Yesterday, we noted that some sources blame Alex Rodriguez for the apparent impending breakup of Madonna and Guy Ritchie's marriage. Today brings the news that A-Rod and his wife, Cynthia, are splitting up, perhaps verifying that the Madonna rumors are true. However, Jezebel points to a suggestion that A-Rod's soon-to-be ex is dating Lenny Kravitz, who's dallied with Madonna in the past. Apparently Cynthia had a "secret" of her own--that she was going Lenny's way.......

Tim Thomas has been a rock in goal for the Bruins; even when they've been floundering offensively - and make no mistake, they have - Thomas has played well enough to keep them in the game. But last night against Toronto, another team struggling to put the biscuit in the basket, the B's found their rhythm and controlled the tempo, punishing old friend Andrew Raycroft for a 5-2 win. (Your humble correspondent was there, doing......

We already know they must hate us in Minnesota. Once, they had David Ortiz, Randy Moss and Kevin Garnett. Now they don't. But they must really hate us in Denver these days; less than two weeks after their Colorado Rockies were vaporized in the World Series, the Nuggets came to Boston and fared just as badly. The Celtics (who said they'd need time to adjust to one another?) annihilated Denver almost from the opening last......

Now that the trophy has been shown off and the Duck Boats have moved through Boston's streets, Patriots fans out there are psyched. Baseball's over! Time to devote the sports news hole to the pigskin! Almost. We want to give patient Pats fans their due, so we'll breeze through the baseball news nice and quickly: - There was a victory celebration on Tuesday. Many people attended. - Joe Torre: out of New York, into Los......

There will be no Ultimate Battle of Good Vs. Evil this year. Evil couldn't get past the first round. Ten men left on base, a useless home run from Alex Rodriguez (bet it will be bold-formatted on the resume), and a miserable start from Chien-Ming Wang had the Yankees calling for tee times by the fifth inning. For Yankee-haters, the fun starts now. Joe Torre has already been given the Dread Pirate Roberts treatment by......

In the bid to make 2007 the first season when all four LDS's were sweeps, the National League took care of business yesterday. The Rockies bid adieu to Philly, while the Diamondbacks went to Wrigley and broke Cub fans' hearts for the 99th straight season. Which, if you're a Red Sox fan, at least means that when we win the World Series, at least we won't do it on the back of long-suffering Philly or......

In one sense, we all dodged a bullet last night. If Roger Clemens had thrown a no-hitter, you wouldn't be reading these words right now: rather, a six-paragraph string of bad words. It was that close. But it's not like there's much of a silver lining after the Sox dropped their second straight in the Bronx. Roger took a no-hitter into the sixth (thank you, Papi, thank you, thank you), which is bad. Manny Ramirez......

If the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were smart (and we're not for a moment suggesting that's the case), they'd look seriously into Tim Wakefield's "rolling" contract extension with the Red Sox, and try to figure out how much money it would take to lure Wake down to St. Petersburg full-time. Because it's possible that Tim's 19-2 lifetime record against the Devil Rays, and 9-0 lifetime record at Tropicana Field, are solely a result of the......

It occurred at 7:29 PST on Saturday, after Padres pitcher Clay Hensley unleashed a first-inning fastball with a 2-and-1 count and the resulting shot soared 382 feet to a point beyond left field. And that was that - Hank Aaron was no longer the sole holder of baseball's most hallowed record. Barry Bonds had joined that club by tying the home run record with his 755th blast. Kudos to the Globe's Nick Cardofo, who neatly......

We have a confession to make: we didn't pay a lot of attention to last night's Home Run Derby. Our tolerance for Chris Berman yelling "back back back" is low. Our desire to see kayakers crashing into each other in San Francisco Bay was present, but not overwhelming. And without Papi, what's the point? So congratulations to Anaheim's Vlad Guerrero, who won the Derby, despite the fact that no home runs landed in the huge......

Things weren't exactly what one could consider promising yesterday afternoon, a few hours before the Red Sox and Yankees kicked off their series opener here in Boston. The skies were growling and peppered with sunshowers. Many of us were murmuring about whether we thought Alex Rodriguez was going to pull a stunt on the field (and whether Dustin Pedroia would be the first to lead the counter-attack). Starting pitcher Tim Wakefield was set to enter......

Harry Doyle and the Friends of the Feathered are breathing a sigh of relief this morning. After two losses at Fenway, Chief Wahoo's Tribe turned on the juice Wednesday night, pounding out a season-high 18 hits and smacking the Sox 8-4. Boston gave Daisuke a 2-0 lead after four innings, but Dice had been living dangerously all along, and Cleveland finally started to make him pay. And pay and pay. The Indians score two in......

CelticsBlog featured a post yesterday titled "Watch for Jumpers." The post's content was discussing teams that unexpectedly jump out of the projected draft order, but the title seems more suited for Celtics fans today. All is not well for the Boston basketball crowd - in fact, it freakin' blows. As many feared, our chance of a happy Wednesday fell through when the ping pong balls were selected during last night's NBA draft. Boston, the team......

Finally, we can put the one-day wonder of Sockgate behind us. O's broadcaster Gary Thorne admitted he misinterpreted Doug Mirabelli's horseplay as a confession, and thus has no reason to believe that Curt Schilling painted his sock to look bloody. The lesson here, of course, is that horseplay has no place in a major league clubhouse. Curt took the opportunity to unload on the media; you get the feeling that parts of his diatribe were......

