Who needs the Yankees? Postseason could still bring high drama for Red Sox

Tito and Farrell could meet up again Friday.

Tito vs. Farrell. Drew vs. Iglesias. Big Papi against Crawford and A-Gon.

There may never be a playoff series at Fenway Park quite like the epic 2003 and '04 Red Sox-Yankees ALCS classics -- ending 86 years of misery against your arch-rivals is tough to top -- but this year's possible postseason opponents present plenty of intriguing scenarios for the Sox. 

As the Wild Card entries do battle over the next several days, we can have fun thinking about three great "what ifs" that could become reality:

Red Sox-Indians in the ALDS

Papi would be pumped to face the Indians.

Cleveland, which closed the regular season with 10 straight victories, will face the winner of Monday's Tampa Bay-Texas tiebreaker in the AL's one-game Wild Card "play-in" on Wednesday. Assuming he can prevail in the winner-take-all contest, Indians manager Terry Francona will return Friday night to Fenway Park -- his summer home for eight years and two World Series championships -- for the AL Division Series.

Francona got a loud and long ovation when the Indians came to Boston for four regular-season games in May, but now things really count. New Englanders are hungry for some playoff success in the Red Sox's first postseason berth since 2009, and current Boston manager John Farrell -- who served as Francona's pitching coach for five years with the Sox, including the '07 world championship squad -- will be attempting to beat his old boss and create some October glory of his own.

In addition to the Tito-Farrell storyline, a Red Sox-Indians series would match up the two most-improved teams in the American League; the Sox went from 69-93 to 97-65 this year, and the Indians from 68-94 to 92-70. In head-to-head play in 2013, Boston won six of seven from the club on which Farrell came to the majors and pitched for parts of five seasons.

Red Sox-Tigers in ALCS

In September, Iglesias was springy vs. the Sox.

Unlike Boston and Cleveland, Detroit surprised nobody with its strong showing in 2013. The Tigers, World Series runner-ups last fall, won their third straight AL Central title with a 93-69 record that was second only to Boston in the circuit. 

Detroit has one of baseball's best offenses, led by sluggers Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, but it is their rookie shortstop who may get the bulk of the attention at Fenway were these two teams to meet. Jose Iglesias, the favorite to win both the AL's Rookie of the Year Award and a Gold Glove, was developed in the Boston farm system and spent the first four months of his freshman season with the Red Sox before going to Detroit in a three-way trade on July 30 that brought White Sox pitcher Jake Peavy to Boston.

Iglesias' average, which had hovered around .325 or higher most of the summer, fell off badly in September as skeptics long predicted. His glove, however, remains second to none, and a few dazzling plays in the field may have Boston fans wishing he was still around (even with Stephen Drew and Xander Bogarts both performing well at short for the Sox). 

The Tigers were 4-3 against Boston this year, but the Sox did win two-of-three at Fenway in September -- including a 20-4 shellacking in which they hit eight home runs. 

Red Sox-Dodgers in the World Series

Crawford and Gonzalez have something to prove.

It has been just a little over a year since the Big Trade of 2012, when Boston sent overpaid, underachieving, unhappy stars Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Josh Beckett to the Dodgers along with Nick Punto and $12 million on Aug. 25 for a quintet of prospects. Unlike many transactions, this was definitely a move that helped both teams. 

The trade, which will save the Red Sox approximately $275 million in salaries and luxury tax over the course of all the players' contracts, freed up money for Boston to rebuild in 2013 with lower-priced, hungrier character players like Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino. These additions (and subtractions) helped turn the clubhouse atmosphere at Fenway completely around, and the result was a worst-to-first finish in the AL East.

Initially snickered at by Boston fans when the deal went down, Dodgers management has no problem with how things have turned out. Although Beckett suffered a major injury in his pitching hand that all but wiped out his '13 season, Gonzalez and Crawford have both been major contributors for Los Angeles -- which claimed the NL West title and is considered a favorite to win the pennant as well.

Like Edgar Renteria a few years back, Gonzales and Crawford rebounded once they left the pressure-cooker atmosphere of Boston for laid-back LA. The Red Sox, however, would have home-field advantage for the World Series, meaning both players would have up to four games with the probing eyes of Fenway once more upon them.

