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

Alex Rodriguez said that his talks with the Yankees are “in the bottom of the fifth inning.” Hopefully for A-Rod, the metaphor takes place in a regular season game. If the Yankees do sign the ten-year deal, it’s mainly so they don’t have to speak to Scott Boras for the next decade.

The University of Alabama is looking into acquiring a live elephant for its football game day festivities. Unfortunately, John Daly was booked.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr resigned after losing to Ohio State, calling it his most embarrassing loss of the last few months. Rumor has Carr going to Notre Dame next season. To play quarterback.

Ryan Leaf has surfaced as the quarterbacks coach for Division II’s number four ranked West Texas State. Leaf has taught his team how to throw a spiral, throw a tantrum, and throw in the towel.

Mike Tyson has served a 24-hour jail sentence, where he was forced to eat prison food instead of Lennox Lewis’ children.

New York Knicks radio announcer Gus Johnson was criticized for clapping every time New York scored a basket. Johnson later apologized for being a Knicks fan. The good news for the Knicks is that they got Stephon Marbury back. The bad news, of course, is that they got Stephon Marbury back.

And undefeated North Carolina won its fifth NCAA title in women’s field hockey. When asked what she’ll do next, the team MVP said, “I’m going to Lilith Fair.”

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

As you would expect, the links for Red Sox news are thin like my waist line before eating a turkey dinner. Although today, I probably won’t be having a turkey dinner since I had it last night. Not much coming out of the Red Sox yesterday other than Daisuke Matsuzaka is back in Japan for a little while and he held an impromptu press conference, answering a few questions. You can see the transcript in the first link.

‘Not up to my standards’ [Boston Globe]

Santana: No sticker shock [Boston Herald]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, and Hartford Courant websites.

The Torii Hunter sweepstakes is over.

After trading Orlando Cabrera to the Chicago White Sox for Jon Garland, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have made another big splash in the news. The Angels and Hunter have agreed on a 5-year $80 90 million deal. The deal came to fruition over the past 24 hours.

Oddly enough, the Angels signed a center fielder last year in Gary Matthews, Jr. It is expected that Matthews will move over to left field sending Reggie Willits to the bench and making Garrett Anderson the DH.

The signing gives the Angels someone to protect Vlad Guerrero in the lineup. Hunter will probably bat third in front of Guerrero in the upcoming season.

Ok so it was only a one-game skid. But between the Celtics, the Red Sox and the Patriots there hasn’t been much losing around these parts lately. The Celtics snapped the skid against last seasons playoff darling, the Golden State Warriors, with a 105-82 win in front of 18,624 at the TD BankNorth Garden on Wednesday night.

The Green were led by former UConn product Ray Allen who had 21 points, while Kevin Garnett and captain Paul Pierce each registered double-doubles. Garnett had 20 points and 10 boards, while Pierce had 19 and 10 as Boston improved to 9-1 on the season.

The Warriors, who were playing on the back end of a back-to-back, were led by reserve gaurd Monta Ellis who had 21 points and Stephen Jackson who had 15 points as Golden State had their 3-game win streak snapped.

Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz was at the game tonight.

The Celtics play the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night at the TD BankNorth Garden.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. And a happy 10th birthday to AJ, the family chocolate lab.

I apologize for the lack of posts today. My parents dog is sick and of course they are in Hawaii on vacation so I’ve had to drive up to the kennel to pick him up. The vet is seeing us at 5:30 PM and it doesn’t appear that he’s too seriously sick. Maybe just some type of UTI or something.

I won’t be doing our show tonight because of this but head over to mybaseballbias.com to check with Jason on the status of tonight’s show. We had planned to do a show tonight but I can’t be too sure now.

No more covering your heads folks, Mike Lowell put his John Hancock on the contract and he’s back for the next three years. As we all know by now, Lowell did accept less money to come back to Boston and we couldn’t be any happier.

The Red Sox made some roster moves yesterday as they had to set their 40-man roster in preparation for the upcoming Rule 5 draft in December. They added Chris Carter and Argenis Diaz to the 40-man, actually bringing the total to 37 players.

With the two big free agents re-signed, the Red Sox will now start working on an extension with Terry Francona.

In Red Sox free agent news, the Sox have offered Mike Timlin a one-year deal, although it’s not known if it was a minor or major league deal. The Sox are also talking to the agents of Bobby Kielty and Doug Mirabelli.

Curt Schilling is doing something pretty cool over at his blog. He’s letting Red Sox Nation say thanks to Mike Lowell. When it’s run it’ course, he will forward it over to Lowell.

Thanks Mike Lowell [38 Pitches]

Less was more for Lowell [Boston Globe]

Lowell safe at home [Boston Herald]

Lowell’s decision trumpeted by all [Pro Jo]

Sox aiming to extend Francona [redsox.com]

Red Sox 40-man roster [redsox.com]

If the video isn’t showing, click here to watch.

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, and Hartford Courant websites.

Don’t get stuck with lame baseball tickets this season. Make sure to find the Red Sox tickets you’ve always wanted and be able to afford tickets for your friends! Don’t forget about the great concert tickets that are also available. Get your tickets soon!

Home games are in BOLD. All times are Eastern.

Spring Training Schedule

Home games are in BOLD. All times are Eastern.

Today is the 25th Anniversary of “The Play” that happened in a football game between the Stanford Cardinal and Cal Golden Bears. If you’ve seen ESPN, you’ve seen the highlight of this play so many times but probably didn’t know when it happened.

Here’s a video look back at “The Play” with some interviews of the players involved.

Facing the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs for the second time in six nights, one could have thought the UConn Huskies might have a letdown after their loss to Memphis. Tonight was exactly the opposite as Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet dominated inside with double-doubles as the Huskies beat the Runnin’ Bulldogs 89-72 at the Hartford Civic Center on Tuesday night.

Adrien had 24 points and 14 rebounds while Thabeet had 22 points and 14 rebounds. The scoring totals for both were career-highs while Thabeet’s 14 boards were also a career high. Jerome Dyson rounded out the Huskies in double figures with 10 points. Stanley Robinson just missed a double-double himself with 9 points and 10 rebounds.

Gardner-Webb (4-3) was led by Nate Blank’s game-high 25 points, which included 6 three-pointers. Thomas Sanders had a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Runnin’ Bulldogs. Gardner-Webb star Grayson Flittner only had 4 points.

The Huskies trailed 3-2 but would never trail again. With the score at 9-7, UConn (4-1)went on a 10-0 run to go up 19-7 while the Runnin’ Bulldogs decided that the 3-point shots were the way to go. In the first 12 minutes, Gardner-Webb was 3 of 16 from 3-point land.

UConn started off the second half on a 16-7 run and the Runnin’ Bulldogs would never recover.

UConn is now off until Monday when they will face Florida A&M at the Hartford Civic Center at 7 PM.

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