Sports Redux: The Embers Fade In The City By The Lake

First of all, we need to criticize the Globe for their game story, which reads like a prewritten obituary for Tim Wakefield. Yeah, he's old. Yeah, he's pitching through pain. But it wasn't really his fault that the Sox lost again in Chicago yesterday. When you almost get no-hit, you lose. It's a simple game.

And so the Sox took six innings to figure out how to get aboard against the White Sox' Gavin Floyd. After 17 went up and 17 went down, Nick Green poked a single through. Jason Bay homered in the eighth, and that was pretty much it for Boston offense. Wakefield did give up only four runs in six innings, but three of them were in the first. A 3-0 hole + scuffling just to get people on base = bad times. Jon Lester will try to salvage something of the series this afternoon. Texas lost, so at least the standings remain the same.

The Patriots made their final roster tweaks, cutting a bunch of guys you probably never noticed, and swapping tight ends, trading David Thomas to New Orleans and picking up Michael Matthews from the Giants. Here's the whole rundown. Also, we're hearing rumors that the Pats may be trading Richard Seymour to Oakland, which we're not ready to believe yet, though the news can't be as devastating to us as it must be to Richard Seymour.

Boston College is ready for a challenging football year, but the challenge didn't start yesterday as the Eagles stomped Northeastern 54-0. It was the day in college football when big programs across the land get in shape for the season by toasting hapless patsies flown in (or sent over on the Green Line) for one moment in the sun. To wit: Florida 62, Charleston Southern 0. Southern Cal 56, San Jose State 3. Nebraska 49, Florida Atlantic 3. Oklahoma tempted fate by scheduling the competent BYU team, and will pay for it, as they lost both the game and superstar QB Sam Bradford. Maybe Northeastern will be invited to the prairie next year.