Sports Redux: Those Go-Go Red Sox

It wasn't enough to get everybody free tacos, but Jacoby Ellsbury made history in the Red Sox' win over Chicago last night, stealing his 55th base of the season and breaking Tommy Harper's club record.

Never known for being a fleet team, the Sox have gone entire seasons without the entire roster stealing 55 bases. Just in case you remember only those dark days, the Globe has provided us with a stolen base primer. The low point in recent years, according to our research, was 1983 (shut up; it's recent to us), when a team full of sluggards and plodders managed to swipe only 30 bases the whole season (leader with 11: Jerry Remy). So as far as team records go, stolen bases was a nice, easy, attainable one. Which doesn't mean our hat's not off to Jacoby, or that we're not going to eat a taco in his honor later today.

As for the game, the Red Sox struggled for a while, then Terry Francona decided to do a double-switch, replacing Varitek and Gonzalez with Nick Green and Victor Martinez. It was a shrewd move, as Martinez singled in Green in the 7th to tie the game at three, then doubled in Green in the eighth to extend the lead to 5-3 (Jason Bay had just hit a tiebreaking HR). Ellsbury drove in the final run in the 6-3 game, making a winner of Manny Delcarmen and taking Jon Lester off the hook in a game when he was merely OK.

Some good news for the recently battered pitching staff! Tim Wakefield is scheduled to pitch tonight for the first time since he beat Oakland on July 8th. And Daisuke Matsuzaka was at Fenway for the game, which makes us hope (against hope?) that he may be a factor - for good - down the stretch. The pitching staff also finally officially added Billy Wagner, after he decided he was OK with being traded here. Now he'll have to spend quality time with Jonathan Papelbon, after the two traded insults, with Papelbon openly recalling the carnage of the Eric Gagne era, and Wagner saying, basically, get off my lawn, punk. It's probably a good time to be a relief pitcher who doesn't really speak English. The feud did lead to a finalist for Red Sox quote of the year, though; trying to defuse a possible bullpen feud, Theo Epstein said, "I think Pap feels like he was misunderstood... he’s not a Rhodes Scholar to begin with, obviously."

Elsewhere in sports, Isiah Thomas is already making his mark on college hoops, threatening to boycott the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament because his new team, Florida International, may have to play the national champs from Carolina in the opening round. We'll be shocked if Florida International University is still in business in five years. The Colorado Rockies won their 95th straight game in extra innings, closing to within 2 of LA and making America worry they'll have to learn the Rockies' names again. And here's something for the person who's still inexplicably in your life who doesn't like sports - a gallery of athletic animals.

Photo by Elise Amendola/Associated Press.