Sure players will say they have gone from an average salary of 209,000 thousand a year to just over 3 million a year, but that has not been a good thing, as the divide between the have's and the have not's have widened every year under Fehr's watch.  Teams like the Royals, and Pirates among many others have failed to compete in decades because of the steep players salaries that rise every year for no good reason.

  Oh yea, there is one other issue that will be the by-line on Fehr's resume, he fought tooth and nail to not have players tested and punished for steroids.  People will blame Bud Selig, and he does play a role in the escalation of steriod use in baseball, but as the head of the MLBPA, Fehr had the power to get the players on board with some type of testing early on.  It is hard to argue that Fehr was not at the very least complicite in assisting the steroid's era in baseball, and he allowed to go on for far too long.

 Have you ever seen so many fans relieved to see a STARTING pitcher go on the DL.  I hope you all took a mental snapshot of Dice on friday....because the next time he pitches for the Red Sox will be in spring training 2010....................

 I wonder what the REAL answer is behind David Ortiz's slow start is.....lack of "hitting fuel"....or the fact that he may be 36 or 37....not 33....

  A .258 average on June 22...hardly impressive for a guy that makes 14 million...and that was supposed to be an "extra" bat for the Sox offense.....p.s. he oftens finds himself out of games....Mike Lowell recovering from major off season hip surgery has missed only four games all year......the 14 million dollar man misses on average 2 games a WEEK....thanks again for this steaming pile of crap Scott Boras....

 How huge did Beckett come up in Saturday's complete game victory versus the Braves .....the bullpen was gassed from the night before ....in a game lost by Dice-L....and they were on a mini-losing streak....it was ala Curt Schilling.....

  How stupid did the umps look last thurday when they called a game that was 2-1 with four innings left to played.....had this game been played by the Yankees in Yankee Stadium, they would have waited all night to finish...especially if the Yanks were trailing.......

  Last nights start was perhaps the worst, beacuse it was against a light hitting below .500 National League club, and the start came at home.  Dice-L's line last night, four innings, six earned runs and four walks.  A grosser that gross performance, but what did we really expect.  Going into last night's game there where whispers that Dice-L was pitching for his spot in the rotation.  If that was Dice-L dipping deep, than it is worse than the Sox know with this colossal waste of time, space and money.

  Everyone points to Dice's 33 wins in two plus years in Major League baseball.  However we all know what we see with our eyes, this piece of crap does not pass the smell test, and he never really has.  Dice-L is a selfish piece of imported trash, who has never embraced the right brand of basball, American baseball.  I know Japan has improved such American inventions as cars and radio's, however they have not improved America's pastime, a point this worthless pile of crap needs to learn.

  The Sox and all of baseball need to learn a lesson, when Scott (SATAN) Boras and one of his clients comes a calling, SCREEN THE EFFING CALL.  Between Dice-L and JD RALLY KILLER DONKEY HOLE DREW, the Sox spent 170 million dollars on these two monumental let downs in the fall of 2006.  Drew has never hit above .285 and Dice has never pitched 200 innings.  The irony about Dice-L was that he wanted to be a Yankee and the Yankees wanted him.  How sweet would it have been if the Yanks had won the bid for this worthless pile of crap.  It seems sometimes that even when the Sox beat the Yanks, they don't really win. 

    I am sick of all the talk about how great the Yanks are, I get they are good top to bottom....but hey shouldn't they be...they outspent the Sox 458 million to 12 million last offseason....and thier total payroll is 80 million clear of every team in baseball.  It should not be a "shock" that they are good...it should be expected.  With all that being being said, the Yankees are clearly the better team, and that's why this current SIX game WIN streak versus them to start the 2009 campaign is SO sweet.

  The Yankees found out last night, that come-from-behind wins are hard to do against

A. Teams with great pitching...and an even greater bullpen

B. It's harder to come back against teams when the infield fly rule does not always result in a homerun for them.

  It was vintage Josh Beckett last night as he roughed up the Yankees for six innings of shutout one hit baseball.  Beckett was the man last night, and the Yankees were his woman....he had his way with them every way a pitcher could dominate another team.  Beckett carved up the Yankee line-up with complete domination, and had them off balanced all night.  It was certainly nice to see, especially since the other pitching match ups in this series tend to favor the FORT KNOX BOMBERS.  On this night though, Beckett was clearly the best pitcher on the planet.

