In a way, it doesn't feel right; the Colts should perhaps be in town today. They are(were) the defending champs, after all. They gave the Patriots the first in a long stretch of runs for their money that the Pats survived. The Dungy-Belichick and Manning-Brady rivalries are about the biggest stories in sports in this young century. But who cares, really. The Colts are on the golf course and it's San Diego who's in town......

Nothing makes the Cliche-O-Matic sputter and squeak like a Game Seven in the playoffs. Back to the wall. No tomorrow. Do or die. Now or never. All true, of course. So tonight, the Indians and the Red Sox will live the cliches. The Red Sox, of course, lived to fight another day on a supremely gutsy performance by Curt Schilling. Seven innings pitched, six hits, two runs, a thunderous ovation as he left the field......

Sox fans, the request has been made of you: dig out your reddest of red and wear it proud today. The Sox brass hit the television news airwaves on Friday and asked you to show the Red Sox that you're behind them - and show the Indians that in order to get to the World Series, Cleveland is going to have to get past our team AND our fans on our turf. Fans have added......

Frankly, we'd like to know what Daisuke Matsuzaka did to alienate his teammates. Does he play "Gyroball" constantly in the clubhouse? Mix wasabi in with the Ben Gay as a lockerroom prank? There must be some reason why his lineup consistently fails to give him any run support, making him 1-3 against the Devil Rays to his 12-7 record against the rest of the league. Don Orsillo put it best late in the game last......

Now that the July 4 hub-bub has subsided (quick recap: boo to rain, yay to fireworks, poor network branding choice to have the Scottish Craig Ferguson serve as an honorary MC for a July 4 celebration), we can note that we had earlier this week our first expereince observing baseball speed-dating in progress. Bostonist was on hand for Monday night's Sox/Rangers game - sometime late in the game, we turned to the center field jumbo......

Part of us thinks that a team that's scuffling as bad as the Red Sox are right now deserves to have five guys named to the All-Star team. But we do recognize that the honor is bestowed upon players based on the entire spring's production, not just the last couple weeks of lousy baseball, so let's give credit where credit is due. Manny, Papi, Lowell, Beckett, and Papelbon are all going to San Francisco for......

After three innings last night, the mood at Fenway was as good as it gets. Josh Beckett was on the mound, and the Sox had staked him to a 4-0 lead. The team was hitting well, including superprospect Jacoby Ellsbury, who got his first major-league hit by zipping down the first-base line to beat the throw on a routine ground ball. The Sox even had a helper monkey named Ayla throw out the first pitch.......

Weren't we told that losing the Lottery wasn't a big deal? Since this was the most loaded draft in years, the story went, the Celtics would happily grab a good player with the #5 pick that would complement Paul Pierce and the burgeoning youth movement, and join in on the team that would compete soon and for years to come. Yeah; not so much. Like a rube on a carnival midway, Danny Ainge fell for......

It's been said that tonight is going to feature the loudest and longest round of applause to hit Fenway in all of 2007. We disagree - we think it will happen either this weekend or in September, when Joe Torre comes to get Roger Clemens in the fourth inning - but tonight's going to be special. Tonight, the Sox welcome back Trot Nixon, stalwart of the 2004 Championship team and one of the core members......

We've now entered the portion of the 2007 Red Sox season where, frankly, it's not that big a deal if the starters struggle. How long this portion will last, we don't know, but we saw the Sox' offense rescue a queasy Daisuke on Friday, and they bailed out a shaky Wakefield Saturday to club the Rangers 7-4. Wake struggled in the fifth, giving up a two-run double to Gerald Laird as the lowlight of a......

No games last night of local interest. So let's take a spin around the country to see what's going on in the rest of the sporting world. We'll start in Arlington, Texas, where the Red Sox are about to begin a three-game set with the Rangers. Daisuke Matsuzaka goes tonight against Brandon McCarthy. Big D is still buzzing about this week's announcement that the Cowboys and their new stadium will host Super Bowl XLV in......

ESPN has never met a story it couldn't drive into the ground. Remember Terrell Owens' "suicide attempt" last fall? Unfortunately, with the Red Sox off, we need something sporty to talk about, so enter the Worldwide Leader's hyping of Barry Bonds' chase of the home run record. Jayson Stark, probably the best non-Gammons baseball writer out there, is flummoxed that not as many people are against Bonds as everyone seems to think. We know people......

It's on. The Yankees announced today that Roger Clemens (left, lying down) has consented to spend weekends and holidays in the Bronx this year, for a princely sum of roughly $28 million. The Red Sox apparently made Clemens an offer, but the idea of bookending his career in Boston and accumulating major karma points apparently wasn't worth the millions that Steinbrenner presumably overbid. Bostonist never was quite sure how we felt about the idea of......

Bostonist would much rather sit in an obstructed view right field seat behind a sign-wielding fan gabbing on his cell phone than trade in Fenway Park for a newer model. Whenever Tim Wakefield takes the mound in a domed facility, however, we can't help but wish that there was a canopy or something that the Fenway crew could erect over the ballpark every five days. The typically fluttery knuckleball becomes even screwier, allowing Wakefield to......

