Picked-up pieces while waiting for the AFC Championship game . . .
-- Please tell me you were rooting for the Colts. Wouldn't this 19-0 ride be more satisfying with a butt-kicking of Indy at the Razor? Wouldn't that be like beating Derek Jeter and Friends en route to the 2004 World Series win? Wouldn't that be like the old Larry Bird Celtics beating the Lakers instead of the Houston Rockets to win the NBA championship? When you are the best, you should want to play the best and I was dismayed at the noise from pom-pom Patriots fans who didn't want a showdown with the Colts. Wimps. Real sports fans wanted the Colts.
-- In a perfect world, Sherm Feller still would be alive and the Cubs would come to Fenway in 2008 so we could hear Sherm announce Kosuke Fukudome coming to bat. The correct pronunciation of the Japanese right fielder's name is KOH-shay Foo-koo-DOUGH-may.
-- The Coke bottles most likely will not be on the Green Monster this summer. Look for them to be relocated to another light tower.
-- Questions posed to Randy Moss in the interview room after Saturday night's win over the Jaguars: "I really like your outfit. Where did you get that? I love your fashion sense. Can we see your pants?" Yeesh. Sounded a little like Mike Wallace with Roger Clemens.
-- A few words about Bruins boss Charlie Jacobs: In a lengthy profile (written by John Gonzalez) in December's Boston Magazine, son-of-Jeremy made the preposterous claim that the Globe allows him to review articles about himself before publication.
Jacobs told Gonzalez, "When I do a story with the Boston business section of the Globe, if I do a real estate story . . . or if I do a story with [Kevin] Dupont that might be controversial . . . the Globe will show me the story so that they avoid any confrontations post-publication."
Globe business editor Shirley Leung and our intrepid Dupont categorically denied Charlie's statement ("ludicrous," said Dupont). Turns out Charlie meant to say that sometimes the Globe will call him and read his quotes back to him for accuracy. When reached for comment, Jacobs acknowledged, "I don't see them [Globe articles]. I've never had a story in my hand. I've never had Kevin call me. Kevin never ran a story by me."
Whew. For a minute there I was worried.
-- Finally figured out why I'm not going to Beijing with Team Globe for the Summer Games. Turns out the Chinese government created profiles of thousands of foreign journalists in what looks like an attempt to ban critical types from covering the Olympics. Maybe they can put Charlie Jacobs on the screening committee.
-- Speaking of China, four Patriots cheerleaders and the squad director went to China for the purpose of teaching wannabe cheerleaders and promoting professional football in the world's most populous country. It was the second trip in seven months for the dancers. And the question is . . . why?
-- When the Celtics traded Danny Ainge to the Sacramento Kings in 1989, Pat Gillick (general manager of the Blue Jays at the time) called Ainge and offered him a job as a reserve outfielder for Toronto.
-- Josh McDaniels should make sure he wears his credentials when the Patriots get to Arizona. McDaniels looks younger than Matt Estrella.
-- When Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley was targeted by gunmen in the wee hours outside an Indianapolis hotel last month, veteran Celtics watchers noted that the wounded party was the one and only Joe Qatato - Larry Bird's former ball retriever. Back in the day when Larry would shoot in a dark Boston Garden a couple of hours before tipoff, Joe Q was the man who did the rebounding. Larry took Joe Q with him when he went to the Pacers, and Q was in the wrong place at the wrong time when criminals were gunning for Tinsley. Struck in both elbows, Qatato was treated and released from Methodist Hospital in the hours after the shooting.
-- Check the Harvard men's basketball box scores and you will see "McGeary." It's Dan McGeary, older brother of Jack McGeary, who last year signed with the Washington Nationals and attends Stanford. Dan scored 11 in Harvard's win over Michigan last month. Jack will be pitching in the Nats system this summer, possibly in Burlington, Vt. The McGeary boys grew up in Newton and their dad, Pat, played against the likes of Norm Nixon and Cedric Maxwell when he was a guard for St. Francis back in the day.
-- Memo to 30-year-old stat geeks combing through Jim Rice's numbers: Get out of the house and look at the sky one time. I know personal contact frightens you, but let go of OPS for a moment and try talking to someone who saw Rice play, or better yet, played against him.
-- We thought we were done with John Harrington, but the affable accountant should be again embarrassed if he had any part in the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee's shunning of Marvin Miller last month.
-- Rudy Giuliani was a member of the Garden City Red Sox in 1954.
-- It's hard to hear Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" ("greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes") without thinking of an old gray sweatshirt.
-- Anyone who covered Tom Coughlin during his days at Boston College knows that Coughlin is a stand-up guy. It looked like he was all done at the end of the 2006 season, but the Giants stunned the New York media by announcing that Coughlin was coming back. Now he has them in the NFC Championship game. It's hard not to view the Giants' post-Christmas season finale against the Patriots as the key to their postseason run. The Giants got their groove back by taking the Patriots to the limit and it has carried over into the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised to see Coughlin wearing a T-shirt on the sideline at Lambeau Sunday. Cold? What cold? Let's play two.
-- I need to see Ray Allen as "Jesus" in "He Got Game." And you should watch "Milk Money" starring Melanie Griffith (1994) and try to find a young Kevin Youkilis.
-- Speaking of acting, Wes Welker has to tell Bob's Discount Furniture to stop running the ad.
-- The Cowboys as America's Team? Please. Your New England Patriots have won 16 playoff games since the Cowboys' last postseason win (1996).
-- Love this quote from Ducks GM Brian Burke: "In our bottom six forwards, we look for the requisite level of pugnacity, truculence, belligerence, hostility, and testosterone."
-- UCLA freshman Kevin Love is the nephew of original Beach Boy Mike Love.
-- In the spirit of this year's Patriots, I wrote a column a few weeks back about things that are "perfect" and inexplicably omitted Warren Zevon's werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic's. The werewolf's hair, of course, was perfect.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.
