Pedroia, Ellsbury should be Sox’ untouchables [Boston Herald]

In today’s Boston Herald, Steve Buckley writes about who he thinks Theo Epstein should hold onto if trading for Johan Santana from the Minnesota Twins. He would like the Boston Red Sox to keep Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury.

To make this trade happen, I would sadly part with Lester, who will always be an inspiration to us all. I would part with Buchholz, who very likely will emerge as a top pitcher down the road. As for some other very talented kids in the system – Brandon Moss and Justin Masterson, to name a couple – they, too, could be used in a deal for Santana.

Honestly, I think the Red Sox would be crazy to include Buchholz as well. Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield are nearing the end of their careers and the Sox will need to replace them in the rotation. That is if Buchholz makes the rotation this year.

Right now the Red Sox have 6 pitchers for a 5-man rotation. If you picked up Santana for either Lester or Buchholz, you have your 5-man rotation for this year but not years to come. Both Lester and Buchholz have proved that they can pitch in the big leagues so you need to hold on to one of the two.

Remember one thing folks. The Red Sox can also dangle Coco Crisp out there.

Thanks Mike Lowell [38 Pitches]

ABC Gets Creative, Has Eric Cartman Intro The Buffs Starting Lineups [Awful Announcing]

I’M THANKFUL FOR MIAMI HEAT DANCERS [You Been Blinded]

Groundbreaking study finds college students drink a lot on football game days [We Are the Postmen]

JOSH BECKETT: YOU ARE DEAD TO ME [Center Field]

Zack Thomas Cranks Soulja Boy, Induces Laughter [The Big Lead]

“Someone needs to tell the turkey, man, just be yourself.” [Ladies…]

I Want You, Tom. I Want You NOW [Kissing Suzy Kolber]

Separated at Birth #6 [Gridiron Goddess]

Top Ten Tuesdays (A Day Late, Many Dollars Short): Boooooomer [Yankees Chick]

The Over-Statisticalization of Baseball (if that’s a word) [Home Run Derby]

After tying Ty Detmer’s NCAA record with 121 career touchdown passes in a game against Fresno State two weeks ago, Hawai’i QB Colt Brennan finally passed him as his touchdown pass in the 1st quarter against Boise State gave him 122 career touchdown passes.

Brennan played two snaps in last week’s 28-26 win over Nevada due to a concussion suffered in the Fresno State game.

He finished tonight’s game with 5 touchdown passes and now has 126 in his career. He also threw for 495 yards and he rushed for 1 touchdown as the Warriors beat Boise State 39-26 for their first outright WAC Championship.

Tina Charles led four UConn Huskies in double figures with 15 points as the Huskies overcame a slow start to beat the Old Dominion Lady Monarchs 86-43 in the Paradise Jam at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas.

Charles also added 8 rebounds. Renee Montgomery added 12 points, Kalana Greene had 10 points and freshman sensation Maya Moore rounded the Huskies in double figures with 10 points as well. Senior co-captain Mel Thomas just missed making it 5 Huskies in double figures with 9 points.

T.J. Jordan led the Lady Monarchs (4-1) with 13 points while Shahida Williams added 9 points and 6 rebounds.

If you saw the game, you wouldn’t have thought the final margin was 43 points. Both teams struggled out of the gate and had trouble getting into their offenses. Old Dominion actually was playing a lot better than UConn but they couldn’t pull away. UConn was down by a point at 14-13 before they went on a 9-0 run to go up by 8 points. The Lady Monarchs scored the next 5 points before UConn closed out the first half on a 15-1 run, led by 8 points from Charles, to go into the locker room up by 17 at 37-20.

For the second night in a row, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma lit a fire under his Huskies as they came out firing on all cylinders. A 9-0 run put the Huskies up 48-24. The Huskies continued to pull away as Auriemma emptied out his bench in latter part of the second half.

UConn (4-0) will enjoy a day off on Saturday and then will play in the championship game on Sunday where they will face Brittany Hunter’s old school, the Duke Blue Devils at 8:30 PM. The game will be televised on CPTV here in Huskyland.

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The Boston Celtics won their second game in a row and 10^th in 11 tries as they beat the Los Angeles Lakers 107-94 at the sold out TD BankNorth Garden in Boston on Friday night.

Kevin Garnett had, yep you guessed it, a double-double with 21 points and a game high 11 boards, Kendrick Perkins also had 21 points and added 9 rebounds for the Celtics. Paul Pierce had 20 points, Ray Allen had 18 points and James Posey had 10 points as 5 members of the Green were in double figures.

Kobe Bryant had a game high 28 points and Vladimir Radmanovich had 18 points while the man who should have gone to UConn, Andrew Bynum led the Lakers with 9 rebounds.

With the loss the Lakers are now 7-5 on the season.

The Celtics left after the game for Charlotte where they will face former Husky Emeka Okafor and the Bobcats on the back half of a back-to-back. It’s the start of a two-game road trip that also will take them to Cleveland to play Lebron James and the defending Eastern Conference champion Cavaliers.

Actor’s Donnie Wahlberg and Robert Wuhl, Patriots wide receiver Troy Brown as well as actress Ellen Pompeo and her new husband, music producer Chris Ivery were all at the game tonight.

Want to try your hand at NBA gambling? It can be a lot of fun to place bets with friends, but if you want to have some fun in other sports why not try your luck with Cheltenham betting. Or perhaps checking the grand national runners is more your speed. Just be sure it’s betting for fun!

