TONIGHT – William C. Rhoden, of the New York Times and that ESPN snoozefest Sports Reporters fame, is appearing tonight at Brown for a discussion regarding race and sport in America. He will appear alongside former Bears and current Oregon State University (way to mess that one up, PC) men’s basketball coach and certifiable “next-big-thing” Craig Robinson, as well as Brown junior student-athlete Nicole Burns.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Brown prof Jim Campbell and begins at 7 p.m. in the Andrews Dining Hall. The talk is free and open to the Brown community, as well as communities of other colors (that is, the general public).

If you have at least a passing interest in both sports and race relations, you should probably go… who knows, there may even be snacks.

Sox take season opener with Oakland 6-5, with Manny driving in Lugo and Pedroia with a two-run double in the tenth. Papalbon not quite in the groove yet.  You gotta love the Japanese… stadium music was Dropkick Murphys of course, and ‘If you’re happy and you know it’.  Watch game two tomorrow morning on NESN at 6:00AM.

West Virginia beat Duke this week, moving into the Round of 16 in NCAA tournament, and knocking out a 2nd seeded team with eight McDonalds All-Americans. The NYT notes that RI native and former Hendricken star Joe Mazzulla was a big part of the offense that put WV over the top:

[Duke Coach] Krzyzewski called Mazzulla the game’s most valuable player.

[Joe] Alexander and Mazzulla represent how a program of overachievers has become a well-balanced medley featuring the finesse offense favored by the former coach John Beilein and the rugged defense taught by Huggins.

Alexander barely played for his prep school team at Hargrave Military Academy and picked the Mountaineers over Tulane. Mazzulla is from Rhode Island, not a hot spot on the college recruiting trail, and picked West Virginia over Atlantic 10 programs.

Does this mean they’re staying put in Prov for 8 years, or that they’re staying affiliated with Boston for 8 years, or both?

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Bruins will keep their minor-league affiliate in Rhode Island for another eight years.

Providence’s American Hockey League franchise has been affiliated with the Bruins since its inception in 1992. A total of 156 Bruins have developed there, including Patrice Bergeron, Glen Murray, Mark Stuart and Tim Thomas.

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli says the partnership between the organizations has never been stronger. He added that having the teams close together benefits both on the ice and with marketing.

This past weekend the inaugural Providence Foosball Tournament of Champions was a raging success, with numerous neck and neck matches fraying the nerves of even the most poised of foosball competitors. The event was shortened to a Sunday only affair and due to time constraints only the doubles portion of the tournament was completed. There were 6 teams, with the first round being a round-robin where every team played every other team. The 4 teams with the best records went on to a semi-finals, matched up by seed, and the two finalists played best 2 out of 3.

In the end, East Side meets West Side (Chris Erway and Dan Schleifer) triumphed over The Coop (think The Wire), made up of Joseph Gulezian and myself. The finals match was a disappointing (to me) route, especially given The Coop’s domination in the early going of the tournament. Perhaps the grueling afternoon spent hunched over the field of battle, along with copious alcohol consumption dulled the reflexes of The Coop, while ExW, who started slowly, losing their first two matches, began building momentum and intensity as the afternoon wore on, culminating in the finals domination. A rematch will no doubt occur in the not too distant future.

The singles portion of the tournament was delayed and will most likely take place on the east side to balance out any potential home side advantage (though given the fact that all three east siders made it to the finals (what what!), i worry that we may be too dominant in our own stomping grounds.) Details regarding the next tournament will be posted as they become available.

Until next time, foos on.

- WTF? New NY Gov David Paterson already involved in non-prostitute sex scandal.

- Dalai Lama calls China’s bluff:
“Search my urine and stool to see if I incited the riots.”

- Brown going to the College Basketball Invitational (???), URI to the NIT [ Boston Herald].

- The dollar has ebola, but RISD bonds are way way up! RISD Bonds?!?

- Diddy denies report connecting him to Tupac’s murder. Why are we hearing about this now?

- Chafee slams H. Clinton’s war vote as “ Democratic Bush-enabling.” Just facts, ma’am.

- Surprise! RI Landfill corporation “donated millions of dollars in public money to charities in return for sports tickets, meals and other perks and paid above-market prices for land connected to government officials.” Whoopsie!

The Ocean State is nearly shut out of the postseason, URI makes the NIT, even though they’re playing like crap:

Creighton (21-10) plays host to Rhode Island (21-11) at 9 p.m. CDT on Tuesday. Nebraska (19-12) plays Charlotte (20-13) at 8 p.m. CDT on Wednesday.

Rhode Island lost 75-73 to Charlotte last week in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament. The Rams have lost eight of their last 10 games.

This weekend, prepare for an epic tournament the likes of which Providence has never seen before and may never see again.

