Steve Buckley

BOSTON — It’s not uncommon for kids to go out to the backyard and play catch with their dad. What is uncommon is when the dad is a former big-league pitcher. And when Dad happens to have been a longtime practitioner of the tricky and dreaded knuckleball, that’s off-the-charts unusual. But so it was with the late Tim Wakefield and his two kids, Trevor and Brianna. Like most dads, he played catch with the kids. Like hardly any dads, he taught them how to throw a knuckleball. Advertisement Which br…

BOSTON — Even at the two-hour mark, the leaderboard in the women’s division of Monday’s Boston Marathon resembled a Green Line car pulling out of Park Street during the morning rush. Twelve women were in a tight, jostling pack, and yet there was a oneness to it all, all those elbows, all those knees, moving as if choreographed. You’ll see these kinds of groupings at the starting line. You’ll see them in 5Ks. You just don’t see this many world-class runners sharing an elevator at the two-hour mar…

We like to say that our play-by-play announcers are like “members of the family,” even if it’s easy to dismiss that as a cliche. But then comes the news that Jack Edwards, age 67, the voice of the on NESN for 19 years, is retiring after this season. In the very same news cycle came since 1989, is retiring, effective immediately. This past Sunday, the Celtics held a halftime ceremony to honor Mike Gorman, the team’s television voice since 1981 when he teamed up with the irascible Tommy Heinsohn.…

BOSTON — We’re talking and today. And in adherence to the pecking order of regular-season winning percentage, we’ll begin on the parquet. With only an occasional hiccup and an injury report that didn’t extend much more than one double-spaced page, the Celtics roared through the regular season with a best-in-show 64-18 record. Turns out Celtics president of basketball relations Brad Stevens is a chemistry whiz, given how he brought in Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday and merged them with super…

BOSTON — It always fires up the house when a hometown hero swishes a 3-point attempt pretty much right off the national anthem. That’s precisely what the did against the in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals Sunday afternoon at TD Garden. But it’s what Brown did after that hi-how-do-you-do 3-pointer that shook the building and sent the social-media mob into overdrive. For bookkeeping purposes, it was a spin move and a driving dunk. For acrobatics, it was the Ringling Brothers. Bro…

BOSTON — Given the manner in which the went about their business Wednesday might — hitting on a franchise-record 23 3-pointers in their 111-101 victory over the at TD Garden — it was only natural that Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla would be asked a flurry of questions about Miami’s flurry of treys. And that’s exactly what happened, with Mazzulla getting quizzed about the sheer volume of 3-point attempts the Heat were able to generate — 43 of them! — and what can be done about that as the series, n…

After he tried on his crisp new New England Patriots cap, and after he received his official Roger Goodell hug, Drake Maye spoke these words on worldwide television: “Oh, it’s a blessing. I’m blessed.” Later on, during a video session with Patriots media, he said, “I’m stoked. I’m super pumped. I can’t wait to give New England … I’m looking so forward to it.” Advertisement Of course. Maye isn’t merely headed to the , he’s being whisked to the big time on a magic carpet, which is the standard mod…

BOSTON — It took a while for to settle in front of his dressing stall late Tuesday night for a postgame session with the media, this after the 2-1 overtime loss to the at TD Garden. When the goaltender finally spoke, his words were filled with so much emotion and patriotic heft it was as though the would be returning to Toronto on Thursday night not for a mere playoff game, but to continue a crusade in defense of all that’s good in the world. Advertisement Asked what it is about the Bruins t…

BOSTON — Before anybody even posed the question, coach Jim Montgomery went ahead and offered an instant analysis of his team’s upcoming second-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the . “Now we have a real tough test coming ahead, we know that,” Montgomery said late Saturday night, this after his team’s pulsating 2-1 Game 7 overtime victory against the at TD Garden. “We haven’t won anything yet.” Advertisement Of course. In terms of the big picture, nobody’s ever produced a documentary abo…

BOSTON — This is just the way it’s going to be with the 2023-24 : At the very moment you decide to trust these guys, as in settling in for a long, joyous romp through the postseason, that’s when they’re going to eat your heart out and leave you with the reality check. Then again, maybe it’s not just some new Celtics thing. Maybe it’s some new Boston thing. By the close of business Thursday night at TD Garden, after the had finished a 118-94 drubbing of the drowsy, awful-shooting Celtics, a dist…