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Announcing My Newest Project!

20 January, 2010 / Kat

When Cameron Frye, female Boston sports blogger extraordinaire, asks me if I want to collaborate, I usually jump at the chance. So when she approached me around Christmas time with an idea for a new sports blog she wanted me to contribute to, I jumped at the chance to work with her on a regular basis.

Cameron has gathered a collection of female sports bloggers not before found in New England to begin, Beantown Athletic Supporters, a New England sports blog with snark and smart that launched this past Tuesday. I’m proud to be a part of this crew of legitimate, knowledgeable writers. They all are much better Bruins writers than I, so I’ll leave Bruins coverage to them while I cover college hockey, lacrosse and anything else I can think of.

My first piece for the site is on Blake Kessel and Sebastian Stalberg, younger brothers of Toronto Maple Leafs Phil Kessel and Viktor Stalberg and two of Hockey East’s featured players for their outstanding play last week. Read, enjoy, and visit there early and often.

And don’t worry, I’ll still be here posting when I can. The blessing of the seven years of this blog has been that it has provided me with so many other opportunities to share my love of sports with others, so I can’t ever neglect …On Being a Sports Girl for too long.

A SportsGirl Public Service Announcement

12 January, 2010 / Kat

While attending college at Binghamton University, I was blessed to make friends with a whole host of students from various nations in the Caribbean, including Haiti. My Antiguan roommate, a member of the very influential Carribbean Students Association (a group with more power than even the Student Association because of sheer membership), was great friends with quite a few Haitians and their signifigant others (aka, “Haitians by Association”, as Marcia tended to call the non-Caribbean significant others.)

Thus it pains me that on my birthday, the country of Haiti was rocked by a devestating earthquake – one that has destroyed much of Port-au-Prince, their captial. I normally try to keep my non-sports appeals to a minimum on my site, but since I have crossed paths with several Haitians throughout my life, I thought I would share a quick word here about their plight, and share resources on how you can help.

The Haitian earthquake is only hours old, but already, two of the best ways to contribute is through UNICEF, who will ensure that needed funding will reach Haitian youth, and the Pan American Development Foundation, an outreach arm of the Organization of American States.

Even if you can’t afford to give anything right now, just keep the Haitian people in your thoughts. I know I will because of the wonderful Haitians I met throughout my college career.

In a Four-Year-Old’s World, Jason Bay is Still a Member of the Boston Red Sox.

1 January, 2010 / Kat

Let's Go Fishing - a childhood fave for me and thousands of other kids

Playing “Let’s Go Fishing” with my favorite four-year-old (a cousin of my fiance’s) this New Year’s Day with the dull portion of the Winter Classic flickering in the background, the topic of conversation turned from what kindergarten would be like next year to the Boston Red Sox. Favorite Four-Year-Old, like every child born and raised in the Greater Boston area, understood that he was a Red Sox fan prior to understanding that hands were for picking things up, not chewing on.

Over the summer, Favorite-Four-Year-Old and I had played “Big Papi” and “Jason BAAAYYY” in his backyard – a catch-tag megamix named after his two favorite members of the Red Sox roster. This afternoon, I wondered if he knew what had conspired a few days before.

We held our faux primary colored fishing rods over the faux thrashing primary colored fish. I sighed, and asked the question that had to be asked. “Who is your favorite Red Sox player?”

Favorite Four Year Old’s head snapped up, forgetting about the fish. “Jason BAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!” he exclaimed, proudly, with a giant grin on his face. He quickly returned to faux-fishing.

I was left with a dilemma. Was I susposed to be the one to have the “free agency” talk with Favorite Four-Year-Old, or was this a talk that his father or grandfather needed to have with him? This was an important talk in the life of a young sports fan, and I felt that it needed to come from a close relative, and not just little ol’ me.

I looked around, trying to find Favorite Four-Year-Old’s father. He was busy in another room eating. His grandfather was no where in my sightline either. Favorite Four-Year-Old didn’t seem to sense the turmoil within me.

So I said nothing and set to not lose too poorly in “Let’s Go Fishing.” In that four-year-old’s world, Jason Bay could still be his favorite Red Sox player. If only just for one more day.

Demoted to Hartford? There’s a Facebook Group for That.

13 December, 2009 / Kat

Matt Gilroy had been named the best rookie in training camp by the Rangers staff just 3 months ago. (Photo: SNY.com)

Wednesday evening, former Boston University captain and rookie New York Rangers defenseman Matt Gilroy was outskated by Chicago Blackhawks right wing Dustin Byfuglien (a last name more difficult than my own) to allow the game-winning goal in overtime.

Thursday morning, Gilroy was summarily dismissed by the Rangers and assigned to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack.

And Saturday evening, I got a Facebook notification inviting me to the group, “Put Matt Gilroy Back on the Rangers.”

“We want to send a message to the Rangers front office that they need to move Matt back up to the NHL!” exclaims the description for the group. Created Saturday afternoon, the group already has 377 members with a wide variety of loyalties. (It grew from 324- 377 while I was writing this blog post.) A few BU teammates belong to the group, quite a few BU hockey fans, some New York Ranger fans, and a large contingent of members with the last name of Gilroy. (Not surprising, seeing that the Gilroy family is rumored to rival the population of Syracuse, New York in numbers.)

As the news of Gilroy’s demotion hit Twitter on Thursday, I learned that Rangers fans are quite opinionated, and were blaming general manager Glen Sather for the move right and left. They were calling for other defensemen, such as Michal Rozsival, to suffer a benching or demotion. Even ESPN anchor Linda Cohn got into the action, tweeting, “Can somebody explain to me why in the world the Rangers would mess with the head of Matt Gilroy and send him down to Hartford?”

In comparison, the Facebook group is pretty mild. A group member actually spoke up to explain why moving Gilroy is easier than demoting a more seasoned player and possibly exposing that player to waivers. Others continue to express anger at Sather, and still others are writing “keep the faith” messages to Gilroy.

Whether Gilroy’s demotion was warranted after his Chicago gaff, or this was a move to get him more playing time, the progression of this Facebook group will be quite interesting to watch. Will Matt Gilroy himself join? Will it catch on further among the Rangers faithful? Or will it go the way of those ubiquitous “I lost my phone – can I have your numbers?” groups?

And They Shall Lead Them With Jersey Gimmicks and Bobbleheads: Christmas Carols with Jackals

9 December, 2009 / Kat

Elmira, New York is a small city to the south of my hometown of Rochester. In my nearly twenty-eight years, Elmira has been most memorable in my mind for being near the Arnot Mall, the most unfortunately named mall in the history of mankind. (“You are-not a mall.”)

That is, until today.

On December 20, the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals will present “Christmas CD” night during their game against the Johnstown Chiefs. Attendees at the game will receive a Christmas CD of Jackals players singing Christmas carols. Yes, residents of the Twin Tiers and Southwestern New York, you can celebrate the holidays by being serenaded by ECHL players such as twin forwards Justin and Tyler Donati and minor league hockey journeyman Olivier Proulx (Look at his Hockey Database profile. Journeyman might be too mild of a term.)

In anticipation of their CD release, the Jackals posted the following behind-the-scenes video of the recording session. The voices. The majesty. The command. The….resemblance to thirteen year olds with cracking voices.

If this isn’t the perfect accompaniment for your family’s various holiday activities – such as driving around to find that street with the paper candelabras and white lights only to realize that the two feet of lake effect snow has buried the candelabras and knocked out the power (or maybe that’s just my family?) – I don’t know what CD is.

Kat Cornetta