Hang on, Red Sox fans, it could be a very fun ride.   

Once Bloodied, Captain Carl Yastrzemski Gets Bronzed

Yaz enjoys his day (Associated Press)

I couldn't find my "Yaz Day" shirt yesterday morning, but that was okay -- someone else who spent the past 30 years saving the white tee with the caricature that more closely resembled Governor Mike Dukakis than Captain Carl Yastrzemski managed to dig hers out. It was the least she could do given the circumstances.

Hers still fits -- mine not so much.

They unveiled a statue for Yastrzemski yesterday at Fenway Park, just a few feet away from the bronze likeness of the man he followed in left field for the Red Sox: Ted Williams. Yaz and Teddy Ballgame, together at last outside Gate B. 

After a week that marked the coronation of the 2013 Boston club, an immensely likable and surprisingly talented team that went from last place to an Al East title in one year, Sox fans got to take a short trip back to when the only thing atop the Green Monster was a net and one man spent parts of six presidential administrations guarding it.

Legends from Left: Rice, Ted, Yaz (Justyn Farano)

It had been a rainy morning but there were far more cameras than umbrellas being held up when the festivities got underway at 11 a.m. People complain a lot these days about the "Pink Hatification" of Fenway, but it was definitely a hard-core, blue-collar crowd of several hundred that gathered around the roped-off area where Yaz's family, several teammates, and current Red Sox players were assembled for the ceremony.  

Siblings Mavis and Jim McGetrick, standing right beside me, were a perfect example. They drove up from Providence wearing matching white Yaz painter's hats, each emblazoned with his uniform number eight on top and lined on the sides with some of the stats that helped define the day's honoree: 3,000 hits, 400 home runs, 7 gold gloves, and the 1967 MVP and Triple Crown awards. 

Mavis and Jim still have their pennant too.

The McGetricks also came north toting a boombox of the vintage used by John Cusack to win over Ione Skye in "Say Anything." What did they have in the cassette deck? What else but "The Man They Call Yaz," the Jess Cain tune that flew up the Boston radio charts during the summer of '67 and was later captured on the "Impossible Dream" album found under countless Christmas trees that December.

Another guy behind the McGetricks recalled being a freshman at BU and heading to Fenway for four straight nights in September of 1979 as a slumping Yaz remained stuck on 2,999 hits. He finally got his 3000th against the Yankees, a ground ball that skipped slowly past slick-fielding second baseman Willie Randolph on the Captain's last at-bat before a road trip. Though never proven, the non-play was likely one example in the long, heated Red Sox-Yankees rivalry when respect trumped hatred. Number 3000 was a hit meant to come at home.

His feats in '79 -- when he also had his 400th home run -- were historic, but  1967 was clearly Yastrzemski's most memorable year. In addition to his league-leading 44 homers, 121 RBI, and .326 batting average, he led the upstart Sox to the World Series with a .437 mark in the final 20 pressure-packed games of the greatest pennant race in American League history. He played left field with style and excellence, diving in front of and against the Wall and routinely nailing baserunners who dared to take an extra bag. On the bases himself he was daring but always smart.

Yaz in 1967: The perfect player.

Yaz won games for the Sox in every way imaginable during '67, and reignited Boston's passion for baseball much like the 2013 team has done. The difference is that while it was only one bad September and one bad season that preceded this year's resurgence, the 1967 club was the first in more than 15 years to offer New England fans any September excitement. "Crowds" at Fenway of less than 10,000 fans were common in the mid-1960s; even after least year, it's hard to imagine such apathy ever being repeated.

For those of us born in the late 1960s, a period that coincided with Yaz's peak, our memories of Captain Carl are from his white jumpsuit years -- when he was no longer the best guy on the field but still had the ability to turn on a Ron Guidry fastball or throw out a Willie Wilson at second when the situation demanded. We copied his familiar bat twirl and pants tug, but our only images of him as the perfect player came from highlight films.

Yaz in '78: the Jumpsuit Years.