Pity the poor Orioles. Their fan base is disgruntled and apathetic, and Baltimore is a mere short flight down from New England. Thus, Sox-Orioles games at Camden Yards turn into travelling Red Sox rallies. They can't even sing "root, root, root for the home team" during the seventh-inning stretch. In front of a friendly crowd, the Red Sox got back on track, beating the ostensible home team 6-1. Curt Schilling pitched seven efficient, solid innings,......

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......

Go ahead, admit it. We will. Going into this season, we were counting on Schill, Daisuke, and Josh to guarantee us a .600 winning percentage, and we'd take our chances with the other guys. Not so fast. That guy with the 1.35 ERA, that guy who had the Blue Jays flapping their wings ineffectively all night? That old guy? That's Old Reliable Tim Wakefield, who improved to 2-1 with another bloodlessly effective outing. "He can......

A lot was at stake last night for the Red Sox. They had to avoid a sweep from the Texas Rangers, and Curt Schilling needed to prove himself after his unfortunate first outing against the Kansas City Royals. Prove himself he did. Despite some shaky moments from reliever Javier Lopez, Jonathan Papelbon came out and got the job done, helping the Red Sox defeat the Rangers 3 to 2. Even better, Big Papi hit two......

The Bruins had their last game after flaming out so spectacularly toward the end of the season. They took on Ottawa and did what they do best - they lost, 6 to 3. When the Celtics are fighting harder than you are, you know it's time to hang it up. Coach Dave Lewis offered his typically cheerful thoughts on the season finale: "It's an awful feeling to play the last game of the year in......

--After the beauty that was Dice K's debut, the Red Sox suffered a letdown with a loss to the Rangers, 0 to 2. It was a low-scoring game, so clearly Tim Wakefield had a decent pitching effort, but the Rangers' Robinson Tejeda was better. It stings a little to lose to a team with Sammy Sosa, though. Tonight, Julian Tavarez and Kevin Millwood will match up, and we hope the Red Sox will enjoy a......

Have we pretty much run out of Japan-themed headlines? Almost? OK. After all the hype and promise, Daisuke turned out to be everything Red Sox Nation could have hoped for. Of course, he gave up six hits and a run, so there's room for improvement, but Dice was firmly in control of the hapless Royals in the 4-1 victory. Which puts the Red Sox alone in first place, and makes us feel a little silly......

--Red Sox center fielder Coco Crisp is making the publicity rounds to remind everyone that he is back and ready to play after being hampered with a busted finger. He is also saying that he doesn't care what you, the fan, think about him: "I don’t care if people think I suck or they think I’m good. I just go out there and have fun, and hopefully the ball falls. . . . If the......

Georgetown took Boston College out of the NCAA tournament, 62 to 55. All in all, it wasn't a bad showing, especially since one of BC's big guns, Sean Williams, got suspended earlier in the season. We could wonder what might have been with Williams around, but it probably wouldn't have made a difference. Roy Hibbert, of the Hoyas, was just too much to deal with. The dude is 7-foot-2! But all was not lost in......

Botched in Boston seems on the fast track to a new defining statement of our city. Kerry started it with his botched joke that got tremendous play nationally. The Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare brought it back as a botched marketing campaign, or at least a botched reaction to a marketing campaign. Dr Pepper has now ended their Hunt for More promotion – labeling it botched – and revealed the location of a......

In national sports news, there's a new star in heaven today. Kentucky Derby winner Barabaro lost his long battle with leg injuries and was put to sleep. We feel really sad losing an old friend - not so much the horse, but the easy go-to "I hear he's in stable condition" joke that served us so well, and now will have to be shelved until another thoroughbred is in trouble. Alas. Not ready to......

We say "World's Fastest" because the Patriots vs. Chargers game has already started. People have their Pats gear on, their brews out, and their munchies on the coffee table. Most likely, they aren't reading Bostonist. Heck, this Bostonist has one eye on the telly and the other on the computer screen. But, in the interest of staying consistent, Bostonist has the Redux for last night. Bruins 1, NY Rangers 3 - The Bruins lost again,......

Believe it or not, its hot stove time, and that means time to start talking about the 2007 iteration of the Olde Towne Team. Ok, first off, let's get this straight... the Sox are paying the Japanese team the Seibu Lions upwards of 50 million dollars for the exclusive right to NEGOTIATE with Japanese fireballer and WBC MVP Daisuke Matsuzaka? So, assuming he gets Josh Beckett money (and, hopefully pitches better than Beckett), we......

Just about 21 years ago the Sox were gearing up for a match up with the Texas Rangers to play a rained out game from earlier in the season. Today the same scenario exists – the Sox play the Rangers at home in a rescheduled game due to a rain out earlier in the year. Today's video is better than the whole team wearing throwback jerseys – it’s both the Rangers and the Sox in......

Sunday the Red Sox saw the turnstiles click past 1 million so far this season. The pace is record setting for crowds at Fenway. This year capacity rests slightly above last years number, allowing for the fastest millionth fan to visit Fenway in years past. It was their 28th home bout, just after a walk-off Ortiz home-run to end their 27th. By some sketchy math attendance looks to be about 36,250 per game. Recently......

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......