Manny Ramirez took another giant step in his storied career toward his inevitable inclusion one day with the baseball immortals at Cooperstown with a 7th inning home run off of the Orioles' Chad Bradford for his career home run number 500 in the Red Sox 6-3 win at Camden Yards on Saturday night.

And I missed the whole thing, as I picked last night as the evening to check out the new Indiana Jones movie with a dear friend of mine in Brooklyn. (BTW, it's a good movie. Rather hokey in parts, but still quite enjoyable.) After the film I got a text message from my sister, who was there with her husband and my two nephews. That's how I found out about Manny making history.

The New England Patriots just keep on rolling, and they took another opponent out to the woodshed, this time it was the Buffalo Bills. On Sunday night, they just beat them to a pulp, the final score being 56-10.

They are taking no prisoners right now, and are literally in a class by themselves. They are 10-0, and the 1972 Miami Dolphins players may not have any champagne celebration toasts this year.

His five goal performance still fresh on the sports highlight shows some 24 hours later, Marian Gaborik is getting rave reviews and comparisons to some of the greats of hockey who also achieved quintuple success on the ice.

Made from golden lions and lightsabers.

It's not like I've never been called a homer before, so here's one last homer post for Brett.

Dear Brett,
I want to thank you. Throughout my entire football life you've been the starting QB of my favorite team since I can remember (it all started when I was only 4). Growing up my Dad and I rarely missed a Packers' game and my love for the Packers essential stems from my love of watching you play the game. You were so fun to watch and you played the game like it should be played, like a little kid who's having fun. You've always been my favorite player growing up, having to defend my fandom to all the Vikings fans at school. But it didn't bother me, because I knew that they'd never win a Super Bowl anyways. You've always been my favorite player and you always will be.

So the baseball season is officially into full swing now. After struggling early it seems like the predicted front runners are now a top of their division after a tumultuous start. Everyone except New Yorks duo of high paid and high powered teams. Yes you can throw the Tigers struggling in that mix too. But for Detroit this is new territory. They haven't been outright picked to be a World Series contender in years,while the Mets and Yankees have. As of May 7th both the Mets and Yankees are a combine one game over .500. The New York Mets are sitting at 17-15 and a 1.5 behind the surprising first place Florida Marlins. Johan Santana has only won three of his seven starts this season.

The Red Sox came to terms today with free agent first baseman Sean Casey. They signed a one-year, $800,000 deal with the former Reds, Tigers and Pirates player.

Last year, in a poll of Major League baseball players, Casey, known in baseball circles as "The Mayor," was overwhelmingly voted "The Nicest Guy in Baseball." He's always had a rep for being a nice, chatty guy. Curt Schilling said Casey is "the nicest human being on the planet."
He figures to take over the backup first base position that Eric Hinske held last year, and should be the lead pinch-hitter off the bench. Casey hit .296 with the Detroit last season in 143 games, and is a career .301 hitter.
I'd love to see the Red Sox give him the number he wore in Cincinnati: 21. To the best of my knowledge, the last signiificant player of the team to wear that number was Mike Torrez, right?

Although I'm exhausted from a busy day of sports. I'm going to give you some quick thoughts on what I saw today before I hit the sack.

-Upsets galore in Tampa Bay kept me entertained all day. I love march madness!
-The biggest surprise to me was how Sienna beat Vanderbilt. I did not see that coming, especially in the way that it happened.
-I was so impressed with Tyrone Brazelton's intelligent play under pressure. Not only did he turn in a great game with 33 points, but I was most impressed by how he got the ball up the floor quickly and made the smart pass back to the inbound man for the buzzerbeater. I felt bad for Drake. They had a dream season this year. But after seeing that I didn't even mind my bracket being busted!
-Sir Alexander Ovechkin is a really good player. It is still amazing to me how a team can be so bad that they have a player score 60 goals in one year and still be fighting for the 8th and final playoff spot in the NHL.
- I love the WKU Hilltopper mascot (The Red dot)

I'm not quite sure if it seems like only yesterday, or if it seems like ages ago that Patriots Linebacker Tedy Bruschi suffered a stoke and experienced a brush with death. I was just thinking about this just the other day and I couldn't believe that the media was too busy talking about Tom Brady's ankle to give a great story like this some pub.

