I spoke about this once before on here, ( The Spygate Specter) and now I’m forced to talk about the stupid saga again. Much like Senator Arlen Specter, I’m “incensed.” But not at how the National Football League handled Spygate. I’m “incensed” at the fact that once again Specter has taken time out of his obviously wide open schedule to address a “national” issue like Spygate. Who knows? Maybe how the NFL handled Spygate will somehow influence the United States economy or even the presidential race. I mean, if it takes time out of Capitol Hill’s busy docket, it has to have some impact on the state of our beautiful nation.

Now, the Pennsylvania Republican is calling for an independent investigation in order to get to the bottom of the inadequate way that the NFL handled the dubious scandal that revolved around scouting tapes.

“What is necessary is an objective investigation. And this one has not been objective,” Specter stated at a news conference in the Capitol.

To me, some of the comments aimed at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell resemble a slight form of slander. For instance, Specter said that Goodell made “ridiculous” assumptions that wouldn’t fly “in kindergarten,” which is obviously a blatant attack on his level of intellect.

Some of the greatest performances in NBA history have come in elimination games. A player’s team is up against the wall, and he reaches down for that extra something; that push that will put his team over the top. In the spirit of the first elimination game of this Celtics/Cavs series, I took a similar route. I dug deep and scored an interview that was only possible thanks to the greatness of the NBA Playoffs. I sat down with Adam Cole-Kelly of VH-1’s Best Week Ever (and Cavs fan extraordinaire) to get his thoughts on the impending Game 6

Rich Levine: Adam, now that Doc seems dedicated to playing Rondo without Cassell-related interruptions, I feel like the Celtics chances are better than ever. As a Clevelander, where do you stand?

Adam Cole-Kelly: You know, it was intimidating enough going up against the Big Three, but i don’t know how we’re going to handle it now that Rondo has made it the… Bigger Four? Or is it the Four Leaf Scorers? Or maybe Rayjon Piernett? Whatever we call them, we’re going to have as much trouble containing them as I did coming up with a suitable nickname, and that’s a real double whammy. Rajon’s teardrops are so pretty and painful that they bring tear drops to my eyes.

Yesterday, for the first time in recent memory, I asked myself a soul-coughing question: Am I rooting for the Yankees to beat the Rays? To quote David Byrne of Talking Heads, “How did I get here?”

The pecking order in the American League East has been more or less undisturbed for a decade. It’s pretty much gone Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles, Devil Rays. Sure, the Red Sox have won two World Series titles in the last four years, and some of the bottom feeders have swapped musical chairs, but the Yankees won the division title every single year from 1998 to 2006, while the Red Sox finished second from 1998 to 2005. In short, no team besides New York or Boston has been a legitimate threat in the American League East since Jeffrey Maier was in grammar school. Now it’s mid May and the Yankees are in last, the Rays are in first, the Earth has tottered off its axis, and I don’t know who I’m supposed to be rooting for.

Listen, I’m totally lost for words. Actually, I could say a few things, but being reprimanded would be the inevitable conclusion. So, I choose to look the way of the pink hats and think everything is fine and dandy.

One thing I have to say is that the Boston Red Sox should buy space on the front and back pages of every newspaper in this city and issue a thank you to the individuals in charge of the Spygate “probe” trash. Because if Spygate wasn’t the main topic these days, the Sox would be getting lambasted by every media outlet in New England, thought I’d drop a hint.

We all know the Sox dropped both games in their pressure packed two-game series with the Orioles, so I thought I’d make this short and sweet, just like the breathing room the Sox will have once the C’s and Spygate drop from the headlines. Viva la Lowrie!

I’m not a big fan of second-guessing managers. After all, successful moves are usually overlooked, so it’s unfair to highlight the moves that get burned. That said, I need someone to explain why it was a good decision to remove Craig Hansen from the ballgame yesterday and replace him with Hideki Okajima. Sure, hindsight is 20/20, and Hansen has been inconsistent and Okajima has been an All-Star. But it STILL didn’t make sense.

First of all, Hansen had just battled Brian Roberts in a great at-bat. Sure, Roberts had worked a walk, but it’s not like Hansen’s control was all over the place. Roberts kept fouling off good pitches.