Yastrzemski was not as naturally gifted a hitter as Ted Williams, but he worked just as hard at the craft. One of the most powerful moments of yesterday's ceremony for me was when Yaz's longtime teammate Dwight Evans, another of my favorites as a kid, discussed how Yastrzemski would spend 40 minutes after spring training games taking extra batting practice.

"We didn't wear batting gloves then, and you'd see blood on the handle of the bat," Evans said. Such a tale might seem apocryphal with some ballplayers, but nobody doubted it was true in this case. Yaz was a dirt dog long before the term existed.

I joined Red Sox Nation in April of '67, just before Yastrzemski's magical sixth season began, and I was already into my junior year of high school when I headed on the Green Line to Fenway for his final two games on Oct. 1-2, 1983. I got my Yaz shirt and cap and souvenir program and hoped he'd bow out with a homer like Williams.

Things didn't go quite as dramatically. He managed just a single over the rainy weekend, and popped up on a terrible 3-and-0 pitch in his final at-bat. We didn't really care, however; it was how he ran around the entire ballpark waving goodbye that we would always remember.

Yaz Day: What we remember.

There were programs made up for ceremony too, and I was lucky to get one of the pile handed out to fans by none other than Dr. Chalres Steinberg right after the unveiling. Fans later got a Yaz baseball card as they entered the ballpark, but the neatest piece of memorabilia I picked up was a enlarged, mounted photograph taken at the exact moment depicted in the statue -- Yaz tipping his helmet to a roaring crowd during his last at-bat. 

A guy was selling prints dated and autographed by the photographer for $20 apiece, and when I approached him he said he took the picture himself from his box seat back in 1983. By then he was asking $10 a picture, as sales had not been going well; since I only had a twenty on me, I bought two and gave one to my friend Scott -- who was at Yaz Day with me in '83 and also on hand for Sunday's ceremony.

The $10 photo

In a short but moving speech to the crowd during his 1983 farewell, Yastrzemski mentioned seeing a sign in the crowd that read, "Say it ain't so, Yaz." Pausing, his voice cracked as he said, "I wish it wasn't." This spontaneous and poignant display of emotion from the usually stoic ballplayer earned a roar from the masses.

Mavis and Jim McGetrick remembered the moment perfectly, because they were the ones holding the sign in the left-field seats. They showed me a fading Polaroid to prove it, and Jim laughed and said he had a cassette of the speech with him too if I wanted to hear it.

Mavis (center) holds her sign in 1983....

...and yesterday.

By then it was time for Yaz's latest speech, and as his custom he kept it short. He got a bit choked up only once, when he mentioned how he wished his "biggest fan," his late son Carl Michael, could be there. He praised the current Boston team -- represented at the event by manager John Farrell, second baseman Dustin Pedroia, and current left fielders Daniel Nava and Jony Gomes -- and said it reminded him of the '67 crew. When he mentioned that the statue meant as much to him as being inducted into the Hall of Fame, the crowd applauded. 

Yaz admires his likeness (Kelvin Ma, Boston Herald).

There was no speech for Yaz at the ballgame after the ceremony, just a first-pitch strike to current Red Sox hero David Ortiz before the Boston-Toronto contest. Oritz later homered in the game, which finished in 2:13 -- a quick pace far more the norm back in Yastrzemski's day. 

Will Yaz be back one more time in 2013 to throw out a first pitch? If he is, there will likely be a National League team sitting in the visitor's dugout. That would suit Captain Carl just fine.

A hug for Papi. (David Butler II, USA Today)

   



  

Patience with Mike Napoli pays off for Farrell and Red Sox

Mike Napoli is locked in.

Mike Napoli shared last week's American League Player of the Week honors with his teammate Will Middlebrooks, but it would have been fitting if their boss got a portion of the award as well.

After all, it was Red Sox manager John Farrell who kept penciling Napoli into the lineup nearly every game despite a three-month power drought and a dismal August in which the first baseman hit .208 and seemed to strike out every other at-bat. Even when Boston's lead in the AL East race disappeared, Napoli got the call again and again.

