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!