MLB.com held it’s annual This Year in Baseball Awards and recently announced all the winners. As we know, Josh Beckett, Jonathan Papelbon, Hideki Okajima, and Clay Buchholz all have garnered honors so far.

The Red Sox won another two awards as the MLB.com announced it’s final winners. A Manny Ramirez foul ball off a NESN camera in left field was voted Blooper of the Year.

The final award the Red Sox won was Postseason Moment of the Year as J.D. Drew’s grand slam in Game 6 of the ALCS that got the Red Sox started on their way to an 11-2 win to force a Game 7.

If you would like to see all the winners, head over to MLB.com.

So what are you doing tonight (Saturday morning) at 1:08 a.m. (eastern time)?  Are you interested in world peace?

Well then do I have the event for you and best thing is you can pretty much attend no matter where you are but you will need to be careful or else you could end up like this woman.

It’s the second annual Global Orgasm for Peace.  They want everyone in the world to get off at the same time and they even have a time converter so you can figure out what your local time is for the event.  As you can see I couldn’t wait and did the eastern time zone conversion. 

For some us 1:08 a.m. will be no different than at any other point in our day but hey I’m all for seizing the moment and helping jerk one out for peace unless I can locate a female participant than we can achieve peace together.

This Week

The New England Patriots host their AFC East rival Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium on Sunday at 4:15 p.m.  This is the final game of a three game homestand for New England.  It is the final home game of the regular season.

The Patriots beat the Dolphins in Week 7 in Miami, 49-28.   In that game Tom Brady threw six TD passes including two leaping TD passes to a double covered Randy Moss.

The Patriots are 7-0 at the Razor this season, 5-0 against the AFC East and 11-0 in the AFC. The Dolphins are 0-7 on the road, 0-5 against the AFC East and 1-9 in the AFC.

Here are the rosters for the Dolphins and Patriots.

The Line/Prediction

As of Thursday the line on the game from Yahoo Sports is Patriots -22.  The over/under is 45.

My prediction is Patriots 42, Dolphins, 14 . Give the points and take the over. I am 9-5 against the spread and have called the over/under eleven out of fourteen times in 2007.

Tickets

The Patriots are reporting the game as a sell out.  It is the 147th consecutive sellout dating back to the 1994 season opener.  The record includes preseason, regular season and playoff games.

Tickets to the game, if available, may be purchased through Ticketmaster. You can check the availability here. Many times tickets are released in the last 48 hours prior to the game.

Getting To The Game

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from The Weather Channel.

Click for stadium directions, parking information, parking map, specific MBTA train times for this game and a Gillette Stadium seating chart.

Tailgating

Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgaiting America. There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack. I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good and for good measure here is one of my own.

And with tailgating many people enjoy some adult beverages.  With that in mind check out Drink Nation for how to make all sorts of great drinks.  You can look things up by name, ingredient(s) or by theme. 

Whether it’s at the game, a bar or someone’s house moderation is always the key to a great time.  Please don’t drink and drive and designate a sober driver.  Remember You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

CBS is televising the game to most of the nation and the play-by-play duties will be handled by Jim Nantz with Phil Simms doing game analysis. You can check here to see if you are getting the game from CBS and look for your local CBS Station.

Radio

The Patriots Rock Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriot Gino Cappelletti does the color.

It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak, Pete Brock and Andy Gresh and the pregame show at 1 p.m. along the network.

The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.

If you are outside of the broadcast area of the stations on the Patriots Rock Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass which allows you to listen to any NFL game live. You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.

All NFL games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio. The Patriots radio call is available on Channel 120, the Dolphins radio call is available on Channel 119.

The game can be heard nationally on Westwood One. Bill Rosinski and Dan Reeves will call the game.

Continue reading →

Written by Steve Hofstetter, Keith Alberstadt, Adam Hofstetter, Cody Marley, Ryan Murphy, Elliot Steingart, and Chris Strait 

The New York Knicks paid Anucha Browne Sanders $11.5 million to settle her lawsuit. Makes sense – the Knicks paying millions to someone who can’t play basketball.

Wayne Huzienga says he’d be willing to sell the Dolphins, or trade them for a pro football team.

The 2012 U.S. Olympic track and field trials will be held in Eugene. A somewhat frazzled Eugene could not be reached for comment.

Alex Rodriguez said that he and agent Scott Boras are not speaking to each other. It may last the whole season, but A-Rod plans to cave in October.

Roger Clemens has denied he used steroids and said he’d love to meet his accuser face to oversized face.

In 2009, George Steinbrenner High School opens in Tampa and for the first time, Steinbrenner will be associated with the grossly underpaid. The school principal has already been fired four times.

Manny Ramirez’s game-used do-rags are available for $26 on eBay. That’s a bargain, considering the current price of oil.

And the New York Mets will raise ticket prices about 20% for next season. The Mets will use the extra cash to pay for all the steroids and losing. Thankfully, ticket prices will decrease by 7% over the last 17 games of the season.

For more of the Sports Minute (Or So), visit minuteorso.com

Just 4 months and 8 days after passing 200,000 visitors, SOX & Dawgs just had it’s 300,000th visitor to the site. A big thanks from me and Steve to everyone who has stopped by and look forward to you returning again.

After retiring at the end of the 2006 season, Gabe Kapler took on a new endeavor in his baseball career, minor league manager. He was hired by the Boston Red Sox to be the manager of the Greenville Drive, their Single-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League.

He led the Drive to just a 58-81 record last season but while managing the club and the organization’s younger players, he found that he still had the passion to play the game. At the end of the season, he informed the Boston Red Sox that he would like to resume his playing career and announced he was making a comeback.

Today, the comeback started for Kapler as Milwaukee Brewers general manager Bob Melvin announced that he had signed Kapler to a one-year deal.

“Gabe brings versatility and athleticism to the outfield position. He has always been a great teammate and possesses the determination to bounce back and become a valuable player to our club.”

It’s very surprising that the Brewers gave him a major league deal after taking a year off and they now have to place him on their 40-man roster, meaning a younger player could be lost via waivers.

Are you curious to know what your favorite college football team will receive as gifts for playing in a bowl game this year. The NCAA allows the bowls to give the players gifts who total value cannot be more than $500.

Three bowls were able to snag the Nintendo Wii (Pacific Life Holiday, Alamo, and the BCS Championship game). Others will receive IPod Nano’s or Touch’s, Oakley sunglasses, XBOX and clothes.

A full look at what your favorite college team will receive after the jump.

Continue reading →

Don’t forget to enter the 2nd annual SOX & Dawgs College Football Bowl Pick’em Contest.

https://soxanddawgs.com/?p=2948

A look at the college basketball rankings for the men and women after the jump.

Continue reading →

This article came out on the 16th and for some reason, I just came across it so I thought I’d share it with everyone here.

Remember the old excuse, “the dog ate my homework”. Well Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon’s dog, a Boston Terrier, ate the final out ball from the 2007 World Series.

“My dog ate it,” said Papelbon, who has a home in the Canebrake subdivision.

“He plays with baseballs like they are his toys. His name is Boss. He jumped up one day on the counter and snatched it. He likes rawhide. He tore that thing to pieces. Nobody knows that. I’ll keep what’s left of it.”