Farrell's patience paid off, as Napoli has emerged from his long dry spell to hit .391 (20-for-51) with 6 doubles, 6 homers and 18 RBI over his last 15 games (including a two-run double Wednesday night). 

Napoli has plenty to smile about lately.

Not surprisingly, the hot streak has sparked the Sox to a sizzling 13-2 stretch, and Boston has built its East lead up to 9.5 games over second-place Tampa Bay.

Farrell was likely aware of Napoli's past history. A streak hitter, he traditionally does better late in the season -- including a .429 average and 1.361 OPS in September/October 2011 and 7 homers in 16 games last September. Still, it takes a cool head and supreme confidence to stick with a guy who's flailing, especially as a first-year manager trying to turn around a last-place club.

The approach Farrell took with Napoli is similar to that displayed in 2004 by another rookie Boston skipper, Terry Francona, who played Kevin Millar all through a first-half slump. Like Napoli, Millar got hot down the stretch, batting .331 with a .987 OPS starting July 4 as the Sox nearly caught the Yankees in the East and reached the playoffs as the Wild Card entry.

Millar's hot stretch helped deliver a title.

What happened next is well-documented. Millar had some clutch hits during the postseason and the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years.

Boston has no need for a Wild Card this year, having all but clinched the East with 15 games to go in one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in franchise history. Last year's Red Sox team finished in last place at 69-93; this year's club is currently 89-58.

Can Boston cap off its magical revival with a title run in October? That remains to be seen, but if Napoli keeps up his sizzling pace, he could play a major role in determining the outcome. 

Can Nap keep it up into October? We shall see.

For Red Sox, it's case closed with Koji Uehara

Another one in the books. (Jim Rogash)

Smiles and high-fives have become commonplace around Fenway Park these days, but nobody has grinned wider and slapped hands more enthusiastically than the guy most often on the mound at game's end.

Koji Uehara, the 38-year-old Japanese import acquired by Boston as a free agent in December, has been near-perfect during the past two months as a closer for the surprising Red Sox. He compiled a 0.00 ERA in both July and August, and after blowing a save against the Angels on July 6 allowed just six hits in 23 innings over his next 20 appearances.

Uehara now has 15 saves on the season, and has been perfect in 13 of the 15. He is so reliable and so economical with his pitches that last week he was twice called upon by Boston manager John Farrell in the eighth inning to register four-out saves (converting both perfectly).

Sometimes Uehara gets a hand in the dugout.

As a result of his brilliant run, which came after three blown saves in his early days in the role, Uehara has lowered his season ERA to 1.17 and his WHIP to 0.630 -- numbers that along with his 82 strikeouts and 9 walks over 60.1 innings compare very favorably to Jonathan Papelbon's stats during his All-Star career as Boston's closer from 2005-2011. In fact, Uehara's stretch of 20 scoreless games in relief is just one behind Papelbon's best (21 in 2011) and five short of Daniel Bard's club record (set the same year).

In contrast to Papelbon, who had a blazing fastball that neared 100 miles per hour in his heyday, Uehara relies primarily on a forkball and a four-seam heater that tops out around 90. Like Mariano Rivera's cutter, batters know the forkball is usually coming but can do little with the knowledge. Batters swing and miss Koji's offerings 17.2 percent of the time, the top mark in the major leagues.  

Certainly nobody has as much fun finishing games as Uehara, who was primarily a starter during an excellent 10-year career in Japan. Each time he completes the final out of a contest, he pumps his fist, lets out a shout, and then sprints over to his teammates to dole out his high-fives. 

Uehara has a bit of the Bird in him.

For those of us old enough to remember, he is a throwback to Mark "The Bird" Fidrych -- who displayed similar mannerisms during his all-too-brief heyday with the Tigers in the late 1970s. But unlike Fidrych, who was a 21-year-old rookie when he emerged on the national scene, Uehara is grabbing the spotlight with his boyish energy at an age most pitchers are winding down.

Making his run even more impressive is that Uehara -- more often a setup man during four previous big-league seasons -- was Boston's fourth choice as closer this season. Joel Hanrahan and Andrew Bailey both suffered injuries, and fellow Japanese League veteran Junichi Tazawa struggled in the role.

