A big congratulations goes out to Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin on the birth of their daughter, Sam Alexis Woods.

“Both Elin and Sam are doing well and resting peacefully,” Woods wrote. “We want to thank our doctors and the hospital staff for all their dedicated and hard work. This is truly a special time in our lives and we look forward to introducing Sam to our family and friends over the next few weeks. We thank everyone for their well wishes and continued respect of our privacy.”

The birth comes less than 24 hours after Tiger finished second at the US Open at Oakmont. No word on whether she was born with a driver in her hand.

In all seriousness, I wish them all the best and the best of health for Sam Alexis.

For those of you heading to the Insurance City Open Sammy Davis, Jr Greater Hartford Open Canon Greater Hartford Open Greater Hartford Open Buick Championship Travelers Championship, you won’t be seeing Phil Mickelson this week.

Lefty was told not to have any golf related activities for the next few weeks while his injured left wrist heals. Phil’s last event was the US Open at Oakmont where he failed to make the cut after making it in his past 30 majors.

Lefty usually plays well at the TPC at River Highlands Course in Cromwell. He last won there in 2002, having defended his championship from 2001.

Connecticut native J.J. Henry will be back to defend his title.

To see the full field, click here. President David Palmer will be one of the big name celebrities playing in the Pro-Am as well on Wednesday.

It’s come down to this, folks. Eight finalists in the Rookie Card Playoffs… only one will emerge the glorious victor.Does Rondell White’s seductive 1991 card fuel your passion for baseball? Terry Francona’s bird lips are absolutely priceless in his 1982 card. Greg Maddux’s 1987 porn ‘stache is a force to be reckoned with while Jason Giambi bears a striking resemblance to Billy Corgan in his 1991 Topps.Joe Mauer didn’t quite have his man muscles yet in 2002 and Big Papi has gained the weight of a 12-year-old boy since 1997. Mariano’s 1992 pressed dockers sure are slick, but will Manny’s ’92 nature photo prevail?

It’s all you guys. Voting for the Final Round ends on Friday and as always, you can vote either here or you can visit my lovely and talented co-host Sooze over at Babes Love Baseball.

With this glove, Manny will never miss another ball.

While I was listening to WEEI’s Baseball Show on Sunday a caller was talking about Dwight Evans and how come he isn’t a Hall of Famer. So I decided to take a look at some statistics and see how they support it.

When you go to the baseballreference.com and look up Dwight Evans one of the things they give you is the pages for similar hitters and for players who were comparable at the same age. With Evans being a rightfielder I compared him to outfielder’s, mostly right fielder’s, who are Hall members.

Dwight Evans:
20 years, 2606 G, 8996 AB, 1470 R, 2446 H, 483 2B, 73 3B, 385 HR, 1384 RBI, 1391 BB, 1697 K, .272 BA, .370 OBP, .470 SLG, averaged 24 HR, 86 RBI, 3 All-Star games, 8 Gold Gloves. 157 A, 59 E, .987 FLD as an OF.

The players we will look at when comparing Dwight will be:

Al Kaline:
22 years, 2834 G, 10116 AB, 1622 R, 3007 H, 498 2B, 75 3B, 399 HR,
1583 RBI, 1277 BB, 1020 K, .297 BA, .376 OBP, .480 SLG, averaged 23 HR, 90 RBI,
15 All-Star games, 10 Gold Gloves, 1 Batting Title. 170 A, 73 E, .986 FLD as an OF.

Billy Williams:
18 years, 2488 G, 9350 AB, 1410 R, 2711 H, 434 2B, 88 3B, 426 HR, 1475 RBI, 1045 BB, 1046 K, .290 BA, .361 OBP, .492 SLG, averaged 28 HR, 96 RBI, 6 All-Star games, 0 Gold Gloves, 1 Batting Title. 143 A, 101 E,
.973 FLD as an OF.

