Anyone who questions that old phrase "idle hands are the devil's tools" ought to take a look at what happens in sports cities when the games are in desperately short supply. When no one's playing, people get ansty. They start speculating. Guessing. Predicting. Complaining - and no good can come of that.

We need sports action, people! Thank goodness the Bruins are set to answer the call tonight, when they face off on the ice against Anaheim.

(Yes, Virginia, we do have a hockey team.)

On Tuesday, folks in a few big sports cities had too much time on their hands. Some good came of it - we'll get to that - but it was all bad news a short drive south, in dejected, defeated New York City. The media was on Joe Torre Career Death Watch, and it wasn't pretty. Some of the press was camped out at Yankee Stadium, but word is that more was over in Westchester County. More specifically, at Torre's house, waiting for him to come out or burn all of his Yankees gear or something. Given Steinbrenner's foolish ultimatium to fire the guy if the Indians weren't sent home to enjoy a lovely off-season, the media spotlight on Torre was even brighter than it's been the last few seasons - so bad that the Yankees organization threatened to close the stadium to the media if Torre wasn't left alone.

Officially, there's no word on whether George is going to follow through and fire the guy, but it seems to be a given - the New York Times ran a professional eulogy on Tuesday, pointing out that the skipper has always been classy, has given New York four championships in 12 years, but also made a series of bad calls over the last couple of games. Personally, Bostonist has always really liked Torre - he's one of the few people on the payroll we respect - but we expect to hear word today that the results Torre's clubs have given Steinbrenner aren't up to snuff and the organization will be looking for a new top guy (Don Mattingly, perhaps?).

Here in Boston, it was all about a different kind of anticipation - the countdown to the ALCS on Friday evening at Fenway. The park featured a team workout on Tuesday, as the Sox prepare to host Cleveland for Game 1 on Friday night. Most of what we heard from the Sox should have been of little or no surprise to anyone - Wakefield's been throwing from the mound and Curt Schilling has been moved up in the rotation to start the second game (Saturday evening) over Daisuke Matzusaka. We hope that the organization has the same strategy as that we've come up with: blow the Indians away with Beckett in Game 1, out-smart 'em with Schill for Game 2, hope that the opponents are worn out enough for Dice-K to get a confidence boost at the Jake for Game 3.

It'll be a jam-packed sports weekend when it finally arrives for us - Sox on Friday and Saturday, then the Pats on Sunday. But the hometown football team was making headlines of its own on Tuesday. Cleveland guard Eric Steinbach said Monday that he believed Pats linebacker Mike Vrabel was "classless" for his late-game tackle of Browns tackle Joe Thomas. Steinbach said that Vrabel deliberately went after Thomas when he knew that Cleveland QB Derek Anderson was about to spike the ball (the tackle also left Anderson tripping over the bodies). He also said that Vrabel should be fined - oh, and that part of the reason this should be regarded so seriously is because the Patriots are the team everyone looks up to and tries to emulate.

With all that talking on one side of the situation, what did Vrabel say to the media? Not a word. If anything, this is only going to be another clip that Belichick can use to fire up his team. Thanks, Steinbach!

Photo from Amazon and a gift to all those fans of Jessica Alba and her chest - don't say Bostonist never shows you love.