I stayed away from writing about the whole mess with Tim Donaghy due to the fact that I am not really that big of NBA fan anymore. But with the recent acquisition of KG and Ray Ray, I may once again start watching the C’s for the first time since the early 90’s. So yes, I am jumping on the bandwagon and you know what I don’t care.

So about that Donaghy mess. It could really become an even bigger embarrassment for the NBA now. As part of his cooperation with the federal government, Donaghy will share information that will implicate 20 other referees in some form of gambling activity. Up until now, it had been thought that Donaghy was the only one involved.

“As far as we know, the misconduct was isolated to one individual, and we’ll stand by that until proven otherwise,” National Basketball Referees Association director Lamell McMorris told ESPN.com’s Chris Sheridan. “We’ll review whatever information Tim Donaghy alleges, but as far as we’re concerned, the only person whose conduct has been proven wrong is Tim Donaghy. We’re dealing with truth, not hearsay, and the truth is that the only person who has pleaded guilty to any kind of wrongdoing is Tim Donaghy.”

As David Stern said in his press conference, gambling is not tolerated by any employee of the NBA. So if this ends up proving to be true, Stern is going to be one PO’d commissioner. This whole mess had already given the NBA a “black eye” and now it might go for the other one as well.

[ESPN]

With Brandon Webb throwing a complete game shutout last night of the Atlanta Braves, he extended his scoreless innings streak to 42 straight innings. One would have to think that would be some sort of record. Well it isn’t.

Orel Hershiser, in 1988, threw 59 straight scoreless innings. Webb is the first since Hershiser to throw over 40 straight scoreless innings and only the 21st in the history of the game to achieve that mark.

Webb will need to throw to 2 straight complete game shutouts to tie Hershiser’s record.

“Just two more shutouts? Oh, I should have that no problem,” Webb said facetiously, rolling his eyes. “It’s in the back pocket.”

[AP]

Super sexy Texy from Center Field had some nice things to say about Eric Gagné on Wednesday and some not so nice things about him last night.

Awful Announcing has some pictures of the new resident hottie on ESPN.

The beautiful and talented Yankees Chick compares the Red Sox and Yankees position by position.

Anthony from the Oriole Post has video of Kevin Millar and the MASN chick getting soaked with Gatorade after Millar’s HR last Sunday.

The very, very very funny and sexy ladies at Ladies…. turned 6 months this week.

Sports By Brooks tells us that Dice-K charges $450 for a signed ball.

Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician has a look at some Big East beer pong tables.

Dan from Red Sox Monster has an in-depth interview with Seth Mnookin.

The gorgeous babes from Babes Love Baseball went under the bleachers with Jose Offerman.

Peter from Peter’s Red Sox Forever tells us when Bruce Springsteen’s new album comes out.

The Gridiron Goddess tells us that John Madden on her television means it’s officially football season.

The Feed explains who “Whitey’s Whacker is”.

And last but certainly not least, Fitzy from the Townie News interrupted his vacation on the Cape to bring you this week’s installment of the “Wicked Pissah” webcast. As always, it is NSFW.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3eJThD-4JeY[/youtube]

If you have a link you think I might enjoy, please send it along and maybe you will get saluted next week.

For the second straight week the New England Patriots dropped a game on a late field goal. Tennessee took over behind Tim Ratay (4 of 7 for 49 yards; 0 TD 0 INT) with 6:12 to play. The former 49er quarterback would complete a huge 3^rd and 2 with a 9-yard pass to keep the chains moving. Then on 3^rd and 9 he would hit Justin Gage with a 20-yard pass to get the ball to the New England 28. Dontrell Moore would make two runs for a first down that brought the Titans to the two-minute warning. After a pair of incomplete passes, John Vaughn would kick a 22-yard field goal to give Tennessee a 27-24 lead with 1:19 left.

The game started ugly for the New England Patriots when on their first drive Tom Brady (10 of 19 for 145 yards; 1 TD 2 INT) threw an interception that turned into a 51-yard return for a touchdown by Cortland Finnegan. The interception return gave the Tennessee Titans a 7-0 lead. Brady, who had on the first play of the drive completed a 15 yarder to Donte` Stallworth, tried to go back to Stallworth for a short pass on 3^rd and 6 and Finnegan stepped in front and cruised to the end zone.

The Patriots and Brady got even pretty quickly. On the next drive they went 58 yards on 5 plays capped when Brady hit wide receiver Wes Welker for a 28 yard TD pass and after the Stephen Gustkowski extra point we had a 7-7 tie.

