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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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.