Carl Yastrzemski:
23 years, 3308 G, 11988 AB, 1816 R, 3419 H, 646 2B, 59 3B, 452 HR,
1844 RBI, 1845 BB, 1393 K, .285 BA, .379 OBP, .462 SLG, averaged 22 HR, 90 RBI, 18 All-star games, 7 Gold Gloves, 1 MVP, 1 Triple Crown, Batting Titles. 195 A, 82 E, .981 FLD as an OF.

Dave Winfield:
22 years, 2973 G, 11003 AB, 1669 R, 3110 H, 540 2B, 88 3B, 465 HR,
1833 RBI, 1216 BB, 1686 K, .283 BA, .353 OBP, .475 SLG, averaged 25 HR, 100 RBI, 12 All-Star teams, 7 Gold Gloves. 166 A, 95 E, .982 FLD as an OF.

Reggie Jackson:
21 years, 2820 G, 9864 AB, 1551 R, 2584 H, 463 2B, 49 3B, 563 HR, 1702 RBI, 1375 BB, 2597 K, .262 BA, .356 OBP, .490 SLG, averaged 32 HR, 98 RBI, 14 All-Star games, 1 MVP, 2 WS MVPs. 133 A, 142 E, .976 FLD as an OF.

Roberto Clemente:
18 years, 2433 G, 9454 AB, 1416 R, 3000 H, 440 2B, 166 3B, 240 HR,
1305 RBI, 621 BB, 1230 K, .317 BA, .359 OBP, .475 SLG, averaged 16 HR,
87 RBI, 12 All-Star teams, 1 MVP, 1 WS MVP, 12 Gold Gloves, 4 Batting Titles. 266 A, 140 E, .973 FLD as an OF.

As you can see Dwight’s numbers stand up pretty damn well. The player he was most compared to during his career, especially in the 1980’s, was Dave Winfield. Winfield played a few more years but in the 1980’s he and Evans were neck and neck stats wise. Evans also had more extra base hits in the 80’s than any other player in the decade. More than Winfield, Andre Dawson, Jack Clark, Dale Murphy or any of the other feared power guys that pop into your mind.

When compared to the Hall of Famers above he more than holds his own. He is only lacking in All-Star game appearances and he never won a batting title or a MVP. Defensively he is stacked against two of the best right fielders of all time, Kaline and Clemente. When you look at his numbers they are better than the Hall members for fielding percentage as an outfielder and he had by far the fewest amount of errors while playing in one of the toughest right fields in all of baseball.

My opinion is that Dwight Evans deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and the fact that one-year he got only six votes is a joke. The voters get all tangled up in where the numbers stand all-time when in fact they need to select Hall of Fame members based on how they performed within the era in which they played. They need to be compared to the players the played against or players who played at nearly the same time and not some ghost who came 50, 60 or 75 years before them.

Manny Ramirez drove in 3 runs on 2 hits, including his 2nd homer in as many days, as the Red Sox went on to sweep Barry Bonds’ Giants team by the score of 9-5. The Sox bullpen was pretty good not giving up any runs in 3 2/3 innings as they held the lead for Tim Wakefield’s 7th win of the season.

Dave Roberts led off the first inning again for the Giants and received his third hero’s welcome in 3 days. This time he didn’t get on base as he flew out to Manny in left. Wake then got Randy Winn and Ray Durham to ground out to end the inning.

Matt Morris, considered by many to be the ace of the Giants staff, had rough first inning and day overall. J.D. Drew led off the inning with a double to centerfield and Dustin Pedroia reached when he was hit in the lower back by a Morris fastball. Big Papi drew a walk to load up the bases for Manny. Manny got a run home as he grounded into a 6-4-3 double play with Pedroia advancing to third. Kevin Youkilis brought home Pedroia with a single giving the Sox a 2-0 lead. Mike Lowell flew out to close out the inning.

Wake allowed a single to Bonds in the second inning but that’s all the Giants could muster. His counterpart meanwhile struck out the three Sox batters he faced.

