Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon is hot commodity for advertisers. So it comes as no surprise that Dunkin' Donuts would use him in an advertisement. The ad itself is pretty funny, which is at Center Field (no embed available) because it involves a series of butt-pats: This is karma for Papelbon leering at former NESN host Tina Cervasio's butt, right? Not exactly. Surviving Grady let us know that Jonathan Papelbon used a stunt double for......

Nobody around here enjoyed last night very much. The Sox' listless loss to Detroit has us wondering where we chucked the Panic Button. The offense is anemic (did you catch Lugo coming six inches away from hitting into a triple play?). David Ortiz is off to a particularly wretched start, at .091. Mike Lowell jammed his thumb and we don't know how hurt he is. Jon Lester keeps digging holes for himself that he doesn't......

We were confused when we read Dan Shaughnessy's wrap-up of Tuesday's season opener in Japan yesterday afternoon. While we agreed that the return of Red Sox baseball was "fun-filled, action-packed," it felt as Shaughnessy saw something in Japan that we missed back here in the States: title defense from the Sox and "those cardboard cutouts wearing an Oakland Athletics uniform." We saw occasionally shaky pitching and an Oakland team that could very easily have set......

Courtesy of Red Sox Monster, we are seeing the Papelbon Jig and Dice-K in a Teletubby costume in a whole new light: Let's just hope the Red Sox opponents see them the same way whoever made this video did.......

For the 99% of us who can't finagle/afford Red Sox tickets, it's nice to remember that the Cape Cod Baseball League exists just an hour or so south of us. A perennial waystation on the way to the big leagues (Mike Lowell, Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis are among current Sox who spent time there), the league's free admission, volunteer spirit and small-town feel make a great time machine to the fuzzy golden age of......

Boston's favorite dancing fool has proven that the squeaky wheel really does in fact get the grease. Closer Jonathan Papelbon must have attended the Curt Schilling “How to Use the Media to Your Advantage School." After a week of complaining that he wasn’t being taking care of and how he should get the money he deserved all in the name of baseball, Papelbon got the money he wanted on Thursday afternoon. According to Amalie......

Some alleged boneheads should have their Red Sox Nation cards revoked, and we're not talking about Hank Steinbrenner. In a scary incident reported in the Cambridge Chronicle, a man wearing Yankees attire got beat up outside the Cantab Lounge in Central Square early Sunday morning. From the Chronicle: The Yankees fan was transported to the hospital March 2 at 1:41 a.m. for medical treatment for head injuries, including swelling over his entire face and several......

It's a day that happens only in Boston, as far as we know. Maybe they do it in Milwaukee and Kansas City, but we doubt it; only Red Sox fans are maniacal enough to go out on a cold morning to watch some boxes be loaded in a truck. That's right, it's Truck Day - the day when the Sox equipment heads south for Fort Myers and Spring Training. It's the day when dozens of......

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......

There are plenty of reasons to like Doc Rivers right now. Twenty-eight reasons, actually. But we wish we could kindly remind Rivers and the Celtics that you have to focus on winning the little games in order for the big games to mean anything. The Celts welcomed Memphis onto the TD Banknorth Garden floor on Friday night and nearly opened the door for the Grizzlies to win. Ray Allen struggled (two points overall) and, while......

It's easy now to sit back and bask in the glory that has been the Boston athletics scene in 2007. World champions in baseball, undefeated in the NFL regular season, second place in Major League Soccer, packing crowds into the TD Banknorth Garden for the Celts and (to a lesser degree) the Bruins...we have it good. But it's our job to remind you that there were days where hats were thrown, hands were clenched, and......

With the best year EVER in Boston sports coming to a close, it's time to do a little reviewing. We've come up with a series of lists from the highs to the really highs to the lows, and we'll be sharing them for the next few days. Here's a list of Boston sports' 10 Biggest Disappointments of 2007: 10. Coaches' wardrobes. Our hopes for a delayed winter were shattered, which meant two things, (1) snow,......

"I hope we have this problem every year," said Theo Epstein when asked about the final-out ball from the 2007 World Series. You may remember the fiasco and hurt feelings involved when the Sox and Doug Mientkiewicz embarked on their power play over the ownership of the 2004 ball. Last we heard was that Jason Varitek had slipped it into his pocket at Coors Field, then gave it to Jonathan Papelbon. Well, today it broke......

Enza Sambataro may not be a household name, but she inspires a passionate response from baseball fans. She's about to marry the beloved Red Sox player Kevin Youkilis. The Globe recently ran a light lifestyle piece about how Sambataro won't be the ordinary baseball wife. She dated Ben Affleck, she jokes about Yooooouk drinking too many margaritas, and she has a shoplifting record, around which the article danced delicately. Adam Reilly at the Phoenix detected......