The illustrious members of 32 Battery Street will be hosting March Madness, foosball style. Both singles and doubles, with first and second rounds on Saturday, and Semi-Final and Championship rounds on Sunday. Registration is tonight from 8pm - 1am, $2 entry fee to go to the winner and to supply loads of pizza.  Details here

Bring it!

America’s favorite past-time ( no, not $1000/hr prostitutes) has taken yet another hit recently, this time in Rhode Island’s heartland, Cumberland. An alleged swindler had allegedly bilked 11 Northern RI families out of some $35,000 after he claimed to be a former minor league players with connections to the Baltimore Orioles.

Heartbreaking aspect number one: this dude secured loans from local parents to help him start the “Field of Dreams Baseball Academy,” a scheme at which one must gasp for its cruel exploitation of a heartwarming story about lost youth and the great game to steal from hardworking Cumberlanders. Heartbreaking aspect number two: He has been doing this all across the country.

There is no joy in Mudville, or the Blackstone Valley in this case, for this dude. (more…)

The Providence Grays are back, with their crazy olde no-gloves baseball. Though they apparently have no qualms about promoting themselves via the internet. Come on, guys: The web didn’t exist in the 1880s — Al Gore wasn’t even in diapers yet.

All that temporal dissonance begs the obvious question: What’s the team policy on ‘roids?

I thought I’d let you know that the Providence Grays Vintage Base Ball Club is starting spring training this Saturday Sunday on the Moses Brown campus, and we’re looking for some fresh arms and legs to help us continue bringing Providence’s history as a National League and World’s championship city back to life for an 11th season.

This should be a particularly exciting summer as we’re finalizing arrangements with the city to bring the Grays back to their original home in the Armory District. Interested players should email team captain Brian Travers at btravers@salemstate.edu.

They won today, but need to beat Charlotte next weekend just to get back to .500 in the A-10, even after starting 19-3. And it seems like they need to make it to the conf championship game to have a real shot at the tourney.

Cornell clinched the Ivies, and PC is at 4-11 in the Big East. So it looks like there won’t be much post-season for RI schools this year.

Bucks County Congressman Patrick Murphy, D-8, has taken the rivalry between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants to Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, the House passed a resolution congratulating the New York Giants on winning this year’s Super Bowl “and completing one of the most remarkable postseason runs in professional sports history.”

The resolution passed by a vote of 412 to 1.

It has been hard for me lately to keep an open mind about the Lone Star State, what with the current administration in Washington, and Halliburton and Enron, and the evil Belo corporation cutting and gutting our once-fine newspaper, the Providence Journal. And as if that wasn’t enough, yesterday I tuned in to the congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball and within a minute I was hearing a discussion of the palpable mass on Roger Clemens’ buttocks — an image I can not get out of my head!!!

But then I remembered that spring training had started, and the wonderful (Texan) Josh Beckett would soon be back on my TV, and maybe Texas isn’t such a bad place after all.

(The views expressed here are strictly my own and in no way reflect those of The Providence Daily Dose… although I bet they kinda really do… certainly the part about Roger Clemens’ buttocks.)

No other event in the American sporting scene quite captures the essence of sports like the NBA All-Star game. Where else could you find flashy rich white dudes from New Jersey bobbing their heads to Mary J. Blige? Where else could you find the amazing confluence of corporate corporate glad-handing and palm-greasing and other innuendo laden noun-participle pairings? The NBA All-Star game is all style and no substance, worse than the Pro Bowl because at least the NFL’s shitshow doesn’t pretend to matter… (more…)

Lost to Temple last night. Lost to Mass, and barely beat Fordham. And only 6-4 in the Atlantic 10. They’re still 20-5 over-all, but uh-ohs…

PC is miserable. But Brown’s second in the Ivies, and within striking distance. Are they the dark-horse RI candidate to make the tourney?

Also, what’s with Cornell leading at 6-0, with Penn and Princeton in the middle of the pack? The last time neither Penn nor Princeton won the conference was 1988. And the last time before that was 1961.

It’s true. Shaq Attaq, who’s been sidelined with injuries on and off and on since helping deliver a championship to the 2006 Heat, is going to Phoenix. Ouch, right?

Pat Riley, the Heat’s coach and president, said trading O’Neal was “a very, very hard decision,” but said Miami was committed to rebuilding.

“Everything we do now, moving forward, is to build around Dwyane,” he told reporters in Auburn Hills, Mich., at the Miami-Detroit game. “That’s where it is.”

The Suns’ decision to acquire O’Neal, however, has been greeted mostly with skepticism and quizzical looks.

If you love the Suns’ game, watching Steven Nash and Amare Stoudemire run the floor, just imagine Shaq in the mix. Minus Shawn Marion, who goes to the Heat in this deal. (more…)