The 2007 World Series trophy won by the Boston Red Sox will be making an appearance in the state on Thursday morning and afternoon.

The trophy will be in New Haven at City Hall from 10 AM to 11 AM. It will then make the trip north up to Hartford where it will be on display at the State Capitol Building from 2:15 PM to 4:00 PM. The trophy will also make brief stops in Willimantic and Waterbury.

Steve’s favorite owner Larry Lucchino will be leading the group that comes with the trophy. No word yet on whether any players will be with the trophy.

“We couldn’t be happier about bringing the trophy to the ever-increasing number of Connecticut fans who have supported us over the years,” says Lucchino. “Connecticut is a cornerstone of Red Sox Nation, and our supporters in Connecticut deserve to see this trophy that they helped bring back to Fenway.”

Our favorite quarterback around these parts is Tom Brady. While most of the commercial opportunites go to some guy named Peyton Manning, our boy Tom does his fair share of modeling and of course, models. Most of Tom’s advertising forray’s have been in the way of print ads but now for your viewing enjoyment comes the Tom Brady commercial for Stetson cologne. Hey he’s no Peyton (yet) when it comes to the MasterCard and Sprint ads, although this year everyone is eluding Jason Taylor, but he’s getting there.

Although I do have one question for the Stetson folks. “If I buy Stetson do I smell like Brady, drive a cool car and get to bang supermodels or do I smell like like the ass on that horse”?

If I was his agent I’d pitch a Victoria’s Secret ad that has him in the store sniffing panties while trying to find Gisele. Kind of an adult version of “Where’s Waldo”. Now that would be a winner.

By the way the song in the Stetson ad is one of my favorites. It’s “Train, Train” by Blackfoot. Enjoy.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HHA_Wpw59U[/youtube]

Most of the time, the newspaper websites put their stories up online just after midnight. This holds true normally for the Providence Journal and Boston Herald. The Boston Globe and Hartford Courant usually publish theirs online around 3 AM. If am up til 3 AM, I will usually include those headlines into the news and notes and make sure the early ones are in. You ask why am I explaining this to you? My answer is because there was a lot of news that came out after I went to bed at 1 AM last night that was missed here.

“As The Santana Turns” is starting to show signs of life again as it appears that the Twins are focused on the deal which involved Jacoby Ellsbury. Rumor is the teams are deciding who the fourth player will be.

Mike Lowell and Terry Francona are heading to Washington, D.C. to have dinner with President Bush. This visit is different than when the whole team will go to the White House. Lowell also said he has become a “soccer dad” this offseason. I wonder if he’s driving the mini-van around.

The Red Sox made it 2 for 2 in this years MLB.com This Year in Baseball Awards as closer Jonathan Papelbon was the overwhelming choice for Closer of the Year. Can the Red Sox go 3 for 3 tomorrow if the fans voted Terry Francona as Manager of the Year?

Ellsbury seems key in any deal with Red Sox [Star-Tribune]

President Bush asks Lowell over to dinner [Boston Herald]

Fans tab Papelbon TYIB’s top closer [redsox.com]

Yesterday the Boston Globe showed the transcript of an interview with Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima with a Japanese radio station and he talked about how he wasn’t comfortable at the beginning of the season.

Last night, part 2 of the interview aired and the Globe has once again translated. Here are a few of the questions and answers. You can see the full transcript of the interview by clicking here.

Y: There is a longer travel between the cities, for example, Boston and Los Angeles is like 4,500 km apart. That is a unheard amount of travel in Japan. Was it really bad?

O: That is a long flight. It takes like 4 or 5 hours. On top of that, there is a time difference. I get a headache when I am on the plane, maybe with the air pressure difference, and I usually am dizzy by the time I get off it.

Y: How did you get over it?

O: Get over it? I really didn’t. I kept playing as is. I pitched through the headaches and the dizziness. There was nothing I could do. I really hated the time differences.

