With the Major League Baseball All-Star break almost coming to an end, let’s take a look at the baseball power rankings prior to the start of the second half of the season. Here’s a look at the best of the best teams in Major League Baseball.
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers have consistently been near the top of the rankings. Now that Manny Ramirez is back, there’s no reason why they can’t run away with the best record in the National League.
2. Boston Red Sox
Earlier in the season, the Red Sox were struggling due to poor starting pitching. With their starters …read more

Remember that post we did the other day about former Boston Red Sox Grounder King Bill Buckner’s return to Fenway Park, and then the follow-up about him being verklempt and all? Mark Jabo of Biz Levity included such a great link in the comments section of the latter post we decided to put it in the spotlight.
Finish your coffee or tea before reading or you’re likely to snort it through your nose and onto your keyboard. And who wants to clean up a mess like that?
Check out this wish-we-wrote-it take on Buckner’s return and the tongue-in-cheek search for former Red …read more

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times. It’s great to be a New England sports fan.
Not only did the Red Sox win their Opening Day game in Japan, but roller derby is expanding in the traitor state that roots for the Yankees because it thinks it’s part of New York Connecticut. All we need now is a vibrant curling subculture, though that might be a little too intense for our corner of the U.S.
Now, of the hundreds of posts we’ve done for Gossip On Sports, nary a one has touched on the elegant sport of women’s roller derby. Why? Well, …read more

Blink and you’ll miss it: a one-man triple play.
As we scour the spring training reports and can’t wait for the Red Sox to dominate in 2008 and make the Yankees look like fools prepare for the upcoming baseball season, we thought this 2007 gem would whet the appetites of baseball lovers near and far. 
Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies made it look easy. But as the announcer says here (36s), the unassisted wonder-play has only happened 13 times in MLB history.

Red Sox talent scout Jesse Levis is apparently a hands-on kind of guy when scoping out prospects.
Unfortunately, the “prospects” were poolside teenage girls, and the “hands-on” part is, um, to be taken very, very literally. Oh yes, it’s what you’re thinking. We do mean that.
Levis was allegedly in his hotel room window—some witnesses say for a whopping 40 minutes—while performing his lewd act. The not-PR-savvy talent scout claims he’d just stepped out of the shower and thus sans clothes. (And what, forgot that he didn’t have any pockets and so found something else to do with his hands?)
What isn’t known is exactly …read more

We’ve been so caught up in the goings-on of the NFL (not to mention Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo) that we almost forgot one last tidbit to the Hank Steinbrenner–Red Sox Nation “controversy.”
Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, always good for a quote (or a dance move; see below) offered his two cents on Hank Steinbrenner’s trash-talking, per ESPN: 
“ I don’t know if he’s trying to stir things up or not,” Boston’s closer told the Hartford Courant. “I sure as hell don’t care, because he sure as hell hasn’t stepped foot on a baseball field. He needs to just stick to pencil-pushing, …read more

The last few days have been quite a windfall for New York Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner.
The other day he yapped about the concept of Red Sox Nation being “a bunch of [waste product originating from a bull].” Following that, Boston Red Sox principal owner John Henry granted him membership into said concept identified as a bunch of waste product originating from a bull (i.e., Red Sox Nation).
And now, our pal Hank’s lucky streak continues. Check out the story below, undercovered by Frank Coffey and his coterie of top-notch investigative satirists journalists at eTrueSports.com.
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 Steinbrenner Will Receive “Idiot Son of the Year” …read more

This is very definitely in the “wish we thought of it” category.
The Red Sox signed portly—now that’s an understatement—pitcher Bartolo Colon to a minor-league contract. Colon, listed as 5′11″ and 245 pounds (now there’s another understatement), will *ideally* bounce back from his injury-hampered, post-Cy Young days to become a factor in the starting rotation.
Thumbs up to Boston Dirt Dog for clever Photoshopping and for conveying the essence of “Boston Sports Fan” all in one fell swoop. We can’t post it here but check out the link.
A shout-out to reader Prospero for sending this our way!

MLB players do more than just polish up their ping-pong skills in the off-season. Red Sox relief pitcher Hideki Okajima is developing a new “secret” pitch. There’s a good chance you’ll never guess the name—or forget it. 
Get ready for the 2008 unveiling of . . . the Doki-doki! The Japanese pitcher, like teammate and countryman Daisuke Matsuzaka, speaks through a translator. Okajima’s translator (Jeff Yamaguchi) explains the dual meaning of the phrase: “sounds of a heartbeat” and our favorite, the oh-do-we-hope-it’s-true “he makes me nervous.”
The pitch can be used for lefties as well and righties–which way it breaks is anyone’s guess …read more

Take note, readers. You’re about to witness a Red Sox fan praising Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees.
The Yanks’ shortstop-loving El Capitan gets a thumbs up from us because he supports blood testing in MLB players for banned substances. Better yet, he’s not afraid to take this stance even though the MLB union itself poo-poos the idea.
According to ESPN (via Bloomberg News), Jeter said, “You can test for whatever you want to test for.” Not only that, he wouldn’t view such testing as an invasion of privacy.
Bring it on! Let’s hear it for high-profile baseball players with nothing to hide. If this …read more