This was borderline ugly. And for about fifteen minutes, there was no borderline. For much of the first half, the Celtics looked like every dire prediction about them was going to come true: they were bound to let a home game slip away, nobody had the guts to take a shot, LeBron was eventually going to step up and start carving through them. But late in the second quarter, Ubuntu kicked in. Rajon Rondo, who......

There were four multi-time All-Stars at the Garden last night. The three heads of Ghidorah, you know about already, but with Cleveland in town for Game One, LeBron James and all his accompanying hype and presence were there too. Four All-Stars, two MVP candidates, probably a great game, right? Um. No. Kevin Garnett was the only one of the marquee names to live up to the billing (28 points, 8 rebounds); in fact, KG was......

With their backs against the wall, responsible for a sudden regionwide crisis of confidence, the Celtics responded with one of their best, most balanced games of the season to punch Atlanta 110-85 and regain control of the first-round series. The C's put on a virtual clinic of how to spread the ball around, rely on your stars, let the bench guys contribute, and never really let the other guys into the game. Garnett set the......

Two great outings by Red Sox starters...two perplexing losses. Maybe the Rays are for real. Josh Beckett, trying to stop the Sox' freefall back into a pennant race, pitched almost as well as humanly possible. He went seven innings, striking out thirteen, giving up only two runs - one unearned on a JD Drew throwing error, one on a home run by Rays wunderkind Evan "No, I'm Not Married To Tony Parker, Please Stop Asking"......

We're big microcosm fans here at the Bostonist Sports Department. So we're even more excited by the Bruins than we'd ordinarily be. The story arc for their whole season has been overachievement, resilience, and good old-fashioned grit. They weren't supposed to be in the playoffs. They weren't supposed to hang with the mighty Canadiens. And they sure aren't supposed to be heading back to Montreal for Game Seven. But they are. In a game that......

The long drought is over! With the Revolution losing the MLS Cup, and the results of the Superb-oh God, we still don't want to talk about it - it's been almost six full months since a local team brought home a piece of significant championship hardware. No more. Boston College hockey captured their second title of the young century by flummoxing Notre Dame 4-1. Nathan Gerbe, as he does, led the charge with two goals......

--What is going on with all these tanker accidents? Another tanker crashed this morning in Woburn. It appears that injuries were minor, but I-93 South was shut down. [WBZ] --Brookline resident Yang Jianli will walk 500 miles from Boston to Washington DC to draw attention to human rights violations in China. The subject is close to his heart--he survived a Chinese prison camp and the Tiananmen Square massacre. [BU Daily Free Press] --It's going......

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......

The game that unfolded within the TDBN Garden on Friday night was better than the score, 110-92 in favor of the Utah Jazz, indicates. So there's a silver lining. Add to it the fact that it was inevitable that the Celtics' umpteenth hot streak of the season would hit a snag and Friday's home loss isn't devastating. Disappointing? That's another story. The Jazz came out on fire, led by Deron Williams' 32 points, and was......

Congrats goes out to Matt Damon, who announced that his wife Luciana is expecting the couple's third child . With this announcement, maybe Damon should talk Robert Ludlum into writing another installment in the Bourne series so he can feed all his offspring. Cambridge's other favorite son is coming home this weekend. Ben Affleck, who's taking a break from his relationship with Jimmy Kimmel, and his wife, Jennifer Garner, will be hosting a Generation......

--Governor Deval Patrick is so lucky. He's in Miami right now. Meanwhile, the AP is wondering why he's leaving the state so much. [AP/Boston Herald] --Mayor Menino wants a greenway over Storrow Drive. Can't we just work on fixing what's broken? [Boston Globe] --An MBTA driver was trying to cut around traffic in Salem. However, the traffic was stopped because people were waiting for a couple with a baby carriage to cross. No one......

--The Massachusetts House voted overwhelmingly in favor of preliminary approval to pour $1 billion into life sciences investment over 10 years. [WBZ Radio] --Of course Manny Ramirez would forget about $10,000 that the state of Massachusetts owes him. And if you think the state owes you some money, too, go to findmassmoney.com. [Boston Herald] --Is it just us, or is Bridget Moynahan looking better and classier than ever? Or is it just extended Super......

There's been a lot of praise heaped on Bruins goalie Tim Thomas this year, and it's all been deserved. The guy's been a huge reason why the B's are still very much in the playoff hunt. But man is mortal, and Tim looked anything but great last night in Florida, giving up four goals in 12 shots through two periods. His defense was far from blameless, but Tim's been great at covering for their mistakes.......

This Bostonist finally got around to seeing There Will Be Blood last night, so we're prepared to concede that the West can be a harsh and pitiless place. Until this week, the West had been very good to the Celtics. But now they're drinkin' our milkshake! The reeling C's have matched their longest losing streak of the year (two) after Baron Davis broke our hearts with a game-winning shot for the last of his 29......

--A truck making an illegal left turn near the BU East Green Line Stop hit a Green Line train yesterday morning. One Green Line passenger went to the hospital, and the truck driver has a date with the courts. [Boston Globe] --Speaking of bad drivers, some people never learn. [Boston Globe] --Laura Crimaldi into how the mortgage mess has hit the city, particularly Dorchester, where 33 percent of the city's foreclosures happened. [Boston Herald]......