We start as we do each week with head coach Bill Belichick’s visit on WEEI in Boston with the Big Show. The coach talked about the win over Pittsburgh, touched on Anthony Smith and even mentioned the Jets who are this week’s opponent.

Belichick says that if the media doesn’t want to talk about the Jets game and wants to rehash the “camera incident”, the “handshake incident” and his relationship with Jets head coach Eric Mangini there will be some short press conferences this week.  You know some media tool is gonna ask.  I’d put my money on the tool being either FOX 25’s Butch Sterns or the Boston Herald’s Mike Felger.

Speaking of Anthony Smith, you remember Anthony he’s the guy who guaranteed a Steelers win. Everyone in the media was aghast, especially Mike Dickhead of ESPN, that Tom Brady after the first touchdown to Moss started jawing with Smith. Well what the media didn’t know until today was that not only did Smith guarantee a win but he decided to taunt Brady during pre-game warm ups. I think the young man was taught a lesson. You can hear Brady talk about it in the beginning of his interview with Dennis and Callahan on Monday morning on WEEI.

Oh I’m not done with Smith yet. The Providence Journal’s Jim Donaldson had a little fun with him and mock’s him with some other guarantees.

The game on December 23^rd against the Dolphins at Gillette Stadium has been moved from 1 p.m. to a 4:15 p.m. start at the request of CBS.

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The Fenway Sports Group made quite a purchase yesterday as their purchase of the minor league franchise, the Salem Avalanche in Salem, VA, went through. They still have to get MLB approval on the sale but that appears to be a mere formality. The Avalanche are currently the Astros affiliate in the Carolina League and have one more year on that working agreement. I would have to think with the Red Sox affiliation being up with the Lancaster Jethawks after the 2008 season, that the Red Sox will bring their High-A minor league affiliate back across to the country to Salem.

Josh Beckett picked up an award yesterday from MLB.com as he was named the top starter in MLB by the fans. It was the first of MLB.com’s This Year in Baseball Awards.

Wednesday is another key day in the MLB offseason as the Red Sox must offer contracts to those players with under six years service time who are arbitration-eligible. Kevin Youkilis, Brendan Donnelly and Javier Lopez fall into that category. If they are not offered contracts, they would be eligible for free agency. Don’t worry folks, I highly doubt any of them will be free agents. Obviously, Youkilis isn’t going anywhere and I would have to think the Red Sox and his agent are working on a long-term deal. Donnelly may not be ready to pitch until mid-season as he underwent Tommy John surgery and Lopez has shown he can be a capable left handed option out of the bullpen.

Not much of a surprise here but the Red Sox sold over 234,000 tickets this past weekend. To think that the number doesn’t include season tickets, that’s an awful lot of tickets. So as you can see, the Sox are the hottest ticket during the winter and will make it all the harder for people to get them when the rest of them go on sale, probably through the lottery system and then the virtual waiting room of hell.

Red Sox owners buying Va. minor league team [Boston Herald]

Red Sox Nation drives tickets [redsox.com]

Red Sox Nation, Florida [Extra Bases]

Beckett wins TYIB Starter of Year [redsox.com]

If the rhino poop wasn’t a good enough idea for you, then this gift idea might be for the baseball player in your family.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C9aiWr0Vfg[/youtube]

to Jason from My Baseball Bias for sending this over to me.

We all know the success that Hideki Okajima enjoyed in his first year with the Boston Red Sox. But did you know he wasn’t comfortable the first month of the season.

The Boston Globe has translated an interview with Okajima that aired on a Japanese radio station last night. Here are a few questions. You can see the entire interview by clicking here.

Y: Looking back on the season, both the team and you individually, had a very successful season. What was it like from your perspective?

O: Well, going to America, a whole different country, I had no idea what to expect and I was very worried about the new environment and new language.

I didn’t even have an interpreter at the beginning of the season. In the first three month, I must admit that I was anxious and uncomfortable in my new surroundings.

