Tim Wakefield to be left off World Series roster!

The Red Sox held a press conference today to announce that Tim Wakefield would be left off the World Series roster due to his injuries. Wakefield was the only Red Sox pitcher to record a win against the Rockies during their interleague series against them in mid-June. The Red Sox lost the 3-game series 1-2 with Beckett and Schilling taking the losses.

Terry Francona suggested Jon Lester as a replacement for Wakefield's spot in the rotation and announced the first 3 starters, the rotation should look something like this:
1) Josh Beckett
2) Curt Schilling
3) Daisuke Matsuzaka
4) Jon Lester?

Unlike in the Indians series, the Red Sox do not have the option of pitching Beckett on short rest game 4 and then having him make a start in game 7 on full rest. Although the Red Sox didn't mention him, Julian Tavarez is also an option for a fourth starter, but I think he would be put to better use to take Lester's spot as a long reliever/meltdown insurance plan in the bullpen. The number suggest that Tavarez is more effective his first time through the lineup and becomes less effective in subsequent times through the lineup.

They also announced that Jacoby Ellsbury will be starting in center field in place of Coco Crisp. I strongly support this decision as Ellsbury is swinging a hot bat lately and his defensive skills and speed on the basepaths are comparable to Crisp.

Like taking candy from a.......terrible football team...

Coming into this game I was under the distinct impression that this was a classic trap game. Normally, for a trap game the underdog has to be underrated, the favored team is overconfident and is caught off guard by the underdog. Normally there has to be some sort of semi-relevant statistic that gives the factual basis for this concern.

For this game the fact that I kept on thinking of was 0-21 @ Miami losing to the Dolphins last year. What I forgot, however, is that these are the '07 Patriots and they are the 0-7 Dolphins. It's pretty hard to underrate an 0-6 team like the Dolphins and even harder to underrate an 0-7 team. As for the Patriots, clearly Tom Brady hasn't forgotten the embarrassing blemish on last season's record and seemed to be out for blood as he spread the ball around and racked up 5 TD passes IN THE FIRST HALF!!!!! Coming back from the locker room with a 5 touchdown lead much of the Miami crowd decided to beat the traffic and the Patriots were playing as though they had bigger fish to fry and couldn't wait for this game to be over. By the time the 4th Quarter rolled around, Bill felt it was time to take it easy on them and threw Matt Cassel out there to eat up some clock. Of course Matt quickly threw an interception that was returned for a Touchdown. The Patriots sideline immediately went into crisis mode as the Dolphins were now only a mere 21 points behind in the 4th Quarter. Bill had Tom Brady get suited up again and ran him out there to put another 7 on the board and put the lead a much safer 28 points away.

When asked about running up the score on the Dolphins by bringing Tom Brady back into the game, Bill denied this vehemently.

"I did it because of the score," Belichick said. "One more turnover, and then it's a 14-point game in the middle of the fourth quarter."

This was a game only in the academic sense, game usually implies the possibility of failure, this was a slaughter. The Dolphins can now race against St. Louis Rams for worst record in the league and 1st pick overall in next year's draft. The Patriots on the other hand have bigger goals. Think they gave Don Shula in the stands and his undefeated 1972 Dolphins squad something to worry about?

Next week the Patriots will take on the Redskins with it's very well earned 4-2 record at Gillette Stadium. The 'skins have had a tough schedule and are one of the elite teams in the NFC and in a tough division with Dallas and the Giants. They're a good football team, but probably not good enough to beat the Patriots, but then again who is?

Elsewhere in the League: I think Jacksonville has a real shot against the Colts on MNF. The Broncos caught the Steelers with their pants down and pulled out a last second 50 yard field goal for the win. The Steelers have some real talent on their roster that gives them the tools to compete with the best teams in the league, but they seem to have some trouble with consistency. Buffalo pulled off an upset against the Ravens and now solidly possess the #2 spot in the AFC East at 2-4. In related news, the Patriots magic number is down to 6, they could potentially clinch their division by week 11.

