Sports Redux: You Deserve A Break Today

When you're a kid, one of the fringe benefits to playing Little League or soccer is that you often got to stop at McDonald's on the way home. Win or lose. We're not sure if Major League teams have a similar policy, but if the Red Sox team bus stopped at a Mickey's outside of Detroit, no one on the team would be allowed to supersize today, after a miserable weekend getting swept by the Tigers.

Actually, two guys qualify for large fries after yesterday's 6-5 loss. If you had gone to Las Vegas Saturday and bet $20 on "Jeff Bailey and Julio Lugo will hit back-to-back home runs", today you'd be writing your letter of retirement and scouting real estate in Bimini. Since Bailey will likely be headed back to Pawtucket this week, and we're just happy Lugo is still alive, they even get milkshakes if they want them.

One guy not eating fast food today is Manny Ramirez, who was a scratch from yesterday's starting lineup with some gastrointestinal woes, and whiffed in his pinch-hitting appearance. And Wily Mo Pena was about to tear into his Filet-O-Fish, but Tigers outfielder Curtis Granderson came out of nowhere and ripped it out of his hands, much like his sensational catch on Pena's home-run-distance ball in the fourth. Ba da ba ba baa...we're not lovin' it.

So as six of the Red Sox head to San Francisco for the All-Star Game, and everyone else goes fishin' for a few days, let's take stock of the season. Because it's important to remember that, even though the team has seemed listless at times, they still have the best record in baseball at 53-34 (percentage points ahead of Detroit and Anaheim). They had the exact same record last year, one game after the break. But they have a 10-game lead, thanks to the crappy play of the Yankees and the lack of any other real good teams in the division.

We've been blessed with a short list of injuries. Clearly, Schilling needs to come back strong. Youkilis needs to shake whatever has been ailing him lately. Manny needs Pepto. But for all that, remember: 16 games coming up with the Devil Rays.

Some quick links around sports, on what's one of the slowest sports days of the year: The Phillies had a good day, beating Colorado to avoid the 10,000th loss in franchise history. And they got major karma points for rushing out of the dugout to help put the tarp down when a massive wind gust overwhelmed the Rockies' grounds crew. Bugs & Cranks have put together an All-Star team of characters from baseball movies (we're happy to see the Cleveland Indians so well represented; we didn't even know they still had a team!).

And if you see any Estonians walking around looking cocky today, they've earned it, taking gold and silver in the wife-carrying races in Finland. Madis Uusorg won "a plasma television and his wife's weight in beer." Makes the stakes for tonight's Home Run Derby look almost inconsequential.