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......

Unofficial leaked lists started hitting the Internet late this morning. Fearful and optimistic at the same time, we started scanning them to see who was allegedly going to be on the MLB Steroid Commission's "Naughty" list. But then the 400-page PDF report arrived in our browser, and some of the worst rumors turned out to be just rumors. The most popular list circulating this morning named Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon and Julian Tavarez. None of......

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.......

Apparently there is such a thing as the "sexiest fan alive," and the dudes who take their tops off and paint their chests don't count. Chris Piela, of Boston, is a Red Sox fan who is leading in a People Magazine/Major League Baseball poll to determine the "Sexiest Fan Alive." His wife nominated him, and other voters are agreeing. His wife's pitch about why he should win is pretty good, but we're dinging him a......

The MLB is no fun! A kind tipster just gave Bostonist the heads-up that the Chris Dodd Red Sox Raffle is now OFF and that anyone who donated will get a refund. The e-mail from Dodd HQ states, We have some bad news. Major League Baseball has asked the campaign to end our contest you entered to get a chance to go to a Red Sox game with Chris Dodd. Apparently, Post-Season tickets are different......

Congratulations, Sox fans! You made it through approximately three minutes of the Red Sox Rally Monday festivities at City Hall Plaza before the first chants of "Yankees Suck" filled the air. New record! Well done! A few thousand fans descended upon the plaza early Monday afternoon to cheer on their hometown baseball team (and decry the arch rivals) for the Boston version of the shindigs going on across the country. Rally Monday was a tradition......

It was a busy Friday in Boston sports - two Red Sox games, one Patriots exhibition game, baby news from someone other than Tom Brady...whew! We're just going to dive right in and give you the quick and dirty version of the Redux. Ready? Here goes: -- We've heard that Sox fans who attended the first game of the Friday Fenway doubleheader made sure to carefully tuck their ticket stubs away. We imagine that the......

Jonathan Papelbon and the Red Sox decided to add a little drama to their regularly-scheduled win over the Devil Rays. The Sox gave Jon Lester, in his second start returning from his cancer surgery, a 5-2 lead going into the seventh-inning stretch. The lead was built on a well-balanced sprinkling of hits and timely run-scoring offense, exactly the kind of thing we were constantly yearning for a few weeks ago. Was there really a time......

Dave Zirin reads from Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports on Wednesday, June 27, at 7:00 pm, at Brookline Booksmith. At first, sports seems like a welcome escape from the day-to-day grind of politics. Most people would rather talk about their favorite team than the state of the war in Iraq. But, although the talking heads on ESPN rarely utter the word "politics," sports is nothing but politics – people......

Forget the 2008 Presidential Race for now. The biggest decision any voter can make right now is the one forced on us by Major League Baseball. Since the All-Star game is in San Francisco, a National League park, the designated hitter is not an option. Which means the Red Sox had to designate David Ortiz to be in the First Baseman section of the All-Star ballot. Which means Kevin Youkilis is on the outside looking......

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......

Major League Baseball has its share of problems, to be sure: the steroids scandal, the delicate maneuvering they'll have to do to pretend to be excited about Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's record, having to politely say "bite me" to any fan who can't afford or use a satellite dish but might want to watch more than just the hometown team. So with all these issues, baseball's finally getting serious, telling Red Sox all-around legend......

Sure, you can spend your time dealing with the celebrity implications of Tom Brady's recent...prolific spree. But at Bostonist Sports, we're really looking forward to that 2031 NFL Draft. We can just see Mel Kiper III now, projecting that 12 of the first 13 picks will be quarterbacks with Tom Terrific's championship DNA. (The other pick will be the Detroit Lions, who will still be looking for a top-flight WR for Charlie Batch Jr. to......

Jake Halpern will be reading at Brookline Booksmith at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, January 10. Why were many Americans fixated on the scandal swirling around Miss USA Tara Conner? Why do celebrities constantly complain about the pressure of fame yet keep coming back for more? And what is the long-term impact of society's focus on fame? Author Jake Halpern, whose new book Fame Junkies will be released on January 10, tries to answer all of......

OK, so maybe that 4th Super Bowl is a bit further away than Bostonist originally thought. The Pats were, sad to say, trounced by division rival Miami Dolphins on Sunday, 21-0. This one was ugly folks, from the jump. Alas, Bostonist should have had a bit of a clue that this could be coming, with Tommy's record down in Miami (a place he is under .500, 2-4 career) and the injuries the Pats were......

www.keepmanny.com. That says it all. Trading him is ludicrous. There is no one to replace him, and it essentially marginalizes David Ortiz. These right-handed world class hitters don't grow on trees, and J.D. "Injury" Drew isn't exactly Manny Ramirez. Actually, according to Elias Sports Bureau, he is a lot like Trot Nixon, numbers wise... hmmm.. doesn't Trot at 5, 6 mil make a lot more sense (platooning with Wily Mo) then 15 Mil per for......

Photograph of Rick Santorum conceding defeat with his family by Gene J. Puskar/AP The -ists this week had politics on the brain. And what goes better with politics? Partying-- that's two great tastes in one. Oh, and Kevin Federline...can't forget about Kevin Federline. That's three great tastes in one. -Bostonist discussed two big state issues-- what sort of math constitutes a marriage and what kind of alcohol can be sold in most grocery stores.......

The Olde Towne Team, which in recent months has been in GM hell, has finally begun wheeling and dealing this off-season in preparations for the 2006 campaign. Peter Gammons of ESPN.com is reporting that the Boston Red Sox have tentatively agreed to a deal with the Florida Marlins (pending physical examinations) that would send stud starting pitcher Josh Beckett and contract liability Mike Lowell to Boston for 2 top prospects (Hanley Ramirez SS, and......

Intrepid researchers at MIT have released results of their study which threatens to shatter the serenity that is paranoid schizophrenia. Nothing says crazy like a tin foil hat. Admittedly, there are quite a few things that say crazy just as nimbly. The tin foil hat has become a sort of pop-culture icon representing someone who’s taken it a little too far in an attempt to thwart mind readers. Be it the Governments or Major League......

As of this morning, the Boston Red Sox and their prodigy General Manager Theo Epstein still had not yet agreed on a contract extension for the 31-year old baseball prodigy. Epstein, a homegrown Brookline boy and local celebrity after bringing the Red Sox a World Series title in 2004, has a contract that ends Halloween at midnight, yeah, like in six days from now. Supposedly, over these past few weeks, it has been business......

Bostonist has seen that Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is a religious man. As he scribbled down notes and prayers after pitching each inning against the Yankees in last year’s post-season, we could see that he believed that religion could help him and his bloody sock win games. When the Sox defied all odds last season to come back from four games behind New York, some fans believed it could only be something bigger than us......