  On the other side of the rubber, Yankees 85 million dollar Red Sox killer, looked pretty human.  A.J. Burnett did his best Dice-K last night as he walked five batters in just 2.2 innings of work...YIKES.  Burnett was tagged for five runs and five walks, and five hits in his short night of work.  For the season, Burnett has been knocked around to the tune of 11 runs in just 7 innings pitched versus the Sox.

  The MISSING IN ACTION Red Sox offense made an appearance last night, as they errupted for seven runs on nine hits.  The Sox were also given seven free passes last night, which greatly enhanced thier ability to move baserunners.  Even David Ortiz got in the act as he typically does against the Yanks, with his go head 2 run homer to dead centerfield in the second inning.  Speaking of Yankee killers, how about Jason Bay and his .524 average versus the Yanks this year. There is no quicker way to endure yourself to Red Sox Nation than to excel against the hated Yankees.

  It was fairly obvious early on that it was going to be a long long day for the Red Sox and Dice as he gave up a 1st inning homerun to new Red Sox killer Micheal Young.  The Sox trailed the entire rest of the game, as Dice pitched poorly and was very ineffective all day.  The Rangers knocked Dice around all afternoon, and tagged him for 10 hits and five earned runs in just 5 2/3 innings of work.  One thing is for sure, the Red Sox have now found thier #5 starter. 

  The offense was pretty borish today, again stymied by the vaunted Texas Rangers and pitcher Vincente Padillia.  The same Padillia that did not make out of the third inning versus the Yanks last week.  Today he looked an ace, holding the Sox to four hits and three lousy runs.  To say the very least the Sox have a very Helter Skelter offense, consistancy would not be the word used to describe this bunch.

  So now the Sox are once again looking up the New York Yankees, and if by design, they are coming to town to face the Sox.  The Sox will face two of the Yankees ace's in Fenway, as they counter with Brad Penny and Tim Wakefield and Josh Beckett.  On paper this series looks to be tilted the Yankees way.  Could be a long week at Fenway, good thing Theo has good seats, he can view the player he passed up close and personal. 

Really, as I have said many times before, you can't ever blame Julio Lugo, he should have never been in the game in the first place.  It was not Lugo who filled out the Red Sox line up card yesterday, it was manager Terry Francona.  I'm sure Tito looked at Brad Penny's fly ball to ground ball ratio, and he assumed last night would be a good time to get Lugo in a game.  You know what they say about assuming, both the Red Sox and thier win streak found out the hard way at the hands of Francona's assumption.

  If you look at Penny's line last night, it was just as impressive as the winning pitcher Kevin Millwood's, with one noteable exception, Millwood had defense behind him to help his cause.  All Penny had was a shortstop with ZERO range, and that range led to the continuation of two innings, that led to five earned runs.  You know what they say, you can never give a good hitting club more than three outs, most of the time you will pay, and the Sox surely paid for those sins last night.  For Penny, it was a sorry ending to a night where he probably had his most electric stuff as a Red Sox.  He allowed only one cheap hit thru his first four innings, and he was cruising before Lugo failed to knock down a VERY VERY routine ball.  The Red Sox broadcast team thought at the very least he should have knocked it down and held the runners in check.  You know who else thought it, Brad Penny, as he was visibly ********** at Lugo's inability to remotely do his job.

  I read alot about how great the Sox are on the Boston Globe.  They proclaim every day, we are looking at the class of the American League, a divsion winner or at the very least a wild card team.  Somehow though I don't buy it, it does not pass the smell test, and neither do the boys from Beantown.  They have two shortstops that can't make the most routine of plays, a DH that is deader than deadiest road kill, a number two starter so erratic he has only won back-to-back games once since last September, a closer with a whip approaching 2 runners per inning, a right fielder who is more injured that Paris Hilton is on her back, and the guy backing him up is even worse.  The Sox are alot closer to imploding than they are of going on a great run.  The clock is ticking, and the season continues to move forward, and somewhere along the line, we will revisit all these games the Sox have given away, and how games lost in April, May and June are just as important as September.

