each brought something different to the table. But if I had to pick the four faces for Boston's Mount Rushmore of Sports, they would be:

Ted Williams
You can't have a Mount Rushmore for Boston sports without "the greatest hitter who ever lived." The Splendid Splinter hit 521 homers for the Red Sox in 19 seasons, and averaged 130 RBI per year. A two-time American League MVP, Williams is the last player to hit over .400, hitting .406 in 1941.

Red Auerbach
With respect to Bill Russell and Larry Bird, who each could have made this list in their own right, I'm going with the man who signed both of them, Red Auerbach. Red coached the Celtics from 1950 through 1965 (and stayed on as GM for many more years), and won NBA Championships in eight straight years (1958-65). Quite simply, the Celtics have won more NBA Titles than any other franchise, and you don't have that unbelievable history without Red Auerbach.

Tom Brady
The Patriots sixth round pick in 2000, Brady took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe in just his second season in the league and turned the New England franchise around. A career record of 86-24 in the regular season and 14-3 in the playoffs makes Brady the most important player in team history. He is a three time Super Bowl Champion, a two-time Super Bowl MVP, and has the NFL record for touchdown passes in a single season with 50. Brady has a career passer rating of 92.9 and won nine playoff games in his first five seasons, the most of any starting quarterback in his first five seasons in NFL history.

Bobby Orr
Considered by many to be the greatest player to ever lace up skates, Orr forever changed the way the game was played. Despite only playing 10 seasons in Boston (12 in his career), Orr won eight Norris Trophies as the league's top defenseman, was a two-time Hart winner (League MVP), and a two-time Conn Smythe winner as the playoff MVP. He won two Stanley Cups with the Bruins, was a nine-time All-Star, and his 120 points in 1970-71 was unheard of for a defenseman. He is perhaps best remembered for his game winning goal in overtime of the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals against the St. Louis Blues.

WHY GARY BETTMAN IS THE WORST COMMISSIONER IN SPORTS

When former NBA executive Gary Bettman took over the job of commissioner of the NHL on February 1, 1993, he wasn't exactly the most seasoned hockey mind. Bettman's lack of experience, in fact was so well known that famed hockey writer Pat Williams stated "I gave Gary a hockey puck once and he spent the rest of the day trying to open it." Nearly two decades later, Bettman is still hockey's head honcho, and it's not really clear how much he has learned. What is clear though, is the multitude of problems facing professional hockey, all of which make Bettman the worst commissioner in pro sports today.

Bettman started to ruin the sport by watering down the NHL with too many teams and moving existing teams into markets that clearly don't give a crap about hockey. While the Florida Panthers and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim had already been announced as expansion franchises when Bettman came into power, he has since added the Nashville Predators (1998), Atlanta Thrashers (1999), Minnesota Wild (2000), and Columbus Blue Jackets (2000). Minnesota, colloquially known as "the State of hockey", needed a team after the state's beloved North Stars moved south to Dallas in 1993.

Bettman further attempted to shift the NHL's focus into the American south by relocating teams from the hockey hotbed in the great white north. The Quebec Nordiques packed up and moved to Denver in 1995, the Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes one year later, and a year after that the Hartford Whalers moved to Raleigh and became the Carolina Hurricanes.

Furthermore, Bettman has been accused as having an anti-Canada bias, a seemingly ridiculous stance for the leader of a sport so popular north of the border to have. But when multi-millionaire Jim Balsillie reached a tentative agreement to buy the Predators with the hopes of moving them to Hamilton, Ontario, Bettman wouldn't allow it. The Preds had just finished their best regular season in team history, yet were ranked 21st in the league in average attendance. When Balsillie went to put season ticket orders for the Hamilton Predators on Ticketmaster, he received more than 7,000 deposits on the first day alone. Despite having somewhere around 12,000 deposits from Hamilton fans (more than the Nashville season ticket base), Balsillie, who had done this to prove Hamilton as a viable NHL market, had his bid rejected by the league for not putting forth "a good faith effort" to keep the team in it's current location.

Bettman, who was tabbed as commissioner primarily to end the league's labor problems, has been forced into lockouts on two separate occasions, in 1994-95, and again in 2004-05. The NHL became the first major professional sports league to cancel an entire season of play after the second of the lockouts could not be resolved in time to start the regular season in early October.

The league is still feeling the effects from the lockout, and may not fully recover for years to come. One major problem that has since developed is the lack of suitable television coverage. Hockey is probably the best sport to watch in high definition, yet nationally televised NHL games primarily appear on Versus, a small network that is hard to find for non-hockey fans. It's not something anybody is going to stumble across while channel surfing. Not a good way to attract more fans.

Now don't get me wrong, Bettman has done some good as commissioner of the NHL. His work to create a better salary cap has helped bring some parity to the league, and he has stabilized some of the league's financial troubles. On the whole though, Gary Bettman has been an overwhelmingly negative influence on the game of hockey.

Let's hope that one of these days he'll finally stop trying to open the puck and just drop it already.

LIFE AFTER PIOLI

The Patriots have lost another top evaluator. First Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels bolted to take the reigns of the Denver Broncos, and now VP of Player Personnel Scott Pioli is moving west to take over as GM for the Kansas City Chiefs.

It will be very interesting how the Patriots respond. Pioli is obviously one of the top executives in all of football, and his loss is a huge one for a franchise that has been so successful in the new millennium. The Patriots have already named his successor in Pioli's former assistant, Nick Caserio.

In his column on Caserio in today's Boston Globe, beat writer Mike Reiss (friend of the blog) says that the Pats were right to name an in-house replacement because of how closely Bill Belichick works with the front office. Knowing exactly what kind of player the coach likes will save Caserio tons of time and should help the Pats remain one of the better teams in the AFC for years to come. Caserio is a system guy who has worked both on the field--as an offensive coaching assistant and wide receivers coach--and in the front office. He's an extremely hard worker and should fit right in in his new role.

And as long as Belichick is in charge of the team, the Patriots will be just fine.