WORLD SERIES BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am almost in shock after tonight's game. All the signs were in place for things to go wrong. Daisuke Matsuzaka looked terrible in all of his post season outings and I had nightmares of Daisuke melting down and Josh Beckett warming up in top of the first inning trying to squeeze a few more innings out of his tired arm to keep our World Series hopes alive. Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz weren't hitting. Jake Westbrook was getting out of jam after jam after jam thanks to his incredible knack for inducing double plays and found his groove later in the game keeping the Indians close the way he did in Game 3. This is normally where the Sox give up two runs on stupid mistakes like Julio Lugo missing a routine pop fly or Julio Lugo failing to turn an easy double play or Julio Lugo making a costly baserunning error to assist an Indians double play and pack it in for the season...but not tonight. Tonight the Red Sox found their second wind late in the ball game and pounded on the Indians bullpen to turn a tight 3-2 game into a full fledged blowout and Julio's miscues will forever be swept under the rug of victory. I guess we found out where those Dustin Pedroia hits were hiding as he slammed in a 2-run homerun to give the sox the 3-run cushion they needed to breath easy, then slapped a 3-run double in the eighth to put the game out of reach and prompt Big Papi to get his goggles on. Any Red Sox fan who tells you that their confidence never wavered when they went down 3-1 isn't a true Red Sox fan. The 2004 season was an excellent band-aid, but deep down we can't forget the chokes of post seasons past. Every big game makes you think this may be the first chapter in a new century of Red Sox playoff woes. Few things compare with the feeling of Coco Crisp catching that ball and running into the wall, but still springing up and hobbling to the dugout with a smile on his face, because now he knows that feeling too.

Maybe the Rockies will come into Fenway on Wednesday well rested and blazing hot and destroy the Red Sox hopes of winning another championship, but for tonight the Red Sox can sleep easy knowing the Rockies are going to have to come to Fenway, where Josh Beckett will be waiting for them.

Beckett sends it back to Boston

There is so little about the Red Sox you feel like you can rely on this year. Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Dice-K, Dustin and even Manny and Big Papi have been consistently inconsistent all year. Fortunately for the Red Sox faithful, Josh Beckett isn't on that list. He was solid all season and seems to have turned it up a notch for the post season as he posts one lights out performance after another. It's no wonder the fans were calling for Tito's blood after putting Tim Wakefield in rather than Beckett on short rest for Game 4, who wouldn't want 3 appearances this series with the way he's been pitching lately? The other Cy Young candidate CC Sabathia paled by comparison as the sox once again got to him early and often. If one wasn't familiar with their bodies of work, one might assume that Byrd and Westbrook were the dual aces on the staff rather than Sabathia and Carmona based on their performances in the ALCS.

There's something comforting about the Red Sox situation right now. It would have been easy for the Red Sox to get swept in Cleveland, but now they've grabbed the momentum back, and if the Indians want to go to the World Series they're going to have to come to Friendly Fenway and stump the sox in front of a raucous home crowd. If they can do that then maybe they deserve to go to the World Series. Curt Schilling will have a chance to add another chapter to his volume of post-season lore in Game 6 on Saturday night. The sox were able to get to Fausto Carmona in game 2 and pushed it to extra innings before Eric Gagne and Javy Lopez teamed up to blow it, with any luck they'll be able to get to him again and Curt Schilling will turn out a better performance this time around.

Fortunately for the officiating crew, their botched call of what was clearly a Manny Ramirez Home Run will get swept under the rug as the extra run was inconsequential given the 7-1 final score, but I'm still upset about it, at the time it was still a very close game and another run could have been the difference that ended a season of baseball. The officiating this ALCS has been terrible, especially the balls and strikes. The strike zone hasn't been consistent at all. I've heard arguments that a more technological instant replay approach to baseball would ruin the flavor of the game, but there's nothing more irritating than calls that stand that were clearly incorrect when seen on replay like Manny's homer tonight or when it seems like an opposing pitcher is getting questionable strike calls and your pitcher isn't. The technology is there, it makes no sense not to use it.

In other news...

The University of South Florida Bulls, this year's Cinderella story in college football, which had scraped and clawed it's way to a perfect record and #2 in the AP Polls lost to Rutgers Thursday night. This will finally bring an end to the speculation that the Bulls could run the table, post a perfect record and shock the college football world by going from an unranked program to national title contender in the course of a year. This is good news for Boston College as they should move up in the rankings over the weekend as a result. This has been the overall theme of BC's season, advancing in the rankings not because they're winning, but because the teams in front of them continue to lose. If the scrappy Michigan State Spartans can pull out a win over the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes BC might be able to jump from 3rd to 1st in the bye week.

