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BOSTON - Move over, Bucky Dent. Step aside, Bill Buckner. Make room, incredibly, for Jonathan Papelbon. The star closer is the stunned symbol of the latest Red Sox collapse. This one lasted a month and finally ended when there were no more games left to lose. Rays, Cardinals clinch playoff spots "This is just maybe the worst situation that I ever have been involved in my whole career," designated hitter David Ortiz said. "It's going to stay in a lot of people's minds for a while." No team has blown a bigger lead in September — a nine-game margin through...

Drama all around.

Playoff odds for BOSTON and ATLANTA are still near or over 80% despite the tightening wildcard races. Boston 88 68 .564 WC probability: 84.2% Atlanta 88 68 .564 WC probability: 86.2% Using simple 'dumb' stats (assume every team has a 50% chance of winning every game), the Red Sox face the following odds: eliminate Tampa before WED 9-28: 53% eliminate Tampa & LAA before WED 9-28: 45% clinch on WED 9-28: 31% clinch in playoff game(s) on TH and/or FRI: 8% Sox eliminated before WED: 1% Sox eliminated on WED: 5% eliminated in playoff game(s) on TH and/or FRI: 10%...

Ricardo Arias, released for the day from juvenile custody, was supposed to be at a Red Sox game Saturday evening. Instead, prosecutors say that the 17-year-old from Roslindale, who was being held for gun possession, left the game early to stalk the South End. There, he and a friend asked several people whether they lived in Villa Victoria, the low-income housing complex associated with a rival gang.

The Red Sox by now certainly understand why people are upset about their public support for the vulgar, homosexual website "It Gets Better". Over the last three weeks the organization has been flooded with complaints -- many of them quite descriptive -- via phone, email, and US mail. We have personally talked to their representatives and explained in detail what that site entails. We also mailed a fairly descriptive letter to the Red Sox vice president of public relations. But instead of doing the right thing, the reaction by the Red Sox has been to dig in their heels. The...

Red Sox manager Terry Francona and star players Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis are featured in a well-polished video put out by the Boston Red Sox last month to support the homosexual websites It Gets Better and The Trevor Project which target troubled kids with a pro-homosexual (and transgender) message. "It Gets Better" was founded by Dan Savage, an anti-Christian homosexual activist pornographer with a history of angry, extremely obscene attacks on various conservative public figures. The video, posted on the Red Sox website and also on YouTube, uses emotional language by the baseball celebrities to reinforce the subliminal message...

U.S. Navy Petty Officer Bridget Lydon was reunited with her family at Fenway Park after serving on the USS Ronald Reagan since 2009

The Boston Red Sox will produce an online video for the “It Gets Better Project,” an anti-bullying project aimed at helping gay youth. The announcement that the team would be the third major league baseball team to participate in the campaign came today in response to a petition started by a 12-year-old New Hampshire boy that garnered nearly 10,000 signatures in a matter of days. “The Red Sox organization takes the issue of bullying seriously,” the team said in a statement yesterday released by spokeswoman Leah Tobin. “It is something that has touched many of us and those we love,...

CHICAGO -- If Chicago has been willing to believe that a cow caused the Great Chicago Fire, maybe it will buy this one: The White Sox got the idea to throw the 1919 World Series after the Cubs did the same thing one year earlier.

Manny Ramirez has retired from Major League Baseball. MLB made the announcement on Friday afternoon. The league said it notified Ramirez of an "issue" with him regarding the MLB's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, and rather than undergo the process, Ramirez opted to retire. Ramirez, 38, got off to a slow start for Tampa Bay this season, going 1-for-17 in five games. Ramirez, who's made more than $200 million in his career, signed a one-year, $2 million deal with Tampa Bay this offseason. While the league didn't say explicitly that Ramirez failed another drug test, he would have been...

Former Boston Red Sox [team stats] general manager Lou Gorman died at his Weston home early Friday morning. He was 82. Gorman was the Red Sox general manager from 1984-93, building the team that won the 1986 AL championship. That team, led by Roger Clemens, was one strike away from winning the World Series before the New York Mets came back to win Games 6 and 7. It wasn’t until 2004 before the Red Sox finally won it all and ended what had become an 86-year title drought.

AKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. �— Last week at this time, we wondered if the Red Sox [team stats] had a pulse. Now they are terrorizing baseball. Concluding one of the most stunning weeks in team history, the Sox late last night agreed to a contract with free agent outfielder Carl Crawford, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions. The deal is for seven years and $142 million. It was first reported by the Globe.

Ralph Houk, a third-string catcher for the Yankees who went on to win three straight American League pennants and two World Series championships in his first seasons as their manager, died Wednesday at his home in Winter Haven, Fla. He was 90.

 East W L Pct GB Home Road East Cent West Streak L10 New York Yankees 50 31 .617 -- 28-13 22-18 20-11 10-7 9-6 Won 2 6-4 Boston Red Sox 49 33 .598 1.5 29-17 20-16 18-17 10-9 8-2 Lost 1 6-4 Tampa Bay Rays 48 33 .593 2.0 20-19 28-14 19-10 11-6 11-6 Won 2 6-4 Toronto Blue Jays 41 42 .494 10.0 21-19 20-23 13-14 11-9 10-8 Lost 2 2-8 Baltimore Orioles 25 57 .305 25.5 16-25 9-32 9-27 4-6 5-13 Lost 1 5-5  Central W L Pct GB Home Road East Cent West Streak L10 Detroit...

A Massachusetts lawmaker is calling tonight’s planned demonstration outside Fenway Park to protest Arizona’s new immigration law “ridiculous.” A coalition of immigrant-rights groups, labor unions and interfaith organizations plan to protest the law, which would compel Arizona police to question anyone if the officer has a “reasonable suspicion” the person is an illegal immigrant. The Sox battle the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight. “We want to send a message that Arizona’s anti-immigrant law will have a very negative impact on our community,” said Patricia Montes, executive director of Centro Presente, a statewide Latin-American immigrant organization. “This law increases the anti-immigrant sentiment in...

Right handed Red Sox 3rd baseman Adrian Beltre hit one out of Fenway Park Friday afternoon, striking Nutmeg squarely on the forearm. X-rays revealed a fractured radius. Nutmeg is in good spirits today. Beltre, with a .335 average and 44 RBI in 2010, was unavailable for comment. Adrian Beltre Nutmeg

“If the Yankees had an ounce of common sense, they would have at least sat down and heard his side of things. But I’ll tell you one thing, New York’s loss is Boston’s gain."

Reviewing the late donations to Martha Coakley's campaign -- the checks that came in as she collapsed -- I note the same drug company PACs and Washington lobbyists, but I also note that Larry Lucchino, president and part owner of the Red Sox, cut a $2,000 check to Coakley's campaign on January 13. She probably would have benefited more if he had given her a lesson in recent Sox history -- namely, that Curt Schilling is not a Yankees fan. Also, Sox chairman Tom Werner gave Coakley $2,000 on January 14. Her Schilling diss was on the 15th. Some other...

In such a close race, anything could tip the balance, and Massachusetts is devoted to its baseball team. Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate in Tuesday's special election for Massachusetts senator, didn't do her campaign any favors Friday by dismissing Boston Red Sox hero Curt Schilling as a "Yankees fan." In such a close race, anything could tip the balance, and Massachusetts is devoted to its baseball team, especially after it reversed years of bad fortune in 2004 by defeating the Yankees in the playoffs and going on to win the World Series with Schilling's help. The gaffe came in a...

Senate Candidate Martha Coakley has joined the Twitter revolution in the last week and seems to be enjoying the interaction, especially for a gal who rarely talks to the media other when she is awake. (This is a post about politicians and Twitter and we won't even go on about Drew Rosenhaus.) Coakley has jumped right in,with her prediction for the Lakers: "this is about to be a superbowl winning season fareal." In other comments, Coakley was looking forward to watching Larry Bird and Pele play against Manchester United. "Defence wins championships," declare several other posts