Neil Diamond - Citizen of Red Sox Nation

LOS ANGELES — Neil Diamond held onto the secret for decades, but he has finally revealed that President Kennedy's daughter was the inspiration for his smash hit "Sweet Caroline."

"I've never discussed it with anybody before — intentionally," the 66-year-old singer-songwriter told The Associated Press on Monday during a break from recording. "I thought maybe I would tell it to Caroline when I met her someday."

He got his chance last week when he performed the song via satellite at Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's 50th birthday party.

Diamond was a "young, broke songwriter" when a photo of the president's daughter in a news magazine caught his eye.

"It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony," Diamond recalled. "It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there."

Years later, holed up in a hotel in Memphis, he would write the words and music in less an hour.

"It was a No. 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration," he said. "I'm happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy."

The enduring hit recently reappeared on the singles chart, thanks in part to the Boston Red Sox. "Sweet Caroline" is played at every home game.

"I think they consider it good luck," Diamond said, adding that the Red Sox have become his favorite baseball team.

The tune's return to the charts leaves Diamond "speechless," he said: "That song was written 40 years ago, so I am just overwhelmed by the fact that it has returned and that, more importantly, people have taken it into their hearts for so many years."

Diamond is currently at work on a new album, his second collaboration with producer Rick Rubin.

"We're both very excited about it," Diamond said. "I think it's going to be one of my best ever."

Blue Devil Hangover

Whatever promise the Denver women's basketball team showed against Duke on Sunday was reversed on Friday thanks to an inexplicable 65-56 loss to the Air Force Falcons at Clune Arena in Colorado Springs. Denver's Nenna Akotaobi played an impressive game by scoring a career-high 24 points, but she received virtually no help as the Pioneers played with little of the intensity they displayed in their 57-37 loss to the Blue Devils. Air Force's Raimee Beck burned the Pioneers for five three-pointers, including two during an 8-0 run late in the game that sealed the game.

The Pioneers failed to take advantage of absence Falcons star forward Alecia Steele, who left the game with an apparent ankle injury mid-way through the second half. At one point late in the game, the Falcons scored on an uncontested fast-break layup even though the Air Force player who brought the ball down the lane was escorted by three Denver players, none of whom could find any extra energy to put some defensive pressure on their opponent. We watched the game with DU superfan Roger B. Rowland, who agreed that DU was sorely lacking in hustle on this night.

It is possible that the Pioneers were suffering from a bit of a hangover from the Duke game, which was played at home in Magness Arena in front of 6,635 fans and a regional TV audience. After a big game like that, sometimes it is difficult to achieve that same level of excitement for your next game. An recent example from the NFL might be the 23-21 loss the Indianapolis Colts suffered to the struggling San Diego Chargers one week after meeting the New England Patriots in possibly the most-hyped regular season game in NFL history.

Back From The Dead

After an embarrassment of a season in which they went 4-25 and had their coach abandon them midway through the year, the Denver Pioneers are well on their way to returning to respectability. In Tuesday's "Pack the House" home opener against a competitive Wyoming team, the DU men's basketball team and new coach Joe Scott earned an impressive 76-65 victory over the Cowboys. Denver got off to a blazing start and led by as many as 22 points before holding off a late Wyoming rally.

One thing we like about Coach Scott is the so-called "Princeton offense" that he brought to DU. He learned that offense as a player and assistant coach under Pete Carril, who created the offense while coaching at Princeton from 1967-1996. By utilizing numerous passes and back door cuts, this offense epitomizes team play, and team play is the main reason why we prefer watching college basketball to the NBA.

We hold season tickets for the DU hockey team and women's basketball team, but we typically attend only a couple of men's basketball games each season outside of a handful of scheduled basketball doubleheaders. The next men's game we will probably attend is November 27, when the Pioneers are hosting the Colorado Buffaloes. Even though CU has not been very competitive in men's basketball in recent years, beating a Big XII team would be a big feather in DU's cap.