I watched the Red Sox-Dodgers game from Ft. Myers on ESPN today. It was an interesting game, as the Red Sox led most of the way. But of course in early spring training games, the stars disappeared after just a few innings, leaving the guys with what I call, the "football numbers." You know, the guys wearing numbers in the 80s and 90s who will be on their way to minor league camp soon.

The Red Sox were ahead 5-2 in the ninth, when we saw two Red Sox pitchers, who will probably only be in Fenway Park if they pay their way in someday, give up seven runs on two home runs to two guys on the Dodgers also wearing football numbers. Not exactly the dictionary definition of a tough loss.

Canada plays host to the World this spring, as the World Hockey Championships arrive on Canadian soil for the first time in their 100 year history.

Team Canada opens up its training camp in late April with the first game of the tournament set for May 2nd in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Steve Yzerman and Luc Robitaille have been tapped as two thirds of a trio to oversee the creation of the Canadian team. A squad that Hockey Canada hopes will lay claim to the championship on home ice, something that hasn’t happened in seven years now.

A hockey player that is thinking of the fantasy pool players, it's a strange little world that hockey exists in nowadays.
Marian Gaborik has made a bit of news in the last few days after his apology for his low production numbers this year, an apology that he has made to the fantasy pool players of the world. While he's had injury problems of his own this year, he still casts an eye to the bench and up into the executive boxes for the dearth of scoring from the Wild.

No doubt fairly secure that he's still set to receive the bulk of the work in the Calgary nets, it would seem that the arrival of Curtis Joseph isn't going to weigh too much on the mind of Miikka Kiprusoff

The much discussed arrival of Calgary's insurance policy has been the talk of the city and the Flames dressing room for that matter, as Joseph arrived in town to settle in for his time down the stretch with the Flames.

When the Dolphins hired Bill Parcells to run the show everybody knew what they were getting. Hard-nosed, big, and tough is what Parcells brings to the table. But where do you draw the line between old fashioned and Hard-nosed, and just downright stupid.

I think the line has been crossed. Tony Sparano is the man the Bill Parcells made head coach to help instill his style of play into his team. Tony Sparano is also the man who just recently called out the Dolphins' best player, Jason Taylor.
Sparano recently escalated the feud going on between the team and Jason Taylor by saying,

1. Drowning Ruth By Christina Schwarz 4/5 stars
2. Thunderstruck By Eric Larson 3.75/5 stars
3. Belly Laughs 3.5/5 stars

This year I decided to try the 50 book challenge, which I totally thought I could do. However, here it is December 1st and I still have seven books to go!!!

The bad blood between the Bruins and Flyers apparently won't be ending anytime soon, this after yet another dangerous hit resulted in yet another Boston player to be helped from the ice, not to return to action on Monday night.

It's good to see that even during the Yuletide season, the Long Tail is in full effect. Just take a look at the Christmas 'classics' that have reappeared in the UK hit parade (it's still called that, right?) in the run up to the big day.

In a related note to Thursday's BBT (thanks to Jamie)

Your Quirk Factor: 36%
You have a few little quirks, but you generally blend in well with society.
Only those who know you well know how weird you can be.How Quirky Are You?

That's probably about right.

An interesting diversion from the usual hockey fare, some video from the LiveLeak portal of the Red Wings plane, stuck in mud on a stretch of airport apron.

Judging by the look of the plane, it's no wonder that many players want to sign on with the Red Wings, this is one franchise that knows how to treat its players.

Also might explain how the team manages to stay near the top of the heap year after year, how many hours do they save per season by having their own jet. At least, how many hours do they save when the plane doesn't go off the runway.

