The Red Sox and Mike Lowell have finalized the 3-year $37.5 million deal that was agreed upon yesterday.

Lowell spoke with reporters during a conference call with Theo Epstein announcing the deal.

“The tough part was searching between four years from other teams and three years with the Red Sox,” he said. “But I cannot say that I’m upset with the situation.

“How can you be upset with the money that I’m going to be making in the next three years? And with the team that I believe is going to compete for a world title.”

“I feel the fans have embraced me and I feel like I have embraced the fan base of Boston since Day 1.”

This is the same Lowell that most of Red Sox Nation wanted to trade when he was acquired with Josh Beckett from the Florida Marlins in late 2005. The core of the team is back and that can only be a good thing for the Red Sox as they look to defend their 2007 World Series championship.

You can catch the whole teleconference by clicking here.

Nick Cafardo from the Boston Globe also said in a chat today that the Red Sox have offered Mike Timlin a one-year deal but he didn’t know if it was a minor league or major league deal.

Do you remember the old TV game show “Truth or Consequences“?   

On the show, people had to answer a trivia question correctly (usually an off-the-wall question that no one would be able to answer correctly) before the buzzer was sounded. If the contestant could not complete the “Truth” portion, there would be “Consequences,” usually a zany and embarrassing stunt.

Well now it seems Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is playing a similar game.  On Tuesday morning with during his weekly radio appearance with WEEI’s John Dennis and Gerry Callahan Brady spoke the truth and it seems other teams in the NFL are paying the consequences.

During the interview, the radio partners started in on Brady about running up the score and when he should be pulled from the game.  Brady did a pretty good job on stating his opinion on those questions but he offered up this nugget about a quarter of the way into the 26-minute interview.

“We’re trying to kill teams.  We’re trying to blow them out if we can”.

He also talked about how they want to intimidate teams, especially in Foxboro:

“You do want teams to be intimidated by playing here.  You want teams to come into your stadium and know that God I dont know how were gonna go up to Foxboro in January and win.  Thats the type of presence I think the team is are hoping for.   The only way we can do it is to continue the way we are playing.”

Finally an athlete who speaks the truth and every other team gets to pay for it.

If you’ve ever been to a Red Sox game, you’ve heard “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond played in the middle of the 8th inning over the Fenway sound system.

Well for over 40 years, Diamond has never spoken to anyone about who the inspiration for the song was. There had been rumors that is was about President John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline but those rumors were rebuffed. It turns out, those rumors were true.

Diamond was a “young, broke songwriter” when a photo of the president’s daughter in a news magazine caught his eye.

“It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony,” Diamond recalled. “It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there.”

“It was a No. 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration,” he said. “I’m happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy.”

The enduring hit recently reappeared on the singles chart, thanks in part to the Boston Red Sox. “Sweet Caroline” is played at every home game.

“I think they consider it good luck,” Diamond said, adding that the Red Sox have become his favorite baseball team.

So when you’re singing the song at the Fens, now you will know the inspiration for the song.

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Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins took home the National League MVP trophy over Colorado Rockies outfielder Matt Holliday in a very close vote. Rollins received 353 points beating out Holliday by 17 points.

Rollins became the first player in history to collect at least 200 hits, 25 homers, 15 triples and 25 steals in a season. Overall, the switch-hitter batted .296, with 38 doubles, 20 triples, 30 homers, 94 RBIs, 41 stolen bases, 212 hits and 139 runs scored.

Holliday was no slouch. Holliday batted .340, with 50 doubles, 36 homers, 137 RBIs, 216 hits and 120 runs scored. He also led the league in hitting, RBIs, hits, total bases, doubles and extra-base hits

Rollins Phillies’ teammate Ryan Howard won the award last year giving the Phillies back-to-back MVP’s. The last club to do this was the San Francisco Giants when Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds did it back in 2000 and 2001.

Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder, New York Mets third baseman David Wright and Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard rounded out the top 5.

For a complete look at the entire voting, continue reading after the jump

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It was truly a great day in Red Sox Nation yesterday as we found out that Mike Lowell will be returning to the Red Sox as he agreed to a 3-year $37.5 million deal. It seems as though the Phillies made a late attempt to secure Lowell with a 4-year $50 million deal. The original deal from the Red Sox was for $12 million a year so they bumped it to $12.5 million a year to be on par with the Phillies offer. Now the core of the Red Sox team from this year is back.

