As tempting as it would have been for the Bruins to come out swinging last night, playing back the Flyers for Patrice Bergeron's concussion, that's not how they roll. And they needed the two points even more than they needed the visceral satisfaction of seeing the Flyers laid out like the wounded soldiers in Gone With the Wind. The 6-3 shellacking wasn't exactly a tea party, though. Defenseman Andrew Alberts left the game after a......

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......

First, the really great news: Josh Beckett managed to make C.C. Sabathia look like a Little League pitcher (no offense to some of those who are the future of America's pastime) on Friday night at Fenway Park, ably leading the Red Sox defense in what turned into a 10-3 routing in Game 1 of the ALCS. Seriously, we were a little worried about what hinted at a pitching fan's dream matchup - two great aces......

--In Centerville, Kelsey Pratt, 19, of Osterville, allegedly drove drunk into the side of a house. That in itself doesn't seem Blotter-Worthy, but WBZ has the video, and Pratt didn't just tap that house. She plowed into that sucker like it was a garage. No one got hurt. WHDH says this is Pratt's second OUI offense. --But wait, there's more drivers plowing into houses! In Saugus early this morning, an unidentified driver struck two cars,......

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......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

On a porch on a breezy courtyard at Allston's Church of Saints Luke and Margaret, Travis Kelley of Roslindale draws a chart on a large piece of paper. Fighting the wind, Kelley writes down the column heads "name," "beginning word count," "goal," and "final word count." Kelley was a municipal liaison for National Novel Writing Month last November, and he can't get enough of these deadline-driven exercises. This month, he is serving as a......

Harry Doyle and the Friends of the Feathered are breathing a sigh of relief this morning. After two losses at Fenway, Chief Wahoo's Tribe turned on the juice Wednesday night, pounding out a season-high 18 hits and smacking the Sox 8-4. Boston gave Daisuke a 2-0 lead after four innings, but Dice had been living dangerously all along, and Cleveland finally started to make him pay. And pay and pay. The Indians score two in......

Trot Nixon's homecoming game at Fenway was one to remember. Not so much for Trot (1-for-3), but for the fact that this game had a little bit of everything. An inside-the-park home run for Kevin Youkilis (shhh...20 game hitting streak...shhh). A conventional home run for Manny, tying him with former teammate Jim Thome for 25th place all time. A controversial third-strike call in the ninth that brought both managers out for some earnest discussions with......

-- Like many a Red Sox fan, Bostonist was feeling cocky at the top of the ninth inning in Tuesday's game hosting Oakland. Why wouldn't we? The Sox had a 4-2 lead and Jonathan Papelbon was heading in to finish out the game. It was ovah. Until Travis Buck hit that two-run shot to right field. It was a big hit in more ways than one: it brought Oakland back into a game that it......

Yesterday marked the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. 3,200 troops have died. The following are the soldiers from Massachusetts who lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom as listed in the Washington Post: Sgt. Glenn R. Allison - Pittsfield / Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo - Randolph / Spec. David J. Babineau - Springfield / Staff Sgt. Joseph P. Bellavia - Wakefield / 2nd Lt. Joshua L.......

Have you been talking about that Great American Novel you were going to write since you were a teenager? You wrote maybe a few pages, and now those pages are disintegrating in your desk drawer. Well, perhaps you should get back on it because you're surrounded by burgeoning novelists and thrill-seekers right here in Boston, and they're all trying to churn out a 50,000-word manuscript by the end of this month. These scribblers, who......

Some thoughts while preparing for a sunny Memorial Day Weekend cookout… David Wells had some bad luck earlier this week, taking a baseball off his right knee. The 43 year-old lefty was pitching quite well until he took a Travis Lee line drive off his knee which knocked him out of the contest. Wells was pitching quite well, leaving after giving up 1 run on 5 hits (and no walks) over 4 1/3 innings. Although......

With 2005’s Black Sheep Boy, Okkervil River’s Will Sheff has found his voice. Having already established his band’s American folkternative sound with Down the River of Golden Dreams, Sheff now celebrates the confidence and dexterity to sing his songs with a power already present in his writing. The instrumentation raises similarities to other contemporary artists while distinguishing the record from Okkervil’s previous releases. Compare the gentle strings and lonely narrator of “In A Radio Song”......

Bostonist has made little secret of our pro-gay marriage feelings, but we didn't think our daily blathering would have a real effect on the debate. In fact, we still don't think that, but we can't help but notice the how the opposition to gay marriage has faltered lately. First, State Rep. Eugene "Bete Noir of Brian McGrory" O'Flaherty, who was once unapologetically anti-gay marriage, had a change of heart last week, touchingly motivated by attending......

Well, the votes have been tallied and unfortunately it seems that our beloved David Ortiz did not take the American League's Most Valuable Player Award for 2005. Announced this afternoon, the award went to Alex Rodriguez of those damn Yankees; A-Rod received 16 first place votes, with a total of 331 points, while Big Papi got 11 first place votes and 307 total points. The Baseball Writers' Association of America has two writers from each......

In a blink of the eye, the Nemo Showcase is upon us. We figure there's no better way to kick things off than with an interview. Bostonist caught up with Morning Theft, a NYC-based band with strong Boston roots. They join the Nemo Showcase, playing tonight at TT the Bear's as part of the Lunch Records line up. Morning Theft comprises Rob Holmes (vocals, guitar), Peter Kim (lead guitar), Dan Byrne (drums), and J.......

Coming off a six-game road winning streak, fans of the Red Sox had a weekend of baseball, fireworks, and (Fenway) franks to look forward to. Of course, the Indians did come in and put a damper on things, taking two of three in the first series. The tribe rode the back of Travis Hafner on their way to those two wins. But - credit where credit is due here - the Indians had one Mr.......

Bostonist just pulled True Love Waits, Christopher O'Riley's renditions of Radiohead’s music for piano out of the CD Changer. The passion of O’Riley’s rock-to-classical piano transcriptions left us singing the lyrics to the song in our head, though the arrangements did seem like they would compliment Tori Amos’ trademark lyrics of archetypal subjects like Mother Earth. What’s next for the cross-genre enthusiast? Bjorkestra. Travis Sullivan leads the Bjorkestra, a big-band jazz ensemble playing the......