As New England’s Steve Ralston leaned over his boots in the locker room, just minutes after scoring the game-winning goal on a penalty kick in a 2-1 win Saturday night against D.C. United, he turned to teammate Shalrie Joseph.

“‘What’d I tell ya Shalrie?” Ralston said. “These are my lucky boots. Cowboy Up!”

The Revolution certainly seemed to be taking a page from the book of the 2003 Red Sox, a team that coined the phrase “Cowboy Up!” during its tumultuous playoff run. Ralston’s penalty kick in the 90th minute of play against rival D.C. United broke a 1-1 tie and a six-game losing streak for the Revs.

The biggest move of the game came in the 25th minute when forward Taylor Twellman entered the game to a roaring standing ovation, making the 15,142 filling Gillette sound like they were watching a playoff Patriots game instead of a midseason Revs match. Twellman had not played for the Revs since last October 25, missing the MLS Cup Playoffs and the first nine games of the season after suffering from severe whiplash symptoms dating back to August 30 when he was hit in the head by former LA Galaxy goalkeeper Steve Cronin.

“This team needed a pick-me-up, and that’s been the hardest part — watching them,” Twellman said. “Whether it’s just being a nuisance in the box running into people or helping the team when I came on. I think it helped Shalrie play his natural position and he scored a great goal. I think it just helps everybody do their own job and they haven’t been able to do that with me out so its fun.”

Twellman demonstrated his importance to the team on the first goal for the Revs by occupying two United defenders opening the middle for Shalrie Joseph to score.

“He puts the ball in the net for starters and takes pressure off other players as well,” head coach Steve Nicol said of Twellman. “If you’re playing against Taylor you have to make sure you know where you’re at, even if he doesn’t touch, he’s a benefit because he opens holes for other people.”

Twellman said he felt awkward on the field for the first time in seven months yet his awkwardness played to the Revs advantage on the last play of the game. With his back to the D.C. net, Twellman was pulled down by United defender Bryan Namoff resulting in the penalty kick for Ralston.

“We’re a different team obviously,” Ralston said. “A little bit of that is we changed the way we were playing at half time, we can’t just keep hitting long balls; we want to try to pass the ball more. Obviously when Shalrie goes back he changes the midfield for us.”

The win for the Revs and the three points pushes their season record to 3-3-4, 13 points just three points behind D.C. United (3-2-7, 16 points) in the Eastern Conference.

“It’s kind of emotional because it’s been a long haul,” Twellman said. “It’s been eight months of trying to guess what’s going on and I thank God I figured it out. I didn’t expect to play seventy minutes tonight and then get punched in the face right away so it’s obviously a good test. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow and Monday.”

Twellman’s wake up call came on a shot to the face by a D.C. defender minutes after he entered the game momentarily scaring the crowd as the shocked forward fell to the ground.

With ten games in the record books, the Revs are one third of the way through the 30-game season. Before Saturday’s match they had scored a league-low eight goals and had not won since its home opener against FC Dallas on April 4.

Yet Twellman’s return Saturday night seemed to spark something in the Revs that they had not seen in a while. New England snapped D.C.’s seven-game win streak and won the season series 1-0-1. The 1-1 tie matchup up at RFK Stadium in D.C. on April 17 was the only other meeting for the two rivals in the 2009 season.

“We came out like the old Revolution, pressing them,” Twellman said. “Hopefully we can continue this run.”

With Twellman back, the Revs cannot be anything but hopeful.

Alright, everyone, behave yourselves. Only a few hours left till the weekend, so bear with me while I, Samuel Chamberlain, serve up the mystery meat that is the collection of the best sports blogs around the Internet. Though I warn you, the content might be a little light, as our office is abuzz over the pending David Ortiz-Manny Ramirez road trip.

Let’s begin with the NBA, where Cleveland staved off elimination, winning Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals 112-102 behind a triple-double from LeBron James. Brian Windhorst has the Cleveland perspective in his Cavs Beat blog, while Brian Schmitz and the Orlando Sentinel crew add their own talking points.

Frightening news for fans of giant mascot heads. ESPN analyst Lee Corso apparently suffered a mild stroke sometime in the recent past, but expects to be back for the 2009 season. And since you’re behaving so well today, I’ll even throw in a bonus Onion story.

