Ponderous thoughts I was pondering as the MIAA spring tournaments stand on the eve of kicking into full gear:

- One thing I've noticed about the Celtics in these playoffs is that when they finally get the sense that they're not going to be able to overtake a deficit in their games on the road, they just stop playing, as if to say, "OK, this one's over, let's go on to the next game."

Maybe it's a wise conservation of energy, given that the New Big Three are not spring chickens, but it just doesn't look good when a game that was close for more than 40 minutes becomes a blowout at the finish.

- Perusing the tournament schedule for Saturday, there is the potential for 10 games involving local teams in baseball and softball - all but one at the same time - if all of the local teams win their preliminaries. That doesn't include track competition, or lacrosse, or tennis.

And people wonder why their favorite teams don't always get covered in person. - It's with sadness that we note the passing of Sydney Pollack, acclaimed film director, at 73 from cancer. The director of such notable films as "Tootsie," "Out of Africa" (for which he won Academy Awards for producing and directing), and "The Way We Were," Pollack was every bit at ease in front of the camera as he was behind it, having acted in scores of films in roles that might not jump out at you at first recollection, but after a few seconds, you'd say to yourself, "oh, yeah, I remember that!"

Pollack also directed two of my favorite lesser-known films, both starring Robert Redford - "Three Days of the Condor," from 1975, in which Redford plays a low-level CIA analyst who has to go on the run after his fellow researchers are liquidated for discovering secret information about a plan to manipulate dwindling oil reserves that was too sensitive to be made public (a little ahead of its time, eh?), and "Havana," unfortunately a failure at the box office in 1990, in which Redford portrays an

aging card player who gets mixed up in political and romantic intrigue on the eve of Castro's ascension to power in Cuba, sort of a Cold War "Casablanca.

- Jon Lester knew he was going to have to answer repeated questions about his own cancer after throwing a no-hitter a few weeks ago, all the while knowing that his own father was now suffering from the disease - and that invariably, it would become known and that would become the new storyline every time he pitches.

That being said, I have to admire the way that the young Red Sox lefthander has handled the pressure of being in the media spotlight for reasons that go beyond what he's done on the field. He obviously realized that his story and that of his family, while a personal challenge that weighs heavily upon them as individuals, can also be motivational and inspiring to those who also suffer from cancer and do so in the anonymity of their daily lives.

Lester obviously knows that any source of inspiration and hope is critical to anyone's well-being in those circumstances. Thanks for your patience, Jon.

- Shameless Self-Promotion Dept.: In the age of the Internet, all newspapers are dabbling in the presentation of the news through video, and The Sun Chronicle is no different. Even though I've been told many times that I have a face for radio, I'm the host of "The Blog Show," a merrily-assembled series of video vignettes that will appear on our Web site every now and then, or basically, when the spirit moves me.

The most recent episode is a 10-minute interview with former Bishop Feehan High School and University of Maine basketball standout Missy Traversi, who recently completed her second season of professional basketball in Sweden. It's fun and informative, and per the requests of my viewers, the camera is on Missy most of the time.

To access it, go to The Sun Chronicle's home page and click on "Blogs," and you'll find "Blogging Fearlessly." Click on that title and you find all my recent posts, including one called "Blog Show 4: One-on-One with Missy Traversi."

And while you're at it, wish the former Shamrock good luck; as you read this, she is in the hospital to undergo surgery on her nose, which was broken in one of the last games of the season in Sweden. They don't play powder-puff ball over there, that's for sure. - As if the world of professional sports needs another acronym, we've now added "OTA" to the local football lexicon. That stands for "organized team activity," the euphemism used by the Patriots to describe the various and sundry mini-minicamps that take place throughout the offseason. There's another one at Gillette this week, leading into the early-June, "official" full-squad minicamp. And for whatever good it does anybody, we'll be there.

- If I had been Danica Patrick and someone had pulled across three lanes of traffic in an off-ramp to cut me off and then clip my fender, I would have wanted to kick his butt as well. I still think it's hilarious that the Indy 500 had to send a 6-foot-5, 300-pound bouncer to head her off at the pass before she could exact her revenge.

- And yes, I am rooting for Big Brown to win the Triple Crown, cracked hoof notwithstanding. There have been a lot of opinions expressed recently about whether horse racing is humane or not, and I'm not going down that path - I had my fill of that from the response I got to comments I made after the death of Swale many years ago - but simply, I just like watching history in the making.

- OK, it's tournament time. I'm putting in my order for warm weather so I can finally hang the North Face fleece in the closet until October.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com