Incidentally, while Tuesday's game drew a respectable 5,667 fans, it was ultimately outdone by the 6,635 who attended the women's game against Duke two days earlier. Also, this year's cheerleading squad actually features a member who has a prosthetic leg. What don't know what her name is, but we suspect it might be Lacey Henderson, who attended high school at nearby Regis Jesuit High School and served as a cheerleader there in spite of losing a leg to cancer when she was nine.

David Vs. Goliath

Now that the college hockey season is a month old and the college basketball season has started, we are entering the time of year when the University of Denver's Magness Arena serves as our second home. The DU women's basketball season got underway Sunday when the Pioneers met the 10th-ranked Duke Blue Devils in front of a record crowd of 6,635. As expected, the Blue Devils ran away with a 57-37 victory, but the Pioneers didn't go quietly as they actually lead for the majority of the game, including a 27-25 halftime lead. We are proud that DU did not play scared in the face of a superior opponent, and that experience should come in handy late in the season when the Pioneers are fighting Middle Tennessee for the Sun Belt title and a birth in the NCAA Tournament.

Duke turned the game in it's favor thanks to a couple of adjustments it made at halftime. First, it began full court pressure against DU, using its superior athleticism to smother the Pioneers in the backcourt. For most of the second half, DU had great difficulty just getting the ball past midcourt. Second, the Blue Devils switch to an agressive spread zone to take away DU's three-point shot. DU made six three-point shots in the first half, but none in the second. As a result, Duke outscored DU in the second half 32-10, including a 19-0 run that lasted more than 11 minutes.

The game turned out to be a happy homecoming for Abby and Emily Waner, who played their high school ball in the Denver area at ThunderRidge High School. According to the Rocky Mountain News, father Tim waner purchased more than 400 tickets for friends and family. Last season, Denver averaged only 465 fans per game. The game was also telecast regionally by Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, so we recorded the game at home on our DVR. We have not yet watched that telecast, but thanks to our courtside seats, we're pretty sure we got a little screen time, especially when DU senior point guard Brooke Meyer landed at our feet while diving for a loose ball.

We have a bit of a scheduling conflict on Friday. The DU hockey team is hosting Minnesota State at Magness Arena while the women's basketball team is playing down the road in Colorado Springs against Air Force. We are planning on calling the DU ticket office to see if we can trade in our season tickets to Friday's hockey game (we have the Friday night package this year) for tickets to Game Two of that series on Saturday. That would free us up to see our ladies play on the road without missing the hockey team this weekend. We are also planning on following the ladies to Lamarie on December 1 when they play the Wyoming Cowgirls, the defending WNIT champions.

Welcome To New England Nation

According to Drew Litton of the Rocky Mountain News, the sports world nowadays revolves around New England. Indeed, even though we are living in Denver, it's fairly satisfying to be a New England fan in this region. Because of the success of both franchises in recent years, both the Red Sox and the Patriots have strong national followings, so it's been easy to find fellow fans in our area, although "Spygate" did somewhat hurt the Pats image. Every Sunday, we join about 20 other Pats fans at the Blake Street Tavern in lower downtown Denver ("LoDo") to watch the Pats play. We're pretty vocal, so we probably sound pretty obnoxious to fans of other teams!

The Red Sox Are The World Champions

While we are thrilled to see our beloved Boston Red Sox win their second World Series in four years, Sunday turned out to be a somewhat anti-climactic sports day. It started at 10:00 am when we arrived at the Blake Street Tavern for a several hours of football. Even though the New England Patriots weren't scheduled to play until 2:15 pm, we wanted to make sure we that got a good seat at the bar. We ended up suffering through a sloppy 11:00 am game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Carolina Panthers which ended in a 31-7 Colts victory.