Hansen came into the game and allowed a single to the catcher, then fought Roberts to a full count. Ultimately, the payoff pitch barely missed, Roberts walked, and Hansen was in line to face Jay Payton, a righty, with the bases loaded. Hansen, whose role in the bullpen has obviously taken on greater importance with the departure of Julian Tavarez, needed to get out of this situation – for his long-term confidence and, in turn, the long-term benefit of the team. Instead, replacement coach Brad Mills takes out Hansen, replaces him with Okajima, and Payton hits a grand slam. I don’t know what the statistics say about bringing in a cold pitcher with the bases loaded, but I’m pretty sure they suck. Why? Because the guy is cold, so he wants to be sure to get the ball over the plate. Well, Okajima certainly succeeded in that – it was a big fat leg of lamb and Payton gnawed it off and tossed it.

The Boston Bruins signed forward Chuck Kobasew to a multiyear contract extension on Tuesday after his highest scoring season in five years in the NHL.

The team did not disclose contract details.

Kobasew had career highs of 22 goals, 17 assists and 39 points in 73 games this past season. He finished second on the team in goals to Marco Sturm , who had 27.

Kobasew missed the playoffs with a fractured left leg. The Bruins were eliminated in the first round by the Montreal Canadiens in seven games. He was drafted with the 14th overall pick in 2001 by Calgary, which traded him to Boston on Feb. 10, 2007.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

Best Week Ever’s Adam Cole-Kelly and I are continuing our cutting edge coverage of the Celtics-Cavs series with a Game 5 preview. Well, I guess it’s probably more of a Game 5 review. You know what? I’ll just let Adam explain.

Adam Cole-Kelly: I don’t know if you guys ever buy stuff on ebay but I just scored a pretty sweet item recently: A fully functioning time machine. Amazingly my last minute bid of $45 did the trick. I guess most people were skeptical of its legitimacy. Suckers! Anyway, I just got it up and running this morning and my first order of business was clearly heading straight to tonight’s post-game press conference. When I got there I was saddened to discover that the Celtics had won Game 5 (being a foolish Cavs fan and all) so I returned to present day then went back to the press conference for a second time and lo and behold the Cavs had triumphed! Lucky for you all I captured excerpts from each press conference visit and would like to share them with you now. Also, I brought your faithful columnist Rich Levine along with me because I wanted to focus on Coach Brown’s comments and I figured he would be interested in what Doc had to say.

It’s stupid to say that the Bruins are interested in Pittsburgh Penguin’s superstar, Marian Hossa. That’s a given, the entire league is interested in the upcoming free agent. As the rest of the league watches Hossa play along side Sidney Crosby, GM’s around the league cant help but drool over the possibility of the Slovakian star wearing their team’s sweater.

Financially the Bruins can give Hossa what he wants. Word is that Hossa could get as much as $8 million per season for a five-year deal, or more. With the $4.1 million salary of ex-Bruin Alexei Zhamnov ending, and the NHL salary cap expected to rise $4 million to $5 million, the B’s would have nearly $10 million available to spend. The Bruins have almost $39 million committed for the 2008-09 season and the NHL’s salary cap is expecting to rise to approximately $53 million.  Boston could free up even more money if they dumped Glen Murray and his $4.15 million cap hit.

Speculation that Hossa could become an unrestricted free agent this summer was risen by a report claiming the Penguins won’t try very hard to re-sign him. This is not shocking considering that Pittsburgh is loaded with home grown youthful super stars who will be taking the Hossa dollars away from Pittsburgh. It’s believed Penguins management will put more priority into retaining young stars Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jordan Staal.

In 36 innings against the Minnesota Twins, the Sox conceded 25 runs to their power-laden bats. Yeah ok! This time around, the losses can be solely attributed to the horrendous pitching performances by starting pitchers Jon Lester, Tim Wakefield and Clay Buchholz. In a total of 12 1/3 innings of work between the three, they notched a combined ERA of 11.68! Are you kidding? Not to mention, closer Jonathan Papelbon blew a save. The only positive to speak of was how lively Boston’s bats were.

Third baseman Mike Lowell went 6-for-17 (.353) with one home run, four RBIs and three runs scored. He has hit safely in six consecutive contests and looks fully recovered from the thumb injury that landed him on the disabled list.

First baseman Kevin Youkilis continued his breakout year. He went 6-for-15 (.400) in three games with one home run, three RBIs and three runs scored. He continues to maintain a fluid stroke that screams keen batting prowess. In my mind, Youkilis has morphed into one of the best hitters in the game and is as valuable at the plate as outfielder Manny Ramirez and designated hitter David Ortiz.