It looks like it's going to be an easy season for Red Sox beat writers. It looks like all they'll have to do is set up a microphone within half a mile of Jonathan Papelbon, and he'll come a-runnin' with enough material to fill a dozen Notes columns. More, if they can be padded out with 40-year-old rock lyrics (hi, Dan!).

So it's the time of the season for Spring Training, and Papelbon held court with the media yesterday, talking about the 2008 Red Sox ("If we're not the team to beat, I'd like to know who is"), his dog-ate-my-baseball story ("If you believe it you believe it, if you don’t you don’t"), the Patriots ("You know, they fell short and they've got to go back to work") and defending the World Series title ("I’m kind of switching to the role of being remembered as a person who can go out there and repeat it"). Steve Buckley and Amalie Benjamin have much much more.

Yankee training camp is abuzz with news of a guy who's not there yet: Andy Pettitte, in the shadows of the Clemens steroid spotlight, is taking his sweet time getting to Florida. Meanwhile, the vigil for the ethics-minded New York Post to renounce the tainted Yankee titles stands at five days and counting. Pedro Martinez, God bless him, isn't being quiet about the steroid era. ""I dominated that era, And I did it clean."

The Bruins have some good news. Patrice Bergeron is slowly collecting encouraging signs that he may be healthy soon, and perhaps take the ice in the not-too-distant future. He says he feels good while he's working out, even if he can only work out in short doses. The B's play in Toronto tomorrow night.