Between the Lines

Winter doesn't officially start for a couple more weeks, but we're already feeling the deep freeze. It's colder than a mofo here right now. I ran 5 miles on Saturday afternoon when it was 25 degrees and windy, which was bad. But on Sunday, I did the Mill Cities Relay in Nashua and it was 15 degrees out. At least it wasn't that windy. There were dudes out there in shorts and singlets; forget that. I did the first leg for the NS Striders Men's Masters team; yep, now that I'm 40, I've moved up into another category. It was 5.6 miles and fairly flat, but I got a side-stitch around mile 3 and actually had to walk a little bit before getting going again. But I finished strong. After that, I just supported the other Strider runners, including my friend Molly, who ran the last leg for her team. One runner for another team was hit by a car; fortunately, he was okay. The relay finished in Lawrence. We didn't win anything, but it was fun nonetheless.

We got a little snow Sunday night, only an inch or two. It was pretty slushy and is now frozen solid on surfaces that weren't plowed or cleared. They got a lot more snow up north in NH and Maine.

Last night's Patriots-Ravens game was a major league nailbiter, right down to the very last second. The Ravens gave the Pats all they could handle and they nearly gave me a couple of heart attacks in the last two minutes. Tom Brady drove the Pats down the field to score the game-winning TD with 44 seconds left in the game, but the Pats definitely benefited from bad Baltimore decisions, penalties and good luck. In the dying seconds, Ravens QB Kyle Boller threw a Hail Mary that was caught on the 2-yard line, but the clock ran out as the Pats tackled the guy. Ultimately, it was the Pats winning 27-24 and going to 12-0, but damn, it was close. Next weekend, they play the Steelers, which should be really tough.

I just finished watching the Leafs knock off Nashville 3-1 for their third win in a row. Goon Wade Belak scored for the first time in four years (a stretch of 143 games), so you know things are going well. In typical Leafs fashion, the streak comes right after playing some of their worst hockey of the season and causing the Toronto media to go nuts speculating whether GM John Ferguson Jr. or coach Paul Maurice would get canned. Hopefully, they can keep it going, but they could just as easily lose five in a row. You just never know with that team.

The Blue Jays can't go more than two years without changing up their uniforms, and they were at it again yesterday by unveiling a new road jersey and bringing back the old-school powder blue shirts for their "Flashback Friday" home games. They brought back former stars John Mayberry and Lloyd Moseby. The best part of the press conference was when Moseby said the old uniforms "sucked." Nice! Other than the new duds, looks like they're going to be pretty quiet during the offseason, unlike the Red Sox, who are looking to add Johan Santana to their World Series champion roster. Meanwhile, the Tigers have pilfered Dontrelle Willis and Miggy Cabrera from the Marlins for a bunch of prospects. Damn. Well, the Jays might sign Matt Clement, so that's...ugh.