Speaking of commentators, if you’re looking for a blog (other than this one) for your morning reading, I can’t recommend Awful Announcing enough. Today’s main page is a particularly scrumptious assortment of errors, including a TNT graphics snafu at last night’s Cavs-Magic game, and a misspelled ESPN graphic at the (wait for it) Spelling Bee. And if you look really hard, you’ll find the video of Al Michaels’ “Hawaii Five-O” appearance.

Who’s up for some American football, Austrian-style? For the last few weeks, Deadspin has been running the diary of Robert Lunn, a former UConn defensive tackle currently toiling in the pro football hotbed of Portchach, Austria (you know, schnitzel, Alps, the Von Trapp family, the whole schmear). The latest installment of his “American in Austria” diary ran yesterday. Click on any of the tags at the bottom of the post to get the whole, absorbing story.

Enjoy the weekend, folks, and don’t forget to check the “It Is What It Is” Patriots blog later today for highlights of Dennis and Callahan’s interview with Tom Brady.

Terry Francona didn’t hold back at all when telling WEEI’s Dale and Holley that he won’t miss the Metrodome.  His streaking center fielder might disagree with him.

Jacoby Ellsbury continued to use the rug to his advantage last night, going 2-for-4 in his third consecutive multi-hit game in Minnesota. Think the Twins are wishing they could have closed that Santana deal with the Sox?

Just as impressive as his carreer-long 22-game hit streak his the fact that Ellsbury now has 19 multi-hit games this season, good for fifth in the AL.  Nearly a quarter of those games (4) have come against the Twins, with Ellsbury only facing Minnesota five times going into the season finale between the two teams today at 1 p.m.  

Now, wading past all the statistics (here’s a nit-picky one for balance: shouldn’t a guy hitting .307 have an OBP a little higher than .338?) there’s one thing that’s on everybody’s mind that few are willing to admit: surprise.

We all knew about Jacoby before he made his Sox debut. We all watched him in the College World Series when the first Johnny Damon comparisons were drawn. We anxiously checked box scores as he tortured the minors. By the time he had made his impact in ’07, we had free tacos on him.

 There was even confusion in Red Sox Nation when Coco Crisp was retained for the 2008 season. But, as is the case in Boston, patience began running out when Ellsbury couldn’t buy a hit in a season in which he was heavily favored to follow in Dustin Pedroia’s footsteps as AL Rookie of the Year.

Francona said after Ellsbury’s first major-league hit (a routine grounder to short that he beat out for an infield single) that speed doesn’t slump. Heading into to the ’08 season, many would agree with him until they saw Ellsbury prove the theory wrong. Ellsbury’s .212 average through the season’s first 15 games (3 of which he led off) was hardly impressive, but coming of a World Series title (and given Pedroia’s slow start to his rookie campaign), the naysayers were minimal.

As time went on things barely improved.  After playing 67 games, what once looked like the future of the franchise was hitting a lowly .259 on July 25. The Red Sox now faced a problem that they had grown accustomed to for a short stretch in 2003 and throughout most of 2006 and 2007: they had a leadoff hitter that they liked (Damon, Crisp, and Julio Lugo, respectively) but couldn’t afford to leave him struggling at the top spot. Then, like Damon did in ’03, Ellsbury turned it around just as fast as he swiped home off Andy Pettite.

Beginning August 30, Ellsbury went on a tear in which he hit .369 and finished the season with a .280 average– pretty incredible considering his early-season woes.  We know the rest of the story. Coco finally gets traded and Jacoby gets the job to himself. 

That takes us to late March of this year, when fantasy drafts were done and every baseball nerd frantically tried trading half the players they had taken just days earlier. Here’s a conversation I had while trying to buy low on the Sox’ leadoff hitter.

       Me: I know you’ll lose his steals so I’ll give you Michael Bourn.

       Ellsbury-owner: Bourn won’t get as many steals. Look, Ellsbury probably won’t hit but he could lead the league in steals.

