Lackey sharp in return as Red Sox complete sweep of Astros

Published April 28, 2013

Sports Network

Boston, MA –  Stephen Drew and David Ortiz each drove in a pair of runs while John Lackey pitched six strong innings for the Boston Red Sox, who completed a four-game sweep of the Houston Astros with a 6-1 win at Fenway Park.

Lackey (1-1), activated from the 15-day disabled list prior to the game, needed just 81 pitches to get through six innings in his second outing of the season. He allowed a run and five hits to go with four strikeouts as Boston completed its third series sweep of the season and retained the best record in the major leagues.

Daniel Nava and Matt Carp each had two hits for the Sox. Nava also scored three runs and ended the game with a diving catch out in right field.

Bud Norris (3-3) recorded the loss for Houston after surrendering five runs -- three earned -- on nine hits in six innings of work.

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New Jersey's Brodeur records goal in return

Published March 21, 2013

Sports Network

Raleigh, NC –  New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur was credited with his NHL-record third career goal during Thursday's game against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.

Brodeur, who had missed the last 13 games with back soreness, made a stick save on Jeff Skinner's breakaway attempt early in the first period, but New Jersey defenseman Marek Zidlicky was whistled for hooking.

Carolina netminder Dan Ellis then left his net because of the delayed penalty call, and Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal fired a pass toward the left point that banked off the boards and traveled the length of the ice into the empty net.

Brodeur was the last New Jersey player to touch the puck and was credited with the power-play marker at the 3:54 mark.

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Irish in Breezy Point celebrate St. Patrick's Day with hopes to return home after Sandy

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  A concrete foundation is all that remains where a home once stood in Breezy Point.Fox News

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  Jerry O'Hara watched Sandy from the Blarney Castle. He is joined by Betty Glennon, who has been living in New Jersey since the storm.Fox News

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  Remnants of a home seen in Breezy Point.Fox News

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  Richard Cannon, a New York City firefighter, in front of his Breezy Point home.Fox News

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  A concrete foundation is all that remains where a home once stood in Breezy Point.Fox News

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NEW YORK –  Last year was a tough one, but all things considered, Richard Cannon, a New York City firefighter with roots to Ireland, says the luck of the Irish has been on his side.

After all, it was three years ago when he met his fiancé at the Long Island Irish Festival in September that marks the half-way point before St. Patrick's Day.

He bought a home in Breezy Point, a modest one-story house in earshot of his father's, and renovated the property for the better part of three years.

He paid $50,000 on furniture, another $30,000 on a deck and spent hours working on the home that only three months after its completion, would be ruled unsafe by the New York Department of Buildings and be required to be torn down.

"I cried for days," Cannon said, wearing a blue cast on his right wrist as a result of tearing three tendons at work. "My home was a buffer for my neighbors' houses."

Breezy Point is a part of the Rockaway peninsula on the southern coast of New York -- and one of the hardest areas hit by last October's Superstorm Sandy. The small community made international headlines when a huge fire destroyed 80 to 100 homes.

Cannon visited his property on St. Patrick's Day and pointed his hand with the cast to Graham Place, the route the Atlantic Ocean took to flood his home.

"The water came in right there," he said, gesturing to the road like a witness would describe a crime scene. "It turned there and…well, here's my house."

Cannon said he had prepared for the Storm by stacking sandbags around his house before leaving for a trout-fishing trip in upstate New York.

"I thought, at worst, it would be like (Hurricane) Irene where we got a little water," he said. "I never expected this."

When you talk to Breezy Point residents, without fail, there's a point in the conversation where they demonstrate how high the water levels reached in their home. They raise their hand to their stomach or knees, or chest, like they're measuring snow,

"My entire first floor was under water," Donald Ryan, who lived in the beachfront community for 67 years, said. "This was the worst I've ever seen."

St. Patrick's Day in Breezy Point is traditionally subdued. Most residents either celebrate in New York City or, on the first weekend of March, at local bars in the Rockaways.

This year, residents in the country's most Irish zip code, with 54.3 percent having lineage to Ireland, used the day to dress in some variation of green and take time to consider their post-Sandy lives.

"I think this year, there's a sense of a rebuilding spirit," Fr. Sean Sockiel, 27, who was assigned to Breezy Point's St. Thomas More Church. "The storm hit us on a Tuesday, and the church was packed on Sunday."

Sockiel, who was just ordained a priest months before Sandy, said he had something of a baptism by "fire, storm and water."

"My main mission has been to help the children," he said. "They've been very strong for their parents."

The 8 a.m. Mass on St. Patrick's Day at St. Thomas More was packed. Parishioners were there to see the Prime Minister of Ireland, Enda Kenny, read from the Gospel. He later had breakfast and took a tour of the area with his security detail. In one section, he saw rows of concrete foundations that are now markings of where bungalows had once stood.

