The man who brings you lots of Red Sox goodies from YouTube, Dan of Red Sox Monster, has struck gold this time. He found some video of Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka throwing a no-hitter when he was just a young chap. Just 17-years old at the time, he was pitching for his school, Yokohama High School against Kyoto Seisho High School.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG5pm9hyEO4[/youtube]

to Dan for his awesomeness of being the Youtube God.

For the record, at the end of the video he says that he can’t wait to pitch for the Boston Red Sox when he comes to America.*

*Not true at all 

Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor will become restricted free agents at the end of the 2007-08 season as they didn’t accept the offered contracts by their respective teams, the Chicago Bulls and Charlotte Bobcats.

Okafor, who was the first draft pick by the Bobcats, didn’t really have to say much about not reaching an extension.

“The Bobcats made a fair offer”

It was obviously not the maximum extension that he could have received otherwise you would think that Okafor would have signed the deal.

For Gordon, it was much of the same thing. He obviously wasn’t offered what he wanted. The offer Gordon received was 5 years $50 million.

“It was never really a negotiation,. It was kind of like, take it or leave it. I didn’t sign it, so I guess it’s safe to say I never considered taking it.”

The Bulls and Bobcats can’t negotiate with Gordon and Okafor until July 1st, 2008. Both teams will have the opportunity to match the qualifying offers from potential suitors.

In an interview that aired last night with Jim Grey on MSNBC’s Countdown With Keith Olbermann, Barry Bonds said that he would not go to the Hall of Fame if they accept and display the ball that he hit for his 756th homerun. It was a very candid interview and very surprising to say the least. Here is the video of the interview broken down into two parts.

Part 1

Part 2 after the jump.

Continue reading →

The Toledo Mud Hens, the favorite team of Cpl. Max Klinger, will make a play to acquire free agent third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

The Mud Hens playfully offered the soon to be three-time Most Valuable Player a contract with bonuses for hitting 75 home runs and leading Toldeo to 10 consecutive International League titles.

When Rodriguez opted out of his contract on Sunday night it prompted Hank Steinbrenner, son of the New York Yankees owner, to quip “Does he want to go into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee or as a Mud Hen”?

The Mud Hens the Triple A team of the Detroit Tigers decided to get involved and drew up a letter to Rodriguez’ agent, reknowned media whore Scott Boras,  that included a Hall of Fame plaque with him wearing a Toledo hat and asking if his client would be willing to play another position because they have the leagues MVP, Mike Hessman, currently playing third.

Division II Assumption College gave UConn all they could handle in the first half but A.J. Price decided to take over the Huskies as they went to defeat them 90-75 in the exhibition opener for both teams. Price had 22 points in the game with 12 of them coming in the first half. Jerome Dyson chipped in with 18 for the Huskies.

Jeff Adrien was a monster on the glass as he registered a double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds. 11 of his rebounds were on the offensive glass as he was easily able to get rebounds over the shorter Assumption team. Price also had 9 rebounds along with a game-high 7 assists.

The one newcomer to the team this year, Donnell Beverly, only saw 2 minutes of action and didn’t score.

A different look to the Huskies as they started Dyson, Craig Austrie, Hasheem Thabeet, Adrien and Stanley Robinson. According to Calhoun before the game, Price hadn’t earned back his starting spot. With the way he played tonight, he may have earned that spot back.

I am pretty sure that Calhoun won’t be too happy that Assumption shot 40% from the field. The team defense will need to improve before they open up play next Wednesday against Morgan State in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic. They will have one more exhibition game this Sunday against Bryant College to work on their defense and their offense. Their up-tempo game they wanted to play this year struggled as they had trouble executing.

Written by Steve Hofstetter, Keith Alberstadt, Adam Hofstetter, Cody Marley, Ryan Murphy, Elliot Steingart, and Chris Strait 

A Colorado Rockies fan offered 25 years worth of Playboy magazines for two World Series tickets. Two tickets? We find it hard to believe that someone with that many adult magazines actually has someone he can take to the game.