Now that he's gotten his chance to do his hand-slapping on the field at game's end rather than primarily in the dugout after the seventh or eighth innings, Uehara would like to keep doing so as long as possible. 

Walpole Joe Morgan weighs in on 2013 Red Sox

Joe Morgan -- sill popular, and still watching.

No matter how the Red Sox finish up their surprising season, they will be hard-pressed to top the summer of 1988 for excitement. Those of us who watched 25 years ago as the Sox rebounded from a lackluster 43-42 start to go on the hottest stretch in team history will never forget the summer of Morgan's Magic.

Recently I had a chance to sit down with the architect of that incredible turnaround, former Red Sox manager and lifelong Walpole, Mass. resident Joe Morgan. He's been removed from the game at the big league level for more than two decades, since his very unpopular firing by Sox ownership after the 1991 season, but at age 83 he still has his sharp mind, quick wit, and the good sense that helped him win a record 12 straight games to start his managerial career.

The streak eventually reached 19 wins of his first 20 contests, which launched Boston into first place and to an improbable AL East title. Joe won another East crown in 1990, but the Sox were swept in the ALCS by the Oakland A's both years, who he admits now “were just a better team than us.” A second-place finish in 1991 led to his firing, after which Morgan warned that "these guys aren't as good as you think." He was right; the '92 Sox finished last under manager Butch Hobson.

Back in '88, the Pride of Walpole was in the zone.

These days Joe gets to a handful of Red Sox games at Fenway each season, and watches the rest of them in the basement of the modest ranch house he's shared with his wife, Dottie, since Ted Williams roamed left field at Fenway. Morgan has enjoyed watching the current Sox club exceed all expectations, and says it reminds him (gulp) of the 1986 team that racked up a number of weird, early-season victories en route to the AL pennant and an ill-fated World Series against the Mets. 

Remember, they did go 95-65.

He was a coach on that club under John MacNamara, and he remembers saying early on, “Mac, if we're winning games like this now, we're going to have a hell of a year.' And we did.”

Morgan isn't sure what will become of the 2013 Red Sox, but had some insights to offer:

On whether Clay Buchholz can come back

"I'm not counting on him, for one reason. Even if he comes back, you don't know if he is going to be successful right away. It's almost September, and this crazy thing he's got... He's had more problems. Every year it's something – stomach ache, back ache."

On Jon Lester's inconsistencies

"He doesn't get ahead of the hitters enough – that's one thing. I thought he started throwing too many cutters, and he lost that real good curve he used to have. He got to the point where he was trying to nit-pick all the time. Get ahead of the guys! If you send ten men to the plate in the big leagues today, maybe three of them will swing at the first pitch. So throw the damn thing in there with a little heat, and get ahead of them!"

On which current Sox pitcher would start a must-win game for him, if Buchholz wasn't available

"I haven't seen enough of [Jake] Peavy, but I'd be leaning toward him. Lester has been so inconsistent."

Morgan's must-win starter -- for now.

On popular infielder Jose Iglesias, traded after a surprisingly hot start at the plate

"I had not seen him play at all before this year. I watched him a lot in spring training, and I came away with one thing about him: he had enough bat speed to be a decent hitter and play in the big leagues every day. I still think that.

"I was little shocked by it [the trade]. But then you figure you've got [Xander] Bogaerts coming up, and [Stephen] Drew – a good fielder – who is going to be here the rest of the year. Plus you've got Middlebrooks is coming back at third, which is good."

On walk-off hits
"Those guys should be careful. They keep celebrating like that and somebody is going to get hurt. I notice that some guys now are doing a little stutter-step before they get smacked around, so nobody steps on their feet."

Better be careful...

On David Ortiz's comeback from injury

"Oh yeah, that showed me something, I was surprised his ankle was still hurting him when the season started, after all those months. He looked really doubtful. They pitch around him all right, but he's still got it going. Incredible."

On the “Morgan's Magic” reunion this year at Fenway

"Those guys who came back really had a great time. It was fun seeing them too. Big Lee Smith – he's a character. I like him a lot. Oil Can, Dewey, all of them. They were all glad they came, and so was I."