The Giants managed to get both runs back in their half of the third inning. Nate Schierholtz led off with a cueball shot that stayed fair down the third base line. He came around to score on a Omar Vizquel double to the gap in center. With Wake not paying much attention to him, Vizquel stole third while Roberts was at the plate. Roberts struck out looking but Winn hit a ball to pretty much the same spot as Vizquel, scoring Vizquel and tying the game at 2. Bonds ended the threat by flying to Wily Mo Peña in center.

Not to be outdone, the Sox broke the game open with 5 runs of their own in their half of the 3rd.

Drew led off the inning with a walk and went to second on a Pedroia infield single. Big Papi brought in the first run of the inning with a ground rule double to right. Pedroia, who had scored as well, had to return to third because of the ground rule double. Manny brought right back to the plate though with a groundout to second. Big Papi moved over to third as well. Youk brought Papi home with a single for his 2nd RBI of the day. Lowell then crushed a double that scored Youk all the way from first to put the Sox up 6-2. Wily Mo lined out but Doug Mirabelli brought Lowell home with a single, making it 7-2 Red Sox. Lugo, mired in a deep slump, ended the inning by grounding out to Vizquel.

With out 2 outs in the 4th, Pedro Feliz crushed a Wakefield offering over the Green Monster to get the Giants back within 4 runs. The Sox got that run back in their half of the 4th inning on back-to-back doubles by Big Papi and Manny.

Morris was pulled after 4 innings and his numbers weren’t all that good. He went 4 innings, giving up 9 hits, 8 runs, walked 2 and struck out 3 on 92 pitches.

Bonds finally went deep against the Red Sox and his former Pirates teammate Wakefield in the 6th inning. His 748th homer cut the Sox lead to 8-4. After Bengie Molina grounded out, Ryan Klesko worked a walk. Klesko was retired at second base when Feliz grounded into a fielder’s choice. Schierholtz chased Wake from the game with a triple that scored Feliz, cutting the lead to 8-5. Manny Delcarmen, just up from Pawtucket for an injured Brendan Donnelly, came in and got Vizquel to ground out.

Delcarmen had a rough 7th inning though as he walked Roberts and Winn to lead off the inning. He did get Durham to ground out to Youk at first but both runners advanced a base. This left Terry Francona with a huge decision to make. To pitch to Bonds or not. He decided to bring Javier Lopez to pitch to him. Lopez ended up walking Bonds on four pitches to load up the bases. Joel Piñero came in for Lopez and needed only one pitch to get Molina to ground into an inning ending double play.

Manny decided a 3 run lead wasn’t safe enough for the Red Sox. After Jonathan Sanchez got Big Papi to strikeout, Manny crushed one into the Monster seats, giving the Sox a 9-5 lead. A lead that would hold up until the end of the game.

Piñero had an easy 8th inning but Vizquel led off the 9th with a single to chase him. Hideki “Darkman” Okajima came in and got all three batters he faced to give the Sox their third victory in a row.

With the win, the Sox will have no worse than an 8 1/2 game lead in the AL East, as the Yanks play the Mets tonight at 8 PM.

The Sox now head out on a 3 city, 9 game, 11 10 day road trip to Atlanta, San Diego and Seattle. Curt Schilling takes the hill for the Sox tomorrow night. Let’s hope this road trip is a good one.

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If you were watching Friday night’s Red Sox game, you noticed Brendan Donnelly warming up to come in the game. Then you saw Joel Piñero getting loose in a hurry. At about the sametime President Remy and Don Orsillo said exactly what I was thinking, “Did Donnelly get hurt warming up?”

So I woke up yesterday morning and shot off this email to Amalie Benjamin and Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe since I didn’t see any mention in the paper.

I didn’t hear anything back during the day yesterday nor did I expect too. I figured I was wrong and said if it was anything, we’d hear about it in the Sunday paper. I didn’t see anything again this morning so I figured it was nothing.

