Sherron Collins, a sophomore guard for Kansas, will be out the next 6 weeks after undergoing surgery for a stress fracture in his left foot. This will hurt the Jayhawks as Collins was their leading scorer in their first two games.

Kevin O’Neill, the interim coach at Arizona, says that Lute Olsen should be back on the bench soon. They had a conversation this past weekend but it didn’t involve basketball.

Courtney Paris and Candace Parker haven’t played against each other in college. That will change this Thursday as Tennessee will take on Oklahoma in Tampa, FL. Oklahoma head coach Sheri Coale is comparing it to when Magic faced Bird in the 1979 NCAA Men’s final. Personally, I think that’s a little too much.

The women’s preseason AP All-American team is out and it’s lead by Tennessee’s Candace Parker. Here is a list at the rest of the team.

• Candace Parker, Tennessee
• Courtney Paris, Oklahoma
• Candice Wiggins, Stanford
• Sylvia Fowles, LSU
• Crystal Langhorne, Maryland

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Much like the Toledo Mud Hens did with Alex Rodriguez, the Washington Wild Things have offered Barry Bonds a minor league contract. The Wild Things are members of the independent Frontier League and are located in Washington, PA.

The Wild Things are hoping that Bonds would want to return to his roots as he started his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“Many of the great one’s eventually return to where their careers began,” said Wild Things General Manager Ross Vecchio. “Babe Ruth began his career with the Red Sox and then finished with the Boston Braves; Willie Mays started with the New York Giants and finished his career with the Mets; and, of course, Hank Aaron began and finished his career in Milwaukee (Braves & Brewers). This contract gives Barry the opportunity to play once again in Western, PA as he continues his career.”

If Bonds decides to accept the offer, he would have to take a severe pay-cut as the team can only offer him the maximum $1,200 a month. The deal would also include incentives like a single suite with a king size bed on the road. They are even willing to find him a host family where he could live during the season. This is a common practice in the independent leagues as well as in the minors. They will also split any money made off of Wild Things merchandise with Barry Bonds on it.

Right now this is the only free-agent offer that Bonds has on the table.

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia has been awarded the AL Cy Young award by the BBWAA with 119 points. Josh Beckett from the Boston Red Sox was second in the voting with 86 points. Sabathia is the first Indian to win the award since Gaylord Perry back in 1972.

Sabathia received 19 of the 28 first place votes while Beckett picked up 8 first place votes. John Lackey from the Angels picked up the other first place vote.

Sabathia was 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA and 209 strikeouts. He threw a major league leading 241 innings. Beckett was the first twenty-game winner since the 2005 season. He had a 3.27 ERA in 200 2-3 innings while Lackey led the AL in ERA at 3.01, with a 19-9 and throwing 224 innings.

It was a good day and a bad day in Red Sox Nation. Dustin Pedroia took home the AL Rookie of the Year Award and Mike Lowell has hit the open waters of free agency. The good news on the Lowell front is that the teams haven’t halted negotiations. The bad news is that some team is going to throw him a ridiculous amount of money in a four-year deal.

Today is also the day the Cy Young winner in the American League comes out. Don’t be surprised if C.C. Sabathia beats out our very own Josh Beckett. Folks, the voting is done after the regular season and before the playoffs start.

Beckett posted a 20-7 record with a 3.27 ERA while Sabathia had a 19-7 record and a 3.21 ERA. Sabathia had 209 strikeouts in 241 innings while Beckett had 194 strikeouts in 200 innings.

Needless to say, this race will probably be decided by less than 5 votes.

So while we await the results of the AL Cy Young at 2 PM, let’s check out some of the headlines from the Boston area media.

Pedroia hits new heights [Boston Herald]

Market open on Lowell [Boston Globe]

Youkilis’ shave will be a big hit for kids [Pro Jo]

No small achievement [Boston Herald]

Star Dust [Boston Globe]

Pedroia Wins Rookie Of Year [Hartford Courant]

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

We start off this edition of “In The Red Zone” with the weekly visit by head coach Bill Belichick to WEEI’s “The Big Show” hosted by Glenn Ordway with Pete Sheppard, Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie.

A quick look at the AFC playoff picture shows that The Patriots are the top team in the conference but the Steelers leaped the Colts with their win over the Browns and Colts dropped to 3rd with the road loss to the Chargers who are 4th. The Jaguars are 5th and the Titans right now hold the 6th and final spot. So if the playoffs were to start today the Patriots and Steelers would have first round byes and the Colts would host the Titans and Jaquars would visit the Chargers. A far cry from my predictions of Bengals at Colts and Broncos at Ravens with the Patriots and Chargers having byes.

