Manny hits number 500

Manny slugs number 500. Ramirez became the 24th player to reach the milestone, connecting in the seventh inning off Chad Bradford to help the Red Sox beat the Orioles 6-3 Saturday night. Boston's left fielder hit the first pitch into the bleacher seats in right-center. He stood and watched the flight of the ball, then took off around the bases in a slow trot, a broad smile on his face.

Ramirez was slow reaching the milestone. He hit No. 496 on April 19 and had only three in 34 games before Saturday. This one, however, was worth the wait. "It was great, especially since I've been trying so hard the past three weeks just to get it done," he said. "It finally came and I'm happy. I'm proud of myself, of all the things I've accomplished. Now I can go and have fun." As he got to first base, Ramirez exchanged a high-five with coach Luis Alicea. He slapped hands with third base coach DeMarlo Hale, then hugged on-deck hitter Mike Lowell as he crossed the plate.

Many of his teammates greeted him as he reached the dugout, where Ramirez received more hugs and bounced up and down in an embrace with David Ortiz and Julio Lugo. The solo shot gave Boston a 5-3 lead. It traveled an estimated 410 feet. "I'm happy, you know, about everything I accomplished in life," Ramirez said. "Not everybody has the chance to go and get to 500. I'm just proud to do it." There were thousands of Red Sox backers at Camden Yards, and cameras flashed in the stands during every pitch to Boston's left fielder.

Light Hitting Red Sox down O's 5-2 in 12

Mike Lowell singled in the tiebreaking run during a 13th inning in which the Baltimore Orioles made three errors, and the Red Sox turned the miscues into a 5-2 victory Friday night. Red Sox starter Josh Beckett struck out 10 and gave up two runs and four hits in six innings. The right-hander issued three straight walks with two outs in the sixth, but got out of the jam by striking out Adam Jones.

Held to one run in their previous 19 innings, the Red Sox went up 2-0 in the first. Ellsbury ended a 1-for-16 slump with a leadoff double, took third on a bunt and scored on a single by David Ortiz. After Ramirez doubled to left, Lowell hit a sacrifice fly.
Boston missed a chance to add to its lead in the second when Cora botched a suicide squeeze with Coco running from third. Cora failed to make contract, Crisp was an easy out, and the Red Sox had only one more runner advance to third base until the 13th.

Men in Green Close it Out 89-81

The Celtics are headed to the NBA finals for the first time since 1987. Pierce scored 27 points, Pie Ray Allen had 17 and KG added 16 to lift the Celtics to an 89-81 victory over the Pistons on Friday night in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. Just when it seemed the Pistons might be in control with a 70-60 lead early in the fourth, the Celtics scored nine points in less than 2 minutes and went on a 19-4 run that put them ahead 79-74.

Billups' three-point play pulled Detroit to 83-79 with 2:24 left, then the Pistons wasted a chance to get closer. Tayshaun Prince grabbed a loose ball after a Boston miss and turned the ball over when Posey surprised him from behind and snatched it away.

Friday Red Sox Report

As the Sox head into Balimore, Manny is holding at 499 and will reach the milestone very shortly. Been in a little bit of a slump ever since he hit 498 and matter of fact, the whole team has been in a slump this road trip. How can such a team with so many fine hitters that were killing the ball at times in Fenway Park suddenly freeze up. 3 runs in two games AND those runs came on a Manny round tripper!!! The Sox are batting .169 over the last 6 games. Ray Allen 'showed up' for the Celtics on Wednesday, so about some of the Sox players showing up for this series in Orioleville. The C's and the Sox are quite similar, actually.

Still waiting to hear about Dice-K's MRI and we can expect them to DL him at least just to give him a rest. Buccholtz going today for the PAWSOX so I guess that means that Masterson will be called up on Tuesday to take Matsuzaka's place in the rotation for a couple starts. Don't expect the sox to DL him until then, but it will be retroactive. However, they could make multiple moves and DL him today and bring up somebody until Tuesday and swap with Masterson on Tuesday. Getting another look at one of our youngsters?

Tearing up the Minors

Let's take a quick look and see who the hottest hitters are in the Minor Leagues. Our Jeff Bailey is tearing it up for the PAWSOX. 14 homers in 175 at bats, 41 Ribbies and hitting .314. Jay Bruce of Louisville has 10 homers in 184 at bats, 37 RBI's and hitting .384 in 49 games. Luis Terrero of Norwich is batting .322 with 5 homers and 39 RBI's. Adam Lind (Syracuse) .328 5 HRs and 38 RBIs.