Expect Coco Crisp’s name to come up in trade rumors over the next few weeks leading up to the Baseball Winter Meetings in Nashville, TN from December 3rd to the 6th. With the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury, the Red Sox have an extra outfielder in Crisp, who via a trade could possibly bring them a bullpen arm or backup catcher should they decide not to re-sign Doug Mirabelli.

In other Sox free agent news, Matt Clement is drawing some interest from the Toronto Blue Jays. Other teams interested in him are the San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals and the Colorado Rockies.

So far, strong showing [Boston Globe]

3B agrees to stay for three years, $37.5 M [Boston Herald]

Pedroia is thrilled to have Lowell back [Pro Jo]

Haul of Fame [Boston Globe]

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

 

We start this edition of “In The Red Zone” with head coach Bill Belichick and the audio from his weekly radio appearance on WEEI in Boston.  Glenn Ordway, the host of “The Big Show” along with Pete Sheppard, Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie talk with the coach about the game in Buffalo and the next opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Tom Brady suprassed Steve Grogan as the franchise’s all-time leader in touchdown passes.  With the five he threw Sunday night against the Bills he now has 185 in career.  Grogan had 182.

The team also set a franchise record for most touchdowns in a season with 54 scores.  The scary part is that there are six games left, four of which are at home.

The Boston Globe ran a story on Sunday by Bob Hohler about Patriots running back Kyle Eckel entitled “Troubled Waters“.   The article deals with Eckel’s time playing football for the Naval Academy and his post-graduation expulsion from the Navy.  It isn’t a full out character assassination but it isn’t a flattering profile either.

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Starting on Thursday night the NFL Network will start its second season of broadcasting games with Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsworth on the call for the holiday game. From Thanksgiving until the end the season the NFLN will carry 8 games live in primetime on Thursdays and Saturdays.

The only problem with the NFLN is that some cable operators do not offer the network. While others have the network but it is only available to customers who subscribe to the digital channel tier or an all sports programming tier that cost extra each month.

And for rabid NFL fans and fans of the teams in the games the NFLN is covering this is a problem. Ever since ESPN got involved in carrying NFL games, first on Sundays and now on Mondays, those cable only broadcast games have been available to over the air (OTA) stations in the visiting and home teams (as long as the game was sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff) primary market.

Since most of the country receives ESPN on basic or expanded basic cable tiers this hasn’t been much of a problem unless you don’t subscribe to cable or a satellite service.

With the NFLN only being in 38 million homes in the U.S. those cable only broadcasts are also made available to OTA stations (your local network affiliates) in the primary markets of the visiting and home teams.

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Here is a look at how the former UConn players fared in last week’s NBA action. The look is a day late and I apologize for that.

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UConn’s freshman sensation Maya Moore may have to get a bigger dorm room by the end of this year.

On Monday afternoon, the Big East Conference announced it’s first weekly women’s basketball awards and Moore took home the Freshman of the Week award.

All Moore did was average 26 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4 steals and 2.5 blocks in UConn’s two wins and her first collegiate games last week. She had 21 in the season opener against Stony Brook and 31 against Holy Cross. She also shot 78.6% (22-28) from the floor.

Her double-double in the season opener was the first by a freshman since Ann Strother at the start of the 2002-2003 season. She is also the first UConn freshman to score 20 points in back-to-back games.

In a shocking final outcome, nobody voted for Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz garnered enough votes to win the 2007 AL MVP.

Sorry about that, I guess that was all a dream as ARod is in fact your 2007 AL MVP. The surprising part though is that it was not unanimous as the two writers from Detroit both put Magglio Ordonez first ahead of ARod.

The MVP award was ARod’s third, his second with the Yankees. He won it back in 2003 with the Rangers, and in 2005 with the Yankees. Having won it in the odd numbered years, ARod should win it again in 2009.

ARod had a monster year for the Yankees and is probably the main reason why they were able to rebound from their poor start. He hit .314 with 54 home runs and 156 RBIs and 143 runs scored.

ARod finished with 328 points. Ordonez was second with 258 points, Vladimir Guerrero from the Angels was third with 203 points. David Ortiz and Mike Lowell of the Red Sox rounded out the top 5 with 177 and 126 points respectively.