It's great to see the Patriots playing so well, but their games are starting to get rather boring. Part of the fun of being a fan is not knowing if your team will be able to win, but there was no such drama involved in New England's 52-7 humiliation of the Washington Redskins. The Pats were leading that game 24-0 at halftime when we left the Blake Street Tavern to walk to the Pour House Pub to get a good seat for Game Four of the World Series. The buzz in LoDo was considerably lower on Sunday than on Saturday, thanks in part to the commanding 3-0 the Red Sox held over the hometown Colorado Rockies.

At first, we thought we might have to stand for a while at the Pour House, but were we lucky enough to have a couple of gentlemen leave their seats within a couple of minutes of our arrival on the rooftop patio. The place was packed like it was the previous night, so we must give props to our waitress who had to weave through people all night in order to serve everyone. During the game, thanks to home runs by Mike Lowell and Bobby Kielty, the crowd got to enjoy a couple of free shots of whiskey.

Everyone got a little nervous when Colorado's Garrett Atkins hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eight inning to bring the Rockies to within one run, but when Jonathan Papelbon struck out Seth Smith to finish the game and clinch the series, the entire bar erupted in bedlam. Greg found himself getting hugged by perfect strangers, a couple of whom actually picked him up off the floor! A couple of patrons opened bottles of champagne and let them spray wildly into the air.

Somehow, the celebration became even more intense when the the bar's sound system played the Dropkick Murphys' "Tessie" and the staff cranked the volume to 11. "Tessie," as seen in the 2005 movie Fever Pitch, is now the official song of the Boston Red Sox, something we didn't realize until this World Series even though we had seen the movie two years ago when it was in theaters. The crowd was whipped into such a dancing frenzy that Sheryl's claustrophobia kicked in, so we had to leave the bar as quickly as the crowd would let us.



We thank the baseball gods that this series was over quickly, because we were beginning to suffer from sleep deprivation from staying up so late to watch these four-hour marathon games. This year's Game Three set a World Series record for a nine inning game by lasting 4:19. Game Three of the 1975 World Series went 10 innings and lasted only 3:03. We don't know how those fans on the East Coast can survive, because at least those of us in the Mountain Time Zone can still get to bed before midnight! Major League Baseball needs to do something to speed up the game, but in the meantime, we're going to enjoy this championship for a while. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in only four months.

The Invasion By Red Sox Nation

Saturday turned out to be one of the most fascinating sports experiences of our lives, as thousands of proud citizens of Red Sox Nation descended upon Denver for Game Three of the 2007 World Series. As we did Thursday night, we elected to watch the game at the Pour House Pub, which is undoubtedly the best Red Sox bar in Colorado. We drove to LoDo at 2:30 pm, thinking that would give us some time to relax and explore the neighborhood before getting a good seat at the bar, but by the time we took a peak inside the bar at about 3:00 pm, the place was already packed with dozens upon dozens of people in Red Sox gear!

The Pour House Pub is about seven blocks from Coors Field, so we took a walk to the ballpark to take in some of the sights. We can't recall the last time LoDo was so crowded on a Saturday afternoon, and nearly everyone we saw was wearing either Rockies or Red Sox merchandise. Just several months ago, we made the observation that we saw more people in Denver wearing Red Sox gear than Rockies gear, but now that Rockies fans have come out of hibernation in the past few weeks, that's no longer the case. Still, the number of Red Sox people we saw was quite impressive, and nearly everyone we passed by smiled at us in recognition of another member of the Nation.

Even though it was several hours before the first pitch, the area immediately outside Coors Field was packed! There was a huge line outside of the Sports Column (our former favorite sports bar), and the SportsFan sporting goods store was doing incredibly brisk business. We actually stopped inside SportsFan intending to buy one of the Red Sox sweatshirts that we saw several days earlier, but they were all sold out. The gates to Coors Field were scheduled to open at 4:00 pm, so thousands of fans were already waiting at the gates, wanting to soak up as much of the World Series atmosphere as they could before the first pitch. A Red Sox couple outside the gates approached us to ask if we could take a photo of them with their camera, and they were nice enough to reciprocate with our camera.