The Pats got the ball back quickly after Jarvis Green made Vince Young (5 of 17 for 102 yards; 0 TD 0 INT) cough up the ball at the Titans 23. New England then made Tennessee pay for their mistake. Sammy Morris (7 carries for 23 yards) had carries of 8 and 3 yards to get a first down at the Titans 12. Morris then carried twice more for another 8 yard and on 3^rd and 2 a Titans penalty gave the Pats a first down and the ball on the Tennessee two-yard line. Heath Evans (6 carries for 23 yards; 1 TD) then rumbled two yards, Gustkowski added the PAT and it was 14-7.

In the second quarter the Patriots would add a Gustkowski field goal with 4:21 to go before the half. The Pats would go 43 yards on 8 plays in 3:08 for the score. In the drive the Patriots would get completions of 6, 15, and 26 yards from Brady to Kevin Faulk and 8 yards to Jabar Gaffney. After a few plays that went no where and a motion penalty, Gustkowski hit the 32 yarder for a 17-7 lead going into the half.

Prior to the 32 yarder Gustkowski had missed a 33-yard try after a long sustained Pats drive to start the second quarter.

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A lot has been said about David Ortiz not being as “clutch” as he was last year in key situations. Well tonight he proved the naysayers wrong as his double in the 8th inning brought home two runs to tie the game. He came around to score the winning run on a Manny Ramirez double to give the Sox the 5-4 come-from-behind victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The win gave them a sweep of the doubleheader.

With Jonathan Papelbon closing out game 1 and not being available for game 2, Eric Gagné was annointed the closer for game 2. Well, he was given a 1-run lead to hold and ummmmmmm, he didn’t. Gagné got lit up like Clark Griswold’s Christmas tree for 3 runs as the Halos came back for a 7-5 win over the Sox. Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez had blown the save in the 8th inning when him and Scot Shields gave up 4 runs as the Sox rallied from a 4-1 deficit.

Shields came out to start the 8th in relief of Justin Speier. Shields started out by striking out Eric Hinske but then issued a walk to Julio “E-6” Lugo. Red Sox rookie phenom Jacoby Ellsbury worked a walk as well. Dustin Pedroia followed that up with a single to load up the bases for David Ortiz. Coco Crisp was summoned off the bench to pinch-run for Pedroia and K-Rod was summoned from the Halos bullpen to get 5 outs. With Big Papi at the plate, K-Rod uncorked a wild pitch that scored “E-6” and moved Ellsbury and Coco up a base. Having struggled in clutch situations this year, Big Papi came through in a big way as he smacked a double that scored the two speedsters and tied the game at 4. Manny Ramirez promptly brought Big Papi in with a double and just like that it was 5-4 Red Sox. K-Rod would get out of the inning with no further damage done as he retired J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell.

With “I Am Shipping Up to Boston” not being played, I am sure some Sox fans cringed when they saw Gagné come into try and close out the game. He started out with a 13 pitch at-bat to pinch-hitter Reggie Willits. Gagné would win that battle as he would get Willits to fly out to Ellsbury in left. He then issued a walk to another pinch-hitter, Casey Kotchman. Gagné was a little upset with home plate umpire Brian Runge with a couple of the balls and strikes during the Kotchman at-bat. After the walk, Erick Aybar came into pinch-run for Kotchman and he would go to third on a Chone Figgins single. Former Sox shortstop Orlando Cabrera followed that with a RBI single to tie the game at 5 as the chorus of boos from the Fenway faithful started. The free swinging Vladimir Guerrero then crushed a double to deep center that cleared the bases and gave the Halos a 7-5 lead. Gagné would get out of the inning after that as Garrett Anderson lined out to Youk at first, who immediately threw to second to double up Vlad. Gagné would come off to another round of boos.

K-Rod would retire the side in order in the bottom half of the 9th but not without a little controversy. With one out and the count 0-2 on Youk, K-Rod threw a changeup that Youk fouled off, or so we thought. Upon checking with first base umpire Mark Wegner, it was ruled that Youk swung for strike 3. Youk was pissed and so was Terry Francona both argued that he fouled it off. Replays showed it was clearly foul. Wegner would toss Francona as I would have to think Francona said the magic words to get ejected. While this was going on, Youk was arguing with Runge at the plate and would be tossed as well. Hopefully Youk doesn’t get suspended for his tirade.

Oh by the way, both starters (Ervin Santana and Josh Beckett) in the game pitched pretty well. Santana actually left the game with a 2-1 lead.

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John Blewitt III, of Howell NJ, died Thursday after the race car he was driving collided with a car driven by his brother, Jimmy, and struck the wall on the 107th lap of of a 150 lap NASCAR Whelen Modifield Tour event at the Thompson Motor Speedway in Thompson CT.

According to Woody Pitkat, another driver on the track, John Blewitt’s car ended up on top of Jimmy’s .

John Blewitt, who suffered head and neck injuries had to be extricated from the race car. He was transported to Hubbard Regional Hospital in Webster MA where he died from his injuries.