Some of the hitters to watch out for in the PCL are Russell Branyan (NAS) .359 12 36. Terry Tiffee (Las Vegas) .422 4 38. Matthew Brown (Salt Lake City) .355 11 33. Dallas McPherson (Alb) has clubbed 15 homers. Nelson Cruz has 14 HRS.

The Farm Report

Weekly post featuring reports on the Red Sox Minor League Affiliates. Today we provide an update on our top prospects.

PAWTUCKET TOP HITTERS
Chris Carter OF 51 .318 7 30 Graduated from DeLa Salle in Concord.
Brandon Moss OF 29 .297 2 19 Has seen limited action with the Sox
Jeff Bailey OF 49 .314 14 41 Too bad we don't need a first baseman.
Sandy Madera C 23 .303 4 14 Promoted from Sea Dogs .352 4 10
Joe Thurston OF 35 .305 2 18 Played 4 games with the Sox. 0-8
Jed Lowrie SS 13 .200 1 6 Impressive with Sox 17 .310 1 7

TOP PITCHERS

Charlie Zink 6-2 2.59 11 62.2 IP 21 BB 39 K only 2 HRs allowed

David Pauley 6-2 3.09 9 46.2 IP 16 BB 30 K

Edgar Mzrtinez 1-0 3.60 15 30.0 IP 16 BB 18 K

Kyle Snyder 1-2 5.08 7 28.1 IP 8 BB 22 K

Davern Hansack 2-6 5.62 9 41.2 IP 13 BB 31 K

Craig Hansen 1-0 1.62 11 16.2 IP 5 BB 25 K

Red Sox websites

I am going to provide a listing of websites dedicated to the activities of the Red Sox and they all will be posted on the right hand side of the blog.

Each day, I check The Boston Dirt Dogs which has many stories and info regarding the Sox.

Japanese Baseball Teams use corporate names

Remember when the Sox played the Yomiuri Giants? I think that a lot of people wondered where Yomiuri actually was and probably some still wonder. Japanese names are corporate owned and use the names of their owners. Instead of being called the Tokyo Giants, they are called Yomiuri.

Other teams are with their locations in parenthesis;
Central League:
Chunichi Dragons (Nagoya)
Hanshin Tigers (Nishinomiya)
Hiroshima Toyo Carp (Hiroshima)
Tokyo Yakult Swallows (Tokyo)
Yokohama Bay Stars (Yokohama).

Pacific League:
Chiba Lotte Marines (Chiba)
Fukuoka Softbank Hawks (Fukuoka)
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (Sapparo & Hokkaido)
Orix Buffaloes (Osaka and Kobe)
Saitama Seibu Lions (Tokorozawa)
Tohoko Rakuten Golden Eagles (Sendai, Miyagi)

Each Thursday, I expect to give out more interesting information regarding Japanese baseball.

MLB Tells Little League Not to Use Team Names

Now that the merchandise menace from the Cape Cod League has been neutralized, Major League Baseball can get back to more important items on their agenda - like threatening to sue an Illinois Little League over using MLB team names without expressed written consent. WBBM in Chicago pitches up foul news that baseball teams in the town of Tinley Park had to face a financial ultimatum from Bud Selig’s office over their uniforms - pay to use their names & logos, or pay for it in court. A local company called SportStation had been supplying the Tinley Park teams with their baseball duds. Even though the unis didn’t sport any official logos, they did feature names like “Cubs”, “White Sox”, “Phillies”, etc.

Odds to win 2008 World Series

Still quite early in the season, but here are some odds on teams' chances of winning the Series.

Red Sox favored at 9:2
Arizona Dbacks are 7:1
Chicago Cubs are 7:1
LA Angels of WalleyWorld 8:1
New Yak Yankees 9:1
Cleveland Indians 11:1
Philadelphia Phillies 14:1
Detroit Tigers 18:1
St Louis Cardinals 18:1
Tampa Bay Rays 18:1

Five Red Sox Lead 2008 All-Star Balloting!!

With this years event being held in 'old' Yankee Stadium, it would seem only fitting that five Red Sox players are leading the balloting in their positions. Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Manny Ramirez, Jason Varitek and David Ortiz are all among the leaders at their positions. There's a couple Yankees leading, but I forgot their names.With Terry Francona being the Junior Circuits' manager, he probably won't select very many Sox alternates and Pitchers. However, whatever the case be, I am sure that the SPANKEES will cry foul and Lady Alex will smack Terry with his purse. Papelbon could make it and Okay-geema is a possiblity. We could have a starting pitcher or two....Dice-K, Beckett if he turns things around and shows consistency the next few weeks.Wish they had 30 positions available because every team must still be represented with at least One 'all star'.

