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According to multiple clubhouse sources, the Red Sox [team stats] will be holding a players-only meeting later this morning concerning the issue regarding the coaches potentially not being paid the $40,000 allocated the players. The sources indicated that the players will be issuing a mandate to Major League Baseball that if the coaches aren’t paid, then the team will not be getting on the plane later today for Japan.

Football legend Red Grange loved to tell the story about the time he visited Calvin Coolidge at the White House. As the tale goes, when an aide made the introductions by saying, “Mr. President, this is Red Grange of the Chicago Bears,” Coolidge replied, “Great! I love circus acts.” True story? Political folklore? What we do know, and we’ll know it forever, is that President Bush really did stand at a podium on the South Lawn yesterday and speak these words: “I’m sorry Manny Ramirez [stats] isn’t here. I guess his grandmother died again.”

Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis today became one of five first-time Gold Glove winners in the American League. The gritty Red Sox first baseman did not make an error in 1,080 total chances and recorded 990 putouts for the Sox. Youkilis joins former Sox 1B George "Boomer" Scott, a three-time Gold Glove winner [1967, 1968, and 1971], as only the second Red Sox 1B to win the defensive award. Youkilis is just the second Red Sox player to earn a Gold Glove in the last 16 seasons. Sox captain and catcher Jason Varitek won the award in 2005.

Ramirez ties Thome in homers, McCovey in RBIs BOSTON -- The home team's recipe for instant offense, to front the lineup with a pair of red-hot Red Sox, paid dividends again Sunday. This time, the middle of the order kicked into gear behind J.D. Drew and Dustin Pedroia. The result was a ruined start for San Francisco's Matt Morris and a lead that not even Barry Bonds' awakening at Fenway Park could erase. The Red Sox won, 9-5, holding off a Giants charge that began with Bonds' 748th career home run and sweeping the three-game series. With no outs in...

BOSTON -- New York Yankees right fielder Gary Sheffield got into a brief scuffle with a fan at Fenway Park during Thursday night's game against the Boston Red Sox. Sheffield was fielding Jason Varitek's two-run triple along the right-field fence in the eighth inning when a fan swung a short uppercut in his direction, appearing to graze the side of the slugger's face with his right arm. After Sheffield picked up the ball, he shoved the fan before throwing the ball back into the infield. Then he whirled around with a cocked fist, but restrained himself and began shouting in...

<p>GRADY LITTLE'S future is not the only big decision looming for the owners of the Boston Red Sox. What will they do about Fenway Park? After the soul-crushing loss to the New York Yankees, the game of baseball -- and the second-guessing of Little -- take priority in Red Sox Nation. But the business of baseball can never be far behind. Long after fans learn whether Little will be judged for a season of decisions or one decision to leave Pedro Martinez on the mound in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, the owners will be grappling with a decision about Fenway's future.</p>

Have You Heard The New Bill Buckner Joke? by Jeff Kallman "Mookie," the voice hailed the New York Mets' first base coach, "what do you say you hit me a few grounders?"Forgive Mookie Wilson if at first he had to retrieve his jaw from the Shea Stadium grass, before flashing his familiar, almost satchelmouthed grin. Not everyone gets the honour of hearing the newest Bill Buckner joke, especially when it's cracked by Bill Buckner himself. And especially when he cracks it at the bloody crossroads where Buckner and Wilson collided too profoundly to leave each other strangers.It was almost sixteen...