  Dice looked a little better this time around....not much better though.  He only allowed one earned run, however he faced only 21 batters in his five frames and allowed nine of them to reach base, hardly impressive numbers.  It was the typical Dice K high wire start, always one pitch away from complete and total disaster.  For Dice it was his first victory of the season.  Not bad, it's June and a 10 million dollar pitcher has his first win of the year.  Sounds alot like a Yankee's free agent production.

  The offense was good last night, not great.  They scattered five runs around on nine hits, however the deal was sealed in the top of the 6th inning when the Tigers walked in two Red Sox batters.  Jason Bay continues to be Bay Being Bay, as he went yard for the 16th time this season.  The new batting order is 2-0, maybe Mr. 500 Terry Francona was onto something when he made the switch on Sunday.  Jason Varitek continues his offense prowess as he collected another multi-hit night, and the under acheiving Jd Rally Killer Drew also collected two hits.  True to form though, he left bases loaded again last night, his MLB leading 159th time he has done that this season.

  The bullpen was especially good last night, until the 9th inning.  Before the Sox bullpen got to Jonathan Papelbon, they allowed ZERO Tiger base runners of any kind.  Closer Jonathan Papelbon was again very shakey, as usually the case in a non-save situation.  Papelbon gave up three consecutive singles to start the 9th.  In a game the Sox lead by 4, he allowed the tying run to come to the plate three times in a row.  Of course after throwing a ton of pitches, Papelbon struck out the side.  So after having almost a week off, Papelbon will need at least a day off to recover from last nights outing.

  The back story of the 2009 season continues to be the pitiful hitting of David Ortiz. Ortiz did a have a weakly hit single that went the other way, but in his four other at bats, he was overmatched, and was struck out three times.  One has to wonder how much longer the Sox can go with Ortiz in any capacity at all.  Most MLB teams don't have a guy batting sixth hitting .186.

  Today the Sox were done in by UBER stud Ramon Rameriz, however thier bats did them in long before he stepped on the rubber.  The Sox hitters could only manage four hits and 8 total base runners for the ENTIRE game.  They had runners on early versus Tallett, however the familier scene of leaving runners on became common place today.

  So again, a team that came in struggling, is dominating the Sox, the Jays had lost nine in a row before the Bean Town Bandits came to town.  Another continuing trend is the Sox stinking on wheat on the road.  Last week the Sox could do no wrong verus the Jays, this week however it is a different story.  Another crap lining to todays loss is that the Sox wasted another good outing by a starting pitcher.  They have had seldom few good starts by thier pitching staff, so it is a SUPREME disappointment to piss one away.

  Super coward Jon Lester takes the mound tommorrow for the Sox, and he looks to end thier two game slide.  I can't wait for his post game comments after he blows the game with a six or seven earned run effort.

POST SCRIPT- HOW BAD HAS BEEN WITH DAVID ORTIZ....IT'S WORSE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE...IN THE LAST 8 GAMES...ORTIZ...HAS A ******** .064 BATTING AVERAGE TO GO ALONG WITH HIS SEASON AVERAGE OF .189. ORTIZ HAS TWO HITS IN HIS LAST 33 PLATE APPEARANCES....HE HAS ALSO WALKED TWICE....BUT STRUCK OUT AN AMAZING 13 TIMES....

  For the second time in a week Tek went yard in the same game twice....I thought I was Marty in the time machine and it was 2005 or something.  Thats about it for the offense today...even Jacoby Ellsbury's bat went silent as his three week hit streak came to a close.  Also in the not getting a hit department, J.D. DONKEY HOLE Drew concluded this series with three games at the three spot with ZERO hits and r.b.i.'s.  So the three spot continues to be the great abyss for the Red Sox.