Mr Stonebreaker

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN YANKEE STADIUM on that eventful day they dug up Papi's shirt.

At 4:17AM Sunday, Bronx police stopped a man who was driving a beat-up 1975 Lincoln Continental erractically across the George Washington Bridge. The man, dressed in a ski mask and wearing mud-covered boots exited his vehicle, rented from Bronx Wrecked Rentals three blocks from Yankee Stadium. claimed to be Hal Stonebreaker, an executive associated with a local baseball team. Police searched the vehicle and found a mud-covered shovel, a pic-ax, a bunch of old Chinese coins, dirty bottles, kitchen utensils and some old worn out magazines.

Mr. Stonebreaker was speaking incoherently, laughing continuously, muttering something about a curse and a shirt and kept asking the police, ‘Who’s your Pappy?’ Police then escorted Mr. Stonebreaker to the site of the new Yankee Stadium where he pointed out approximately 75 holes he had dug during the night while searching for a shirt. This being Sunday, there were no workers to be seen. Officers shook their heads in amazement and were then brought up to the executive’s office where Mr. Stonebreaker went inside alone and came out 5 minutes later with 30 autographed balls of his star player, Darren Jater and began handing them out to New York’s finest. One of the officers curiously entered the room where Mr. Stonebreaker had exited and found a Scripto Marking pen on his desk with a box of major league baseballs.
When being informed that he was being taken into custody, Mr. Stonebreaker began screaming....’call my Manager...call my Manger, John Torrey’ unaware that Mr. Torrey had left the team to manage elsewhere. When one of the police officers infomed him that ‘Mr. Torrey was no longer manager’, Mr. Stonebreaker went into a frenzy, yelling "when did that happen...why didn’t anybody tell me about it.’

Police then called his brother, who told them to take him to Bellvue Medical Hospital for observation and treatment, where he will remains on a month-to-month basis.

The Legend of Forest Paperborn

Forrest Paperborn: That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little dance. So I danced on the flatbed and then when it stopped at the end of the road, and when I got there, I thought maybe I'd dance to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just dance across Suffolk County. And I figured since I danced this far, maybe I'd just dance across the great state of Massachusetts. And that's what I did I danced clear across Massachusetts. For no particular reason, I just kept on going. I danced through New Yock. I danced through Claveland. I danced through Lost Angeles. I danced clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured since I've gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going. When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go, you know, I went.
David Ladderman: Sir, why are you dancing?
Peter Gammonas: Why are you dancing?
Jerry Rainy: Are you doing this for world peace?
David Ladderman: Are you doing this for women's right?
Dan Coresillio: Or for the environment?
Jerry Rainy: Or for animals?
Peter Gammonas: Or for nuclear arms?
Forrest Paperborn: ( They just couldn't believe that somebody would do all that dancing for no particular reason.
Jerry Rainy: Why are you doing this?
Forrest Papel

born: I just felt like dancing

TOUGH LOSS FOR WAKES!!!!!

BASEBALL NEWS: The Red Sox fell to 1 1/2 games behind the Rays as they continue to struggle on the road. Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield only allowed one run to the Mariners, but Eric Bedard was slightly better, giving up just two hits to the Sox beating them 1-0. The Sox are just not hitting (again). On Tuesday, they fell to the Mariners and our only runs came on Manny's 499th career home run. Dice-K will undergo an MRI with a tired arm and I think that he will go on the DL. Masterson, who has had two sensational starts with the big club, would probably be called up from the Pawsox for a start or two

The Boston Sports Nut

Being from New England, I have closely followed the Boston sports teams throughout my life. They are my life and blood. Yes...I am a Red Sox diehard and grew up in a Red Sox family in Western Mass. Have followed them through thick and thin.

CELTICS EEK IT OUT!!!! Lead Eastern Finals 3 games to 2. Once holding a 17 point lead, they hung on for dear life as the Pistons fought their way back. The C's kept their starters in for almost the entire game and seems like they were pretty tired....missing shots, etc. Ray Allen came through big time, scoring a playoff high 29 points. Center Kendrick Perkins picked a great time to have his best game of the year, 18 points and 16 rebounds. Rondo dished out 13 assists. The Big Ticket popped in 33.