This Japanese Word of the Day will, we hope, be brought to you by Daisuke Matsuzaka, who will try to use his houri to send the Yankees packing tonight. The Red Sox took game two of the latest Ultimate Regular Season Series yesterday; Josh Beckett recovered from a couple shaky innings to hold New York in check. David Ortiz provided the big hit, as he is wont to do, with a two-run homer around......

-- One down! After the five-game pounding that the Red Sox took from the Yankees at Fenway last August, Friday's matchup was more than just a game. It was more than just the first rivalry game of the season. It was about avenging the embarrassment that continued to smart for Sox fans over the winter and into the early season. The game itself was a battle of the best kind: one in which we came......

Things were looking bleak in Canada yesterday. Leonard Cohen bleak. Down 3-1 after seven innings, the Sox looked like the "feast or famine" roller coaster was about to take another big dip. Then Manny homered to tie it. He's finally off the schnide, and only one behind Miracle Mirabelli now. Then in the bottom of the eighth, Alex Cora survived a tough slide by the Jays' Lyle Overbay to turn a rally-killing double play. Cora,......

Unless you're somewhere in the Blue Hills living in a cave, you are aware that today is opening day at Fenway Park. The Red Sox open the 2007 season at home against Ichiro the Seattle Mariners, with Josh Beckett taking the hill. Bostonist expects to hear a thunderous ovation for our returning Red Sox, and a warm welcome for the new guys (JD Drew, Julio Lugo). Outside of today's team introductions Bostonist was contemplating what......

We refuse - flat out refuse - to get emotionally caught up in a spring training game. Even if it's Sox-Yankees. Especially if A-Rod, Jeter, and Johnny Demon didn't make the trip down to Fort Myers. But if you saw a nuclear-bomb-like flash to the south yesterday evening, it may have been the million flashbulbs trained on the first U.S. meet-and-greet between the two Japanese superstars: Sox' Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Yankees' Hideki Matsui. "He......

Where's Manny? Gordon Edes reported last night that "enigmatic" slugger Manny Ramirez might be late for spring training because he'll be at a classic car auction in Atlantic City, New Jersey. And not with his sick mom as has been reported. His '67 Lincoln convertible is up for bid, so if you have $200,000 or so lying around, you can own a piece of automotive and Red Sox history. We figured Dan Shaughnessy would be......

In two words, David Pauley. Watching this kid walk out to the mound in Yankee Stadium, with only a single start under his belt, after suddenly getting the call-up from the double-A ranks - and pitching a veritable GEM against the Yankees?! How could anyone feel bad? Yes, they lost a close one, and that sucks. But when you think about the fact that only one fielding gaffe, or 6 further inches tacked onto a......

The Red Sox are facing the Yankees tonight for the first time in this 2006 season and of course there is the usual hype. (See the Herald's tribute on the left. Please note unfriendly photo of Mrs. Damon.) But tonight's game has nothing to really do with baseball itself, but what the spectators will do when Johnny “I’m an Idiot” Damon steps to the plate for the first time as a Yankee. Since joining the......

While the real baseball season hasn’t even started yet, all Sox fans have been eyeing new Yankee Johnny Damon ever since that first press conference with his long locks chopped off for Steinbrenner’s organization. There hasn’t been much to comment on since Damon just recently returned to the lineup after sitting out since March 10th with a shoulder injury. (Not that it wasn’t a bit fun to see the replay of him missing that first......

"Hey Jeets ... Ummm ... I Say "goodbye" to the Idiot with the beard, the flowing locks of hair, the speed, the ridiculous lead-off numbers, and - yes - the throwing arm of an arthritic grandmother. Dan Roche of WBZ4 news was the first to report it, with Newsday in NY picking it up and spreading word to the Yankee faithful. Bostonist was on the way home from a late showing of King Kong at......

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......

While Bostonist sits and takes in the Sox taking a beating from the Blue Jays, the entertaining website, SmokingGun.com, has brought up an interesting little glich in the MLB online store. It seems that the MLB believes that the Yankees will be taking the AL East title this season, despite the fact that the tight pennant race doesn't conclude until Sunday afternoon. T-shirts proclaiming their eighth straight division win were available for $19.95 as of......

Someone please enlighten the masses and tell them - Why the hell are teams still pitching to David Ortiz? Are they HIGH?!? Bostonist is so *not* complaining but it makes no sense! With a most triumphant display of power Tuesday night, El Gran Papi is approaching an almost God-like mastery of the people pitching to him. The Red Sox faithful might as well start calling him "Ortizus Christ" because, well, his will is law. Last......

Where does one begin to look back on a week that was probably the most wrought with drama fans in New England, and expats around the world, have seen since Jason Varitek shoved his catcher's mitt in A-Rod's blue-lipped mug. There are no sub-plots, no subtleties interwoven among a more prominent narrative - the past week has been something more akin to reading a half dozen novels simultaneously. Matt Clement takes a 90mph fastball from......

Bostonist has learned a new word this morning: Ring-gate. When the Red Sox took home the World Series title in October, Boston was ecstatic. Bostonians got even more excited when the week after the game was won, we learned that the Sox would be receiving their World Series' rings on Opening Day April 11, which just happened to be against the New York Yankees. The season would start with a bang as the boys would......