It sure is nice not to see Offerman in the lineup, isn't it? No more automatic outs. No more stupid baserunning plays. Dan Shaughnessy breaks out his 'piece of junk' statement again, only he says it was too kind. He's probably not too far off considering the tantrum that Offerman threw when told he was cut. Mike Port is right on with these comments: ''If I do say so, the thought I had was that for millions of dollars a year, [it was just] a day's inconvenience.'' You couldn't be more right, Mike. If I got 6.5 million, I wouldn't mind going out of my way for one day. Massarotti covers the story for the Herald.

Despite the loss, it was a great debut for Cliff Floyd. 2 doubles and on base 4 times. In a normal game, that type of performance is often the difference. Tony Maz also looks at the trade.

Nick Cafardo looks in depth at Bill Russell's visit to Patriots camp, including quotes from Pats players.
''I rank that up there with the birth of my daughters and the Super Bowl. I shook Bill Russell's hand,'' said Milloy.

Milloy is also excited to face Drew Bledsoe twice this year. ``Those two games, for me . . . There are only a few guys that I really, really respect in this league. And the way I work is, if I respect you, you're going to get my best. And that's what I'm going to do with him. I'm going to want to kick his ass, basically.''

I guess until the Celtics season starts, we'll get a Vin Baker article once every few days. You can only read so much about a player, but we are still being submitted to the articles. Shira Springer regurgitates the information today. I hope the Vin Baker trade works out as much as anyone, but I don't see how knowing what restaurant he eats at affects me.

Bill Simmons chronicles Mike Myers in the Halloween movies. The Bob Ryan quotes in particular are hilarious. Picture Bob Ryan with all his mannerism's and gestures saying those things. Great job by Simmons to capture that.

Kind of a minor gaffe by 1510 The Zone this afternoon. Around 6:30 Butch Stearns broke the news that the Red Sox had released Jose Offerman. Butch proceeded to go into a long rant about how real sports stations give you news as it happens and you don't have to wait to find out about it. The reference was that WEEI does not fill in their listeners as quickly as The Zone does. The problem is, WEEI had announced the release of Offerman at 6:05. It is important to make sure you have a point before you try and make one.

Bill Belichick continues to be the master of motivation. Bill Russell appeared before the team today to talk to them about how to be successful while trying to repeat as champions. The team gave Russell 2 standing ovations.

Big win for the Sox last night. With the Yankees losing, they obviously pick up a game there. But winning or losing last night was the difference between either being tied or being 2 down in the wild card race. Very important to take care of business like that when you have the chance. The Sox easily could have swept too. They handled the Angels pretty easily.

Gordon Edes column is suspicious today. Edes brings up the possibility that the Sox getting Cliff Floyd was a conspiracy. The problem is he never gives any evidence. "Some people, many of whom spoke with an accent that comes from living on the East River, smelled a rat," says Edes. Well who are these people Gordon? Where are their quotes? Or maybe you are just trying to stir something up here. Throw it at the wall and see if it sticks? Bad journalism there. Michael Gee says the same thing, but you expect it out of Gee since he is the worst writer in town.

Tony Maz, on the other hand, sees the trade for what it is. A great deal by the Red Sox. Nothing more, nothing less. He also gives Clifford a new nickname, "Clifford the Big Red Sock". That's pretty good. Gotta give Tony credit there.

The Yankees weigh in on the trade, including Georgy Porgy. He should never complain about anything under any circumstance, and yet he finds a way too. ``If Major League Baseball owns Montreal and they get (Floyd) and (three) weeks later they trade him to our biggest competitor, that's hard to believe,'' Steinbrenner told The Post yesterday. ``What's that say?'' Just shut up George.

The Sox also picked up reliever Bobby Howry from the White Sox yesterday. Is there something behind the scenes here too Gordon?

Let me state first that I was dead wrong about last nights game. I am forced to eat my words once again. Just a great game by Petey.

Secondly, I don't know too much about Cliff Floyd. I'll have to do some research. I do know that he has not been hot lately. We'll hear a lot about his 21 HR's. But only 9 of those have come since May 1st. I certainly think he can help, but where does he play? Do you DH Manny? Split the DH'ing between Cliff and Manny? Cliff has stated he is not comfortable at first base. Maybe you make him get comfortable. The Globe has had some trouble with their links lately. Many times a link will lead to the wrong article. That is the case with their Cliff Floyd article today on the main sports page. You have to go into the Red Sox section and then click the link before it will bring you to the correct article.

Gordon Edes approves of the trade. Apparently, one of Pedro's nicknames for Floyd is 'Papaya Head'. We can only hope that name sticks. What if people brought papaya's to the game and threw them on the field after Floyd's HR's? Like Montreal used to do with 'Oh Henry' bars for Henry Rodriguez. Pedro still wants the team to get Bartolo Colon. Probably unlikely now. The Sox would probably be accused of something if they make 2 trades with Montreal in 2 days.

As stated, Pedro was masterful. From the article: "Martinez is now 7-0 with a 1.28 ERA in his last eight starts, dating back to mid-June." Wow.

