Robbie Ftorek is up for the coach of the year award tonight. All three candidates have coached the B's at one time or another.

The Patriots finally released Andy Katzenmoyer but Andy's agents say the team still owes him money. The Pat's doctors gave Andy an exit physical and say he passed it but the agents say he is unfit to play.

This is the assessment of Castillo's ejection from one San Diego writers point of view.

We've long been told that the most unbreakable record in baseball is Joe D's 56 game hitting streak. The common rule of thumb has been not even to speak of it unless someone reached 40 games. Well, Luis Castillo is at 33 games. Yes, it's still 23 games short, but at 33 games he's tied 4 others, including Rogers Hornsby. It's the longest streak since Paul Molitor hit in 39 straight in 1987. Can we at least think about talking about it now? (By the way, pull for Luis to break the record if for no other reason than to see a Yankee record fall).

Bill Simmons checks in with his first ever Tiger article. He says that Tiger is missing "something" that keeps him from becoming larger than life. Tells a story about seeing Tiger in Las Vegas gambling. At first there were a lot of people around Tiger but he eventually bored everyone by being so bland. There was some guy with a mullet who was a high roller. Most people ended up moving away from Tiger to watch the guy with the mullet. You'd never see that with Michael or Ali.

The 1986 Patriots check in as the 6th worst blowout ever in a Championship series. I had kind of forgotten that they only had 6 yards on the ground in that game. Ouch.

It looks as though Manny won't join the team on the West Coast after all. His batting appears to be fine, but he is still uncomfortable in the outfield. Grady doesn't want to fly him all the way out there simply for a few pinch hit opportunities. Lee Thomas was in Atlanta last night to watch Jeff Weaver pitch.

The Sox won their second straight with a 4-2 win over the Padres. Shea Hillenbrand hit the game winning HR. With all the talk on steroids, do we now question if Shea is on the juice? He reportedly put on 20-25 pounds of muscle during the offseason. Would the steroid question even arise with Shea if he weren't having such a good year? So does everyone having a good year come under scrutiny?

The Celtics revealed their Shaw's summer plans.

Nice to see Terry O'Reilly's number retired to the rafters. One of the truly great Bruins, as well as one of the most humble sports figures you'll come across. Terry mentioned in an interview that maybe his number could hang a little lower that Orr's and Bourque's.

Tony Maz says you gotta give up something to get something. So it's either great weather or great baseball when it comes to San Diego vs. Boston. You know we don't have the weather. Tony makes a hidden comment about looking at the girls while he is out there. Somehow I never picked Tony as the type to stop and take a double take at a hot girl.

Tom Krasovic comments that if the Sox brought the Green Monster with them, maybe the Padre's win last night since Hillenbrands HR would have been off the wall.

Random thought.... With all the talk in the NBA about how players will choose which team to sign with depending on the weather, why don't we hear that more in baseball? After all, baseball is played outside (for the most part). Why is weather such a big deal for a sport that plays it's games inside? We hear Duncan is going to Orlando because he likes the weather. Did the city of Orlando build an outdoor court for the Magic to play their home games? I know basketball is a winter sport and guys spend much of their time in the city of the team they play for, but it just seems too much is made of the weather. Why don't more baseball players want to play in San Diego? 75 degrees all the time, sunny, no humidity..... sounds great! But you never hear that in baseball. Is it simply a case of money? The Padres don't have a ton of money but they have enough. You'd think if a marquee guy wanted to play there, they'd have the money to sign him.
Just a thought....

Although Nomar jokes that he is more worried about the World Cup, Dwight Evans says he has been the backbone of this years Red Sox team.

Jerry Remy is getting his due as he has been called upon to do three nationally televised games in the coming weeks. No one is more deserving. Remy is one of the best broadcasters in the game today, and we are lucky to hear him so often in Boston. Amazing that a guy as terrible as Joe Morgan still has a National job when guys like Remy are out there.

Pats tickets go on sale on next Saturday, June 29th.

Michael Silverman tells us that Rolando Arrojo has been rejuvenated by his return to a starting role. My question is how long will it last? Doesn't it seem like Arrojo gets bored about a month after any assignment he is given? Remember when he was pulled from the starting lineup last year? We were all told it was because he didn't have the focus to last 6 innings or more. Sox management was hoping that bringing him in for an inning or two would help him stay focused. How many more starts will he go before he is pulled and we are fed the line again?

There's a couple of pretty good articles in the San Diego Union Tribune today about the Sox. One features Larry Lucchino while the other takes a look at Rickey Henderson. Rickey remembers a standing ovation in his first ever San Diego at bat, which still brings tears to his eyes.

For anyone not aware, the Globe has a pretty good gimmick running with regards to Pedro's starts. Pedro-Ball is what they call it. You enter your name and then pick how many Hits, Walks, Strikeouts, and Earned Runs Pedro will have in his start. If you guess all 4 correctly, you win $100 bucks. The winner in his last start was James Rotiroti of North Easton. Congratulations James.