Many residents have been displaced and make a weekly trip to their homes. The exact number is hard to quantify, but out of the 2,836 homes, just over 400 are occupied. Some homes appear abandoned and have Halloween decorations still in place, an eerie reminder of when the storm struck.

Jerry O'Hara, 70, is a Vietnam veteran who bartends at the Blarney Castle, the only operating bar on the Breezy Point peninsula after the two others were totaled. He recalled his front-row seat to the storm from the bar that sits along Rockaway Point Boulevard, the main road in town.

"The water got to the window and I saw an orange halo of fire to the west," he said. "Did you ever feel useless?… I felt useless."

O'Hara's son called him and confirmed that the glow was produced by the dozens of homes engulfed in flames. He spent the night in the bar with six others and left at 7:30 the next morning, when the tide receded. "It was devastating," he said.

The Blarney Castle had a thin crowd Sunday afternoon. There were six older men dressed in jeans and sweatshirts. A few were taking a break from working on their homes.

Betty Glennon, 94, swept into the bar and gushed over a worker for Habitat for Humanities named Matt who had been working on her home. "I wish I was younger," Glennon said. "Much much younger."

She has been living in New Jersey and told the men that she just ordered a new three-wheeled bike that she can't wait to use at the beach next summer.

To be sure, many residents in Breezy Point look to the summer to get back to some sense of normalcy.

"I don't care if I have to sleep in a tent," Tim Devlins, an 18-year resident, said at the bar. "I'll be here this summer."

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Miss your connection and your return flight is canceled? Let the blame games begin

When Richard Missett’s Dec. 21 flight from Buffalo to New York JFK on JetBlue was late arriving, he missed his connection on Emirates Airlines to Manila via Dubai. 

Missett, a medical student from Erie, PA, bought the entire trip through Emirates on one ticket and with one reservation number and had 2.5 hours to make the connection at JFK.  Emirates rebooked him on Delta and Gulf Air via London and Bahrain. However, when he showed up for his return flight from Manila back to Buffalo he was informed that his entire return itinerary had been canceled because he was deemed a “no show” on his New York to Manila flight. 

As a result, he was stranded in Dubai for 22 hours, eventually getting on a flight from Dubai to Dallas, then Dallas to Pittsburgh (which he paid for himself) and then had a friend pick him up for the drive back to Buffalo. 

“All in all, it took me 65 hours to get home,” he laments. “And by the way, Emirates refused to provide meals or a hotel while I waited for nearly a full day in Dubai.”

So why was his return flight canceled even though Emirates was aware of the “misconnect” at JFK on his outward journey and what lessons, if any, can you learn from all this?

Lessons to be learned

First, let me say this. Missett did not have enough time to comfortably connect. Two-and-a-half hours is not enough time to make a domestic-to-international connection at New York’s JFK, especially in winter over the busy holiday travel period. You should never accept such a tight connection. Next time, insist on the maximum layover you can get (four hours sounds about right). If your first flight is on time, great. Enjoy the airport. Read a book. Get a day pass to the lounge. It’s worth it. 

Second, if you do miss your connection, do not get on the rebooked connecting flight without a printout of your complete new itinerary in hand, showing a confirmation of your return segments. Assume that the airline will cancel all of your return flights (even though they’re not supposed to do that). Don’t wait until you show up for the return to discover you’re stranded.

What happened?

Why was Missett’s return flight canceled? I contacted both Emirates and JetBlue, and although both are now offering some sort of compensation, I have to say I’m not satisfied and neither should he be. (Emirates is offering to pay for Missett’s out-of-pocket expenses, upon presentation of receipts, which is great, except it doesn’t compensate him for the agony of a 65-hour ordeal getting home; JetBlue is offering a $100 future flight credit).

Each airline, in the most polite terms, seems to be blaming the other for not “protecting” Missett’s return flights. Emirates’ customer service claims that, “It is the responsibility of the inbound carrier (in this case JetBlue) to protect a passenger’s booking when they become aware of a delay which could result in a missed connection.” 

Emirates further claims that their representative who booked Missett on alternate flights did attempt to reinstate his return booking, but his seat was snapped up by another traveler as soon as it went back into inventory “due to the busy holiday season.” 

JetBlue is saying that they, too, attempted “to find passage on any one of our 20 partners” but were unable to do so, at which point “Emirates stepped in to assist by confirming … travel on another carrier….Emirates indicates that a communication issue failed to recognize [the] outbound flight as flown.”

A communication failure

I think the key words here are “failed” and “communication.” As soon as Missett’s inbound JetBlue flight was recognized as being late (perhaps even before he left the ground in Buffalo) both airlines should have realized that he would miss his Emirates connection from JFK, and both should have immediately worked to protect his return flights. 

