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BOSTON (CBS) — Granted, it wouldn’t make much sense for Jonathan Papelbon to use “Shipping Up To Boston” as his entrance music, now that he’ll be pitching in the City of Brotherly Love, but the Dropkick Murphys are taking a proactive approach to the 2012 season. They won’t let Papelbon use their song anymore. “He can’t use ‘Shipping Up To Boston,’” lead singer Ken Casey told ESPN Music. “That’s a Boston song.” Casey told ESPN that he’s already moved on to the Andrew Bailey era in Boston. “And I have to get with the new Sox closer to let him...

The Red Sox are more than 1,000 miles away, but they had a small problem at home on Monday. A local Boston CBS affiliate reported that fire crews put out a small blaze at Fenway Park on Monday morning, which, according to a tweet by the Boston Fire Department, caused around $100,000 in damages. The fire was apparently contained to a mail room in the second floor in the administrative office section of Fenway Park, the oldest of all Major League Baseball ballparks. Fenway Park was built in 1912, and it has been the oldest stadium still in use since...

I have an old photo of men I've been told were some Red Sox baseball players who were dining at a restaurant back in the late 1960's. There are 3 of them in the picture. It was likely 1968 to maybe as late as 1970. It was probably during Spring training because it was taken in central Florida. Does anyone here know how I can track down living members of the team to see if any of them can identify them? I have been told they may be Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Lonborg, and Tony Conigliaro, but when I look at...

Devon La Russa, the daughter of St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, apologized and removed an offensive tweet she sent Sunday night regarding Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington, Yahoo! Sports reports. The tweet that created the backlash: "I saw a crack head doing 'The Wash' today. Coincidence? I think not..."

A New Curse for the Red Sox? It is NEVER any surprise to us die hard Boston Red Sox fans when our team implodes or blows the big one. We waited 86 years to finally win a world series (o4 and 07), and many of us still can not believe it and still think that we are dreaming! It was Sox folklore for 86 years that when the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth in 1919 that the end of a very successful and victorious decade had come to an end and the Sox went with out a World Series crown...

What a shocker. I mean, WE were doing so great until Sept. 3. And then THEY had a worse September than Rick Perry. There is no joy in Shillville. Worst choke in baseball history, even worse than the Braves this year, the Braves who used to play in Boston, which as someone said yesterday proves that you can take the Braves out of Boston, but you can’t take the Boston out of the Braves. Everyone chant together, “We’re number three! We’re number three!” I guess the cream of the Boston sporting press is going to have to find some new...

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...