Y: But you must have had some confidence that you can succeed in baseball?

O: No, I didn’t. I was very anxious, and was not confident. The turning point was when I got my own interpreter one month after the season started. Being able to communicate with people through the interpreter made my being there more comfortable and then I was able to focus on playing baseball.

Three good things about Eric Gagné signing in Milwaukee.

1. We don’t have to go through the agony of watching him pitch anymore.
2. We get to face him next year since Milwaukee is on our schedule.
3. We get an extra draft pick in the supplemental round.

If you think getting a supplemental first round draft pick is no big deal, think again. Back in the 2005 draft, the Red Sox took Clay Buchholz, Jed Lowrie, and Michael Bowden. Lowrie and Bowden as you know have been involved in the Johan Santana trade talks.

Gagne signing gives Sox extra pick [Boston Herald]

The Result

In a game that started with a guarantee ended in yet another large win as the New England Patriots took a close first half game and turned it into a second half laugher in beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-13 in front of a sold out Gillette Stadium. It was the teams 13th win of the year with no losses and their 16th consecutive regular season win dating back to last season.

The teams traded some scores early the Steelers got on the board first with a Jeff Reed field goal but the Patriots showed how explosive they can be with two Tom Brady to Randy Moss TD’s in a span of two minutes. The first was rather mundane as far as TD’s go a 5 yard toss to Moss in the back of the end zone to put the Pats up 7-3. Just moments later on the first play after a Steelers 3 and out Brady went 63 yards to a wide open Moss who walked into the end zone after a really nice play fake by Brady and Maroney.

What looked like it may be a back and forth game all day wasn’t that close in the end because the New England defense stepped up yet again when it needed to the most. The defense held Pittsburgh to consecutive three and outs to start the second half while NFL MVP Candidate Brady picked a part Anthony Smith and the Steelers secondary. Two of Brady’s four TD tosses went to Moss and two of the TD throws, one to Moss and one to Jabar Gaffney, were bombs of 63 and 56 yards and directed right at Smith, who boldly guaranteed a win for the black and gold earlier in the week.

Smith was looking like a prophet at the half but after a Pittsburgh 3 and out the Patriots decided they weren’t screwing around any longer and Brady lateraled to Moss who lateraled back to Brady who threw 56 yards to Gaffney for a giant screw you. The defense then came back and forced another 3 and out and the Patriots drove the field and stuck the nail in the Steelers coffin when Brady hit Wes Welker for a 2 yard TD pass and an 18 point lead.

Later in the game the Pats would stop Hines Ward on an end around at the goal line on 4th down and that was essentially the game.

Scoring Plays

 1st Quarter

• PIT – Reed 23 yard FG – Steelers 3-0
• NE – Brady 5 yard pass to Moss – kick good – Patriots 7-3

2nd Quarter

• NE – Brady 63 yard pass to Moss – kick good – Patriots 14-3
• PIT – Roethlisberger 32 yard pass to Davenport – kick good – Patriots 14-10
• PIT – Reed 44 yard FG – Patriots 14-13
• NE – Gostkowski 42 yard FG – Patriots 17-13

3rd Quarter

• NE – Brady 56 yard pass to Gaffney – kick good – 24-13 Patriots
• NE – Brady 2 yard pass to Welker – kick good – 31-13 Patriots

4th Quarter

• NE – Gostkowski 28 yard FG – Patriots 34-13

Offensive Player of the Game

Patriots QB Tom Brady completed 32 of 46 passes for 399 yards and 4 TD’s.

Defensive Player of the Game

Patriots DL Vince Wilfork had 6 tackles and a sack

Turning Point(s) of the Game

The trick play to Gaffney for a TD then the defense gets Steelers to go 3 and out. Patriots get the ball back drive down the field and score with a Welker TD catch.

Defense stuffs Hines Ward on the goal line on 4th down to preserve a 3 TD lead with 10 minutes to play.

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