Steals. That’s what was expected from Jacoby, and that comment was coming from not only one of the world’s biggest baseball nerds but a huge Ellsbury fan. Now that he’s proven his worth as a hitter, Ellsbury is giving the Red Sox something they haven’t had since Damon and fantasy geeks another topic of conversation.

Now that Ellsbury is hitting, it is clear that he was well worth the wait and every dime that Fenway vendors made last year on his red arm sleeves. Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan deserves all the credit in the world for the extensive work he has done with Ellsbury.

It may have taken him a year longer than everyone thought, but Jacoby Ellsbury has finally arrived at the table of the league’s premier leadoff hitters.

In the last few days, hockey has been making some headlines. Without further ado let’s take a look at what’s making news in the National Hockey League.

Yesterday, the Eastern Conference crown was retained by the Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby-led Pittsburgh Penguins. Sports euphoria is back in the Steel City, a feeling that hasn’t been this strong since the Steelers and Pirates golden years of the 1970′s.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Dan Majors wrote today about the excitement in the city surrounding the team’s second consecutive Stanley Cup Finals Berth.  With the win and sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes last night, the Pens become the first team since the 1984 Edmonton Oilers to reach the Cup Finals a year after losing the Cup. 

In a somewhat of a controversial move, Pittsburgh captain and the NHL’s “goose that lays the golden egg” (to reference Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory) touched the Prince of Whales trophy.  Tradition states if the captain of the conference winner touches the trophy, bad luck is supposedly ominously cast on that team during the Cup finals.

However, ESPN.com has evidence to rufute that theory.  On four occasions, trophy contact has led to Cup success, something Crosby hopes to achieve in the coming weeks.

Speaking of the Edmonton Oilers, the once-proud Alberta franchise made a coaching change yesterday.  Out went Craig McTavish, in comes former Toronto Maple Leafs bench boss Pat Quinn.

It’s a homecoming of sorts for Quinn who played juniors in Edmonton with the Edmonton Oil Kings, while winning the Memorial Cup with the club in 1963.  Quinn certainly has the mettle to be behind the bench in a media-intense Canadian market like Edmonton, after tours in Toronto and Vancouver. 

Last, and certainly not least, former Candiens and Avalanche goalie and general thorn in the side of Bruins fans during the late ’80′s through the ’90′s, Patrick Roy is disputing reports that the Avalanche have offered their head coaching and General Manager position to him.

Roy is denying a report from French news service Rue Frontenac that Avalanche president Pierre Lacroix has offered the positions to the former standout netminder.  Maybe Roy simply isn’t hearing what Lacroix is saying, much like he didn’t have his listening ears on when Chicago’s Jeremy Roenick was his opponent in the 1996 Western Conference semifinals. 

Even with the Garden’s sheet being dormant, the puck is still bouncing off the boards here at the LEEInks blog.  Stay Classy, New England!

Tom Brady has told Peter King he wants to keep playing for another 10 years, at which point he would be 41 years old. It’s an ambitious declaration for someone coming off  major knee surgery, and might not be a given even if fate, and Bernard Pollard’s helmet hadn’t intervened.

After all, Marino, Tarkenton, Elway, and Montana all packed it in at age 38. All of them suffered various degrees of injury over their careers, but never experienced any thing close to the trauma that Brady experienced last September. Warren Moon managed a Pro Bowl season in 1997 at age 41, but it was a far cry from his early ’90s heyday in Houston. Len Dawson went 1-4 as a starter at age 40 in 1975.  Sonny Jurgensen had an effective 40-year-old season, throwing for over 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns in1975, but he made it his last.

Even a sterling example of longevity like George Blanda only started one game as a quarterback after the age of 39, when he started a single game in November of 1968. Granted, he did quite well  for himself, but one game is hardly grounds to build a case for Brady’s own longevity.

But we are, at bottom, optimists here at WEEI.com, and so let’s permit ourselves to dream and imagine where Brady would rank on the all-time stat pile assuming he does match his stated goal of playing another 10 years.