The Yankees heard of A-Rod’s decision to opt out of his contract when agent Scott Boras sent a text message to Brian Cashman. This means A-Rod will most likely leave the Bronx, and Boras and Cashman are no longer BFF. And in case you didn’t think Boras was a big enough jerk already, he signed the text message with a sideways winky face.

Retiring Houston Astro Craig Biggio was given the Roberto Clemente Award. Not for his community service, but for ending his career in a tailspin.

Pacman Jones is on his way to San Diego, hopefully to make it rain.

The Tour de France is expected to have a whole new look for 2008. In order to accommodate cyclists who aren’t on HGH, the event’s is now half a mile.

Kobe Bryant is angry with Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, whom he believes is blocking a potential trade with unreasonable demands. It must be so frustrating when someone else’s unreasonable demands get in the way of your own.

The Heat have traded perpetually out of shape forward Antoine Walker to the Timberwolves. Now that he’s in Minnesota, he won’t seem as fat.

And an ambulance crew who picked up a dying runner during the Chicago Marathon got lost on the way to a hospital. As if that weren’t bad enough, the extra driving added an additional half hour to the runner’s overall time. The crew was immediately fired and replaced by Kenyans with rickshaws.

For more of the Sports Minute (Or So), visit minuteorso.com

In his latest blog post over at 38 Pitches, Curt Schilling talks about free agency, his work with 38 Studios and the appearances he will be making that are up coming.

So the first day of Free Agency begins. I cannot divulge names because the teams involved asked that I not do so at this point, but the first day resulted in initial contact with 3 teams. Kind of weird to be doing this with no agent but at the same time pretty cool. All three discussions were very informal, with the clubs expressing interest in potentially working together next year. Two of the teams were on the list of teams mentioned earlier, one was not.

I made it clear to all three teams that my intent was to do whatever I could to resolve this and remain in Boston for the final year of my career. The only question asked beyond the initial conversations were to my desires about the contract, and whether or not I truly wanted a one year deal or was looking for more.

That has not changed, we are still only looking to sign a one year contract and I can’t envision a scenario where that would change.

I really would like the Red Sox to re-sign him. While he may not be the pitcher he was when they first signed him, he proved that he can still pitch and be effective. I’d have to think if he can’t be effective any more he’d reconsider. It’s interesting to me that the teams don’t want to be named but that is their right. Plus with Curt being his own agent, any leaks would have to come from the clubs themselves.

Are you interested in purchasing the Boston Red Sox 2007 World Series Collector’s Edition DVD set? If so head over to AETV’s store to pre-order the DVD. It will ship on November 13th.

You can get there by clinking the banner on the individual post page or here.

Good news for Red Sox Nation and the pitchers in the Red Sox organization. Pitching guru John Farrell has decided to stay with the Red Sox after flirting with the idea of becoming the Pittsburgh Pirates manager.

Farrell, the Boston pitching coach who probably is — or was — high on Pirates general manager Neal Huntington’s interview list, is said to be strongly leaning toward remaining with the Red Sox.

Farrell, who succeeded Huntington as Cleveland’s minor-league director six years ago, joined the Red Sox just last winter, and it’s believed he would prefer to stay in Boston rather than leave after one season. The Red Sox, who paid Farrell an estimated $350,000 in 2007, want him to stay and might sweeten his salary as an incentive.

We all know how highly Curt Schilling and other pitchers spoke of him throughout the season. This will only help the Red Sox pitchers become even better than they were this season.

Yes folks this is our closer and he shows us and David Letterman why we love him so.

Big Papi the Bedazzler.

If you want to see Papelbon on QVC last night, head over to Center Field where Texy has the video.

A double to Texy for the video.

[Editor’s note: I’d have gotten this up for you last night but my DVR decided it wanted to switch to Leno in the middle of the interview.]