Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend Christmas at Fenway which gave me an opportunity to purchase tickets for the 2010 season (don’t hate me people).

I attended the event with Texy from Center Field and Center Field and SOX & Dawgs regular fc. It was a nice event and I had a nice time with both of them.

We were able to see the World Series trophy, check out the yard sale and sit in the State Street Pavilion and EMC Club. While we were in there, we listened to Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino and Red Sox infielder Jed Lowrie speak.

Unfortunately, we missed new coach Ron Johnson, Michael Bowden, Manny Delcarmen and Red Sox skipper Terry Francona speak since it was our turn to get tickets.

But I’ve got a few pictures to share with ya’ll from the day. By the way, it was pretty cool to see the start of the hockey rink in the middle of the field.

Click on pictures to see full-size.

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UConn Football links

Future Schedules List? ND On Sked In 2010? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Will Mike Box Stay Or Go? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Bowl Game Expenses Are High, But Postseason Helps Recruiting [Hartford Courant]

PapaJohns.com Bowl Facts [Hartford Courant]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Tell Me What You Think After You See This (Delaware News-Journal) [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Why Doesn’t Tina Play More Minutes? [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Test Time For Huskies [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

Q & A with Jennifer Rizzotti, Hartford women’s basketball coach and former UConn All-American [Connecticut Post]

Teams on losing end of UConn routs still reaping benefits [Connecticut Post]

UConn routs box [Connecticut Post]

UConn’s Coulda, Woulda, Shouldas [Hartford Courant]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Journey almost complete for Majok [New Haven Register]

Study: College refs bring biases to the floor [The Republican-American]

Other UConn related links

It’s the ticket prices [John Silver – Journal Inquirer]

There’s nothing like spending a nice day at Fenway Park getting some tickets for the 2010 season and coming home to this news.

According to FOXSports.com, Boston Red Sox free agent outfielder Jason Bay has rejected the latest offer from them and has pretty much written them off according to his agent Joe Urbon.

“We don’t agree with their evaluation of the player,” Urbon said. “Frankly, we have other offers on the table that are of greater interest to Jason.”

And according to WEEI via David Lennon of Newday’s Twitter, a mystery team has gone to five years and he says it’s not the Mets.

It’s not the end of the world that Bay may not end up back in a Red Sox uniform.

What it does though is make it a little more difficult to fill his spot in the lineup. The Red Sox need some pop in their lineup to protect Big Papi and now that may not happen. There is an option out there in Matt Holliday but he could be too expensive for the Red Sox.

So now we wait and see what transpires with all of this.

And after Christmas at Fenway and this news about Bay, can we hope to have a  Happy Holliday or a Happy Halladay?

Editor’s note: I haven’t had a chance to download the video or pictures I took at Christmas at Fenway on Saturday. I will get to it on Sunday and post it up.

Just a quick update. This will be the only post for a while today. I’m off to Fenway Park for Christmas at Fenway with some friends. I do plan to take video while I’m there.

UConn Football links

5 things to know about the Huskies [The State]

Man arrested in UConn stabbing faces new charges [Connecticut Post]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

No Surgery For Doty [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

Delle Donne’s Home Debut A Huge Success [Delaware Sports Information] [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Huskies’ Doty decides against surgery [Roger Cleaveland – The Republican-American]

Husky rewind: UConn women over Hartford [Connecticut Post]

For Rizzotti, It’s About Value [Hartford Courant]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Calhoun Cancer Challenge Ride and Walk, June 12 [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

Coombs-McDaniel and Trice to get a shot; Can they make a shot? [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

John Calipari after the UK-UConn Game [Mike Anthony – Hartford Courant]

Every year the Boston Red Sox hold a Rookie Development Program that  helps the Red Sox prospects and expected rookies with their transition to playing in the big leagues and their expectations from the Red Sox. The program will take place in January 2010.

This year, the Red Sox have invited 11 players to the program:

• RHP Casey Kelly
• RHP Randor Bierd
• RHP Kyle Weiland
• RHP Junichi Tazawa
• RHP Ryne Miller
• LHP Felix Doubront
• C Luis Exposito
• SS Jose Iglesias
• SS Yamaico Navarro
• OF Che Hsuan Lin
• OF Ryan Kalish

Source: Full Count

UConn Football links

Coaches talk Pizza Bowl [Chip Malafronte – New Haven Register]

Interesting Reading As Well Here… [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

ESPN.com’s All-Big East freshman team [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

Spurrier ribs Edsall about Notre Dame speculation [New Haven Register]

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Things were relatively quiet during the Baseball Winter Meetings on the Jason Bay front. Sure there were a few rumors here and there but there was nothing really of substance (Angels, Mariners).