Well sure enough, Donnelly did end up straining his forearm on Friday while he was warming up during the game and was placed on the 15 day DL. Manny Delcarmen was called up to replace him on the roster.

Here is the video of the “fight” on Saturday between Chris Young of the Padres and Derrek Lee of the Cubs. Nothing too exciting. A few missed punches and the benches cleared.

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The beautiful ladies at Ladies… are doing a hot blogger contest. 2nd round results here and here. Yours truly isn’t entered.

Tim from The Red Sox Times found out Curt Schilling had a Facebook profile. Later We Are the Postman found out from Schilling himself, it wasn’t him. Tim also did some investigating himself.

Sooze from Babes Love Baseball wants to know where Jose Lima is.

Jay stopped by Peter’s Red Sox Forever and gave two more installments about the 1967 “Impossible Dream” team. You can see them here and here.

Go over to SportTech Matter and see if what J.D. has pictured is legal.

Kissing Suzy Kolber has a new look.

The Feed has a look at the many sides of Ichiro.

Yooooouuuuukkkkk finally wrote another entry in his blog.

Dan at Red Sox Monster has an open letter to Youk.

With Leather found some new Olympic sports that need to be added immediately.

And now for your favorite part of the salute. A look at Fitzy from the Townie News latest “Wicked Pissah” webcast. As always, it is NSFW (A note to my dad. It doesn’t mean not safe for women).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
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J.D. Drew and Dustin Pedroia were all the offense the Red Sox needed as Julian Tavarez cruised to a 10-2 win with seven solid innings at Fenway Park. Drew had 3 hits, scored 3 times and drove in 3 runs while Pedroia had five hits, including a 2 run homerun, 3 singles, a double, scored two runs and had 5 RBI. The 1-2 punch had all the Boston hits except one as they finished 8 for 9 with 8 RBI and a hit bats man during the Friday night romp over the San Francisco Giants, who came with their own three ring circus known as Barry Bonds.

What a start to the tonight’s game. First, Dave Roberts gets a great ovation from Red Sox fans then promptly singles to rightfield. After several throws to first by Tavarez and one by Jason Varitek the second hitter Mark Sweeney doubled into the right field corner to score Roberts. Randy Winn grounded out to Pedroia moving Sweeney to third and that brought up Bonds. Bonds, who was lustily booed in his first at bat, nearly hit homerun #748 just missing a two run shot down the rightfield line to the foul side of Pesky’s Pole. Bonds mildly questioned the call and that brought out Giants manager Bruce Bochy who also questioned the call to no avail. Bonds then popped out to Pedroia in shallow right. While pitching to Ray Durham with two out Tavarez uncorked a wild pitch allowing Sweeney to score from third. Durham would work a walk but would end up being stranded at first when Sox killer Benji Molina bounced out to Julio Lugo to end the inning.

Facing Barry Zito in the home half of the first the Sox refused to play dead. Drew got hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and then Pedroia followed with a two run homerun, his 3rd of the year, into the Monster Seats to tie the game at 2-2. David Ortiz then struck out on a disputed call on an inside fastball by Zito. On his way back to the dugout Ortiz flipped his bat and helmet onto the field near the dugout and was thrown out of the game by home plate umpire Tom Randazzo.

Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo made mention during the NESN telecast that Randazzo was just waiting for a reason to throw out Ortiz as he watched him all the way to the dugout. Manny Ramirez then flew out to Roberts in centerfield and Kevin Youkilis grounded out to future Hall of Famer Omar Vizquel to end the inning.

The second inning saw both pitchers settle down. Tavarez worked a 1-2-3 inning with a strike out of Nate Schierholtz sandwiched around a ground out by Pedro Feliz and an Omar Vizquel fly out. Zito settled in and got Mike Lowell on yet another questionable strike out, Jason Varitek grounded out to Feliz, Coco Crisp worked a two out walk but was then left on base when Lugo bounced out to third.

