Josh Beckett struggled last night, giving up seven runs in just five and a third innings last night, but the Red Sox offense bailed him out, scoring 10 times in a 10-9 Red Sox win. The win, coupled with a Texas loss, moved the Red Sox back into a tie for the wild card.
Amalie Benjamin has the Red Sox coming through in a “must-win” situation. John Tomase says that the Red Sox are at the point of the season where nothing comes easy. Joe McDonald has the Sox covering Beckett’s back last night. Rob Bradford has David Ortiz giving a reminder of what he is capable of.
Adam Kilgore says that not having Jason Varitek or John Farrell really threw Beckett of his game last night. Steve Buckley has the Red Sox grinding through to this win. McDonald says that perseverance paid off for the Red Sox last night. McAdam has John Smoltz leaving without any hard feelings towards the Red Sox. Buckley says that a decision should be coming soon on Tim Wakefield and his ailing back.
Joe Fitzgerald has a look at Carl Yastrzemski, who turns 70 years old on Saturday.
Benjamin’s notebook has Tim Wakefield meeting with and working out for the Red Sox training staff. Tomase’s notebook has Kevin Youkilis expressing no regrets for charging the mound and getting suspended. McDonald’s Red Sox Journal has Wakefield likely to get another start for the PawSox.
Patriots
On Patriots Daily we look at the latest comments from Rex Ryan and the latest ESPN Monday Night Football promo – Brady’s Back.
Christopher L. Gasper has Laurence Maroney just looking for a fair chance to show that he’s healthy and can play. Ian R. Rapoport has Maroney taking criticism of his game in style. Glen Farley has Maroney admitting that he felt a little rusty against the Eagles.
Karen Guregian says that while Randy Moss may not be speaking to the media, watching him at Patriots practice and hearing his teammates speak about him speaks volumes. Paul Kenyon has Tank Williams hoping to be part of the Patriots this season, but also thinking about life after football. Andy Vogt has Tully Banta-Cain trying to nail down a role on defense.
Christopher Price takes a deeper look at the 4-3 defense. Guregian has Richard Seymour talking about the 4-3 defensive front. Mark Farinella says that it has been a preseason of change for Seymour. Jeff Howe looks at the unclear status of Wes Welker. Jennifer Toland has Welker eager to get back in action. Farley has Belichick giving the team a break from the heat.
Jonathan Comey takes the rare stance of defending Brett Favre. Hector Longo wishes that Favre had the good sense to call it quits, like Drew Bledsoe did. Steve Adams looks at training camp from the fan perspective.
Gasper’s notebook has Wes Welker returning to practice, but his status for Thursday is still uncertain. Rapoport’s notebook has the Patriots wrapping up their most grueling part of training camp. Kenyon’s Patriots Journal has Belichick talking about Jim Nance and Billy Sullivan. Vogt’s notebook has the dog days of summer coming to an end for the Patriots. Farinella’s notebook says that it has been an ankle injury slowing Welker. Toland’s notebook says that the camp part might be done, but the work isn’t.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Bruce, you talked about Tanguay yesterday, which I missed, thank goodness. But, I unfortuneately did not avoid Mike and Mazz. They were screaming like a couple of jilted teenage schoolgirls who were just dumped. What was it all about you ask? Brett Favre. It was nitwit radio at its finest which is a shame because I do like Felger. Mazz is a complete wuss who takes shots at readers then when called out on it backs away. I think Mike and Mazz need to know two things about the Brett Favre situation.
1) Other than ESPN, who were again scooped by Jay Glazer, nobody cares.
2) Favre did not hold anybody hostage. He did not hold a gun to Ziggy Wolf’s head and said sign me. The Vikings could have easily said no to him. Who cares
You’re right, Pete never screams and Fred always brings relevant and intelligent points to the table. Felger had every right to scream for one day about Favre because not enough people – including Glazer – point out the facts about his performance the last 10 years. This show has, so far with small sample but so far, been a breath of fresh air as its faster moving, no Pete yelling\berating callers and best of all, no Frank from Gloucesters or John from Medfords. Instead they have had guests such as Bob Ryan, Chris Gasper, Theo Epstein so unless you’d rather hear Steve from Fall River’s opinion on the local teams, I’ll stick with it over O show until further notice.