  So now the Sox travel to Toronto...where they will face the Jays for the second time in a week.  If there was ever a team that needed a home stand it's the Jays...as the went 0 for thier entire road trip.  Hopefully the Sox and the vaunted back of thier rotation can keep a lid on the Jays.  In the good news department, the Sox will not face Roy Halladay in this series.

Ps. Theo, not sure if you knew this or not.....but Gary Sheffield was available for the small fee of only 400k or so....and I think he has 5 homers and 17 r.b.i.'s in just 86 @ bats......

  Here is a look back at some of Theo's mid-season improvements....

2003- Despite playing from behind the Yanks all year, Theo goes out and trades promising prospect Freddy Sanchez to the Pirates for Jeff Suppan and Scott Williamson.  Neither pan out, and Suppan is left off the playoff roster.  Sox lose to the Yanks in 7 in the ALCS.

2004- Theo makes at the time highly critical moves...including trading off Boston legend and icon NOMAH...the moves pay off...especially one to get a speedster named Dave Roberts....

2005- Again the Sox needed pitching help...help in the bullpen...what does Theo do...he brings in Tony Graffinino....Graffinino ala Bill Buckner will be remembered only for a ground ball through his legs that would have ended an inning in the ALDS vs the White Sox...

2006- Sox have the best record at the All-Star break...but all the numbers point to disaster ahead....Sox pitching is a wreck...and the bottom half of the line up is dog chow....Theo stands pat while the Yanks go get Cory Lidle and Bobby Abreu...Theo makes a few waiver deals for a washed up Javy Lopez and Jason Jennings...neither pans out...and the Sox season ends in the epic five game sweep at the hands of the Yanks...forever known as the Boston Massacre Two......

2007- Okay this is the one time Theo should stand pat...instead he trades promising young OF David Murphy and pitcher Kason Gabbord who was 5-1 at the time....in return Theo gets Eric Gagne....all Gagne does is blow about six or seven games...single handedly putting the Yanks back in the AL East race.....Gagne only sees mop up duty in the playoffs....Sox win the world series...despite Theo's best efforts....

2008- None of Theo's early season kids pan out and the Sox have to make a deal for Paul Byrd off all people....Theo also lets an unhappy Manny walk away...thus ending  any real chance the Sox had at repeating as World Champs.....silver lining though....Sox unload well hyped by crappy overall pitcher Craig Hansen and in return Jason Bay arrives......

2009-............STAY TUNED..................

  Just as the Sox moved Big Papi down in the order, the same move needs to be made with Jon Lester.  Lester's starts this year have all looked pretty much the same, inconsistant.  It was once said by Yogi Berra that half of baseball was 90 percent mental, truer words have never been spoken in the case of Lester.  He has proved time and again that he lacks the courage or the heart to be in a bad situation on the pitchers mound.  He does not yet have the poise that is needed to guide himself and his team thru a tough inning.  Good and great pitchers alike could have gottten out of that inning last night, with the lead at 2-1, not the cowardly Lester though.  Though he is well liked by manager Terry Francona, several teamates that have played along side of Lester have privately questioned his toughness on many occasions.

  The only good news the Sox could take from last nights game is the results from the other American League East teams.  Both the Yankees and Rays and lost last night, so the Sox can keep first place warm just another day longer.

 This putz, who has never been liked in his time in Boston and who has consistantly under performed his contract needs to step up.  Drew has been the luckiest man in Boston sports history to have flown under the radar this long and suck as bad as he has.  There was alot of uproar when Drew and his bloated 70 million dollar contract came to town.  At the time he was brought to Boston, it was thought Drew would help an ailing middle of the line-up, and hit 5th.  Well in two plus seasons, Drew has rarely hit 5th, and when he has he has stunk on wheat.  Sure Papi is a problem. but this DONKEY HOLE needs to produce as well.  Imagine how well Jason Bay would hit if he had some freaking protection.  Hey Drew, ever heard the expression "better late than never".  Learn it....Live it....Love it.....Do it.....

