Sports Redux: Day of Reckoning?

Today has all the anticipation of postseason award announcements, with all the anxiety of a Law & Order episode. This afternoon, George Mitchell's going to go public with his steroid report. There's all kinds of stuff in there about making improvements to testing and recommendations for ways to keep this from happening in the future, but all anyone really cares about is the "naming names" part of the process. Who will be implicated? Sources say that "very, very high-level names" will be prominent in the report; we hope it's not just Jason Giambi, 'cause we know that already. Please, no important Sox, that's all we ask.

A friend alerted us to the none-too-subtle message the Sox are trying to send with the arrangement of their Sox Pax. Check out the different plans, then look closer at Plans 2 and 3. Damn Yankees indeed. The Sox Pax are sold out, of course, but somehow those lucky scalpers have gotten their hands on plenty and are probably willing to share their marvelous fortune and sell them to you.

The Celtics were shorthanded last night after Perk fought the bed and the bed won. But after a sluggish, sloppy first half, they turned on the juice and polished off Sacramento 90-78. Big Baby came up big in his first start, with nine rebounds and sixteen points (including a remarkable 10-for-10 from the line). Good thing, because Pierce and Allen didn't shoot very well, Garnett was in and out of foul trouble, and Eddie House's customary spark off the bench was misfiring as well. Count this one as lucky to escape, and move on.

Alex Auld got another win for the Bruins, but this one was scary. There were penalties aplenty, and Auld got beat on a couple of power plays, but Milan Lucic broke a 3-3 tie at 16:13 in the third. Auld stopped a tricky Marian Hossa shot with 38 seconds left, then Marc Savard punched in an empty-netter for the 5-3 win. The road-weary Bruins finally get a homestand coming up; it starts tomorrow against New Jersey.