Thanks to reader TE for the tip and Red Sox Monster for finding the video for this morning. NESN decided to show some Sawx fans in the stands at the Trop near the end of last night's game and it seems they timed it perfectly....

That guy has a little Kerry Wood in him doesn't he? I know you're not having fun as of late Red Sox fans, but calm down....it's only July 1st. Plus the Yankees are only five games back and you know they're coming into town this weekend. Okay sorry....you can panic. It's more entertaining that way.

We really need to work on this 'grace in defeat' thing (Red Sox Monster)

I don't know if you blame the submitter or the ESPN editors for this, but that's ESPN is showing that our friend Dr. Joe Morgan played for the Red Sox and that's one of the reasons they should win Titletown.

Submitted by bballerforlife34

Boston has to be named TitleTown because championships don't lie.....

....The Boston Red Sox have won seven World Series titles and 12 AL pennants. Whether it's the Babe, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans, Luis Tiant, Joe Morgan, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Nomar, Manny, Shilling or David Ortiz, the Sox have always had some of the best players in the game and their world series titles show that.

I first thought he was referring to Red Sox Manager Joe Morgan, but the fact that he only coached the team for four years (signed by the Boston Braves but never played) and that the submitter referred to the list as the "best players"....makes me think it's our Joe Morgan.

I know he's involved somehow. Actually come to think of it, I bet you bballerforlife34 is in fact Joe Morgan! I don't know how he's doing it, but by 2015 we'll think Joe won 24 World Series, 13 MVPs, and 42 Gold Glove Awards.

Beantown is TitleTown (ESPN)

(Thanks to Greg for the tip)

A salute to Jerry Remy is going to be going on at Fenway before the Red Sox-DBacks game tonight and you're invited! Well, only if you have MLB's Extra Innings package that is. Rem Dawg is being honored for 20 years of calling games for his beloved Sawx and tonight he gets high schoolers singing to him and a pregame tribute....

Tonight, distributors are making NESN's Red Sox pregame show available to MLB Extra Innings subscribers beginning at 6 p.m. EST. This is a special event so that Red Sox fans may enjoy coverage of Jerry Remy Day at Fenway Park and a salute to Jerry for his 20 years of broadcasting Red Sox games.

Tuesday is Jerry Remy Day at Fenway Park, and the Red Sox will include youngsters from the TV analyst’s hometown in the pregame ceremony. Four recent Somerset High School graduates will sing the national anthem, and other town students will present the colors.

There had been rumors of a recent rift between Remy and his booth mate Don Orsillo, but according to Baseball Musings it's Heidi Watney whom he can't stand. Good times! Congrats Remy, and while your antics annoy some, they'll never get old around these parts. We better see some of that air guitar tonight!


Salute To Remy (Boston.com)
Local students to sing at Fenway as part of Jerry Remy Day (The Herald News)

(And yes it's a prerequisite that I use that photo for every Rem Dawg post)

More often than not Rain Delays are going to be the most boring things on the face of the Earth. You sit under the upper deck overhang and watch old blooper videos or TWIBs while you wait for the rain to die down. Well the Red Sox have a new video to keep you in the ballpark and NESN decided to air it last night.

Sox & Dawgs and Center Field give us Manny Delcarmen and Jonathan Papelbon as Fab and Rob of Milli Vanilli. Blame it on the Rain....

There aren't very many things that can leave Orsillo and Rem Dawg speechless and I think this one takes the cake in that department. You have to be somewhat nuts to be a closer but Paps might have a little more crazy in him than the required amount.

Blame It On The Rain (Sox & Dawgs)
Blame It On The Rain (Out In Center Field

Everyone who likes the Red Sox raise your hand! Okay you can keep reading. Everyone else....just click away. It's all Cards and Sawx this weekend. Here's your schedule....

Saturday:

St. Louis Cardinals at Boston Red Sox- Thom Brennaman, Tim McCarver & Ken Rosenthal (Fox, 3:55pm, 88%)

MARKETS INCLUDE: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Myers, Greensboro, Greenville, Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Knoxville, Las Vegas, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Norfolk, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Raleigh, Richmond, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, Tulsa, Washington, West Palm Beach

Cleveland Indians at Los Angeles Dodgers- Matt Vasgersian & Eric Karros (FOX, 3:55pm, 11%)

MARKETS INCLUDE: Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Los Angeles, San Diego

Sunday:

St. Louis Cardinals at Boston Red Sox- Chip Caray & Buck Martinez (TBS, 1pm)
Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs- Jon Miller & Joe Morgan (ESPN, 8pm)

It was Plaschke calling out Pierce for overacting his knee injury last week and today it's TJ Simers who has words for Curt Schilling. Schilling wrote a very interesting piece on Kobe after watching the L.A. guard courtside and Simers decided to calmly disagree. Just kidding, he called him a "jerk of all trades" and "gutless"....

