Short hops

While hoping genetics dictate my son is good at a sport that pays...

• I know we tend to push the panic button around here after a total debacle as witnessed Sunday afternoon in Foxborough, but the fact is the Patriots should win out the remainder of the season. Really, the only acceptable loss on the horizon would be the Arizona Cardinals, but seeing as it’s at home, with a West Coast team coming East, even that’s close to a gimmee.

  That would put the Pats at 11-5 to end the season, which may or may not be good enough for the playoffs. Time will tell. However, it seems we all need to be reminded that when Tom Brady went down in Game 1 of the season, the popular theory was that a 10-6 mark was the best to hope for. Now, add in key losses of Rodney Harrison, Laurence Maroney, and Adalius Thomas. Yes, the schedule turned out a bit weaker than expected (San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis) but you could also argue that the emergences of Miami and the Jets evened that out somewhat. And still, 10-6 is a near certainty. Turns out, they may be a game better.

• I stopped at a Mansfield Tedeschi’s last night on the way home in order to pick up milk for the boy, and it felt like walking into the final scene of “The Karate Kid” “Daniel LaRusso is gonna fight!” “Mansfield is gonna play!” All this after nearly having its playoff game vs. Bishop Feehan cancelled after it came to light that Mansfield used a fifth-year player in two of its contests earlier this season.

  But amazingly, this whole ridiculous affair still isn’t over.

  Chris Forsberg writes: “The MIAA is not going down without a fight, however.

  “The organization announced Tuesday night it has instructed its lawyers to file a motion with the Massachusetts Court of Appeals to overturn Tuesday's decision made in Superior Court. Should the MIAA's motion be granted, Wednesday's game would be canceled for the second time and Bishop Feehan would advance to Saturday's Super Bowl to meet Walpole.”

  Lawyers? Court of Appeals? Really, MIAA? You’re a joke. Whether or not head coach Mike Redding and the Mansfield athletic staff should receive punishment is debate for another time. For now, just let the kids play.

• Haven’t we known about these inane Red Sox caskets for a good 2-4 years now? This is news now, because…

• Good story in the New York Times yesterday about a UVM student’s successful quest to bring football back to the university as a club sport. Eh tu, BU?

• "I am really happy to be back in Calgary, I love Canada. I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about. Enjoy the game tonight."

  Those, of course, are the comments from Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery yesterday in Calgary, where Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf is dating Avery’s old flame, Elisha Cuthbert, of “24” fame. He received an indefinite suspension from commish Gary Bettman over those words. Indefinite. Imagine if Bettman were in charge of Major League Baseball in the 70’s, Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson might never again have seen the light of day.

• If the Lions go 0-16 a year after the Patriots went 16-0, will we consider that palindromic?

• The NFL hasn’t fined Ryan Clark for his hit on Wes Welker. Of course, Clark was already fined $5,000 by the league earlier this season by etching the No. 21 in his eye black in honor of his former Redskins teammate, the late Sean Taylor. Obviously we know now which of his actions was seen as more egregious by the ever-puzzling front offices of the league.

• Back to the genetics thing for a moment, I'm somewhat astounded by the fervency here in the voice of Atlas Sports Genetics president Kevin Reilly: "If you wait until high school or college to find out if you have a good athlete on your hands, by then it will be too late. We need to identify these kids from 1 and up, so we can give the parents some guidelines on where to go from there."

  One and up? Sorry, buddy. I'd like my kid to enjoy - key word - sports as much as the next guy, but we're gonna work on getting three words out of him before we start planning his Olympic future, OK?

• I honestly can’t take another month of debating Jim Rice’s Hall of Fame worth, which is really the same as it has been for the past 15 years. But this year, the writers say, Rice has his best shot. It’s also his last. How one man can look better to the voters 15 years later than a mere five years after he played is beyond me, but this is the wacky system the Hall of Fame is built upon. And if Evan Grant has a vote, well, Rice is done for.

  Here’s the entire ballot: Harold Baines, Jay Bell, Bert Blyleven, David Cone, Andre Dawson, Ron Gant, Mark Grace, Rickey Henderson, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Mark McGwire, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Jesse Orosco, Dave Parker, Dan Plesac, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, Alan Trammell, Greg Vaughn, Mo Vaughn, Matt Williams.

  I still don’t understand why Morris doesn’t get more votes.

  Of course, if there were an RBI Baseball Hall of Fame, Plesac and Orosco would be this year’s shoo-ins.

• I smell a conspiracy. Has Major League Baseball forced teams to out a hold on any big-name free agent signings so that it can launch its brand-new network on Jan. 1 with a bang? Probably not, and thank goodness the network still has 28 days, not to mention the GM meetings, leading up to its debut on a day when there just isn’t any other sporting event to watch (countless bowl games, NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field). And if the NFL Network is any sort of litmus, you can color me unexcited.