Here are some random thoughts about the Red Sox, Yankees and the playoff season.
The boys' volleyball rankings will appear late Thursday night as there are some big games this week.
Red Sox
Papelbon finally blew one last night. This guy's been unbelievable and probably got a bit cocky last night. Oakland has some young talent and Travis Buck is going to be a stud. This kid is big and strong.
I still think the Red Sox lineup has holes and Julio Lugo is a butcher at shortstop. I still wonder if taking a defensive standout like Alex Gonzalez over the offensive abilities of Lugo is better.
Still, the Sox have been strong and on Tuesday night you kind of expected them to win.
And Sox fans know better than to expect anything positive.
Yankees
All you can is Wow. Phil, or Phillip Hughes (whatever) was pitching an amazing game when he felt his hamstring pop in the seventh inning on Tuesday.
That will sideline him for around a month and probably make him a little tentative coming back.
That's a major blow for the Yankees.
New York doesn't seem to want their youngsters to succeed. They'd rather keep wheeling in old fogies like Jon Lieber instead of giving their youngsters a shot.
They were just about to give up on Kei Igawa and then he proved his mettle in an emergency outing.
They've already given up on Chase Wright because of one bad (albeit really bad) inning.
Now Karstens is out and Hughes is hurt.
The Yankees always like to pick superstars off of other rosters rather than sticking with players from their own system. And now they seem to just settle for grizzled veterans.

The heat is on Brian Cashman to do something quickly to save the Yankees' staff. Let's see if try to make a big splash (dishing out a lot of cash) or go back to the (David) Wells again with guys like Lieber.

Here's one thought I've tossed around a bit and let me know if it's just me being crazy or not.
When John Sterling does his home run call for Alex Rodriguez, he says it's an "A-Bomb from A-Rod."
I want to know if people, especially a growing number of Japanese ballplayers find that offensive?
And is Imus listening?

Coming up this week

Volleyball rankings and a look at an area high school hockey player who is heading for the big time.

OK, now Britney: Hit me baby one more time.

You see, she really did look good with hair.