Curt Schilling is gutless.

He sits courtside in Boston for Game 2, eavesdropping on the Lakers' bench -- and how would he like someone listening to what they have to say in the Red Sox dugout, and then makes it appear on his blog, "38 Pitches," that Kobe Bryant is some kind of jerk who berates his teammates.

But whatever, there's no bigger sissy than a hit-and-run blogger.

If Schilling has got something to write, let's see him come to Los Angeles, stand outside the Lakers' locker room and get cussed out by Vanessa Bryant like every other blogger. Talk about bloody socks.

He writes nice things about Kevin Garnett, which makes you wonder who gave him the courtside tickets, and also writes that he "saw a seven-footer (Pau Gasol) who grabbed like four rebounds and spent the entire game whining about getting fouled."

OK, so everything he wrote wasn't off base.

TJ doesn't really debate anything that Schilling says in the article and even agrees with what the pitcher said more than once. I agree that Kobe doesn't need any motivation (as evidenced by his work last night), but this article reads like a crappy defense of your best friend rather than a journalistic piece. Simers also said that L.A. should put LA Pitcher Jason Schmidt courtside for games. Huh?

I understand not liking Schilling but this whole piece was just a collection of opinions and random thoughts. Kinda like a blog about your favorite team and player! But a blogger would have called Schilling a "douchebag" TJ, not something weak like "jerk". You're getting close though.

I know Boston writers aren't the moral compass of journalists, but could you whine maybe just a little bit less L.A.?

Schilling reaffirms that he's a jerk-of-all-trades (LA Times)
Manny, JD, Papi, Lester and the NBA Finals (38 Pitches)

Everyone knew it was coming and about 15 minutes ago the Rays and Sox threw down in a pretty good Baseball Brawl. Enjoy!

Sorry for the quality, but you get the idea. Great fight and if Shields had landed that haymaker Crisp would have been done. I give it a 7 out of 10 on the Basebrawl scale. Good times. It's still the dumbest thing in the world to take on a whole infield before your team can get to you, but whatever floats your boat.

This awesome video via TSB features a more than likely drunk fan running in the outfield at Fenway Park. You can guess what happens next....

BAM! The second angle is by far the best, but that kid just got....Jacked Up! I'm not quite sure how old this is but it's the first time I've seen it. If you've seen it before you have my apologies, but honestly...who wouldn't want to see that again?

Why You Don't Run Onto the Field at Fenway (The Sporting Blog)

I can't believe that the local Boston news spent 10 seconds on this (nevermind two full minutes), but via With Leather comes the story of a couple of Red Sox fans getting their kid baptized at Fenway....

Just weird. I can't believe someone hasn't though of this sooner though. The best part was that the couple drove up from Florida. Are you kidding me?! Also, if this kid becomes a Boston area announcer sometime in the next 30 years....he's never going to hear the end of this. Remember the name Ryan Rodgers.

Wasn't This A Scene In Devil's Advocate? (With Leather)

Jon Lester dominated the Royals earlier tonight to the tune of 9.0IP, 9 K's, 2 Walks, 0 Hits which is Algonquin for a no hitter. Enjoy the celebration and the subsequent f-bomb at the 1:25 mark.....

You know what? Good for whoever said that on-air (my guess is Timlin). No hitters are unfuckingbelivable and should be described as such. Good times in Boston as Cancer Survivor Jon Lester completes one of the most exciting feats in Baseball.

(P.S.- In announcing news Rem Dog and Orsillo had yet another epic night. I got word that Remy's mic was left on during the commercial and he started bitching about American Airlines and I witnessed them making of a girl with "Dolly Parton-like Hair" at one point. Good times.)

I know we're not breaking any new ground here in the sanity of Manny department, and you may have already seen the Zapruder like footage Deadspin posted earlier, but this needs to be seen in slow motion to be appreciated.

Watch closely....

He caught it on the run, climbed the wall, high fived a fan, and then doubled up a runner. Insane. That's Bo Jackson running up the wall cool. Manny will never cease to amaze me.

OMDQ mentioned this in the open thread, and I thought I'd give the interview it's own post. Here is David Ortiz hamming it up behind Terry Francona as he chats with Jon and Joe....