The following is a public service announcement: The next time you steal a Red Sox's castoffs, particularly their sweaty cups, eBay would rather you sell them elsewhere. The Track Girls are spreading the word that SportsWorld, in Saugus, tried to sell Jonathan Papelbon and Kevin Youkilis' used jocks on their eBay store. Judging from how many times the Track Girls have written about SportsWorld and its Red Sox underwear sale, SportsWorld has been trying......

We weren't surprised to see Manny Ramirez selling a car on eBay, but the news that someone was selling Red Sox manager Terry Francona's chewed gum on eBay thoroughly disgusted us. The fact that people were bidding on it disgusted us even more. And how are you going to know it's Terry Francona's gum, anyway? That's like selling Britney Spears' Dorito Dust. The seller told the Inside Track that she got it from the dugout......

Manny Ramirez sure loves his cars. When he went on Leno, he seemed to want to talk about cars even more than the World Series. Putting car enthusiasts Manny Ramirez and Jay Leno together was risky because they might not have talked about the World Series at all. Fans got lucky, and the talk turned to baseball, but it might be safe to assume that Ramirez holds hot rods and baseball in similarly high......

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

Now that the Red Sox have won the World Series, how are they doing with the publicity grind? We'll evaluate each one's turn on late-nite television: Manny Ramirez on Leno: Two versions of Manny Ramirez exist--the sulky one and the gleeful one who invites everyone over to his house for drinks. Gleeful Manny showed up on Leno. He chatted with Leno about cars and awkwardly hit fists with Steve Carrell. At first, it seemed like......

Bostonist just wrote that Jason Varitek appeals to the angel side of our personalities, but Manny Ramirez appeals to the lil' devil within. Someone on YouTube captured Manny inviting everyone at the Rally over to his house for drinks. We first saw this on Barstool Sports, our source for the fun Red Sox news, and we were stunned: Is he insane? Did anyone take him up on it? He's lucky that those arrested for post-victory......

Bostonist saw today's "Rolling Rally," featuring the players riding duck boats across the city and relief pitcher Jonathan Papelbon dancing to the Dropkick Murphys, from two different vantage points--near the Common and at the Hynes Convention Center. Everyone clearly enjoyed themselves, especially Papelbon: Wherever you were along the parade route, it was simply madness. Of course, the Red Sox faithful turned out in their jerseys. Hundreds of little kids skipped school. College students sat down......

Be prepared to take a long lunch break tomorrow. Mayor Menino has announced that Red Sox celebration festivities will begin tomorrow at noon. Bostonist watched the WBZ webcast of Mayor Menino giving the details. The players will be riding in duck boats in a repeat of 2004's "rolling rally." Menino said that the parade will follow the same route as it did in 2004. Here's an image of last year's route from the Globe.......

Game Seven was a perfect little microcosm for the 2007 Red Sox, wasn't it? It left you laughing, and crying, and reaching for the Mylanta, and reaching for the whiskey, and jubilant, and terrified, and when it was all over, you looked back and wondered how you could have possibly ever doubted the final results. The story coming into this was whether Daisuke Matsuzaka would be able to reach deep inside himself and find whatever......

Maybe someday, when all this is over, we'll sit down with (or maybe without) Terry Francona and we'll all have a good laugh out of all of this. Because when it became obvious that Curt Schilling didn't have it (and he was OK, but clearly didn't have his A game, or even the B+ game he's been getting by with), maybe a different manager would have gone to Jon Lester, or Julian Tavarez (whoops! he's......

It's hard to work up a frenzy against the Cleveland Indians. They seem like a bunch of polite, plucky kids who we'd be pulling for in almost any other circumstance. Gone are the enemies of the mid-to-late-90's: villains like Roberto Alomar and Manny Ramirez. Gone are the mockable stars of that magical 1988 team: colorful characters like ex-con Rick Vaughan and voodoo worshipper Pedro Cerrano. Trot Nixon, who you may remember as one of the......

It looks like just might be a higher power looking down on the MLB postseason. He/She/It is a Red Sox fan and, judging from the sight of Derek Jeter slapping like mad at the bugs descending upon him at the Jake on Friday night, any higher powers out there have a wicked sense of humor. On a Friday night that gave us fire (well, on the T here in Boston), locusts cleverly passed off as......

The Red Sox were at home, facing down the Oakland A's on Tuesday night, but everyone had one eye on events unfolding in Florida. And wouldn't you know? Things worked out perfectly. The drama-filled Oakland game (only in September would one be able to string those words together) was decisively won by Boston and featured numerous reasons for the Fenway crowd to stand up and cheer. Tampa Bay managed to scratch together a 10-inning, 7-6,......

Let's ignore, if you will, the fact that the Sox seemed Friday night as if they wanted to reach a new club record for number of times they left the bases loaded stranded. Let's forget about the fact that Manny Ramirez is unlikely to return to the lineup during this series in Tampa Bay, which means he is officially (in our books, anyway) taking his annual September vacation. We can even push aside the feeling......

We were appropriately nervous when Manny Ramirez sustained the left oblique strain. Our concern came partly due to the fact that we wanted one of the Red Sox big bats to deliver during the home stretch. But it was mostly because we worried that Manny would once again have us where it feels like he always wants us: freaking out over a gap in both offense and outfield defense, hoping and pleading with him to......