Sports Redux: Next Year, We Institute A 75-Man Rotation

Paul Byrd comes back from a year on the shelf and throws a gem. Tim Wakefield comes back from the DL and gets a W. And now Daisuke Matsuzaka comes back from three months away and beats the Angels. Clearly, some of these guys need weeks and weeks off between starts. Let's seriously look into the 75-man rotation next year.

In what's shaping up to be a preview of yet another round of October baseball between the Sox and the Orange County/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, Dice-K threw six innings of shutout ball. He gave up three hits (none into the fifth inning), three walks, threw 93 pitches in the six innings - so we know it wasn't an impostor - but overall, everyone was happy with the results. "It was nice to see for him, and everybody forgets this guy won 18 games for us last year," said Jason Varitek. "It’s a huge shot in the arm for us," said Terry Francona.

Most importantly, nobody seemed to want to dwell on the bad blood that was stirred up when Dice went on the DL. Matsuzaka's position is that all his problems were physical, and once he rebuilt up the savings in his shoulder, he was raring to go. "I've been a burden on my teammates more than anything, I feel that I owe them." About six more starts like that this season would forgive everything, Dice.

The offense in the 4-1 win came mostly from David Ortiz, who hit his 24th HR. Kevin Youkilis was out with either kidney stones or back spasms, and Victor Martinez was away on personal business, so it's a doubly good thing that Dice was on the money. As far as the wild-card race goes, it's going....quickly. Texas lost again, and manager Ron Washington summed up the last week: "We're not scoring runs and we're giving up runs."

Bill Belichick refuses to be any part of the media's trying to make something of the newest incarnation of the Jets rivalry. You may remember new coach Rex Ryan (the Jets' 18th coach in 14 years, by our top-of-the-head calculations) said he wasn't going to kiss Belichick's rings, giving the press something to write about in between Brett Favre soliloquies. Bill's response: "The most important thing to us is we are playing a division game on the road." The news on Jerod Mayo is in, and the news is that Jerod Mayo is out. For six to eight weeks. Unless it's sooner.

Zach Hamill and Marc Savard scored the first two goals of the Bruins' preseason, (Yes. Preseason hockey has started.) and Tuukka Rask did a fine job in net in his bid to back up Tim Thomas as the B's beat the Rangers, 2-1. It came, though, on a sad day for the Bruins' organization, as they lost Fred Cusick, who announced their games on the radio and TV from the Bobby Orr days to the end of the Boston Garden. Cusick, 90, was about to be inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame. And the Bruins salute him.