Brady currently ranks 51st on the all-time passing yard list with 26,446 yards. Throw out the 76 yards he threw for in Week 1 last season, before “the incident,” and Brady’s averaged 3,767 yards in his first seven years as a full-time starter. Keeping in mind the fact that Carson Palmer threw for 200 more yards AFTER his comeback from a similiar injury, as well as the fact that Brady is more likely to throw for 4,110 yards (as he did in 2005) than for 2,843 yards (as he did in 2001), we can reasonably project that Brady could throw for around 35,000-40,000 yards over the next ten years. 35,000 passing yards would put him third all-time at just a shade under 63,500 yards, behind only Brett Favre and (presumably), Peyton Manning.

What about the touchdown count? Brady sits in a tie for 28th on the list with 197 touchdowns, tied with Ken Anderson. Throwing out the career high (50, 2007) and low (18, 2001), Brady has averaged 26 touchdowns per year. Again, we’ll round the average up, on the assumption that Brady will have similar years to 2007 than 2001 for the forseeable future. At 30 TDs a year for the next ten years, Brady is at 497 TDs in our hypothetical list ten years from now. Again, such a showing would put him behind Manning, who currently has 333 TDs, is only a year older than Brady, and has none of Brady’s injury history.

Let the conversation begin.

When you think of Boston College baseball, your first response is probably something like, “Oh, yeah, they play the Sox every year in spring training.”

Well, I’m here to tell you they do a lot more than than. They play in the Atlantic Coast Conference and they’re pretty darn good. And led by head coach Mik Aoki, the Eagles are going to the 64-team NCAA tournament for the first time since 1967.

As is often the case when a school hasn’t made the tournament in 42 years, not a lot of people picked BC to advance this far. This Rivals ACC preview is a pretty good indicator of where people thought BC would be. But the Eagles served notice during their season-opening swing through Florida, first by hanging tough with the Red Sox, then by taking two games of a three-game series from traditional powers Florida State. The Eagles capped their season in style at the ACC tournament this weekend in Durham, North Carolina, defeating Georgia Tech and Miami in their last two games by the combined score of 17-4.

If Aoki needs some inspiration before BC’s first game in the double-elimination Austin Regional (it’s at 2 p.m. Friday against Texas State), he could do worse than look to the 1967 Eagles, who made it all the way to the College World Series in Omaha (perhaps getting there on gas at $0.33/gallon) and actually won their first game, defeating Rider 3-1 on June 12, when “Groovin’” by the Young Rascals was the No. 1 Song in America. Sadly, the good times couldn’t last, as BC lost their next game, to eventual champions Arizona State, and was eliminated from the CWS after a thirteen-inning loss to Houston.

Congratulations to the Eagles, and good luck. It’s always nice to have two good baseball teams in Boston.

Welcome to the Tuesday morning edition of the LEEInks, everybody, in which I, Samuel Chamberlain, entertain you as you work your way out of your Memorial Day meat coma.

Let’s begin with the NBA, where the Nuggets evened up their series with the Lakers at two games apiece with a 120-101 victory in Game 4 last night. Over at the LA Times Laker Blog, the brothers Kamenetzky break down the loss from the purple-and-gold perspective, while over at the Denver Post, Benjamin Hochman inevitably invokes the WWE, which played the Staples Center last night instead of the Pepsi Center as previously scheduled.

Over in the East, Mo Williams caused a stir yesterday, with his comments that Cleveland could still win the series. Actually, he went a good deal beyond that. To refresh your memory, the Cavs need to win tonight to avoid going 3-1 down in the Eastern Conference Finals. Rather than offering up the usual boilerplate stuff, here’s what Williams said, “We’ll get this game.” The excellent Brian Windhorst has the full quotes in his CavsBlog

Closer to home, the Red Sox continue their series against the Minnesota Twins. In the Star-Tribune, Jim Souhan writes in praise of Carlos Gomez, who made two sensational catches in yesterday’s 6-5 Red Sox win. However, this has not spared him the wrath of certain Internet commentators, one of whom derisively refers to him as “Gogo the Clown.” I suppose Midwestern politeness only goes so far.

Even closer to home, the long road back for John Smoltz continues tonight at venerable MerchantsAuto.com Stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire, as he starts for the Portland Sea Dogs against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. First pitch is at 7:05, and according to the Fisher Cats website, seats are still available.