I agree with you. It is a better alternative but please do not dumb it down to the EEI level. You do not have to do scream and holler for the first two hours of your show over something most people care very little about. Also please look at Bruce’s twitter update on the right hand side. How does Felger open his show? He says Beckett is mentally weak. That’s right, the same guy who lead two teams to World Series championships and despite a bad oblique injury, would not give up the ball during the playoffs and did his best during the playoffs. Yeah, he’s mentally weak.
Oh by the way since you brought it up who was better for the Jets last year Favre or Clements? How about this year? Would you take Favre or the combination of Jackson and Rosenfelds? Guess what, Favre is better. If the market says he’s worth $12.5 million per year. I say good for him.
Felger said that Beckett was mentally weak?
That’s like saying an Olympic champion powerlifter is physically weak.
Why does he say stuff like that? This is why I have a lot less respect for him today than I did 5 or 6 years ago when he was a balanced, basically agenda-free breath of fresh air in the local print media, and especially on what was then an agenda-driven-hack-populated Patriots beat.
But the last few years he’s been all about being the biggest media whore in town, and that prods him to make these kinds of ridiculous “being contrarian/outrageous just for the sake of it” statements.
It’s too bad really.
By the way, Mike and Mazz make Ordway and Shepherd sound like mensa candidates.
Are you posting this from Entercom studios, praytell?
Absolutely not, I have been totally excited about the new network. If you had read some of my previous post you will have seen that I felt the new network has had very good start. But for some reason Felger, Tanguay and Mazz have taken some WEEI pills and have gone about yelling and being stupid, everything that WEEI is. I want to listen to WBZ FM not WEEI lite. Felger especially has disappointed me. I used find him smart with good arguments. But now he seems to have taken some lessons from the Glen Ordway School of Broadcasting.
guys, guys, it’a all just a bunch of NOISE POLLUTION. That goes for WEEI and 98.5….it’s all a bunch of crap and all of them are laughing all the way to the bank. Why would Felger say Beckett is, “mentally weak” you ask?….because he knows it will get the fans(SOME of the fans) all worked up, that’s why….isn’t that the game for just about ALL of these media blowhards?…..from Felger to Shank Shaugnessy to Ron Borges to Tony Mazz to John Tomase….It is the 1st commandment of the sports media…”thou shalt irritate and annoy the fans and they shall come”……don’t take the bait
I never expected much out of 98.5, just a copykat of WEEI. Comments here confirm that. Haven’t missed a thing. Too bad, a chance was missed. Again.
Not sure that’s accurate, Patrick. I still believe 98.5 is doing a better job out of the gate with regards to respecting their callers (no matter how idiotic their opinions may be) and the hosts not yelling or talking over each other.
To all – if everyone believes that BZ-FM is merely the same old/same old, I am curious to hear your ideas for revolutionizing sports talk. Although the SportsHub’s changes have been subtle in their seven days of existence, they do exist.
I agree Jason….I mean, I don’t think you can revolutionize sports talk, it is what it is. I used to listen alot. I guess I just got burned out on it. To me it’s just endless people throwing crap against the wall. (hosts and callers)….I don’t think any of them have any kind of “special knowledge” about sports…I’ll still check in from time to time and try to catch some of the interviews which can be good……But when it’s just hosts and callers?….no thanks.
AOB, your post clearly demonstrates that rational discourse can exist between two people in a sports forum (I do agree with you on good guest interviews vs. callers). We generally agree to disagree, which is ok because at least you didn’t cut me off mid-post with a rant. LOL
Yea, sorry, should have made some rational points, instead of throwing out a rant.
I also prefer guest interviewers over callers.