Morgan had a blast at his reunion.

How about your first pitch (or pitches) to current manager John Farrell?

"I've been having trouble with my right [throwing] arm, so I've had to use my left arm to raise it above my head. My son Billy told me to go sidearm – just sling it up there sidearm. Well I went about a mile left of John with that throw, so I said, 'Give me another one of those things.' This time I raised my arm up with the left hand, and I got it in there."

Does it feel like 25 years since 1988?

"No, but I've been lucky. I hear guys talking about the “golden years,” and they're sick all the time, or their wives are sick. I've had 25 great years.

"The thing was, I knew when my days with the Red Sox were over, that was it. I was going to roam around, not take another baseball job, and have fun in this life. I told [then-Red Sox president] John Harrington that if they didn't fire me, it was probably going to be my last year anyway. Planes, hotels, I had enough of that routine. There are only so many years you have left, and you want to enjoy them.

"Some guys [who retire] complain they have nothing to do. I have plenty to do. Gardening, golfing, seeing the kids and grandkids, going to the Kentucky Derby, whatever. I golf about two or three times a week, with whomever shows up. And of course I watch the ballgames."

A-Rod back at Fenway Park: Once more with loathing

The Material Boy is back.

Dust off those Madonna masks and get out your biggest syringes, Boston fans, A-Rod is coming to town -- maybe for the last time in pinstripes.

Bucky Bleeping Dent and Aaron Bleeping Boone pierced the hearts of Red Sox Nation with one swing of their bats, but there is no player more universally reviled at Fenway Park than Alex Emmanuel Rodriguez. It isn't just that A-Rod is a steroid guy, or that he lied about it numerous times, or even that he is the lone accused doper trying to fight the MLB over his suspension. It's his total body of smug, selfish play as a Yankee that has kept everyone from bleacherites to box seat gentry on Yawkey Way booing for the past decade.

Nobody jeered the handsome, 18-year-old Mariner who made his big-league debut at Fenway Park against the Vaughn-Valentin-Greenwell Red Sox in July 1994. Reports are that the crowd politely applauded Seattle's number-nine batter when he singled off Boston's Sergio Valdez for his first MLB hit. 

A-Rod and Junior

By his 21st birthday, which he celebrated with a home run while batting in front of Ken Griffey, Jr., Rodriguez was a superstar. Through his years in Seattle and in Texas with the Rangers, he was a feared and respected Boston opponent -- but not a villain.

The hate started in the winter of 2003-04. New York had just done in the Sox during an epic ALCS, and rumors leaked that Boston was going to make a three-way trade with the Angels and Rangers that would send outfielder/slugger Manny Ramriez to Texas and bring reigning MVP Rodriguez here. Since A-Rod was a Gold Glove winner at shortstop, local icon Nomar Garciaparra's position, Nomar would then be traded to the White Sox for All-Star Magglio Ordonez -- who would slip into Manny's old spot in left field. 

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was steamed that Boston was poised to beat out his team for the game's best player, but he didn't have long to worry. Red Sox boss John Henry wanted to lighten some of Rodriguez's  $252 million contract in $28 million of deferred payments, and although A-Rod's agent Scott Boras initially went along with the plan, he was talked out of it by MLB Player's Association Deputy Director Gen Orza -- and Henry backed out of a less-desirable deferred-payment offer. 

In swooped King George with a trade offer of his own -- Alfonso Soriano and a throw-in for Rodriguez and cash -- and just like that A-Rod was a Yankee.

Smug as a bug in a rug.

Making the move even more excruciating for Boston fans was this: because New York already had an All-Star shortstop in Derek Jeter, and because ALCS hero Boone had blown out his knee playing pick-up basketball in the offseason, Rodriguez simply moved over to third where he would be a constant reminder of the previous year's torment.

Rodriguez was instantly Public Enemy No. 1 at Fenway, and it only got worse when the Sox and Yanks tangled there on July 24. Boston starter Bronson Arroyo hit A-Rod on the elbow with a sinker, and when A-Rod started toward the mound with menacing eyes, he was intercepted by catcher Jason Varitek. The two jawed it out, after which Tek shoved his glove in Rodriguez's face in a moment that would forever signify the start of Boston's late-season push to a World Series title.

