The big news yesterday for the UConn Huskies football team was the announcement of running back Donald Brown being named to the Walter Camp All-American second team. He’s the first player in the FBS era to be named an All-American. The announcement is also huge for the Huskies as puts them on the map for football now.

UConn Huskies offensive tackle Will Beatty is on verge of the NFL.

No surprise here that Tyler Lorenzen was rated as the 7th best quarterback in the Big East.

Can the UConn women go undefeated this season?

Cassie Kerns and Maya Moore turned their focus to the classroom this week.

John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant wants to know when Geno Auriemma will be on Oprah.

Good news for those of us who live in the New Haven area. Mel Thomas has added another appearance to her book tour. She will be appearing at the Irish-American Center in East Haven, CT on December 19th at 7:30 PM.

Stanley Robinson will rejoin the UConn men’s team on Sunday as a blue-collar player.

Mike Anthony of the Hartford Courant has his lastest edition of his UConn men’s mailbag.

Men’s basketball recruits Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel committed to UConn as sophomores in high school to avoid distractions and to stay focused on school.

Since Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel committed early, they already feel right at home in Storrs.

Three members of the UConn men’s soccer team earned National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-Northeast Region honors for the 2008 season

Manny Ramirez to retire??

According to Ken Davidoff of Newsday, Manny Ramirez is threatening to retire due to the lack of interest in him during free agency.

Manny Ramirez is growing extremely upset about the lack of suitors for his services, so much so that he has told friends he would contemplate retirement if a suitable offer doesn’t arrive soon, a person close to the situation told Newsday.

Now, the truth is that Ramirez is highly unlikely to retire. But his dissatisfaction speaks to the lack of buzz that his free agency has generated, despite (or maybe because of?) his outstanding two-month stay with the Dodgers, which followed a highly contentious split with the Red Sox.

There’s no way on God’s green earth that Scott Boras is going to let Manny retire. Manny has brought this upon himself with his antics from when he was with the Boston Red Sox. Yes, he cleaned up his act while ithe LA Dodgers but that was a ruse on his part to drive up his price during free agency.

And it’s obvious that’s backfired. Only the Dodgers have really shown him any love and they pulled their offer before free agency started.

Hey, Manny had a good time in Japan when he was there with the Red Sox, maybe he’ll go there. I’m just saying.

You can't stop Donald Brown, you can only hope to contain him.

The accolades continue to come in for UConn Huskies running back Donald Brown as he was named a second team All-American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation this afternoon.

Brown becomes the first member of the Huskies during the FBS era to be named an All-American.

The Walter Camp Football Foundation All-America team is the oldest in the country dating back to 1889. Members of the 2008 Walter Camp All-America team will be honored at the organization’s national awards banquet on January 17, 2009 at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.

The entire 2008 Walter Camp All-American Team will be announced during the ESPNU/Home Depot College Football Awards Show tonight at 7:30 PM on ESPN.

I will post the entire team and winners of the awards when they are announced.

I just got an email from Jere from A Red Sox Fan In Pinstripe Territory with links to the MLB shop for the new Boston Red Sox road uniforms and the alternate logo. We have already seen the  alternate logo but here it is.

New road uniform for 2009

New alternate road uniform for 2009

And here’s a link to the Cool Base alternate road jersey. You can click directly on each picture above to be taken to the MLB.com Shop. Once the official unveiling takes place, I will post pictures. I’m curious to see what the backs of the road uniforms will look like.

The alternate road uniform looks like another BP jersey to me.

UPDATE:Here are the official details on the uniforms and hat.

The alternate road uniform will be a combination of the blue jersey above with white pants and the new “Hanging Sox” logo hat above. The “Hanging Sox” logo hat will also be worn with the red alternate home jersey as well.

The “Hanging Sox” is now the primary Red Sox logo replacing this one . The primary home uniforms have not undergone any changes and will stay the same. The “B” hats will still be worn with the primary home and road uniforms.

to Jere for the links

With the Rule 5 Draft having ended, the 2008 Baseball Winter Meetings in Las Vegas are over. As we know, the Red Sox selected Miguel Gonzalez from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the MLB phase and Miguel Marquez from the Seattle Mariners in the Triple-A phase.

Last night, Scott Boras held court and said the Red Sox had offered Jason Varitek a contract. Apparently, Boras may have embellished that fact just a little bit. From Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe:

Except for the “offer” of arbitration, which he declined, free agent catcher Jason Varitek has not received a contractual offer from the Red Sox, a source familiar with the talks said.

Big shocker there that Boras lied about it. NOT!

Although maybe they did offer him a contract as Theo Epstein said he made offers to 4 free agents including Varitek.

It was being reported last night that the Red Sox were closing in on signing free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira. That doesn’t appear to be the  case either. From Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe:

According to one Red Sox official, as of this morning nothing was close on Mark Teixeira. The Sox are one of four teams currently strongly involved in talks for the free agent first baseman.

There are 5 teams that are interested in Teixeira’s services. The Red Sox, Angels, Nationals, Orioles and Yankees.

The Red Sox are/were having discussions with the Arizona Diamondbacks about a swap of inflated contracts. They were talking about a Julio Lugo for Eric Byrnes trade. But as Rob from The Bottom Line pointed out in a comment, the Diamondbacks signed Felipe Lopez this morning so those talks may be mute now.

Lou Merloni of WEEI.com wraps up Day 4 from the Winter Meetings.

The Red Sox and Rangers finalized the trade for Wes Littleton as they have sent reliever Beau Vaughn to the Rangers.

Rob Bradford of WEEI.com has the skinny on Ramon Ramirez.

James Stewart of WEEI.com has 5 things that we learned while the Red Sox were in Vegas.

If any rumors or news comes out, I’ll be on top of it for you.

Thanks for making SOX & Dawgs a part of your day.