Manny Ramirez stays with the Red Sox

For the Boston Red Sox faithful, at least they can now breathe a sigh of relief.

Manny Ramirez, the very same guy who almost bolted out of the Boston Red Sox, has signed a deal with Boston, letting the Red Sox upgrade their offense. Now, if signing J.D. Drew was made to replace Ramirez, something that was thought of a couple of days ago, this Red Sox team would be a cuckoo's nest.

J.D. Drew was secured by the Red Sox to a guaranteed five-year, $70 million contract to join Ramirez and David Ortiz in the heart of a Red Sox lineup while adding Julio Lugo for four years and $36 million to bat lead-off and play shortstop. And if that remains true, if the 3-4-5 of the 2007 Boston batting order is Ortiz-Ramirez-Drew, there is really only one question to ask, can they win the MLB World Series?

''There are no blinders on,'' Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said after the Sox announced an agreement in principle with Drew, whose acquisition was promptly followed by the Lugo signing. ''Every player is a question of strengths and weaknesses. We happen to think that Drew is an excellent complement to our existing talent.''

What could that statement possibly mean? Does it mean that they signed Manny Ramirez just to trade the poor guy away?

Does it mean that Manny Ramirez is going nowhere? Does it mean that the Boston Red Sox have gone through their annual yoga exercise that is the Trade Manny Tour? That's when the Sox bend over backward and go from city to city, all across America, in hopes of finding someone who will pony up a pile of talent (singular or otherwise) that can offset a Hall-of-Fame run producer.

Sorry Red Sox fans, you can't breathe a sigh of relief yet.

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Yankees Lose Game but Wins MLB Division Title

Confused? Here's how they did it.

The New York Yankees' game had ended with a 3-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night, but the scoreboard told the players that the Boston Red Sox were also losing.
They all knew what that meant. Another division title in MLB Baseball.

One Red Sox loss would clinch the Yankees' ninth consecutive American League East title. As he crowded around a clubhouse television with his teammates, Damon realized something, the team beating Boston was the Minnesota Twins, a possible opponent in the division series.

''It was great, but we're also scouting the Twins now, too, seeing what their pitchers are doing,'' said Damon, who was drenched in Champagne after his former team's 8-2 loss. ''They’re on fire right now. They could be the hottest team going into the playoffs. It was nice sitting with the guys, even after our loss.''

Very quickly, the New York Yankees got off the couches and partied. The Red Sox are the next team to use the visitors' locker room at the Rogers Center, and when they get here, they might catch a leftover whiff of celebration.

How many cases of Champagne did the Yankees use dousing each other? ''About 20,'' said Rob Cucuzza, the clubhouse manager. ''And a whole lot of beer.''

The Yankees believed they earned the right to let loose. At the All-Star Game break, they were three games behind the Boston Red Sox in the division and six games back in the wild-card race. It was the farthest they had ever been from a playoff spot at mid season in Joe Torre's 11 years as manager.

Here are some outright odds from Sports Interaction on who will win the MLB Baseball World Series this season.

Boston Red Sox 18.00

New York Yankees 4.00

Detroit Tigers 6.50

San Francisco Giants 56.00

Chicago White Sox 9.00

Phillies have Sights towards MLB Baseball Playoffs

The demolition derby of a center fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies is out for the rest of the MLB Baseball season.

Their closer is on the disabled list. Their No. 3 hitter was traded to the New York Yankees last month. One of their starting pitchers was part of that deal. Their general manager spoke about trying to win by 2008.

Still, somehow, in the softer-than-marshmallow National League, the Phillies have parlayed three and a half solid weeks into making themselves legitimate contenders for a wild-card berth. The Phillies were prepared to wave goodbye to winning this year at the nonwaiver trading deadline, but not anymore.

In a league in which 85 victories could be good enough to snare the fourth postseason spot, the Phillies are 64-63 after yesterday’s 11-2 loss to the Cubs in Chicago. They begin a three-game series against the Mets tonight and were two and a half games behind the Cincinnati Reds for the wild card. The Philadelphia Phillies are a flawed team in a ho-hum league, but they would be foolish if they did not think they could win it.

''I think everybody's still in it,'' said Ruben Amaro Jr., the Phillies' assistant general manager. ''I don’t think anybody is running away with it. You don't know what's going to happen.''

Not even the Phillies expected what had happened. When they sent right fielder Bobby Abreu, their No. 3 hitter and one of their best players in franchise history, and pitcher Cory Lidle to the Yankees for four minor leaguers July 30, it was a salary dump. It looked like a white flag, too. The Phillies freed themselves of almost $23 million and were frank about their prospects.

''Realistically, I think it’s a stretch to think we’re going to be there in '07,'' General Manager Pat Gillick said at the time. ''I think probably right now it’s going to take longer than that.''

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Detroit Tigers 3/2

Chicago White Sox 9/2

Houston Astros 16/1

New York Yankees 19/2

Chicago White Sox, Ready for the Second Half of MLB Baseball

Now it's on to the MLB baseball season second half, which Ozzie Guillen says ''separates the kids from the men.''

For the Chicago White Sox, the defending MLB World Series champions who are just two games behind the Detroit Tigers for the American League Central Division lead, that means a very quick jump into manhood because their prolonged MLB Baseball All-Star break will finally end with three games at Yankee Stadium and then three more in Detroit.

''It's pretty much in our own hands,'' Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. ''If we go out and play well, we'll be in good position. If we don't, there will be a lot of people upset and calling us failures.''

At least the Chicago White Sox have some successful history as their guide.

Following the All-Star break last summer, they went into Cleveland and stomped on the Cleveland Indians four straight times, presumably squashing them once and for all. That wasn't the case, but the Sox eventually did survive.

