It looks like it's going to be an easy season for Red Sox beat writers. It looks like all they'll have to do is set up a microphone within half a mile of Jonathan Papelbon, and he'll come a-runnin' with enough material to fill a dozen Notes columns. More, if they can be padded out with 40-year-old rock lyrics (hi, Dan!). So it's the time of the season for Spring Training, and Papelbon held court......

Last night was one of the strangest games we've seen in a while at the TDBG. With the unremarkable Clippers in town, the second quarter had a playoff-like intensity to it, with technicals, an ejection, and some really scrappy play. The fourth quarter showed a surprising lineup, as Doc left the second unit (House, Powe, Davis, Posey, Tony Allen) in for almost the entire time. Most surprising of all - the bench played some fantastic......

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......

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......

Frankly, when we learned that Nelson de la Rosa, the world's smallest man/ Pedro Martinez mascot, had died, we did not automatically think, "I would like to look at his lifeless body." Then again, we have still not been to see the Body Worlds exhibit at the Museum of Science, so we're clearly out of touch with the mainstream when it comes to looking at dead people in museums. Other people, though, are interested in......

Nelson De La Rosa, the "world's smallest actor," passed away on Sunday at the age of 38. He may have been only two feet and four inches tall, but he was big enough to hang with the larger-than-life personalities of both Pedro Martinez and Marlon Brando. De La Rosa climbed from the schlockfest Rat Man to a role as Marlon Brando's sidekick in The Island of Dr. Moreau, and De La Rosa's character supposedly served......

Bostonist was on hand for last night's return of Pedro Martinez to the mound. To say that the environment was electric is a colossal understatement. There was one thing the people who showed up were there to see - and that's Pedro. People wanted to cheer him on the way to the bullpen to warm up, on his way back to the dugout, on his way to the mound for the bottom half of......

Good news for Sox fans and Sox players alike: Terry Francona, Sox Skipper, has signed a 2 year extension as manager of the Boston Red Sox, meaning he will remain in charge through the 2008 campaign. The extension is well deserved for Tito, who brought the Sox their first World Championship in 86 years in his first year as manager in the unforgettable 2004 season, and won 95 games a year ago leading the Red......

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......