Boston's Monday sports scene was all about the media blitz. The Red Sox held their now-customary Rally Monday festivities at Fenway, where Jason Bay, Dustin Pedroia (and his suit, which should count as a whole other person in and of itself), Kevin Youkilis, Terry Francona and Larry Lucchino said they were happy and excited about being one of the eight ("...or nine," quipped Francona, ever the wise and knowing skipper, given the insanity that unfolded......

We'll get to the picks and the standings in a minute. The Sox and Rays were both off last night; the Twins and White Sox both lost, so realistically, the chances of them both making a major run and the Red Sox losing the Wild Card is slim. Very slim. But let's not count any chickens yet. The Celtics are poised to resign Sam Cassell, meaning just about the whole gang is back to defend......

Hey, remember when the knock on the Celtics was their depth? Remember when everyone assumed Ghidorah would play great and then all hell would break loose when the second unit came in? Think Cleveland is remembering those predictions wistfully? The first quarter last night was a hangover from Game One. Ghidorah was still struggling (we were ready to call for a wheelchair to escort Ray Allen off the floor, if not a gurney). LeBron James......

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......

You've heard by now about the Red Sox T-shirt buried under the new Yankee Stadium. In all the stories about this yesterday, you'd think at least one media outlet could have mentioned that the Sox' bats were buried somewhere as well. Only a J.D. Drew home run prevented the shutout, and only a Coco Crisp 9th-inning bunt prevented us from breaking out one of our favorite Major League lines (the one where Harry Doyle cusses......

The Boston Phoenix's annual "Unsexiest Men" issue is one of their big events. Ever since they picked Gilbert Gottfried for the top of the list three years ago, they've earned national mentions for their audacity to call out guys for their ugly mugs. But the issue came out one week ago, and it was unsatisfying. So what went wrong with this year's list, which featured Roger Clemens on the cover? A quick glance revealed that......

Radio guy Sean Grande said it at one point in the second half; there were a lot of bloggers and NBA experts ready to go on the Internet and write that the Celtics really weren't for real. After the first quarter, they'd have had a serious case. The C's couldn't hit the broad side of the barn, and their vaunted defense was being repeatedly torched by Tony Parker and company. This looked bleak. The Celts......

Where to begin? Two of our local teams played yesterday, and two of them won. Let's start with the Bruins, who needed this win much much more. The story was poised to be another in a terrible series of "why can't this team score" rants, until there were 26 seconds left. With Tim Thomas pulled for an extra skater, Andrew Ference picked a hell of a time to score his first goal of the season,......

...only makes you stronger. That has to be the attitude the Bruins take today, after having their winning streak stopped, killed, set on fire, stomped, buried, and the earth salted. The good news is, they will never play a worse game than they did last night. It was 6-0 Capitals in the first period. Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick before half the fans had found their seats. Tim Thomas got pulled, put back in......

The feud between Red Sox ownership and Hank "Spaulding Smails" Steinbrenner is escalating. After Hank moaned, "Red Sox Nation? What a bunch of [expletive] that is.", John Henry responded by sending Hank an honorary RSN membership card. While we've taken our shots at the bloated "Red Sox Nation" phenomenon before - it's jumped the shark the way "Sweet Caroline" did, and Gino is in the process of doing - we recognize the need to circle......

The Bruins' win over Pittsburgh had a little something for everybody. It had scoring (including two by Marco Sturm), goaltending (Tim Thomas came one shot away from two straight shutouts), fighting (Milan Lucic exchanged pleasantries with Jarkko Ruutu for a good long satisfying while), and most importantly a win, which pulled the scorching-hot B's within four points of the Northeast Division lead. Kevin Paul Dupont analyzes why doing nothing might have been the best move......

On the way out of the TDB Garden last night, we weren't completely thrilled about the Celtics' victory over King James and the Cavaliers last night. It was a kind of sloppy game, Paul Pierce was way off-target all night, and the effects of jet lag were obvious. Then we stopped for a second and remembered where this team was a year ago. In one season, we've gone from plummeting towards ignominy, to beating the......

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......

It seems for some reason, Tom Brady and Randy Moss don't want to take a 6,000 mile flight this week and be reminded of Sunday's crushing disappointment. Brady's ankle issues are well-documented, of course, but Randy is feeling sympathy pain and is skipping the trip to Hawaii as well. So the Pro Bowl will have to go on without them. Tissues all around. The fallout is still...well, falling. The Patriots have to decide how much......

"Bye-weeks. Bronco Nagurski didn't get no bye-weeks! And now he's dead! Well, maybe they're a good thing." - Moe, The Simpsons These are the times that try fan's souls. The cavalcade of ridiculousness that is Media Day is long over, but the actual game is still three looooooong days away. But with 564,000 media members stomping around Greater Phoenix, stories will be filed even if there's no story there. And we have to talk about......

In a sense, it's comforting. The Celtics went to battle against one of the other good Eastern teams without Kevin Garnett, and almost beat 'em. On the day of the C's' long-awaited return to national afternoon TV, the script ran eerily similar to the first game in Orlando; the Magic jumped out to a big lead, the Celtics clawed their way back, but ran out of gas at the end. Orlando's the only team to......

The placement of the competitors makes about as much sense as the regions major league sports teams are put into, but it's still wicked funny. WBCN 104.1 FM is holding the March Sadness competition just ahead of March Madness bracket mania for college basketball. The tournament pits ugly foes in bracket competition. Randy Johnson is up against Chyna-Doll, Otis Nixon competes with Curt Warner's wife, Bill Walton takes on Reggie Miller, and our favorite......