If you’re wondering about why I am adding Yankees news into the normal Red Sox news & notes, it’s because the two teams are playing each other for the next 3 days. Right now the Red Sox hold an 8 game lead as they look to distance themselves from the Yanks. The Yanks come into the series fresh off a 16-0 mauling by the Tigers while the Red Sox come well-rested after a day off. Moving forward, let’s take a look at the headlines from the Boston area and New York media on this cool morning along the shores of Long Island Sound.

Yankees are losing at this game of catch [Boston Globe]

GOOSE: YANKS CAN COME BACK [NY Post]

Back in good standing: Sox relish opportunity for control of AL East [Boston Herald]

No sizzle for Sox series [NY Daily News]

A Different Feel With 8-Game Lead [Hartford Courant]

Little drama to this Red Sox-Yankees series [Newsday]

Series loses luster [Pro Jo]

Strong for the week [Boston Globe]

MAKE OR FAKE IN AL EAST [NY Post]

His own outlook: Henry examines dynamics of Sox-Yanks rivalry [Boston Herald]

Grand old gamer [Boston Globe]

As always stop by here first for your latest Red Sox news then head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Providence Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News and Newsday websites to see what else they are writing.

The Red Sox cut down the number of candidates for Red Sox Nation president to 25 people and a dog.

It was business as usual for the Angels on Monday.

Jack Hannahan is leaving a nice impression on the A’s.

Blue Jays starter Gustavo Chacin is undergoing exploratory surgery on his left shoulder Wednesday.

Devil Rays starter Jason Hammel is working on his mechanics.

Asdrubal Cabrera has taken over the 2nd base duties for the Indians.

Jose Guillen is seen as a leader for the Mariners.

Orioles skipper Dave Trembley sat down for a Q&A with MLB.com.

The Rangers have a quarterback controversy behind the plate.

Rowdy Hardy has surprised the Royals brass this season.

Jair Jurrens will go to the Tigers bullpen when he gets off the DL.

Jason Bartlett is playing through some pain for the Twins.

A.J. Pierzynski is downplaying the shouting match between him and White Sox hitting coach that happened on Sunday.

Derek Jeter returned to the Yankees lineup on Monday night.

I know you’re saying “Steve are you turning this into a Houston Astros blog? This is the second Astros post in like 24 hours”. No, I’m not, generally I could care less about the ‘Stros but you’ll see in a moment why all of a sudden you think I’m from Texas.

Today the Astros dumped manager Phil Garner and General Manager Tim Purpura less than two years after the duo took the team to it’s first World Series where they were swept by the Chicago White Sox.

Owner Drayton McLain said the team “needed a fresh start” so he canned those guys and made Team President Tal Smith interim General Manager and bench coach Cecil Cooper interim manager.

Houston is currently 58-73 and 9 games behind Chicago in the weak NL Central having lost five of the last seven games to lowly Washington and Pittsburgh.

The 57-year-old Cooper becomes a major league manager for the first time. The five-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner was the bench coach in Milwaukee in 2002 and managed Triple-A Indianapolis in 2003-04. He started his playing career with the Boston Red Sox and was traded in 1976 to Milwaukee for George Scott and Bernie Carbo. The deal brought the two former Red Sox back to Boston and gave Cooper a gateway to becoming one of the best first baseman of his era.

The Astros have 31 games left and McLain said it’s basically an audition for Cooper.

Cooper is already making changes, he promoted first-base coach Jose Cruz to bench coach and moved bullpen coach Mark Bailey to the first-base position and will have some lineup changes on Tuesday.

Garner took over midway through 2004 for the fired Jimy Williams and compiled a 277-252 record with Houston. He has also managed Milwaukee and Detroit.

Purpura joined the Astros in 1994 serving a variety of positions with the club before taking over from Gerry Hunsicker as GM before the 2005 season. He has been blamed for the poor acquistions of starters Woody Williams and Jason Jennings as well as holding onto Morgan Ensberg for too long.

Houston became the fourth team to switch managers this season. Baltimore fired Sam Perlozzo on June 18 and Cincinnati fired Jerry Narron on July 1, the same day Mike Hargrove resigned as Seattle’s manager

Manny Ramirez got the day off on Sunday for the Red Sox before Tuesday’s showdown in the Bronx.

Both Andruw and Chipper Jones got some much needed rest on Sunday for the Braves.

Yankees SS Derek Jeter got the day off on Sunday to rest his sore right knee.

Marlins INF Aaron Boone is about to have season-ending knee surgery.

Blue Jays OF Alex Rios has had a home run slump since the All-Star Game.

Even with deadarm, Mets closer Billy Wagner says he can pitch.

Devil Rays OF Jonny Gomes hit a monstrous homer on Saturday night.

Nationals backup catcher Jesus Flores will be getting a lot of action behind the plate in fall and winter ball.

Oriole skipper Dave Trembley tried shaking things up with his lineup on Sunday.

Chase Utley will be back in the Phillies lineup on Monday.

Before the Houston Astros game against the Pittsburgh Pirates this afternoon Jeff Bagwell had his number 5 retired at Minute Maid Park.

Bagwell, born in Boston and raised in Killingworth CT, played 15 years with Astros hitting .297 with 449 HRs. He was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 4^th round in 1989 out of the University of Hartford and made his major league debut in 1991 with Houston.

Bagwell is part of Red Sox lore in that he was traded in 1990 for relief pitcher Larry Anderson who the Sox needed for a late season playoff push. Anderson never played for Boston beyond the end of the 1990 season while Bagwell went on to be the 1991 National League Rookie of the Year.