Take that, A-Fraud!

Could it get still worse? Sure. 

In Game Six of the Boston-New York ALCS rematch that October, at Yankee Stadium, Arroyo and A-Rod were key figures in another big moment. With Boston leading, 4-2, in the 8th and Jeter on first, Rodriguez hit a dinky grounder to the left of the mound; Arroyo gloved it, went to tag A-Rod running down the line, and suddenly the ball was lose and rolling into right field as Jeter sprinted home.

For a moment, it looked like the beginning of another Boston postseason collapse, but Red Sox Manager Terry Francona came out to protest and slow-motion replays showed what most initially missed -- A-Rod illegally slapping the ball out of Arroyo's glove. Rodriguez (holding his hands up in a "who me?" gesture as he stood defiantly at second base) was declared out on interference, Jeter was put back at first. The Sox went on to win the game and of course the series.

Actually, I find this photo an insult to women.

By the next morning a picture showing the exact moment of the slap, with a purse photo-shopped into A-Rod's hand, was making its way across New England, Rodriguez's fate as Boston's biggest villain was sealed. 

When rumors swirled that the married slugger was dating Madonna in summer 2008, Red Sox fans came to Fenway with Madonna masks; when he admitted in 2009 to doing steroids while with the Rangers due to self-imposed pressure to live up to a $252 million contract, they waved posters declaring him a cheater and a baby.

Now A-Rod is back again, for the first time since Commissioner Bud Selig announced he would be suspended for the remainder of this season and all of 2014 for further violations of the steroid policy. He's playing while appealing the commissioner's decision, but many speculate he will soon retire rather than accept his fate.

Yanks fans may soon get their wish.

I have always taught my kids not to boo any player on the Red Sox or other teams. I've covered enough high school, college, and minor league games to know that every guy out on that field is one of the best in the world, and deserves your respect. This especially goes for class acts like Jeter and Mariano Rivera.

There is, however, one exception to my rule. We won't be at any of the games this weekend, but my kids can boo as loud as they want at the radio or TV when A-Fraud steps to the plate.

Summer of 69 -- and beyond -- as Sox continue record pace

Another one in the books. (Bob Levey)

The Red Sox won their 69th game last night, a total that not only leads the majors (with Atlanta) but also marks the same number of victories they captured all of last season. This in itself is an impressive accomplishment.

Amid all the talk of walk-offs and comebacks, however, an even more monumental feat has managed to thus far fly under the radar: 

Statistically, this could be the greatest one-season turnaround in modern team history.

Many Sox fans are familiar with the most famous such season in franchise annals -- the Carl Yastrzemski-led 1967 "Impossible Dream" team which leaped from ninth place the year before to an American League pennant. That club reversed its record, from 70-92 to 92-70, and rejuvenated Boston baseball in the process. 

In '67, Yaz and the Sox filled Fenway.

Numerically, that was a  22-game improvement -- the best one-year bump for a Sox squad since the advent of the 162-game schedule in 1961. Manager Dick Williams, like John Farrell this year, surpassed all expectations in his first season at the helm for Boston  

The 2013 Walk-Off Wizards, with a mark of 69-46, have a winning percentage of .600. If they were to continue at that same clip over their remaining 47 games they will finish with 97 victories -- and a one-year improvement of 28 games.

"I hope we pass last year," Farrell joked after last night's game, referring to the 69-win mark the current club now shares with its predecessors. 

John Farrell: Dick Williams redux?

If Farrell's overachievers can capture 23 more victories, and get to 92, they will topple the Impossible Dreamers as Boston's greatest "rebounders" of the 162-game era. 

Of course it will likely take more wins than 92 to assure a playoff berth out of the challenging AL East, and the record would be a hallow one if Boston finishes out of the postseason for a fourth straight year. 

Nothing should ever dim the importance of the 1967 team in franchise history, but this club deserves its full due -- and fans hope that a wild celebration like Yaz and his teammates enjoyed after clinching the '67 pennant is coming this fall. 

More "pandemonium on the field" to come?