Finally, you may have noticed the good work done in this space by my colleague Jennifer McCaffrey at this weekend’s NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championships, won in overtime by Syracuse over Cornell. If, by some chance you haven’t seen the highlights of Syracuse’s frantic rally in the final 3:37, you can watch them here. If you’re a Cornell fan looking for a palatte-cleanser, well, this is the best I can do.

Enjoy your Tuesday, everyone.

Syracuse's Pat Perritt (1), Kenny Nims (10) and Matt Abbott (3) hold the trophy and celebrate the team's 10-9 overtime win against Cornell in the NCAA men's lacrosse championship game yesterday in Foxborough. (AP)

The Revive Vitamin Water sitting on the press conference table after the game was symbolic of a last-minute revitalization that Syracuse underwent during Monday’s NCAA lacrosse championship game.

In a contest that looked like Cornell had from the very beginning, the Orange won its 11th national championship and second consecutive title in dramatic overtime fashion with a 10-9 come-from-behind victory against Cornell Monday at Gillette Stadium.

Junior attackman Cody Jamieson, the most unlikely of heroes, scored the game winning goal in overtime with a pass from Dan Hardy that placed him right in front of the net.

“It was an unsettled situation,” Jamieson said. “Dan got the ball in the shooting position and wound up. With a guy like, Dan Hardy you know you have got to slide or he will stick it. So I slid up and he passed it down to me in front of the crease and I took a shot.”

Jamieson had been out most of the season on undisclosed probation from the school. He returned for the final two games of the regular season, scoring eight goals in the NCAA tournament.

“It was great for him to play down the stretch during the year,” Orange head coach John Desko said. “With so many highs and lows, we really hadn’t been using him a lot because he could not play and we had games every few days. At the end we had a chance to insert him and he came up huge for us.”

Jamieson heroics were set up by potent Orange offense that came storming back at the end of the fourth quarter, scoring three goals in the last four minutes to tie the game. A spectacular over-the-shoulder pass from midfielder Matt Abbott landed in the stick of attack Kenny Nims who turned and sailed a shot into the back of the cage to tie the game with four seconds left.

“To be honest, I never really did think we were going to lose,” Nims said. “Our guys never give up. We made some mistakes here and there but we worked hard to get the ball back.”

A dejected and defeated Cornell team trudged from the field to the locker room in a slow deliberate pace as if trying to avoid the many questions awaiting them. Heads were down, faces were smudged and excitement was lost.

“We tip our caps to Syracuse. They played great with a lot of poise; certainly like a team who has been here before,” said Big Red head coach Jeff Tambroni. “At the same time, I could not be more proud of the effort from our group of guys who did not get a lot of credit coming here battling through two pretty tough lacrosse games and almost pulled this one off.”

It looked as though Cornell was well on its way to pulling off the upset win over the Orange for the first three quarters of the game. Cornell took a 2-0 lead on two unassisted goals by attackman John Glynn seven minutes into the game. Syracuse then answered with two of its own on an unassisted goal from Chris Daniello and a Greg Niewieroski netter with help from midfielder Josh Amidon to even the score at two with five minutes to play. But the Big Red returned the favor with 21 seconds left in the first quarter going up 3-2 on a goal from Cornell big man Ryan Hurley with help from Glynn.

A Stephen Keogh goal at 13:14 in the second quarter assisted by Jovan Miller put Syracuse even with Cornell at three. Yet the Big Red once again responded two minutes later on a Rocco Romero goal and a helper from Glynn. The back-and-forth affair continued — Syracuse wasted no time responding just over a minute later with a feeder from Matt Abbott to Pat Perritt for a goal to once again even the score at four. The Big Red regained the lead with 5:08 left in the half on an unassisted goal from freshman Rob Pannell. A slashing penalty called on Syracuse defenseman Tyler Hlawati ten seconds later led to the extra man advantage for the Big Red which turned into a Max Seibal goal with help from Pannell, putting Cornell up 6-4 at the half.

Having never lost a game when bringing the lead into the second half, the Big Red came out confident. But Amidon sent a laser past Big Red goalie Jake Myers for the Orange’s first goal of the third quarter bringing Syracuse within one. Cornell’s Hurley fed a pass to Glynn from behind the net helping Glynn complete his third hat trick of the season and putting Cornell up 7-5 after three.

