The NHL held their annual outdoor “Winter Classic” game up in Boston at Fenway Park. The faithful came out in full force for the game and the Bruins did not disappoint, winning the game 2-1

Photo from Boston.com

Here is a nice piece on Boston.com “celebrating” the 30th anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978. If you grew up or lived in the New England area around that time, you will no doubt remember that “mother of all storms”. To this day, I don’t think I’ve experienced anything like it. I vividly remember the streets and alleys of Boston having snow over my head. It was crazy. Good times, good times.

The Red Sox are in the World Series for the second time in four years, the Patriots are undefeated at 7-0 and looking like they are well on their way to a very special season, and (shudder) the Celtics are looking like a formidable team to beat in the NBA Eastern Conference. In fact, William C. Rhoden of the NY Times wrote a piece about how its such a good time to be a New England/Boston sports fan.

Now about that Syracuse University football program.

Knowledge@Wharton recently posted an article on the Red Sox from a branding and marketing perspective. It talks about the Sox’ run to the 2004 World Series Championship and the notion that Red Sox Nation may not exactly know how to react to the fact that the Sox won it all, after 86 years of frustration and painful defeats. Its an interesting article however it re-inforces the notion that as much as we want to think “its just a game”, the reality is that its really all business.

And as irony would have it, the Red Sox lost last night to the White Sox in typical Red Sox fashion, when an error by Tony Graffanino led to a 5 run inning for Chicago. As the NY Times put it, “Just because the Red Sox won the World Series last season does not mean that baseball cannont torture them on occasion.”