Sports Redux: Everyone Can Breathe Now

Whew. All the crisis counselors can go back now. All the newspapers ready to print articles like "How To Talk To Your Kids About David Ortiz" can run something else instead. Rosary bead sales will be down today. Big Papi's finally put one out.

Down to .200, with a bus for Pawtucket idling outside Fenway, David Ortiz smacked a 5th-inning Brett Cecil pitch into the center field camera well. The crowd, which seemed a little hesistant to get up as the ball started flying - we've been burned so many times before - finally realized it was gone and gave Ortiz the ovation and the curtain call they've wanted to give him all year. "I would do anything for these fans," said a beaming Papi afterwards. Just hit about 32 more and everything'll be cool, big guy. Ortiz also got the silent treatment from his fun-loving teammates when he got back to the dugout.

It was the best moment of one of the best Sox games of the season. Cecil wasn't done providing great moments for the Fenway fans; Jason Bay and Mike Lowell also hit homers in the fifth, to go along with the two Jason Varitek had already hit. So basically, if you were in Vegas yesterday and bet $10 on "Ortiz will HR and so will 'Tek, teice", you'd be rich right now. Kevin Youkilis came back strong with a 3-for-5 night. Brad Penny had maybe his best game for Boston (6 2/3 IP, 9 hits, 2 runs), and Jacoby Ellsbury tied a major league record for outfield putouts, catching all 12 (!) fly balls sent to center, while running his hitting streak to 15 games. And it all happened at the expense of the first-place Jays. Good times.

In the NBA, the Orlando Magic seem determined to punish Bostonist for saying they were soft and gutless. They went into Cleveland and shocked the heavily-favored Cavs in Game One of the Eastern Finals. Of course, the Cavs have been home playing tiddlywinks for the last three weeks, so it's not a huge stretch to say rust may have been a factor. We'll see. And out West, apparently there's some drama about the arena in Denver being booked for a pro wrestling extravaganza when the Nuggets and Lakers are supposed to play, to which we ask, there's still pro wrestling? We thought they just kept showing 20-year-old tapes and counting on America's short attention span to fill in the rest.

Photo by Elise Amendola/Associated Press.