But Syracuse was just getting started.

“We knew the game wasn’t over until it was over, and they proved it today,” Glynn said.

Hardy set the tone for the first Orange goal of the fourth quarter with help from Jamieson to bring Syracuse back within one. Another extra-man opportunity for Cornell helped Seibald score on a helper from Hurley. A laser into the right corner of the Syracuse net by freshman Roy Lang made it seem as though Syracuse should start packing down 9-6, the largest deficit of the day.

Yet that was the last goal Cornell would score. Keogh scored his second of the game aided by Hardy at the 3:37 mark to make it 9-7. And less than a minute later, Jamieson blasted one into the net with a help from Amidon to cut the Cornell lead to 9-8. Nims’ game tying goal with four seconds left in regulation sealed the deal before Jamieson put the game away in overtime.

“It wasn’t easy,” Desko said. “This of all games, I felt like we played for only three minutes at the end and I still have to go back and watch the tape to see what happened.”

“It’s our time of the year,” Nims said. “This is why we go to Syracuse. The tradition of our program is extremely rich and this is what we’ve been working on and waiting for all year. This is our time.”

Despite not having it’s winningest franchise (in terms of championships, at least) around in the postseason, the NBA certainly has something to smile about. Both of the league’s conference finals series have become knock-down drag out fights, something even casual fans didn’t seem to expect.

The Migh High City of Denver already had a fight before the Western Conference Finals began as Denver’s Pepsi Center was double-booked for both the NBA and WWE’s Monday Night Raw. The ever-media savvy Vince McMahon painted Nuggets and arena owner Stan Kroenke as the bad guy, as if this was one of his weekly wrestling storylines.

The Nuggets have been doing their best to grapple with the NBA’s defending runners-up. All methods employed by Geore Karl’s crew, of course do not include using steel chairs in any nefarious way.

The series has become quite chippy, though. On Saturday night alone,  the Nuggets committed three technical fouls in a game that for much of the forty-eight minutes of play looked like a victory for Carmelo and company.

But, as the Denver Post’s Woody Paige pointed out prior to Game 3, the Nuggets have been finding the wrong time to give the game away. Thus far, all three games have been decided by a mere 11 points in the waning minutes.

The Western Conference Finals haven’t been the only palpitation-worthy series in these NBA playoffs. Cleveland and Orlando are locked in a battle themselves for the Eastern crown.

Sunday night, the Orlando Magic, have done what was seemingly impossible, and defeated LeBron and the Cavaliers (sounds like a Motown group doesn’t it?) twice in one series. Orlando has even beaten them a home, which happened only twice all season!

How have the Magic done this, you ask? Pose that question to a few players who gave the Celtics fits just a series ago in Dwight Howard (20.6 points, 13.8 rebounds per game)  and Hedo Turkoglu.

The latter of that pair had himself one of the oddest routes to a double-double.  Turkoglu missed all but one shot from the field, but drained 11 free throws.

Maybe Turkoglu should’ve taught the 2008 Memphis Tigers a thing or two.  Turkoglu brought down 10 defensive boards last night as well.

In addition to David Stern and the NBA’s happiness of how well these series have been going, that same Vince McMahon must be pleased to see this series get physical and nasty as well. Sunday night fans at Amway Arena were treated to a show of 86 foul shots attempted from 58 personal fouls, two technicals, and a flagrant.

No buzzer-beater heroics from King James Sunday night, but the excitement in the home of rock and roll is still at a fever pitch despite Sunday night’s loss. Check out this Cleveland sportscaster Terry Brooks’s reaction to the shot as the 11 p.m. news is wrapping up.

Hopefully, the NBA will use that in a promo.  The NBA: Where excitement happens (to local news wrap-ups).

Thought Jonathan Papelbon and Manny Delcarmen had you in stitches last year with their “Blame it on the Rain” remake? Check out what USF and UConn did when a five-hour rain delay was forced upon them Thursday during the Big East Tournament.

For comparison, here’s the Papelbon/Delcarmen video.

Jonathan Papelbon and Manny DelCarmen – “Blame It on the Rain”

Looks like USF beat them all.