After being released last week the Patriots re-signed safety Ray Ventrone to the practice squad. Ventrone had originally signed as an undrafted free agent with Patriots in 2005 and was on the practice squad for the season. After being on IR for 2006 he signed with the New York Jets for 2007 but was released from their practice squad on September 12^th. He signed to be on the practice squad with New England on September 19^th and was placed on the active roster on November 3^rd and played against Indianapolis. He was released on November 7^th.

To honor our troops as Veterans Day approaches on November 11, the Patriots Online Proshop is offering Free Shipping to our military personnel serving around the world. Beginning on Friday, November 9 and running through the remainder of November, all ground shipments to APO addresses will have their shipping costs credited back after the order is placed.

Three of the Patriots most productive players will be free agents at years end. Asante Samuel, Randy Moss and Donte` Stallworth. Samuel looks to get a big pay day from the Pats or someone else on the open market, Moss will be a free agent and he says he is happy in New England and Stallworth has bonuses that total $9.6 million for next year. Hopefully the Patriots can work out deals with all three to keep them here.

Other notables whose contracts come up after the season are: Tedy Bruschi, Eugene Wilson, Randall Gay and Jabar Gaffney.

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Since 1971, WFSB Channel 3 in Hartford has named the winter storms that have hit Connecticut. Ironically enough, that was the year I was born. I guess Channel 3 thought it would be appropriate to honor me this year as they have named one of the storms after me. Just kidding, I am sure that didn’t factor into it at all.

Here is a look at the winter storm names for this upcoming winter.

• Alexander
• Brianna
• Christopher
• Destiny
• Ethan
• Fiona
• Gabriel
• Hailey
• Ian
• Julia

So if we hit nine storms during the winter, don’t blame me when Ian hits.

From Nick Cafardo at Extra Bases:

Mike Lowell’s agents and Theo Epstein could not reach an agreement about an hour before the midnight deadline in which the Red Sox had exclusive rights to negotiate with Lowell.

Lowell will now be a complete free-agent and can negotiate with other teams.

Both sides agreed there’s still room for an agreement to be reached and they’ll continue to stay in touch. Lowell will now be able to determine whether there’s a four-year market out there for his services. Indications are that the Sox would not move off three years.

We all know what’s going to happen here, some team is going to overpay Lowell for his services and offer him a 4-year deal at a ridiculous amount of money that will make it hard for the Red Sox to match.

It is encouraging to hear that the teams will still try to reach an agreement. Hopefully after fielding some offers tomorrow from teams, Lowell’s agents, the Levinson brothers, will ring Theo and work something out. If not, the Red Sox begin to explore other options at third base.

After saying earlier in the day that Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera were going to hit the open market in an hour, the Yankees have signed their 36-year old catcher to a 4-year $52 million dollar deal.

But once the Yankees offered Posada the four-year pact, it was practically a done deal. Posada’s first choice was to stay in pinstripes, and unless the Yankees were unwilling to go for a fourth year, there was little doubt it would happen.

The Yankees probably overpaid, but what choice did they have? Yorvit Torrealba, Paul Lo Duca or Damian Miller were not going to adequately replace Posada, who had a tremendous year both at the plate and behind it last season.

This move doesn’t shock me at all. They definitely did overpay but like the article says what choice did they have? The free-agent market for catchers definitely wasn’t a good one at all.

Hopefully the Red Sox follow suit and give Mike Lowell the fourth year and get this thing over with.

From Extra Bases:

According to sources involved in the negotiations, there might be one more attempt made before midnight to hash out a deal between the Sox and Mike Lowell. After midnight the exclusive window the Sox have had with Lowell ends and he becomes a free-agent.

It doesn’t mean Lowell is 100 percent gone if the sides can’t reach an agreement in the next few hours, but it certainly gives Lowell and the Sox a chance to seek a free-agent deal with another team and/or player.

The Red Sox have reportedly offered Lowell a three-year deal, but Lowell, according to sources familiar with the talks are pining for four years. The Sox have extended themselves more than they thought they would in offering three years, but it’s evident to the Lowell side that four years at $13 or $14 million per year is attainable in the free-agent market.

Stay tuned folks. From the sounds of this, it doesn’t look good right now.

Locker Room Memorabilia conducted the first-ever U.S. signing with Boston Red Sox pitcher Hideki Okajima. The Japanese native signed official World Series baseballs and photos for Locker Room, but company president Emil Bodenstein was most excited that the deal with Okajima included his fielding glove from his rookie year.

“It’s a rare opportunity when you receive a rookie glove,” said Bodenstein. “To have the opportunity to market a rookie glove used during the 2007 All-Star Game and World Series is a landmark moment for our company.”

Bodenstein already has multiple offers on this once in a lifetime glove ranging upwards of $15,000.00.

The glove and all other items can be purchased at www.lockerroommemorabilia.com.

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