The yo-yo that is Tim Wakefield will be making his fifth start of the year tonight. Grady Little says it is probably only temporary.

Charlie Weiss talks about his surgery in Kevin Mannix's column today. Weiss says there is no way he would do it again if he had the decision to make over again.
``I know that physical appearance comes into play (when owners hire head coaches), but in no way would that be my main priority in having something this dramatic done. This wasn't elective surgery for me. I did it because I should have had it done, not because I wanted it. It just didn't turn out right.''
``People can talk about Weight Watchers, but guess what? I've done all those things only to gain the weight back. (Having gastric reduction) was a lifetime decision.''
I personally know people who have had this surgery. It is not the simple procedure most people think it is. It is something that takes a long time to recover from and has a lot of risks. I hope everything works out for Charlie. Michael Smith of the Globe also discusses this.

In the Patriots Notebook (Michael Smith), Willie McGinest is featured. He is healthy and looks to make a big impact this year. Also a piece on Tebucky Jones, who Belechick calls the Troy Brown of the defense. Has a guy ever been coached worse than Tebucky was by Pete Carroll? Or was it just that Tebucky needed time to grow into his role?

The good news just doesn't stop flowing from the Bruins. Kyle McLaren has spoken again, but only to say there is no chance of him resigning with the B's. ``We've asked for a trade and we're going to stick to it,'' said McLaren. ``I'm not going to back down and sign a deal I don't want to sign. We made the request and now we're just hoping for them to do something with it.''

Michael Holley is still having trouble understanding the Vin Baker deal. Join the club Michael. No one will really understand what this trade means until the season starts and we see how the team pans out. Until then, it's just one person's opinion against another's.

We will also see instant replay next year in the NBA. It will basically only be used for last second shots.

Not good news for the Sox tonight. Ramon Ortiz has dominated them throughout his short career. Even with Pedro pitching tonight, there is not a good feeling surrounding this game. Ortiz always seems to pitch better when going against Pedro, who he idolizes. Check out this stat: Johnny Damon, Trot Nixon, and Nomar are a combined 1 for 34 lifetime against Ortiz. Yikes.

I have made it clear in the past that I am not a Denis & Callahan fan. More reason for this has emerged this week. Most people have heard about the fund raiser over the weekend where a portion of route 128 was shut down for a lot of motorcycles to ride. The highway was shut down for about an hour but the event raised money for the Ronald McDonald house. Evidently, Gerry got stuck in traffic because of the event and has been harping on it ever since.

The thing is... he sounds very pompous and complainy, as if he is better than everyone else and he should not have to sit in traffic ever. A number of callers have called in to tell D&C this very thing, but they either hang up on them or make fun of them. The one caller that sticks in my mind commented on the coal miners in PA being rescued recently. He tried to tell Gerry that he needs to get his priorities straight. D&C proceeded to make comments saying that the guy must be on his way to pick up his welfare check and that there is no way he could have a job. How they deduced that from the gentlemen's comments is beyond me.
The thing is, D&C both feel they are above everyone else. When they fell threatened, they resort to name calling and insults. They are afraid of subjects they don't know anything about, so they just make fun of it. They are impossible to listen to and it's a shame. I doubt if 10 people could e-mail me to say that they honestly enjoy D&C's "Headlines" segment. I challenge anyone to e-mail me if you truly enjoy it. I doubt I will receive those e-mails because those types of people do not exist. How long can we go on listening to Gerry say how he wants convicts to get the death penalty and how he wants to watch and he would push the button and he hopes they get raped in prison...... GIVE IT A REST GERRY!! You are so in over your head. You hardly know anything about sports... what makes you think you are an expert on anything else?

One other thing Gerry.. I hope you get stuck in traffic on your way home today.

I was at the FleetBoston Classic over the weekend and I will say this... If kids or even anyone in general is going to look up to a pro athlete as a role model, it should be a professional golfer. I have never been around a group of athletes who were so considerate, kind, and modest. I believe that the majority of golfers are like this. Instead of making a throat slashing motion(basketball) or spiking the ball(football) or breaking into a brawl(baseball), they simply tip their cap and move onto the next hole after making a good shot. I watched Arnie Palmer pitch in from 160 yards out for an eagle and he didn't break into a celebratory dance. All weekend long, I heard nothing about salary caps or luxury taxes. It was sport the way it was meant to be, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend that anyone who has not been to a pro golf tourney go to the next one that you have thge chance to.

Jim Baker on ESPN discusses the week in preview. He points out that the Sox are 1 of 5 teams that have a better road record than home record. Interestingly, all 5 teams are in 2nd place. Sean McAdam previews the AL playoff race. Why would MLB talk to Mike Hargrove about the brawl but not Grady Little?

I had heard rumblings from people holding put hope that the C's would somehow deal for Andre Miller. It appears that will not happen as the Cavs have shipped Miller to Clipper-land.

If you want to take the ESPN IQ test, click here. I somehow managed a score of 15. The National average is 13. Don't get stumped by the Rich Garces question.

An interesting Anna Kournikova picture here. I wonder if anyone can explain it?

The Patriots are # 8 in the list of the 10 most shocking moments in NFL history.