I feel like I've seen this go down before with these two but I could be wrong. Anyway it's still pretty entertaining.

Francona vs. Big Papi: Who you got? (BLB)

(posted by One More Dying Quail)

Tonight, we have one of those nationally televised matchups that's always nice to see, between two teams that just don't get enough coverage: the Boston Red Sox (who haven't been on ESPN in like six whole days!) and the Minnesota Twins (who were last on ESPN...I don't know when. It was probably last Wednesday, making me look even dumber than usual). All useless hype aside, it's the third of four games between the leaders in the AL East and AL Central, with each team putting one in the win column so far. My wife's "boyfriend", Tim Wakefield (3-1, 3.33) goes against Twins rookie Robert Nicholas Blackburn, popularly known as "Nick" (2-2, 3.65).

Join us below for the best of Joe and Jon. I'd be willing to bet there are approximately twelve mentions of Manny Ramirez (despite the fact that he isn't even playing), eight mentions of David Ortiz's offensive difficulties, and seven conversations about how hard it is to hit a knuckleball.


During the pregame Baseball Tonight, when Chris Berman said, "Hunter Pence", and I immediately thought to myself, "Hunter "Six" Pence "None the Richer"." I want to die.

Haha - when the game came on and Jon and Joe appeared on our screen, my wife said, "AAAAAH! I'm definitely leaving the room now." She doesn't like the fellas, Jon in particular.

One each for Manny and Ortiz - and the game still hasn't started. Also, I neglected to mention the infatuation with Carlos Gomez's speed. I'd be willing to bet we hear an Ellsbury-Gomez comparison at some point.

(Guess what I noticed about a week ago and forgot to mention? Ellsbury was originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Devils Rays in the 23rd round in 2002. Thank God he chose not to sign and lasted until the 23rd overall pick in '05.)

"He hit 18 homeruns last year..." - Jon, talking about Kevin Youkilis - Nope, he hit 16. Close though.

Nice job by ESPN to catch Youkilis' "FUCK!" as he returned to the bench after striking out.

"There are a lot of different philosophies on trying to hit the knuckleball..." - Joe - NICE! First batter in the bottom of the first!

My favorite "Youk's F-bomb" comment:

I think he yells "FUCK" every time he messes up. He probably screams "FUCK" at 200 decibels when he forgets to get milk at the grocery store. I really dislike Youk, and I'm a Sox fan. - NHZ

Youkilis is one of those guys who is always a little overly intense, to the point that it makes me sort of embarassed to watch him sometimes (kinda like Jason Varitek about five years ago). Also, his general state of sweatiness scares me. He should consult a doctor.

"Ellsworth gave it a try..." - Joe - Which Ellsworth was that, Joe? Steve or Dick? Both played for the Sox, but I'm pretty sure neither one is in centerfield tonight.

Does Joe really need to explain why it's better to get hit in the back than in the front of the body? Short answer: because it hurts a hell of a lot less in the back.

"is it just me, or is the fantasy update above the banner graphic too distracting/meaningless. i'm sure some group is in a bar right now wagering on who comes the closest to guessing carlos gomez's average on a 3-1 count." - anonymous

I actually don't mind it all that much. It's small enough that I barely even notice it unless someone points it out (which has happened two weeks in a row now).

"It'd be interesting to see a footrace between Ellsbury and Coco Crisp." - Jon - I know this is the new era of Red Sox fandom, happiness and glee and all that happy crappy stuff, but this needs to be said: there is no way a race between Coco Crisp and Jacoby Ellsbury ends without some horrible injury befalling Ellsbury. No way. It should never happen. Boston doesn't need another Juan Pena.

All that talk about Delmon Young's assist totals and his strong arm, and neither Jon nor Joe mentions that Manny Ramirez threw out 17 runners in 2005. What a shame.

"[Ortiz] has hit two line drives that you could hang your clothes on for a couple weeks." - Joe - Actually, I have nothing negative to add here. I like that line and think that Joe should say stuff like this more often. Descriptive without being stupid.

"You don't have to have great speed, you have to have great instincts." - Joe - Joe Castiglione also mentioned Dustin Pedroia's instincts on the Sox radio broadcast yesterday. Let's see...instinctive, Rookie of the Year, throws his body around for the team. It's official, Red Sox fans: set Dusty up with a supermodel or two and we have our very own mini-Jeter.

Finally - a good in-game interview with a manager. All it took was David Ortiz hamming it up in the background (and Tito threatening to kick his ass).

(posted by One More Dying Quail)

I know what you're saying, I know - "Please, Brian, no more Red Sox posts!" But I promise, this one is important.