We do know that the Boston Red Sox offered Bay a 4 year, $60 million deal that he rejected. Supposedly, it will take five years to get Bay under contract.

And now according to Jon Heyman of SI.com, we have a new player in the Bay sweepstakes in the New York Mets. Heyman reports that the Mets have offered Bay a 4 year, $65 million deal.

If the Mets were to go to five years, it certainly seems like he could end up back in the National League. But if neither team does or any other team for that matter, what would take for Red Sox GM Theo Epstein to get him back in the Fens for 2010?

I don’t see why the Red Sox wouldn’t give Bay a similar contract to what J.D. Drew got (5 years, $70 million) and throw in some tickets to the 2010 NHL Winter Classic in Boston as well.

UConn Huskies head coach Randy Edsall has been the subject of rumors surrounding the Notre Dame Fighting Irish job lately and offered nothing new on those rumors at a press conference for the PapaJohns.com Bowl on Thursday afternoon.

However the opposing South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier threw Edsall under the boss (done in good fun) by bringing up the Notre Dame rumors first.

“I hope Randy … well, he may be the Notre Dame coach by this game. Notre Dame would be wise to try and hire him.”

Edsall stood up with a sheepish grin and replied, “I thought you would be my friend.”

In case you were wondering about the Notre Dame job, the lastest is that Cincinnati Bearcats head coach is meeting with his players today and the banquet for the Bearcats has been closed to the media.

Let the speculation begin but I say Kelly is as good as gone. Let’s hope that’s true.

I’d really hate to see Edsall leave here. We’re used to longevity with our coaches and we can only hope Edsall follows the lead of Geno Auriemma and Jim Calhoun.

As the Baseball Winter Meetings come to conclusion in Indianapolis, the Rule 5 Draft was held Thursday morning.

While the Boston Red Sox didn’t take anyone, they did lose two players from their farm system. They are third baseman Jorge Jimenez who spent the 2009 season with the Portland Sea Dogs and left-handed pitcher Armando Zerpa who was with the Greenville Drive and Salem Red Sox in 2009.

Jimenez was taken by the Houston Astros and then was traded to the Florida Marlins as the player to be named later from the Matt Lindstrom deal. Zerpa was picked up by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Jimenez hit .289 with 13 home runs and 87 RBIs in 133 games for the Sea Dogs. In 22 games with the Drive, Zerpa was 1-0 with a 1.20 ERA. In 16 games in Salem, he was 1-3 with a 4.85 ERA.

In case you were wondering how the Rule 5 Draft works, here’s the breakdown:

Players are eligible for selection in the Rule 5 draft who are not on their major league organization’s forty man roster and:

• were signed at age 19 or older and have been in the organization for four years; or
• were signed at age 18 or younger and have been in the organization for five years.

It costs a team $50,000 to make a choice and that player must remain on the 25 man roster for the entire season. If not, he’s to be offered back to the original club for $25,000.

Here’s the press release about the Boston Red Sox acquisition of Boof Bonser from the Minnesota Twins.

BOSTON, MA-The Boston Red Sox today acquired right-handed pitcher Boof Bonser from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for a player to be named later.

The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.

Bonser, 28, missed the 2009 season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery in February to repair partial tears to the labrum and rotator cuff in his right shoulder. The right-hander made one rehabilitation appearance on September 6 for the Twins Single-A Fort Myers affiliate, tossing 1.0 scoreless frame.

Selected by the San Francisco Giants in the first round (21st overall) of the 2000 First-Year Player Draft, Bonser has made 96 Major League appearances (60 starts) over parts of three seasons with the Twins (2006-08). He is 18-25 with a 5.12 ERA (223 ER/391.2 IP), compiling 317 strikeouts compared to 125 walks. Bonser made one start for Minnesota during the 2006 Division Series vs. Oakland, throwing 6.0 innings of two-run ball in a no-decision.