Sports Redux: The Power of Papi

He spent the first two months of the season making us think of the end of Old Yeller. He spent some time in the last month under a cloud of suspicion and betrayal. But last night, he was the Big Papi that New England loves and remembers, as David Ortiz hit two home runs, including a walk-off, as the Red Sox made it six straight wins against teams that aren't from New York.

Papi hadn't hit a walkoff in almost two years (9/12/07, TB), and new teammate Victor Martinez was already getting edgy that he hadn't seen it happen in person. "Every at-bat since he’s been here, he just get in my face and start screaming at me and everything. I like it, I really like it. He gets me in the mood," said Ortiz. We're trying to get Victor's motivational speaking to Bostonist headquarters for the offseason; you'll really notice a difference. On his ninth career Red Sox walkoff: "I don’t like playing extra innings."

It was a fitting end to a day when all the news out of Fenway kept overshadowing all the other news coming out of Fenway. First, there was the elaborate pregame tribute to the late Senator Kennedy, then there was the return of Tim Wakefield to the mound for the first time in what seems like forever. Wake was as good as ever, silencing the Chicago bats for just one run in seven innings. "I don’t know if there are enough words to say what he did tonight," said pitching coach John Farrell, in this praise-singing column from Bob Ryan.

There was other news in the pitching staff as well. Gone is Brad Penny, who flirted with reliability in his short stay here, but spent most of the time racking up huge pitch counts and putting undue stress on the bullpen. And officially in is Country Time, as Billy Wagner has finally sorted out his angst about coming to Boston, and will soon be sitting uncomfortably next to Papelbon in the bullpen. The Sox will have to treat Wagner gently after his Tommy John surgery, so who knows how much he'll help. It'll make life interesting, anyway.

Our ever-classy old friend Rick Pitino is blaming the media for making such a big deal about the sex/lies/abortion scandal that's rocking Louisville. The media, he says, is to blame for the hurt feelings that his family has suffered. Louisville police released some tapes of interviews with Karen Sypher, and Pitino thinks it's a terrible thing for that to make the news in Kentucky on the same day that Ted Kennedy died. It must be lonely on that high road, Rick.