Sports Redux: From Gary Cooper to Barry Gibb

So Sheriff Beckett stared down the Cleveland gang last night. Once again, when the Red Sox needed Josh to be at his absolute best, he pretty much was. Sure, he gave up one more hit than he did in his Game One dazzler, but he only gave up one run - on a double play ball. Other than that, he struck out 11 Indians and gave 44,588 Clevelanders something to do with their towels beside wave them.

In short, Josh Beckett showed why he's The Man. We can haz four days of rain plz?

For their part, the Sox bats awoke from their funk, peppering C.C. Sabathia and the usually reliable Indian bullpen with twelve hits and seven runs. Youk crushed one in the first to set the tone, then Manny missed a home run by three angstrom units in center field. Manny only got to first, which led to a six-inning long rehash of all of Manny's peculiarities. Thanks, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Thanks, Fox Sports. You guys are really making a lot of people love baseball.

Beckett survived some crummy defense (Lugo cutting off Pedroia to bobble a grounder), the wrath of Kenny Lofton (angry words were exchanged in the fifth), and the appearance of his ex-girlfriend to make the Sox' runs stand up. "Thanks for flying one of my friends to the game so she could watch it for free," was Josh's reaction. Maybe the Red Sox should get Randy Newman to sing "Burn On" before Game Six, with Tony Fernandez, Steve Kerr and Earnest Byner singing backup. Take that, Knights of the Cuyahoga.

And now it's back on Curt Schilling, who clearly has to look sharper than he did in Game Two. (Apparently, we can't haz four days of rain.) Optimistic Red Sox fans will note that somewhere in the middle innings of last night's game, there was a subtle shift in the psychological states of the two teams. The Red Sox were loose and confident, and at one point the bases were loaded with J.D. Drew, Coco Crisp and Julio Lugo. Yes, really. Meanwhile, the Indians don't quite look like the '86 Angels, who made a group appointment with Dr. Kevorkian after Game Five, but they sure looked concerned. And the faces of the Jacobs Field crowd showed many emotions in the late innings, but "cocksure optimism" wasn't among them.

But it all comes down to the starting pitching. If Schilling struggles, if Carmona looks like he did in the regular season, we're cooked. End of story.

Even teams eliminated from the postseason made news yesterday. The Yankees made Joe Torre a token lowball contract offer, Joe said, "no thanks", and the Torre Era in the Bronx came to an anticlimactic end.

The Bruins gave a treat to the folks who skipped the ALCS game to watch some live hockey. After a tense second period when the Lightning wore out Tim Thomas with fifteen shots, the Bruins struck twice in the third to claim a 4-1 win in their home opener. Boston College had a great night without even playing, as #2 South Florida got popped by Rutgers, paving the way to a possible promotion for the Eagles.

And finally, if you're on the waiting list for Patriots season tickets, check your inbox soon. The Patriots have won a legal battle against scalper online ticket broker StubHub and have the names of over 13,000 people who bought and sold tickets there. Which (if sold above face value, which they most assuredly were) is a violation of Patriot season-ticket policy. Which could mean a lot of people moving up on the waiting list.