We walked two more blocks to the Blake Street Tavern, but it also had a line of people waiting to get in. Somehow, we doubt if some of them ever got in! On the way back to the Pour House, we started chatting with another Red Sox couple that had flow in from Boston that morning to go to the game. In an incredibly coincidence, they had planned a vacation to Colorado several month ago, only to have their beloved Red Sox follow them to Denver for the World Series. They were lucky enough to get tickets to Game Three, which is remarkable considering how infrequently they are able to get tickets to regular season games at Fenway Park because the demand in so strong. We told them about the Pour House and they decided to follow us there for a couple of drinks before the game. They are actually going to join us at the Blake Street Tavern on Sunday to watch the New England Patriots play the Washington Redskins.

Back at the Pour House, we joined a couple that we knew from the "Go Red Sox" Yahoo! group. They had a table on the rooftop patio, and that was the only reason we were able to get seats! The crowd was full of energy when Carrie Underwood sang the Star-Spangled Banner, and the place went absolutely nuts when the Red Sox scored six runs in the third inning to lead a lead in the game that they would never relinquish. Although Colorado rallied late to make it a 6-5 game at one point, the Red Sox responded to earn a satisfying 10-5 victory, giving Boston a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

Sunday will end up being one of our longest-ever sports days. The Patriots/Redskins game doesn't begin until 2:15 pm, but the last time the Patriots had a late start, we arrived at the Blake Street Tavern about 45 minutes before kickoff and we couldn't find a seat. Thus, we plan on being there Sunday in time to watch one of the 11:00 am games before prior to the Patriots game. Once the Patriots are done, we will walk over the Pour House to catch Game Four in which the Red Sox will try to complete a sweep and win their second World Series in four seasons.

Rocktober vs. Soxtober

For a change of pace, instead watching Game Two of the Rox/Sox World Series Thursday night at the Blake Street Tavern, we elected to catch the game at the Pour House Pub in lower downtown Denver ("LoDo"). Unlike the BST, the Pour House Pub actively markets itself as a Boston bar, so it actually has the Red Sox "B" logo on the cover of its menu. Furthermore, it offers drink specials to Red Sox fans during games, including shots of whiskey whenever a Boston player hits a home run. As a result, the crowd was comprised almost entirely of Red Sox fans.

On the inside, the Pour House considerably smaller than the Blake Street Tavern, but it features a sizeable rooftop patio which is undoubtedly a great place to hang out on warm summer nights. If Thursday night was typical, the Pour House also draws a younger, prettier crowd than the BST. That might by great for some pub crawlers, but it made us pine for our lost youth! One of the night's highlights was when Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" was played over the loudspeakers between innings late in the game, just like it's done at Fenway Park.

Incidentally, the game turned out to be a 2-1 Red Sox victory, giving Boston a 2-0 lead in the series. The Colorado pitchers were successful in keeping Boston's bats relatively quiet, but the Rockies gave up seven walks. Both of Boston's runs were scored by players who got on base by a walk. Games Three, Four and Five are scheduled for Coors Field on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. If Game Five is necessary, it will be played at the same time the Denver Broncos are hosting the Green Bay Packers at Invesco Field, so Monday night might be a huge sports Night for Denver.

Rox vs. Sox

We both left work early on Wednesday afternoon to make sure we got good seats at the Blake Street Tavern to watch Game One of the World Series between the Colorado Rockies and the Boston Red Sox. Joining us were more than a dozen other Red Sox fans from either the Go Red Sox Yahoo! Group or the Denver New England Sportsfan Group. Under typical circumstances, the bar would have been dominated by Red Sox fans, but with so many people in Denver jumping on the Rockies bandwagon, we found ourselves surrounded by people dressed in purple and black.