My first published article...

The Heights

The time between the end of this meet and the deadline was like two hours, throw in the drive home and I was in a rush. I scraped this thing out from my notes/recorded interview with the coach in about 45 minutes. Not my best work, but I'm glad to see it still made it to print. I was told once I'd put in some time on this stuff I'd be able to move onto more relevant/entertaining sports, I personally hope this comes about sooner rather than later. I came at this assignment with a positive attitude, but have you ever been to a swim meet as a spectator? It's like a louder version of watching paint dry. I respect that fact that the sport relies heavily on perfecting technique, but to a casual observer in the stands it just looks like swimming back and forth alot.

The Irish Famine of 2007 continues, BC advances to 7-0 and #3 in the polls

BC came into this game the heavy favorite, ranked unanimously at #4 in the country and sporting an undefeated record more than halfway into this season. The Irish, on the other hand, have had a terrible start and now hold an embarrassing 1-6 record in what has been written off as a rebuilding year. Despite this disparity between one of the most notable rivalries in college football, the BC fan base was up for this game and many made the trip to South Bend to see the game. The campus was a ghost town this weekend and an eerie silence overtook the mods, the hub of BC's nightlife.

BC didn't disappoint as they rolled to a 23-14 victory. A few quick observations about the game.

1) Matt Ryan threw alot of passes over the heads of his receivers, but he still put up some respectable numbers on the day and the win helped him further his Heisman aspirations.

2) Ryan bounced back well from the interception he threw that was returned for a Touchdown, I like that kind of unflappable confidence, or as he termed it "temporary amnesia".

3) The Irish seem to be figuring themselves out. Their backup junior quarterback Evan Sharpley played sharpley (I couldn't resist...sorry) after he took over for starting quarterback Jimmy Clausen.

4) BC running back Andre Callender had another good game for the Eagles, it's nice to see the run can get it done when the defense is keeping Matt Ryan from making big passes.

5) There were a massive amount of questionable penalties called over the course of this game, most against the Eagles. I found it amusing when Charlie Weis was exclaiming from the sidelines that every call had gone the Eagles way, shortly after the commentators noted that the Eagles had been charged with nearly twice as many penalties as the Irish. The final numbers were 15 penalties for 131 yards against the Eagles, 7 penalties for 64 yards against the Irish. Nice try Charlie...don't get too worked up, not with that bum ticker...

Next week's game against Virginia Tech will be a real test for the Eagles. The Hokies were the victims of 48-7 shellacking by LSU down in the Bayou, but other than that they've been a very strong team. They put up an impressive win against Clemson two weeks ago and have clawed their way back up to 12th in the polls and are tied with Virginia at 3-0 in the coastal division of the ACC.

Wins don't come easy out of Blacksburg.

Duel in Dallas: Cowboys get blown away 48-27

This was easily the best win for the Patriots this year. They downed a 5-0 team on their home turf.

They didn't get lucky. Romo seems to have worked out the kinks from the 5 interception game on MNF against Buffalo. His only interception came late in the game and was the last nail in the Cowboys coffin at that point. The Patriots also had an acrobatic Randy Moss TD pass downfield be overturned on review. The Patriots managed to overcome a big mistake by Tom Brady giving away 7 points on a strip sack. Despite the mistakes the Patriots ground out a well earned, convincing win.

As for TO? He put up a respectable 6 catches for 66 yards and had a TD catch and did put up a slightly better day than the "Other 81" Randy Moss who had 6 catches for 59 yards and a TD catch. Moss wasn't really the story as Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth cleaned up with the backfield more open thanks to the Moss double team.

The AFC East continues to be abysmal outside of the Patriots as Miami dropped to 0-6 this weekend and the Jets are still 1-5. Buffalo had the bye this week and occupies the #2 spot in the division at 1-4. The Patriots magic number is now 7.

The Patriots will be trying to avoid the huge upset against winless Miami on the road next Sunday.