As I watched the NFL Draft the past two days, I just hoped that the Chiefs would bring in someone that would make the Jared Allen trade worth while. I was maybe one of the only Chiefs fans not happy with the trade, and while I still am not 100 percent happy with the move, I definitely can live with it now.

First Round

The playoff like atmosphere in GM Place on Saturday night began with the pre game skate and continued right through until the very last shot of an Overtime shoot out.
In between was played, perhaps one of the more entertaining Saturday night games of the season so far.
The Pittsburgh Penguins brought the Sidney Crosby travelling road show to the Pacific coast on Saturday night and the sold out crowd at GM Place was not denied.

The NHL has announced most of the finalists for their major awards, which will be given in June in Toronto. Here are my picks:

Norris Trophy (Best Defenseman): Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings
This one is pretty much a given in my opinion. Lidstrom is second in the league in plus/minus, and he receives a ton of ice time for the team who allowed the second least goals in regular season play. Lidstrom also led all NHL defensemen in points with 70, and is 5th in the entire league with 60 assists.

Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year): Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks

I saw a report this morning over at WasWatching, a good Yankee fan site, that said that Kevin Kennedy, onetime Red Sox manager and now a Fox broadcaster, claims to have a colleague who saw a Red Sox player on the 2004 championship team using performance-enhancing drugs. Steve, who runs the site, said he heard Kennedy make the claim on his XM radio show yesterday. From WasWatching (http://www.waswatching.com):

Kevin Kennedy said that a current colleague of his, who was with the Boston Red Sox in 2004, told him that he (the colleague) witnessed, for a fact, a member of the '04 Red Sox injecting himself in the buttocks with a needle full of PEDs. Kennedy said that the user is no longer a member of the Red Sox - but, he was a player on the team that won the ring in 2004. As per Kennedy, his colleague said that the "user" was giving a demo (to the "colleague") on how to do the injection.

Tuesday night was the night for Dany boy, as Dany Heatley held the hot hand, putting on a one man show against the Boston Bruins. By the time the eastern division match up was complete, Heatley would be counting three goals and an assist on the scoring sheet, as he was involved in all of the Ottawa Senators scoring.

Tomorrow afternoon, the baseball writers will announce their choices (if any) for the 2008 class for the Baseball Hall of Fame. There are a few worthy candidates on this year's ballot, and one I really hope finally gets the call is one James Edward Rice.

With all the hubbub going on about "The Steroids Era" and The Mitchell Report, this should work into Jim Rice's favor this season. He was simply one of the best hitters of his era, and a bit underappreciated. His vote totals have gone up in recent years (even if they did recede slightly last year), as many writers have taken a second look at his accomplishments.

Colorado Avalanche fans have found that the Christmas cheer has quickly gone out of the season as word was released on Thursday that Avalanche captain Joe Sakic will have hernia surgery on Friday and may miss up to twelve weeks of action.

Sakic was sidelined Dec. 1 at Los Angeles because of a groin problem and when the situation did not respond to treatment further examination was called for, which resulted in the diagnosis of a hernia and the need for surgery to repair the problem.

It was one of the more bizarre days in the history of the Boston Red Sox today, with the threat of a boycott of the opening series in Japan next week coming out of nowhere. The fact that the team made this threat shows a lot about the character of this team and how much they genuinely care about each other.

They all voted unanimously to not play today against the Blue Jays and not go to Japan if the coaches and training staff was not compensated properly for their trip to Japan as well. Each player on both teams is getting $40,000 a player for going over there, but both the Red Sox and Oakland A's players were under the impression that their coaches and other personnel were be getting a stipend for the trip also. (Remember that MLB rules state that all players get a stipend on all road trips, and I believe coaches and trainers get one as well.)

It's never easy to hear that you're not going to see any action in a pivotal game, even more so when you're young, invincible and feeling as though you've been slighted in a most unfair way.