A number of Sox fans we spoke to shared our feelings of split loyalty between the Red Sox and the Rockies. Like we do, many of them go to Rockies games on a regular basis, so they are intimately familiar with the players and they like to see them do well. Now that the Curse of the Bambino is broken, it is no longer a life or death situation to see the Red Sox win a World Series, so we can sincerely say that we will be happy with the outcome regardless of who wins.

However, things did not go well for the Rockies in Game One. Boston pitcher Josh Beckett put on yet another masterful postseason performance, while the Boston bats exploded for seven runs in the sixth inning en route to a 13-1 victory. The game was already three hours long by the time it reached the seventh inning, so with the Red Sox already leading by 12 runs, we decided to leave the bar early and come home. We plan on being there again tomorrow for Game Two.

Sold Out

We gave it our best shot, but we were unable to obtain any tickets to this year's World Series between our beloved Boston Red Sox and our local Colorado Rockies. After Monday's online ticket fiasco, the Rockies organization put tickets on sale again at noon on Tuesday, and they sold out within 2 1/2 hours. Some of those tickets are already available on StubHub.com for as much as $7,500. We've used ticket brokers in the past to go to football games, but the market prices for these tickets are well out of our range.

Not for a minute do we buy the Rockies' explanation that Monday's problems were caused by a "malicious attack" on Paciolan's servers. While we're certain that a number scalpers were using illicit software in order to purchase tickets, the bottom line is that the Rockies were simply unprepared to handle the demand. The suddenness with which the Rockies forced their way into the postseason also added to the organization's unpreparedness. The Red Sox had distributed their tickets without incident, and even the Cleveland Indians concluded a ticket lottery a couple of weeks ago. Other organizations who have actually been to a World Series before know how to handle this scenario.

Now we have to make a decision as to where to watch the games on TV. We could simply relax at home and watch them, but we are considering going to the Blake Street Tavern so we can be in the company of other Red Sox fans. There is a lot of activity going on in "Go Red Sox," a Denver-based Red Sox Yahoo! group that we belong to, so it's possible that the group might organize some get-togethers.

Honey, I Blew Up the Servers

It was enough of a public relations issue when the Colorado Rockies decided last week to make World Series tickets available only online, but this plan blew up in their faces Monday when the demand for tickets overwhelmed the servers which were designated to handle those transactions. As a result, only a few hundred tickets were sold before Paciolan, the company in charge of those servers, had to shut down their systems for the remainder of the day. As of Monday night, we still don't have World Series tickets, even though thousands of them are still available according to the Rockies ticket office.

Initially, we didn't have a problem with the online-only strategy. In this age of electronic commerce, we can't imagine why anyone would want to wait in line for ticket. However, out-of-state fans, especially fans of the opposing team, are more likely to acquire tickets under an online-only scenario, while tickets purchased at a local box office are much more likely to go to hometown fans. The Rockies inadvertently put their fan base in direct competition with Red Sox Nation, and that nation is quite big and powerful. In retrospect, no one should be surprised that Paciolan's servers received 8.5 millions hits within 90 minutes after the tickets went on sale at 10:00 am.

The Red Sox Win the Pennant!

Our ultimate baseball dream has come true. Thanks to Boston's 11-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game Seven of the American League Championship Series, we are going to see our beloved Red Sox come to Colorado to play the Rockies in the World Series. However, this does leave us a little conflicted, because we genuinely like the Rockies and we consider them to be our favorite National League team. We've always maintained that the Red Sox would take precedence in this situation, but we couldn't help but get caught up in Rockiemania this fall as the Rockies won 21 of their last 22 games in order to win the NL pennant.

After watching the New England Patriots earn a 49-28 win over the Miami Dolphins on TV at the Blake Street Tavern, we dropped by a nearby Sportsfan location to purchase a Red Sox jersey for Sheryl, even though we had already ordered a Rockies National League Champions t-shirt for her online. If we are fortunate enough to get World Series tickets on Monday, we will likely show up at Coors Field next weekend wearing Red Sox gear, but we will derive pleasure from this series regardless of the outcome.