''Last year, sweeping Cleveland those four games really set a tone and eventually ended up being the margin we won by,'' Pierzynski said. ''Every game is important, every series is important. There's a special meaning when you play in your own division, because you definitely have to win those to get to the postseason.''

The Sox have 13 games left against the Detroit Tigers, whom they have beaten five of six times this season.The two teams have the best records in baseball, but Guillen says his is the best team right now.

''I think so, because our pitching staff has been inconsistent and we're still [close], and the bottom of our lineup, the eighth [Juan Uribe] and ninth [Brian Anderson] hitters, are having bad years, and I think those guys will get better.''

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Here are some MLB baseball game odds from some MLB baseball teams and their odds to win the 2006 World Series championship:

Atlanta Braves 60/1

Boston Red Sox 5/1

Chicago White Sox 9/2

Houston Astros 16/1

New York Yankees 19/2

2006 MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday

MLB players are still coming in and out of the 2006 MLB All-Star game. But America's favorite pastime will STILL see it's top players play on Tuesday.

No matter what.

Barely four days before the All-Star Game comes to PNC Park, changes were made yesterday to the American League roster, as expected, and the National League pitching staff, in a slightly surprising move.

Melancholy Manny Ramirez at long last got his wish, not to mention his manager's, and got out of the 77th annual contest.

As the saga moved into its fourth day, Major League Baseball released a tersely worded announcement on MLB.com saying it ''was informed [Friday] that outfielder Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox will not attend this year's All-Star festivities.''

In one of the worst-kept secrets in the days since Boston manager Terry Francona went public Monday with his prescription of rest for Ramirez (though Francona first mentioned the possibility June 29), AL and Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen officially named one of his former players, Detroit's Magglio Ordonez, as a replacement.

For the record, Ramirez, the American League's leading vote-getter, claimed to have a sore right knee. It was a left hamstring that allowed him to sit out the 2003 and 2000 All-Star Games.

As for the host side's latest transaction, NL and Houston manager Phil Garner named Roy Oswalt to replace Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez, who was placed on the disabled list Thursday with a balky right hip.

Oswalt, who carries a 6-5 record, had just become the first major-league pitcher in four seasons to lose back-to-back complete games.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee's Chris Capuano, the second-place finisher in the Final Vote balloting behind Los Angeles' Nomar Garciaparra, seemed to make a case for his last-minute selection by running his record to 10-4 with a shutout against the Cubs Thursday, which also meant he would be fully rested by then.

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Here are some more odds coming to baseball's MIDSUMMER CLASSIC, otherwise known as the 2006 MLB All-Star Game:

Team to score first in the game:

American League -165
National League +135

Total Hits, Runs, and Errors

Over 30 ½ H+R+E -120
Under 30 ½ H+R+E -110

Tough Love for Barry Bonds

No love for Barry Bonds, maybe because he cheated baseball.

Eight years ago, the baseball planet was going ga-ga over Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

They were battling to become the first to surpass Roger Maris' mark of 61 home runs in a season, ESPN and Fox were in a competitive sprint, each fighting to be the first to carry the September game at which the record was likely to be broken.

It was a delicious frenzy that was won by Fox, which televised McGwire's 62nd homer on a Tuesday night and drew a 12.9 rating, the largest for a regular-season ballgame in 16 years. The day before, ESPN showed McGwire slugging his 61st, which yielded a record baseball rating on cable.

But Bonds - the churlish personality at the center of accusations of steroid use - could not stoke a similar network fire. There has been no public jockeying to carry extra Bonds games, no saga like Hank Aaron's as he pursued Babe Ruth's home run record and omnipresent potbellied ghost.

When Bonds hit his 714th career home run in Oakland to tie Ruth, the Giants - Oakland game was one of four inter-league games covered by Fox.

It was shown to just 7 percent of the country - a segment comprising the San Francisco-Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego and Las Vegas markets.

The reasons were a hodgepodge of logistics and demand.

There was never a discussion about sending the Giants game to the entire country, as a historic telecast, because Fox was starting its season with four inter-league broadcasts.

Dan Bell, a spokesman for Fox, said the network has never carried a single national game on Saturday afternoon.

''Had there been the kind of national demand like there was for McGwire-Sosa, we might have elevated Oakland-San Francisco,'' he said.

Well that's what he says. But baseball fans and the rest of the MLB know better.

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MLB to Bonds: Pass Hank First, Then We'll Call You Great

Barry Bonds passing Babe Ruth's baseball record is nothing.

At least that's what Major League Baseball (MLB) thinks.

''Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record,'' MLB Commissioner, Bud Selig said. ''We don't celebrate anybody the second or third time in,'' he added.

Apparently, the MLB is not planning any celebrations for the controversial Barry Bonds if the Giants slugger overtakes Babe Ruth's 714 home runs.

Bonds has been accused of steroids use for several seasons now and that has definitely overshadowed Bonds' chase for baseball immortality this year. In the book, ''Game of Shadows,'' it details allegations against him.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether he committed perjury when he told another grand jury that he had never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.

Barry Bonds hit his 711th home run last Wednesday, making him three more runs closer in equaling the feat of ''the Babe.'' Commissioner Bud Selig doesn't have plans in traveling to San Francisco, Milwaukee or Philadelphia, where the Giants will play next week as Bonds nears Ruth.

''We celebrate new records, that's what we do. We're being consistent,'' Selig said during the Associated Press Sports Editors annual meeting with league commissioners. ''There's nothing to read into that.''

''He's had a remarkable career. Whatever happens, happens,'' Selig said. ''We're going to let nature take its course. Commissioners don't sit around and say, 'I hope this guy breaks it or not.''

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