Is Britt Burns ready for another comeback attempt? What's Ted Higuera up to these days? Maybe Brien Taylor wants to give it one last shot.

I'm talking about Melido and Pascual. Bring em back. The curls are in!

"Shingo Takatsu and Aaron Sele were released by the White Sox and Mariners, respectively, yesterday and one Yankee decision-maker said interest would be tepid in Takatsu. The Yankees recently scouted Sele and weren't impressed."

I had the pleasure of meeting Peter Gammons at one of his Hot Stove/Cool Music events in Boston (before they became impossibly crowded - and impossible to get tickets to). He was a very classy guy. So I watched his HoF speech from start to finish - did anyone else notice that whenever he seemed on the verge of tears, he'd pause and then resume his speech at a rapid pace? The pictures of him beforehand, with that smile/smirk on his face - he looked like a little kid. It was a rewarding experience, seeing a good man like that enter the HoF.

Keep in mind that the yankees aren't playing Tampa Bay here - this team, while not having the cachet as the Red Sox or Angels, is plenty good and tonight the Yanks go up against quite possibly the best fifth starter in the majors - Elarton, over his last 10 starts, is 4-3, 3.67 over 69 innings (one of those wins was against the Yanks where he went 7 strong and only gave up 3 runs). Then you have 11 game winner Cliff Lee and Kevin Millwod (4-5, 3.06 in his last 10 - 62 inngs, 52h, 18bb, 46k).

Thankfully, (though I do wish him well in his recovery), it doesn't look like Hafner will be back for, at the very least, the first game of the series. Also, a win tonight might be the best night of this series to pick up a game on the Red Sox as they face a good pitcher in Hernandez of the Royals. The rest of the Royals rotation the Sox face is...mediocore...AT BEST.

Re: Steve Lombardi on Pavano: Jeez.... I thought he wanted to be a Yankee. If this article is true, hopefully Pavano WON'T be a Yankee next year. Just what we need from our 3rd Pitcher... a Tigers fan.

Re: Manny Ramirez hoopla: I can't stand the guy. He represents EVERYTHING that is wrong with 'superstars' and obese salaries, and is a blight on the game. I live in NH and watch almost every Sox game. Forget the retarded play on the field. His behavior, lack of hussle and 'what me worry' attitude is horrible to watch. It is a shame that teams (like the Sox) don't have the honor to make players that act badly accountable. I wish MLB had some policies that all players had to adhere to and enforced. I guy pushes a camera man and is out 20 games. Manny takes a bathroom break in the green Monster in the middle of an inning, and nothing happens. If the Sox won't bench him, at least fine him big and often, and let some children's charities benefit. It should become official. Anyone who does something incredibly stupid, unaware, lazy or selfish is be 'pulling a Manny'.

I heard a lot of sh_t from Sox fans about Giambi. Jason, while he made a big mistake, has some honor. Manny, who makes about $33,000 per AB (!!!!!!!!) is a cancer on this great game.

But where Manny's style of play can be annoying (for Sox fans, too, I might add), I think 'taking steroids' is more of a cancer-on-the-game crime than 'playing lazy'.

Every (rich) team has at least one player like Manny. As Alex mentioned, if they produce, the flaws are overlooked. I know many NY fans hate Kevin Brown for punching a wall last year, but if he had come back and shut down the Sox in the ALCS and then had a great '05, would he still be as hated?

See, lazy players like Ramirez or players that are easy to dislike don't put the fan in such a tough spot. Red Sox fans root for the Red Sox, not necessarily for Ramirez. If Ramirez does something that helps the Sox win, the fans will cheer--for the Red Sox, but not necessarily for Ramirez. Would you expect a game-winning homer to be treated with silence by the home town fans? It would be awkward. But when Ramirez does something that doesn't help the Red Sox win, he will be held personally accountable by the boo birds. This is neither inconsistent nor hypocritical.

The last two people I can think of saying on the record that they preferred Detroit to New York are Jeff Weaver and Juan Gonzalez. 'nuff said.

Williams went inside the Green Monster in the middle of an inning?

Williams hit a pop-up and walked directly into the dug-out?

Williams hit a ground ball with a man on first, assumed it was a DP, and just jogged to first... even when the guy at second was safe, and the throw to first was bad, and pulled the first baseman off the bag... and still jogged the last steps... casually ducking to avoid the first baseman?

These events happened last month. There were many more. I don't know how Williams played the game... but if it was like Manny, I sorry that he had gotten such fame.

I thought Williams (like Bonds) was unfriendly to the press and was not concerned how the press perceived him. I didn't know it dogged it and cost his team.

Kids emulate ballplayers. It is not only the lesson that Manny teaches... but the guy is paid 20 mil a year. 20 MILLION a year! Does he have ANY obligations to the team? The fans? The game?

Manny constantly spits in the face of the game. Williams did this?

Come on, the majority of players aren't exactly role models. (Just today, Reds pitcher Jung Keun Bong was charged with domestic battery.) They're human, and there are different personalities in baseball just like there are in other aspects of life. Manny would probably be a lazy garbageman, and Jeter would probably dive headfirst into the cans...

I have read that Williams was an indifferent fielder at best and a horrible one at worst. I don't know if he ever took a leak in the middle of an inning--frankly, I think you have to have a least some sense of humor to do that. I don't know first hand if he ever jogged balls out, but something tells me that yes, he in fact did.

Again, I understand your point-of-view on Manny--or any self-centered player for that matter. I just think that Williams was very much the 1950s version of what you are complaining about.

According to Glenn Stout's "Red Sox Century,"
on May 11, 1949, Williams dropped a fly ball in the first game of a double header against the Tigers. Later in the game he hit a grand slame in a 13-4 Sox loss. He had been booed after dropping the fly ball but was cheered after the home run. According to the Boston Globe Williams "raised two fingers skyward to let those fans know...how he felt about them." In the second game, the Sox had a shutout going when Williams misplayed a singled and three runs scored. He was booed again and he repeated his gesture to the fans three more times.

One reporter commented that "the rules of self-imposed journalistic decency prevented newspapers from explaining the degrading gesutres...Pictures of the performance he gave were discarded by this newspaper for the sake of children, ladies and nomral persons to whom the actions would have been indecipherable or revolting."

And I don't know if Williams spit in the face of the game, but he did spit at the crowd. After making an error at Fenway on August 7, 1954 Williams was booed lustily and, according to Stout, "Before entering the dugout he spit toward the crowd behind first base, then turned and did so toward those behind third, lest anyone feel left out."

Williams was fined $5,000 by the Sox, the largest fine since Ruth broke curfew way back in 1925. Williams hit a homer shortly thereafter and cut his baby act and the fans embraced him again.

I think that Williams was tagged with the "selfish" label during his playing days and I think he was as poor an example of the kind of sportsmanship and respect-for-the-game that you admire as you find Ramirez to be. He was a great hitter, maybe the best ever, but he was also a petulent, self-absorbed asshole. He did not a well-rounded player. All he cared about was hitting. That was enough for him. And that is apparently enough for Ramirez too.