With the Minnesota Twins saying F you to Johan Santana by offering him a 4-year $80 million extension and Santana wanting at least a 6-year extension, you can expect many teams to get in on the bidding for his services. My initial guesses of teams that will be interested in him are in no particular order, the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and maybe the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Basically, the best offer to the Twins is going to get Santana. The Yankees and Red Sox have the best pieces to offer as far as major league ready talent, which of course the Twins are going to want.

The Twins would probably want Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz for Santana. That’s something as a Red Sox fan, you don’t want to happen. The Red Sox do have Coco Crisp they can dangle out there to the Twins as well, especially with Torii Hunter bolting out of Minneapolis faster than stripper grabbing a dollar bill from you. Now if I was Theo Epstein, I would offer the Twins,  Lester, Crisp, and two prospects. The Sox do have some good young talent in the minors in Justin Masterson, Jed Lowrie, Craig Hansen and Michael Bowden.

The Yankees have a plethora of young arms in Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy and Phillip Hughes they can give up for Santana although I’d think the Twins would also want either Robinson Cano or Melky Cabrera to be included.

Two things are going to happen here. The Red Sox don’t want Santana going to the Yankees so they are going to do their best to let that from happening. The Yankees will do the same. So either Santana ends up with one of these teams or another team woes the Twins with an offer better than the Red Sox and Yankees can offer. The Twins won’t wait to move Santana when he might be at his highest value right now. If they don’t trade him, they run the risk of losing him without any compensation other than a draft pick at the end of the 2008 season.

Since I am equal opportunity here, if you were Theo or Yankees GM Brian Cashman, what would you give up for Santana, if anything at all.

Major League pitcher Joe Kennedy has passed away today at the age of 28 at his in-laws home in Florida. The cause of death is not known at this time.

Kennedy had spent the 2007 season with the Oakland A’s, Toronto Blue Jays and Arizona Diamondbacks. He was a free agent this winter. He has also pitched for the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays and Colorado Rockies in his 7 season career.

He made his debut for the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays on May 6, 2001.

My condolences go out to his family and friends.

Update: His agent Damon Lupa released a brief statement:

“The cause of death is unknown at this time,” Lapa said. “The best guess at this point is either a heart attack or a brain aneurysm. The way he died was sudden. There is no reasonable explanation for what happened.”

Were you out shopping this morning for the perfect gift for the Red Sox fan in your life? And did you have trouble finding anything because you were fighting the Black Friday crowds? Well if you haven’t found anything you like, you need to check out these offers.

The A&E Store has the 2007 Boston Red Sox World Series DVD Collection for on sale for just $53.99 until November 26th. They also have the 2004 & 2007 Boston Red Sox World Series DVD Collection on sale for $109.97. And you can also get $1 shipping on all orders over $25.

To get to the offers click on the A&E picture below.

This Week

The New England Patriots host the Philadelphia Eagles at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA. Kickoff is at 8:15 p.m. for the nationally televised Sunday night contest.

The Patriots are 4-0 at home this season and 2-0 against the NFC. The Eagles are 3-2 on the road and 2-0 against the AFC in 2007.

Here are the rosters for the Eagles and the Patriots.

The Line/Prediction

As of Thursday the line on the game from Yahoo Sports is Patriots -22. The over/under is 50. It is the third largest point spread in the NFL since 1976.

My prediction is Patriots 45, Eagles, 21. Give the points and take the over. I am 9-1 against the spread and have called the over/under eight out of ten times in 2007.

Tickets

The Patriots are reporting the game as a sell out.

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 American Weather Service.

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.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

NBC is televising the game, it is the national Sunday Night Football Game. The play-by-play duties will be handled by Al Michaels with John Madden doing game analysis. The entire country gets the game.

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 and Andy Gresch and the pregame show at 5 p.m. along the network.

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

Check this out for the low down on the Patriots Rock Radio Network and stations in your area.

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 126, the Eagles radio call is available on Channel 122.

The game will also be broadcast nationally by Westwood One. Dave Sims and BobTrumpy will call the game. Find a Westwood One station near you.

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After having won their first two games by a combined 118 points, the UConn women’s basketball team faced their first real test of the season against the Stanford Cardinal in the Paradise Jam at the University of the Virgin Islands.

The Huskies didn’t disappoint their faithful that made the trip with them to St. Thomas as they beat Stanford 66-54 behind Maya Moore’s 19 points and 12 rebounds. It was Moore’s third straight game in double figures and she had her second double-double of the season.

Kalana Greene added 18 points for the Huskies (3-0) and Tina Charles had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Preseason All-American Candice Wiggins led Stanford (3-1) with 15 points while Jayne Appel added 13 points and 8 boards.

UConn led this one from start to finish as they controlled the tempo of the game early as they got out to a 9-0 lead. UConn would eventually increase their lead to 22-8 before the Cardinal would battle back to the UConn lead to 31-22 at halftime.

Whatever UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said to his troops at halftime worked as the Huskies looked a little more inspired in the second half. Moore led the Huskies with 12 points during a 23-6 second half run giving the Huskies 26 point lead at 60-34. The Cardinal would battle back though with a 16-2 run to cut the lead to 12 points. The Cardinal would not get any closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

UConn will be right back on the court tomorrow at 8:30 PM on CPTV when they take on the Old Dominion Lady Monarchs.

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