Sports Redux: Un-Bay-Leivable

We'll run out of Jason Bay-related headline puns soon enough, we promise. But we'll use them when we can, such as when reporting on Bay's first home run as a Red Sox, a three-run blast in the first that helped set the tone for the 12-2 massacre of Oakland yesterday at Fenway.

Jon Lester had surrendered a two-run shot to Emil Brown in the first, but his offense gave him the leisure to cruise through the rest of the night. Youkilis homered, Bay homered, and much later, Youk homered again. In between, there were huge RBI hits by Jed Lowrie and Jason Varitek, which proves that the Stewart/Welch A's of the late '80s are gone for good. Even Wally was 3-for-4.

As for Bay stepping right in and contributing, he gushed as only a Canadian can. "I don't think two games and two wins makes a career, but it's two wins and I'm happy to be a part of it,". Whoa, slow down there, pal. Daisuke goes for the sweep this afternoon.

In the interest of fairness, we must report also the first National League homer by the Dodgers' new #99, a two run shot that helped LA beat Arizona 4-2. "I just live day by day, pitch by pitch," said He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, leaving unspoken the rest of that sentence, "agent by agent, mercurial mood swing by mercurial mood swing."

Former Patriot superstar Andre Tippett got busted yesterday. In a good way. He was wearing the Yellow Blazer of Football Immortality in Canton, Ohio, as he was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame. For you kids, there once was a time when the Patriots weren't the most successful, hated and respected team in football - in fact, the phrase "sad sack" comes to mind - but during some of those bad years, Tippett was still the class of the league. You can read Andre's induction speech here, and it's pretty terrific. Congratulations, Andre.