Xander Time Is Finally Here

With the Red Sox scuffling, going 3-7 in their last ten games, and their recent four game lead in the AL East down to one, Boston has made the move that has been anticipated all season:

The X-Man cometh: Why Red Sox are giving Xander Bogaerts his shot – Alex Speier has the scoop on the call-up, as well as a couple of other roster moves for the Red Sox.

Last night’s nationally televised game on ESPN between the Red Sox and Yankees had plenty of drama, along with a note of irony. The broadcast team spent much of the game detailing the cheating of Alex Rodriguez and listing out his misdeeds, then named him the  Chevrolet Player of the Game at the end of it all.

Most seem to be applauding the actions of Ryan Dempster in drilling Rodriguez to lead off the second inning, but there are different schools of thought out there on it:

Many probably applauding Dempster – Joe McDonald has the Sox pitcher a popular figure with his actions.

Plunking Alex Rodriguez didn’t make any sense – Nick Cafardo says it was not a smart move by Dempster.

Dempster ‘made a lot of fans’ plunking A-Rod – Lou Merloni had no problem with Dempster breaking “unwritten rules” because this was a “special circumstance.”

MLB needs to halt vigilante players – Steve Buckley says that Dempster cost the Red Sox the game with his actions.

Only problem with Ryan Dempster was flunking after plunking – Mike Salk says that hitting Rodriguez didn’t lose the game for Dempster, it’s what he did afterwards that lost it .

Elsewhere and from the weekend:

Tom Brady says last week’s knee injury was an overblown storyline – An overblown storyline involving the Patriots? Never happens.

Guess who:

And how about a shout-out for David Ortiz? The man is simply amazing. The Yankees have the easily mocked, cheatin’ and lyin’ Rodriguez. Here in Boston, we have Big Papi, who Saturday crushed his 24th home run and continues to be the best American League hitter this side of Miguel Cabrera. Last week in Toronto, Ortiz hit a home run that left the bat at 118.8 miles per hour. According to ESPN Stats, that represents the 37-year-old Ortiz’s top bat speed in seven years. Clearly, all the hard work is paying off.

Why not just say it? You are the “bravest columnist in town” after all.

Speaking of reading between the lines, did you figure out who Joe Fitzgerald was talking about in his Jerry Remy column this weekend:

One night a celebrated Globe columnist called here with a plea, not as a competitor but as a heartsick dad. His kid had just been picked up for an incident that would eventually lead to his incarceration.

“Look, I know what you guys are probably going to do with this,” he said. “But my kid’s in enough trouble without your paper piling on to get at me. Can you do anything to help?”

Hmm. Could it be this? Or someone else?

I also enjoyed this post over the weekend from PFT:

Belichick takes a shot at “experts who have it all figured out”

In, Belichick is quoted thusly:

“I don’t know how you can know that unless you’re really part of the team and know exactly what was supposed to happen on that play. I know there are a lot of experts out there that have it all figured out but I definitely don’t,” Belichick said.

It’s awesome that a quote like that can lead to comments like this:

Bill Belichick is one of those guys that you see getting his coffee every morning at the local Tim Horton’s, You say good morning and he grunts and walks away shaking his head. One of those guys that needs shock treatment to be social. I feel bad for the media up in New England. Those guys must have amazing self-control, because I don’t think I would last 5 minutes in the same room as him. The guy literally thinks he knows it all.

That comment has it all, ignorant mention about Tim Horton’s, (shouldn’t it be Dunkin Donuts? Must be a Canadian.) Who makes conversation with strangers at coffee shops anyway? The line about feeling bad for the media. Who feels bad for the media? Anyone? The tough guy line about how he wouldn’t stand for it. Then the breathtakingly bad reading comprehension by stating that the coach think he literally knows it all when he specifically states he doesn’t. Only thing missing was the Spygate reference. (Though there were plenty of those elsewhere in the comments section.)