Whether because of human error or poorly coordinated computer systems, this was not done. I think Missett is entitled to a refund of the return portion of his flight homeward. And I’m shocked that Emirates refused him hotel and meals in Dubai, and made him pay his own way from Dallas to Buffalo. 

I thought they were better than that.

George Hobica is a syndicated travel journalist and founder of the low-airfare listing site Airfarewatchdog.com.

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Mavericks return from All-Star break badly needing wins to keep long playoff streak alive

DALLAS –  With or without Dirk Nowitzki, the Dallas Mavericks have virtually the same record this season — a losing one.

If they don't start winning at a pace reminiscent of the three 60-win seasons they've had in the Nowitzki era, the Mavericks are likely to miss the playoffs for the first time since the big German's second year in 2000.

But Dallas better be careful weighing all that history, Vince Carter figures.

"I don't think we can board watch as far as the standings are concerned," said Carter, who came into the league the same year as Nowitzki. "I think it just drives you crazy. You just go out there and you press, press, press, because you know you need the game. That's already understood anyway."

It's been understood since the season started. For the second straight year since winning the franchise's first championship, Dallas rebuilt the roster with Nowitzki as the anchor. But this time the Mavericks realized they needed to grab every win they could after they found out he would miss the beginning of the season because of the first knee surgery of his career.

When their star came back after missing 27 games, the Mavericks were in a brutal stretch of their schedule and couldn't find a way to win close games.

Nearly two months later, Dallas (23-29) is still finding ways to lose and entered the All-Star break 4½ games behind Houston for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Mavericks, who play for the first time in a week when Orlando visits on Wednesday night, were 12-15 before Nowitzki returned Dec. 23 against San Antonio, and they're 11-14 since.

"Some of that is guys sharing court time and chemistry and certain guys zigging while the other guy thought he was zagging," said Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson. "The whole mantra of the first half of the season was, 'Hey, let's win our share, let's stay in the hunt, let's get the big German back and see where things take us."

A lot of that strategy relied on new backcourt mates Darren Collison and O.J. Mayo, who helped Dallas to a 4-1 start before Collison started regressing and teams realized Mayo was the most dangerous scoring threat and started taking him away.

Collison lost his starting job after a particularly bad game in a blowout loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Mavericks brought in veterans Derek Fisher and Mike James as mentors, and even as replacements in certain situations in case Collison's struggles continued.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle admittedly has been hard on the replacement for Jason Kidd, and Collison has responded by re-establishing himself as the starter.

"It's not about my mood," Carlisle said. "It's about us playing well and doing everything we can possibly do to play our best to give ourselves a chance to trend upward. I understand that this job that I'm in is about being demanding and it's about having standards of excellence that are uncompromised. We just haven't been able to sustain, but I still believe we can do it."

Mayo's biggest problem has been turnovers — he has a team-high 149 — and the issue was never more evident than the last time the Mavericks looked like they finally might be on to something before faltering.

Dallas had won two straight and had a chance to beat East playoff contender Atlanta two games before the break when Mayo stole the ball and was headed for a layup trailing by one in the final minute. He switched hands on the dribble just before he got to the basket, giving Devin Harris a chance to steal it back. Mayo had another turnover on a bad pass when the Mavericks had one last chance to tie.

"It's tough when you look at it now," said Nowitzki, whose scoring (15.2) and rebounding (5.7) averages are the lowest since his rookie season. "We've had close losses that could come back and haunt us. Atlanta, we shouldn't have lost. We've had too many of those close games where we've been on the short end of the stick."

The Mavericks thought they built a playoff contender even after Deron Williams spurned them in free agency, and they still have a chance to prove it assuming center Chris Kaman returns soon from a concussion that has sidelined him for eight games. The other significant offseason addition was Elton Brand, who was picked up in an amnesty claim from Philadelphia.

Carter came to Dallas in the first roster purge last year, when the Mavericks didn't bring back center Tyson Chandler and other important pieces of their title team and got swept in the first round by Oklahoma City. Carter's 10.1-point scoring average last season was the lowest of his career, but he's emerged recently as the biggest scoring threat behind Mayo and Nowitzki.

In the last game before the break, Carter scored 26 and hit five 3-pointers in the third quarter to carry Dallas past Sacramento, another reason the Mavericks probably will end up keeping him and Shawn Marion despite both names being popular in rumors leading to Thursday's trading deadline.

"I don't get caught up in what's being read and if we have a shot or not," Carter said. "If we don't believe in the locker room that we have a shot, we won't ever have a shot. It doesn't matter what's said outside the locker room, and I think our guys are pretty confident."

The playoffs start now for the Mavericks and their 12-year postseason streak.

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Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lschuylerd

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