Rudy Giuliani might be out of the presidential spotlight, but one of his comments regarding the Boston Red Sox is back to haunt him thanks to the Topps Baseball Card Company. The supposed die-hard Yankee fan will be in the background of a card featuring the celebration of the Boston Red Sox winning the 2007 World Series. To refresh your memory, a reporter asked Rudy who he was rooting for last October and he......

Let's be honest. We've long known that Boston is at least on the short list for Sports City of the United States. The passion felt by Boston sports fans has long been either heralded or chastised, depending on your point of view. But if you'd told us at the dawn of 2007 that we were entering one of the best years Boston sports teams and fans would ever experience, we would have laughed. Long. Hard.......

Josh Beckett got to hoist the championship trophy, ride down Boylston on the duck boats, and will get a huge ring in the spring. He earned the Sports Illustrated commemorative issue cover, the champagne and beer showers, and the reputation for serving as the ace among aces in October. He had a rich season, so we're hoping that such a reminder helps as C.C. Sabathia is toasted as the American League's newest Cy Young winner.......

For a day that featured not a single Boston professional sports team in game mode, Tuesday was jam-packed with sports news. And what made things even more ridiculous was the fact that, for a good portion of the day, one faced difficulty figuring out what news was legit and what was a sports scribe's attempt at an exclusive gone wrong (Tom Brady exclusive, anyone? Don't worry, we'll get it to it). We're going to sort......

Someone in the Red Sox front office deserves a bonus today. Someone must have found a loophole in American League rules that permitted Josh Beckett to pitch ping-pong balls at the Angels while John Lackey was forced to throw regulation-sized baseballs. He had to be throwing ping-pong balls. What other explanation could there be that the Angels, a good hitting team and champions of the West, were reduced to flailing around like overmatched patsies? After......

OK, we're as excited as anyone about the first game of the Boston-Anaheim ALDS. We'll get to that in a second. But let's begin by trying to imagine how thick the tension must have been within a conference room in the catacombs of Fenway Park recently, when Theo Epstein allowed Dan Shaughnessy to sit down and talk baseball. Seriously! After the columns and the gorilla suit, the jabs and the barbs, this was a matchup......

Well, on the bright side, Daisuke has nothing to complain about this morning in terms of getting run support. Before the last of the Blue Jays' traveling party had cleared Customs, the Red Sox had staked Dice to a 10-1 lead, the big blow courtesy of a 3-run shot by the red-hot Mike Lowell, [Editorial Insert to Whatever Front Office Types Are Reading This. There's going to be temptation this offseason to make a run......

Big shock - American League wins the All-Star Game! Who knew? Who could have predicted? How could one have expected that the mighty National Leauge would fall in a 5-4 game at AT&T Park? Ten straight, friends! Excluding the tie, of course. Sure, it's become almost boringly expected that that AL is going to come out on top when the two leagues clash, but we were seriously worried about the pesky NK underdogs on Wednesday......

Were we really worried last season that Josh Beckett wouldn't be able to cut it as a member of the Red Sox rotation? Were we really concerned about his history of injuries, his adjusting to the American League, his anything? Well, we're not worried now, brother. Beckett's 11-1, sailing along, and making the Padres (admittedly not an AL lineup, but still an NL power) look as docile as the critter pictured here. With all of......

This should be fun. The best team in the American League against the best team in the National League. Two of the greatest pitching matchups we'll see all season. A glimpse of old friend David Wells. It's not that crazy to say the Red Sox and Padres will be eyeing each other with visions of an October rematch dancing in their heads. Daisuke Matsuzaka goes tonight in the first game. So this will be his......

The good news is, they got some hits. The bad news is, they didn't translate into nearly enough runs. Terry Francona tried drastic measures, moving the struggling (to put it charitably) J.D. Drew to the leadoff spot, possibly to cut down on his left-on-base numbers. That sure didn't work. Francona stuck with the scuffling (again, we're being kind) Julio Lugo, which means that either Alex Cora doesn't know how to play shortstop or is trapped......

The complete game is a dying art in the States. In the age of relief specialists, managers tied to pitch counts, and Papelbon, there aren't a lot of occasions when a manager wants to leave his starter in any longer than necessary. And last night, in fact, Papelbon was warming up when the Sox blew the game open in the 8th, taking a 7-1 lead and giving Terry Francona an excuse to leave Daisuke in......

We just critiqued the Boston police in the last post, but we will offer praise when it is due. The BPD has banned the use of pellet guns in crowd control following the 2004 death of Victoria Snelgrove, which happened after the Red Sox American League Championship Series victory over the Yankees. Commish Ed Davis himself said the guns will be melted and used for sewer caps. (That's probably where all guns should wind up......

Could you rank sports cities — objectively, now — by the number of MVP seasons that city has witnessed?The above is the question asked by Curtis Edmonds on his Northbound blog in response to a recent WaPo article. The most valuable city is – drum roll – Boston. We're not talking passion, championships, or even money spent on professional sports. Pure statistical analysis of the Most Valuable Player awards awarded to players on the teams.......

If you’re hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs “so are you nakie” to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

The Red Sox continue to steal our hearts and build our confidence. Last night's 12 inning win over the Phillies rounded out a sweep of the series and extended the winning streak to nine. Tonight the Olde Towne Team faces the Mets for more inter-league play. In the overall standings the Sox go into the competition one game back from the Mets – who follow only the Tigers and the White Sox in the overall......

The Jimmy Fund has been synonymous with charity in reference to the Red Sox for years. The official charity of the Sox the Jimmy Fund has donation boxes set up around Fenway Park, an annual "triple winner game" at Stop and Shop stores, and annual large donations from the team. Enter Curt Schilling. In 2004 Schilling commissioned a Red Sox chopper, which he sold to Hill | Holiday. The marketing company agreed to put the......

Well, the votes have been tallied and unfortunately it seems that our beloved David Ortiz did not take the American League's Most Valuable Player Award for 2005. Announced this afternoon, the award went to Alex Rodriguez of those damn Yankees; A-Rod received 16 first place votes, with a total of 331 points, while Big Papi got 11 first place votes and 307 total points. The Baseball Writers' Association of America has two writers from each......

The All-Star festivities began in earnest tonight as Phillies right fielder Bobby Abreu demolished the competition with 41 home runs, in total, to win the Home Run Derby. Not only did Bobby tear the covering off the baseball most often, he is the owner of this year's farthest traveled ball as well - a mammoth 517 feet. Chicks, indeed, do love the long ball, Bobby. Our own Big Papi, David Ortiz, showed up to mash......

Since 1940, the Citgo sign in Kenmore Square has become a fixture in the Boston skyline. Despite being dark much of the winter, a new and improved Citgo Sign will be ready for Red Sox opening day and will flash when a home run is hit. Repairs were delayed until after the World Series. Crews have replaced 5,878 neon tubes on the sign and replaced the old support beams. The repairs have been much......