After setting down six in a row, Tavarez gave up a two out third inning double to Winn, Bonds was then given his 25th intentional pass on the season and the 609th of his career but Durham whiffed and threw his bat in frustration to end the threat.

The Sox put Zito on a ledge in the third when Drew and Pedroia had back to back singles to start the inning. Wily Mo Pena, now the DH in place of Ortiz, walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases with no one out. Ramirez then bounced to Feliz who got Pena on the force at second but they couldn’t turn the twin killing as Manny was safe at first, Pedroia moved to third and Drew scored giving the Red Sox a 3-2 lead. Youkilis then hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning and let Zito off the hook with only one run being scored.

An odd fourth inning led to another pair of Sox runs off of Zito. He walked Lowell to start the inning and then Varitek grounded out to Feliz who made a great pick on the ball. Durham then made a fantastic play up the middle on Crisp’s grounder that was ticketed for centerfield. Lugo worked a two out walk and then was picked off by Zito as he started early for second. Before Sweeney could throw to second, Lowell made a break for the plate allowing Lugo to swipe second. Sweeney held the ball too long in chasing Lowell back to third and he was able to sneak back into the bag ahead of the tag of Feliz. Drew then hit a bomb to dead centerfield over the head of Roberts to score Lowell and Lugo and make it 5-2 Sox. Pedroia then got his third hit of the night and third RBI when he singled to right to score Drew who beat Schierholtz throw and put the Sox up 6-2. Zito then struck out Pena to end the inning and leave Pedroia at second.

Meanwhile, “YoYo” had another streak of 6-in-a-row retired before Roberts hit a ground rule double into the rightfield seats with one out in the fifth. Fan caught the ball and fell head over heels. When they showed the balding man President Remy cracked that “he must have lost some hair in the fall”. Once they gained their composure in the booth, Commander Rem Dawg said he might need that security detail again on the way out tonight. Youkilis and Tavarez then teamed up on two nice back-to-back plays the first was a hot shot fielded by Youkilis who flipped to Tavarez covering for the out on Sweeney. The second was more bowling with Tavarez as Julian rolled the ball up the line to Youkilis to get Winn to end the inning.

Zito got through the fifth with his first 1-2-3 inning capping it with his fourth strike out this one on Lowell who whiffed for the second time on the night. Tavarez got Bonds to lead off the 6th by grounding out to Pedroia, Durham then singled to center and Molina singled to right to send Durham to third and bring pitching coach John Farrell to the mound. Tavarez then jammed Feliz and got him to pop out to Lugo for the second out. On the pitch it looked like Tavarez may have buckled his knee or turned an ankle but he stayed in and got Schierholtz to ground out to Youkilis to end the inning.

Zito worked into the 6th getting Varitek to strike out leading off, Crisp then reached on an error to Feliz and that chased Zito. Randy Messenger came in and Crisp stole second, he advanced to third when Lugo bounced out to Vizquel. Drew got his third hit and third RBI of the night when he singled to center to score Crisp. Pedroia followed with his fourth hit a single to right to send Drew to third but both were left on base when Pena bounced out to Vizquel.

Tavarez finished up with a 1-2-3 seventh he retired the last 5 hitters he faced. Hideki “Darkman” Okajima replaced him in the eighth and he gave up a harmless one out single to Bonds to right.

Crisp greeted Giants reliever Jack Taschner with a single to start the eighth. Prior to the single Taschner had retired his last 15 batters. Lugo then walked, Drew then flew out to deep center. Pedroia then followed with a gap double to left center to score Crisp and Lugo, it was his fifth hit on the night and his 4th and 5th RBI of the game as the Sox went up 9-2. Pena then grounded out to short to score Pedroia and it was 10-2. Taschner then walked Ramirez and Youkilis but got Lowell on a pop out to first to end the threat.

Joel Piniero worked a scoreless ninth to close the game out. The two teams meet Saturday afternoon at 3:55 p.m. the game will be on FOX as Matt Cain faces Daisuke Matsuzaka.

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