Tomorrow is Patriots Day in Massachusetts, which means two things to sports fans: an 11:00 AM start for the Sox game and the running of the Boston Marathon. Every year, a few of the Red Sox wives participate in the latter while their husbands are still rubbing the sleep from their eyes and bringing home the bacon (ballplayers are, as a species, NOT morning people). I think the trend might have been started by Trot Nixon's wife.

Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo had three Red Sox wives in the booth last inning to talk about the upcoming race - Shonda Schilling, Dawn Timlin, and Kelsey Hawkins (Jacoby Ellsbury's girlfriend). Schilling and Timlin have done a bunch of these, but it's Kelsey's first time, as well as the first time I've ever seen her.

Upon laying eyes on the lovely Miss Hawkins, I had three thoughts. In order...

1) She's blonde. I'm not surprised.
2) She's pretty attractive.
3) Jacoby Ellsbury possesses unbelievable athletic talent, seems to be a pleasant young man, and has a hot girlfriend. There is tremendous potential for me to hate Jacoby Ellsbury someday.

Don't take my word for any of this. Check out this photo from Michael Blanchard and decide for yourself. Try to ignore Mike O'Malley, if you can.


And, just to keep the ladies happy, one of Jacoby.

So you wake up at the wonderful time of six o'clock (or three o'clock for those in the West) in the morning to watch your beloved Red Sox open their season in Tokyo. You turn on your DirecTV box and turn it to NESN and/or ESPN2. You blink for a few seconds to gather what it is that you're seeing.....nothing....

"I'm in Atlanta, and my ESPN 2 is out as well, so it's not just Boston area customers. I'm calling Directv right now to see what the deal is..."

"Good luck getting through. This is inexcusable. I'm in Birmingham."

"Out in Florida as well."

"It's out here in Wisconsin as well.. Let us know what's goin on..."

"DirecTV out in Scranton, PA also."

"I'm gonna go flip some cars."

"I'm in NC and it is out here as well."

"Same in New Jersey. lets say i'm less than pleased."

"This morning I took my Directv satellite dish and literally threw it off my balcony and onto my car windshield, and now I can't drive my car."

And that's just nine out of one hundred and sixty three comments from Extra Bases' coverage of the game this morning. Looks like they missed a good one too.

DirecTV out? (Extra Bases)
Red Sox’s First Pitch: Direct TV, Out The Window (Sports by Brooks)

I really have to thank ESPN for alerting me and the rest of the world to Red Sox first baseman Sean Casey's injury that will leave him on the bench in Tokyo. I mean what would have happened if I didn't change my fantasy lineup in time?!? That really does need to be one of your top stories of the day (click for larger).....



What's that? He's a backup and probably wasn't going to care anyway??? Who the hell cares! A Red Sock is injured!!! What's that? It's because he slept wrong on the plane and hurt his neck??? Umm......

(Thanks to JS for the screencaps)

Being one of the millions of people who got caught up in the Moneyball movement, I'm excited that 60 Minutes is planning to do a feature story on author and Red Sox Consultant Bill James in the near future. Via the Providence Journal's Sawx Blog....

A crew from ``60 Minutes'' is here this morning, led by longtime correspondent Morley Safer. The show is preparing a feature on Bill James, who serves as a consultant to the Sox and is the father of the sabermetrics movement and statistical analysis.

Safer plans to interview a number of people from the Baseball Operations staff and manager Terry Francona about James later today.

The father of Sabermetrics should be an interesting interview and I always love 60 Minutes' trips into the world of Sports (yes, even the Derek Jeter interview).

Waiting... (Projo)

A couple people emailed this to me, so I figured I'd throw up the video of Peter Gammons going off regarding the timing of the A-Rod contract opt out.

Amen Peter. Glad to see someone at ESPN has their priorities straight. It was refreshing after having both the game and Sports Center on last night. Scott Van Pelt had to interview just about everyone on Baseball Tonight over the phone about the A-Rod thing. In the meantime I was watching the Red Sox celebrate on the field.

How does anyone who knows about Sports portray to ESPN that no one cares about Torre and A-Rod when the Playoffs are happening?

If I was Joe Buck and FOX I'd have the post follow the title, but lets just forgot about A-Rod (since he'll be on the Red Sox next year anyway) and let Boston celebrate.

Try not to be so annoying this go around Red Sox Nation, and be prepared to be back page new by noon tomorrow when ESPN starts airing fake press conferences with Steve Phillips explaining how each team will sign Alex Rodriguez.

Cue the Dropkick....