Bagwell, a four-time all-star, was also the 1994 NL MVP when he hit a career high .368 (second to Tony Gwynn’s .394) with 39 HRs and a 116 RBI in only 110 games. He nearly won a second MVP in 1999 when he finished second to Atlanta’s Chipper Jones. He also finished 3^rd in 1997.

Bagwell becomes the eighth Astro player to have his number retired joining Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, Jim Wynn, Larry Dierker, Jose Cruz, Don Wilson and Jim Umbricht.

Bobby Kielty has fit right in with the Red Sox.

Angels catcher Jeff Mathis is playing well with Mike Napoli out.

Brandon Backe may finally return to the Astros after being out a year.

Shannon Stewart is showing the A’s how to lead by example.

Gregg Zaun is struggling at the plate for the Blue Jays.

The Braves have no timetable on Octavio Dotel’s return from injury.

The Brewers coaching staff is trying to figure out why the rotation is struggling.

Tony LaRussa defended the Cardinals defense after they made 4 errors on Friday night.

Injured Cubs pitcher Mark Prior spoke publicly for the first time about his shoulder surgery.

Devil Rays skipper Joe Maddon is happy with his team’s defense.

Diamondbacks rookie Justin Upton has to adjust now that teams have figured him out.

Dodgers catcher Mike Lieberthal is ready to catch David Wells today.

Kevin Frandsen is showing some power for the Giants.

Indians skipper Eric Wedge is going with the lineup that helped his team score a ton of runs last season.

Ichiro got a rare day off for the Mariners on Saturday.

Byung-Hyun Kim was signed by the Marlins on Saturday.

Luis Castillo’s knee injury is backing up the Mets’ player moves.

The Nationals removed John Lannan from their rotation and shut him down as a starter for the season.

Orioles skipper Dave Trembley added Alan Dunn as his bullpen coach.

The Padres put Marcus Giles on the 15-day DL with a left knee sprain.

Shane Victorino got a day off on Saturday for the Phillies to rest his calf.

Salomon Torres was placed on the 15-day DL by the Pirates with elbow stiffness.

Rangers reliever Willie Eyre had his breakout season cut short by an elbow injury.

The Reds have no idea who will be starting for them today.

Friday night’s comeback win has the Rockies clubhouse all fired up.

Jorge De La Rosa should return to the Royals rotation on Saturday.

The Tigers players didn’t mind finishing up at 3:30 am on Saturday morning.

Twins 2B Alexi Casilla was ok with his fine for forgetting how many outs there during Friday night’s game.

The White Sox made some changes to their rotation.

Yankees OF Hideki Matsui isn’t showing any signs of slowing down at the plate.

Barry Bonds touched all 4 bases for the 761st time on Friday night against the Brewers if you care.

New Era in association with Major League Baseball has pulled a line up of new caps it created after they found that they might have gang connotations based on the colors and symbols.

“It has been brought to our attention that some combinations of icons and colors on a select number of our caps could be too closely perceived to be in association with gangs,” said Christopher H. Koch, CEO of New Era Cap. “In response, we, along with Major League Baseball, have pulled those caps.”

Major League Baseball claims it didn’t realize that the hats could be gang related. The Yankees, whose logo appears on the hats hadn’t seen the caps prior to production.

The styles that were in question were a white cap with a red bandana, a white cap with a blue bandana and a black cap that contained a gold crown. These hats could be tailor-made for members of the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings respectively. After this came to the attention of baseball officials they asked New Era, who has manufactured caps for MLB since 1930, to pull the product. New Era had already acted prior to the notification by MLB.

Richard Garcia, who works with Peace on the Street to provide youngsters with alternatives to gangs, said he immediately recognized the hats’ colors from his work with former gang members.

“My fear was that the wrong kid was going to wear the wrong hat in the wrong neighborhood and get hurt,” he said.

New Era says it will ensure they have a better working knowledge of gang color combinations and symbols in the future.

Now if you believe everyone involved, you’re telling me that no one at New Era and no one in the MLB office involved in licensing had a clue those hats could be gang related? I took one look at those hats and I a suburban, middle aged white male knew they had gang connections.

Also if the Yankees hadn’t seen the caps prior to production that means that MLB lets their suppliers and not the teams or the league dictate the products that are sold. I don’t know about you but I think that’s a very bad business practice as this incident has shown us.

UPDATE: I found the hats with Red Sox and Dodgers logos. I didn’t look for any other teams.

Brandon Webb’s scoreless streak for the Diamondbacks was something special.

Chone Figgins hopes to return to the Angels lineup in the next few days.

Brian Wilson is setting himself up for a run at the closer’s role for the Giants.

A’s reliever Ruddy Lugo was happy to return to Tampa Bay.

David Wells is expected to sign with the Dodgers and start on Sunday.

Rick White hopes to help the Mariners make their playoff push.

Clay Hensley hopes to have a better outing this time for the Padres then he did in his last start.

Adam Melhuse was designated for assignment by the Rangers.

Jamey Carroll made his first career start in right field for the Rockies on Thursday.

The Astros sent Jason Lane to Triple-A because they need an arm in the bullpen.

The Indians have struggled at the plate since the July 23rd game against the Red Sox.

Former Brewer Robin Yount is impressed with rookie Ryan Braun.

Odalis Perez was placed on the 15-day DL by the Royals with a strained left knee.

Cubs reliever Willie Eyre made a mechanical adjustment that has been paying dividends.

Cameron Maybin had his first start at Comerica Park.

Brendan Ryan has enjoyed his time with the Cardinals this season.

Tommy Watkins has had a nice start for the Twins.

Adam LaRoche has finally overcome his slow start for the Pirates.

Boone Logan hopes to do more for the White Sox in 2008 out of the bullpen.

Alex Gonzalez returned to the Reds on Wednesday.