Clemens watch

From Newsday:

Roger Clemens will take the mound once again, and he's not straying far from home. Newsday has learned that Clemens, 43, has agreed to terms with the Astros, the team for which he pitched the last two seasons. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner could be pitching in the major leagues by the end of June. He will earn from $3.5 million to $4 million per month, netting him roughly $12 million for about a half-season's work.

Must say that this has dragged on a bit too long. Surprised that Clemens who claimed to have the intentions of going to a winner is going back to Houston. Then again being able to work one to two days a week and make 12mm doesn't sound that bad either.

Coco update

The Red Sox have outlined a specific schedule for Coco Crisp to go on a Minor League rehab assignment, and, though they don't want to look too far ahead, Monday night in Toronto is looking like a logical time for the switch-hitting center fielder to reclaim his spot in the lineup.
Red Sox manager Terry Francona announced after Tuesday's game that Crisp will take batting practice at Fenway Park on Wednesday for the third straight day and then depart for Florida for two games of extended Spring Training.
Crisp will play at Triple-A Pawtucket on Saturday, and most likely work out at Fenway on Sunday and accompany the team for a 10-game road trip that begins in Toronto on Monday night. Francona did leave open the option that Crisp could play for Pawtucket on Sunday if he needs a few more at-bats.

199 & Counting...

It was a different looking Yankee team, but it was a result we have seen almost 200 times during Curt Schilling's HoF career. The Sox spanked the Yanks 9-5, and the score would have been a hell of a lot worse if Keith "Choke" had not played tee ball in the 9th.

"That's a distinctly different team," he said Monday night after pitching eight strong innings to beat New York 9-5 and earn his 199th career victory. "That's not a knock against any of the players they're running out there, but you're talking about All-Star caliber players they're replacing."

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz each drove in three runs, and Alex Cora added three hits and good defense for the Red Sox, who led 9-1 with two outs in the ninth before the Yankees staged a rally. Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada hit back-to-back homers off Keith Foulke, then Robinson Cano and Bernie Williams added consecutive doubles. But Terrence Long (remember him from the 2003 ALDS?), whose contract was purchased from Triple-A on Sunday because of injuries to all three regular outfielders, flied out to center to end the game.

"This is a team that's been wracked with some real significant injuries," said Schilling (7-2), who allowed one run and five hits with no walks and six strikeouts. "I'm sure it's a different lineup than we're going to see next time we see them."

The Sox are now 10 games above .500 as we close in on June. As a side note, Manny returned after a pitiful series in Philly and David Wells is primed to return on Friday. Someone get the word out to the Dunkin Doughnuts on Boylston! I don't care if it takes two dozen jelly, as long as he can rescue us from DiNardo's demise.

Beckett Goes Boom

The Sox continue to enjoy their time in the "City of Brotherly Love." Its just a shame I wasn't there to enjoy it.

After Matt Clement's solid outing on Friday, Josh Beckett hit a solo homer, an RBI single and pitched seven solid innings to lead the Red Sox over the struggling Philadelphia Phillies 8-4 on Saturday night. Beckett (6-1) allowed four runs and six hits to win his third straight start and give AL East-leading Boston its 10th victory in 13 games. He became the first Red Sox pitcher to go deep since Marty Pattin on Sept. 26, 1972.

"You never expect to hit a ball off a guy like that," Beckett said, referring to Brett Myers. "You're just happy to put the bat on the ball. He happened to throw where I was swinging."

Enough Already... Pick a team!

We now enter month 6 (although it seems like year 6) of the "will he or won't he" Roger Clemens watch and I'm just about fed up with it. With the Sox finally losing to Baltimore (even a broken clock is right twice a day) I have to have something to talk about - and Roger's "everyone pay attention to me" antics have me at my wit's end.
Jayson Start reports on ESPN.com that Roger has upped his workout regimen to eventually have a conversation with his body to see if he wants to pitch again. This is making the Brett Favre crap look by comparison. Stark ponders if anyone has even been booed at a Hall of Fame induction ceremony (as Clemens will be if he comes back for the Yankees) because you know RSN will be out in full force just for the joy of doing JUST THAT to Roger "Its all about me" Clemens.
That being said, I would LOVE to have him back on the Sox to pass Cy Young for all time wins in a Red Sox uniform and do the full circle thing for his career. At the same time, he has divisional races in both leagues holding their breath - and you know he loves it.
Let's take another quick look at the contenders, in no particular order:
1. Texas. Great offense, no pitching, no bullpen, the least $$ to spend. Nuff said. Odds: 0%
2. Houston. Lives there, gets preferential treatment, kid in the organiztion, offered $3 mill a month to play. Odds: 40%
3. New York. Loves Joe Torre, won there, tons of $$. Cons - NYers never liked him, the rest of the staff is in shambles and Rivera looks mortal this year. Odds: 25%
4. Boston. Full circle, Al Nipper, Curt Schilling... Beckett, Schill and P-bon worship him, the fans would go bonkers, the Sox have the $$$ and c'mon, if we could draft Ted Williams' kid as a favor we can draft Roger's other kid... Odds: 35%
They say Roger could decide anywhere from 10 days to 3 weeks - I hope he does it soon and ends this charade...

Yankees Lose at Home... to the Sox!!!

Easiest way to say it: the Sox raped the Yankees! Usually the YES Network likes to replay the games the Yankees just played; do they dare re-air this routing? They do! Stay tuned at 11:30 PM.

It's also great listening to these Yankees commentators discussing how Randy Johnson played a great game when he blatantly sucked like Rick Vaughn before he got his trendy red glasses. Go Sox!

The Best Thing About Watching Sox v Yanks

Sorry it's taken so long to post a follow-up to Monday's Red Sox-Yankees game, but I was waiting to talk about the whole 2-game series. Naturally, the second game was screwed up by the rain and the Yes Network decided to air a Sox-Yanks game from '03 where the Yankees had a huge late-game comeback to be victorious. Great propaganda.

Monday's game was great! I loved watching the first third where it was 1-0 and knowing that although the Sox were up, there was no way in hell the game would remain that low scoring. Next thing I know, it's 3-3 and anything can happen. Then came Big Papi - he's just amazing. The baseball gods seem to smile down on him just when the Sox need him most and grant him this supernatural power to drive the ball through heavy winds to give the Sox a 3-run homer.

It was great watching Damon get booed and then go 0-4. It was great watching the Yankees poor pitching. It was great watching the excitement and back and forth of these two archrival teams. It was great to just watch the game.

For those of you that don't live in southern Fairfield County, you don't understand. We get channels devoted to the Yankees and to the Mets, but the cable companies will just not offer NESN. Already this season I've spent many Sox games watching the updates on ESPN.com's MLB scoreboard, but it's not the same. It's actually worse than my idiotic recap above, but it's pretty rare that I actually get to watch a Sox game these days, and really the only times I get to see them play a full game is when they're on TV against the Yankees.