Roger Clemens is an unhappy man today. At least, his lawyer is. Attorney Rusty Hardin responded to Roger's prominence in the Mitchell Report by saying, "He is left with no meaningful way to combat what he strongly contends are false allegations." We remember something in the report about Mitchell requesting an interview with Clemens and being turned down. Perhaps that was a mistake. For Clemens and the rest of the names on the list, it's......

Given that there were no local games to be had on Tuesday evening, we here at Bostonist wanted to dig below the surface, uncover some little-known facts about the local sports scene and its ripple effect. And did we* come up with some gems for you! -- Mike Ditka Doesn't Like the Pats! As we mentioned Tuesday afternoon, Ditka spoke out after Sunday's Pats win and said that Tom Brady was as wrong for acknowledging......

Since Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is sticking around Boston and it's campaign time, he's dipping his toe into the waters of politics again by endorsing Republican John McCain for president. Having Schilling near New Hampshire must make McCain feel a little better. In New Hampshire, he can compete with Mike Huckabee, who is on the rise thanks to an endorsement from Chuck Norris. When it comes to tough guys with a political bent to......

Red Sox fans have it good when it comes to the hometown team, but it's not always easy. On one hand, the team has delivered two World Series titles in four seasons, and we're looking awfully good as we prepare for the 2008 season. But on the other, tickets to see the Sox play at Fenway Park are the hardest in MLB to acquire and they come with the biggest price tags. And while......

Come on, it wasn't as if anyone thought that the mighty Toronto Raptors would snap the Celtics' unbeaten home streak. Sure, they could have - insert your "any given team, any given night" coaching adages here - but it wasn't a match up that was highly anticipated. You didn't hear any of the Raptors guaranteeing victory. We're just sayin'. So it was with a pleasant little lack of surprise that the Celtics took an early......

The baseball winter meetings are over, and the Red Sox find themselves without an ace. Except for the one they have. And the Japanese guy who might yet become one. And the old cowboy back for one more year. And the two or three promising kids who might be a couple years away. But they haven't landed Johan Santana, which is either a failure (if they really were after Santana) or a success (if their......

--An 18-month-old baby girl from East Somerville was kidnapped, allegedly by her own aunt. WBZ reports that Somerville police found the baby today. Four people were arrested in the kidnapping of Hayden Augustin-Laurent, and one of them was her aunt, Ketia Valmont. Two detectives were hurt because one of those arrested went after them with a baseball bat. Auditi Guha at the Somerville Journal reports that the kidnapping may have resulted from a fight over......

Major League Baseball has decreed that managers will be fined if they wear pullovers over their uniform tops. The rule seems to be pointed squarely at Terry Francona, who loves his pullover. Deadspin beat us to it when they joked, "You're next, Belichick!" Like hell. The NFL will have to pry that hoodie out of Belichick's cold, dead hands before he'll let it go. What's the big deal? Baseball players are not exactly beauties.......

That's right; we almost had to go in the closets for a rare winter activation of the Panic Button. The Patriots were struggling on offense, dropping passes left and right. The defense really struggled, allowing Raven Willis McGahee to run amok for three quarters. Don Shula was up in the booth with corkscrew in hand. But somehow, the game stayed close. And Tom Brady had a chance to go up the field with 3:30 to......

As tempting as it would have been for the Bruins to come out swinging last night, playing back the Flyers for Patrice Bergeron's concussion, that's not how they roll. And they needed the two points even more than they needed the visceral satisfaction of seeing the Flyers laid out like the wounded soldiers in Gone With the Wind. The 6-3 shellacking wasn't exactly a tea party, though. Defenseman Andrew Alberts left the game after a......

For all his rakish ways and unfortunate dating advice, the mere presence of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady makes some women go weak in the knees. Or weak in the brains. NBC reporter Andrea Kremer conducted what should have been a typical post-game interview with Tom Brady and Randy Moss. Watch Kremer's goo-goo eyes: Here's a link to the entire interview on NBC Sports (via Deadspin). At first, it seemed as if sports bloggers were exaggerating.......

No matter how old we get, the more we get a kick out of the immature, downright gleeful sensation of zinging another city's team. Case in point: Toronto on Tuesday night. The Maple Leafs hosted Boston, who in turn officially introduced the NHL to Tuukka Rask. Rask, a mere cub at 20 years of age, then made 30 saves and led the Bruins to a 4-2 victory over the Leafs. The zinger? Bruins fans know......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

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're the most starry-eyed, green-Kool-Aid-guzzling optimists anywhere, but even we never thought it would be this good, this fast. Even on a night when two-thirds of Ghidorah wasn't quite up to snuff (Ray Allen 4-for-14, Kevin Garnett missing his usual double-double), the Celtics still had enough to put the clamps on Jersey and win their seventh straight. Any time you defensively hold a team to 69 points and 33% shooting, you're doing something right. And......

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.......