Sports Redux: John Kerry Homers

--After the beauty that was Dice K's debut, the Red Sox suffered a letdown with a loss to the Rangers, 0 to 2. It was a low-scoring game, so clearly Tim Wakefield had a decent pitching effort, but the Rangers' Robinson Tejeda was better. It stings a little to lose to a team with Sammy Sosa, though. Tonight, Julian Tavarez and Kevin Millwood will match up, and we hope the Red Sox will enjoy a little revenge.

--But, if you happen to dig Sammy Sosa, you have a better chance of watching his games and any other games you bloody well please thanks to John Kerry, our dear Senator. In its latest attempt to irritate fans, the MLB struck a deal with DirecTV that meant only DirecTV customers could enjoy the "Extra Innings" package, which allows fans to watch out-of-market games.

In that case, if you couldn't get DirecTV but you wanted to watch, let's say, a San Francisco Giants game, you either had to get DirecTV or subscribe to the online MLB.tv - which we hear flat-out sucks. But John Kerry fought for his baseball-loving state and worked out a deal that allows fans to order games through cable.

--The Celtics lost to the Heat 85 to 88, which wasn't nearly as embarrassing as we thought it would be. Not to be completely disloyal, but we thought Shaq would completely pound on them, even with Dwayne Wade gone. But Ryan Gomes and Gerald Green stepped up, suggesting there's still a few flickering flames of pride and potential there.