 Remember the days when Big Papi used to come to the plate and actually drive in runs and occasionally win games for the Sox.  Those days seem like a distant memory, as Papi has morphed into a mediocre singles hitter, I use the term very loose.  Papi seems to have disappeared over night, it is as if his secret powers have gone away....or maybe he forgot where he hid his needles and pills....hey big guy you might wanna give Manny a call...he may know.  The Sox are in deep with Ortiz and the 30 million they owe him.  He is clear his best days are long behind him, and worse yet they can't use him anywhere but at the DH spot.  It's going to a long strange trip for Red Sox Nation and the guy wearing #34 who looks alot like David Ortiz, except he hits like ****.

 Though you may be a hero in life, and an inspirational figure, on the mound your a great big under achiever.  Since being dubbed the "real ace", all Lester has done is disappoint.  Lester gagged and wheezed the Sox out of the ALCS last year, and killed thier chances at repeating as World Series Champions.  This year he is trying to make sure they don't have any chance to make the playoffs.  Lester is 2-4 this season, and he is lucky to be that.  His e.r.a is as big as CC Sabathia's waistline, and his starts have become painful to watch as he crumbles like a house of cards at the first sign of adversity.  It's time to grow up and live up to the expectation of being a front line starter.  Who does Jon Lester think he is anyway, Phil Hughes ?

  Is there any worse tandem at shortstop in all of baseball than these two ********* ?  It is amazing to me that the Red Sox and thier 122 million dollar payroll ended up with these two.  Lugo platoned with the Dodgers before coming to Boston, and Nick Green played in the Yankees farm system last season, and was never called up.  The same Yankee team that did not make the playoffs last year.  Is it too much to ask for a shortstop that can defend and hit at the same time.  These two do neither very effectively, and more often than not are looking at balls go past them in the rear view mirrors.  Somebody get me Nomar on the phone........

 We knew going into this season not to expect much from Tek's bat, and so far he has lived up to that expectation.  He has hit roughly .220 or worse all season, and that number looks to only get worse as the days get warmer.  Now it looks like along with his dead bat, Tek also has a dead arm, and stolen base records look to fall everytime he faces a team with any speed.  It would have been one thing to bring Tek back IF the Sox had picked up a bat and could afford to limp along without his offense...but they didn't....and now along with Jd Drew and Julio Lugo/Nick Green, Tek and company round out a bottom of the line up that would give the Nationals a run for thier money......

 What can I say about the Brad Penny....local vendors are thrilled to have him in Boston....as pizza and doughnuts sales have tripled since his arrival.  Penny on the mound is another story alltogether.  Penny has been ill equipped to handle the rigors of the American League since his arrival to Boston.  His pitching has resembled a bad NFL defense, as his e.r.a has been around a touchdown or so everytime he takes the mound.  The good news for Penny is he looks to shed some of that excess poundage before beach season as he gets a workout during his starts chasing all the baserunners he allows. 

    Dom Dimaggio was signed by the Boston Red Sox in 1939, in 1940 his rookie season he hit .301 and scored 81 runs in 108 games, answering many critics who said he was signed because of his famous last name.  In 1941 Dimaggio earned a regular spot as the centerfielder, he hit lead-off and scored 117 runs and made his first of 7 all-star teams.  He went onto to hit .286 in 1942 with 14 home-runs and 110 runs scored.  After the 42 season, Dom left the Sox to enlist in US Navy where he fought for 3 years during WWII.  It can be argued that those 3 years during Dom's prime would have been no less successful than the 11 he played.  Dimaggio returned to the Sox in 1946 and helped them win the AL Pennant.  He hit .316 that year with 73 RBI's and helped lead them into the Fall Classic that year against the St. Louis Cardinals.  Dom retired in 1953 leaving careers numbers that would make many a big league hitter jealous, finishing with a lifetime batting avg. of .298 with over 1600 hits.  Dom is one of 3 players to average over a 100 runs scored per season for their career, and he still holds the Al record for putouts in a single season at 503.  With everything that has gone on in baseball the last 10 years, and with everthing now HOF voters will have to take into account, it is now time for the Veteran's Committee to take into not only Dom's numbers that were cut short because of WWII, but all worthy candidates.