What's that you say, Youk? The Sox lost 10-11 to the Astros... after coming from behind to take a 9-6 lead? That Jon Lester gave up five runs in one inning, and that Manny Delcarmen blew the save?

Yeah, we know how you feel.

I knew it.

From the ProJo:

Days after Houston Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon tackled general manger Ed Wade in the home clubhouse at Minute Maid Park, the visitors clubhouse was the scene of another player-club employee altercation Saturday afternoon.

Manny Ramirez shoved Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick to the ground in an argument over Ramirez' ticket allotment. Several onlookers moved quickly to separate the two.

Ramirez had asked McCormick for 16 tickets for Saturday night's Red Sox-Astros game, an unusually high number for day-of-game. In addition to handling all travel details for clubs, traveling secretaries also take player ticket requests for both home and away games.

When McCormick cautioned Ramirez that he might not be able to fulfill his request, Ramirez responded by shouting: "Just do your job!"

An argument insued and Ramirez pushed McCormick, sending him to the ground.

Here are a couple of little Red Sox tidbits and ephemera from Sports Illustrated over the last couple of months, which I have shamefully and wantonly neglected to post in a timely fashion.

Josh Beckett was not very pleased with his performance yesterday afternoon in Houston (and his failure to put down a successful bunt with 1 out in the sixth inning, and runners on 1st and 3rd)... and the dugout bench paid the price.

At least one of the Red Sox pitchers' bats was finally put to some good use.

Any excuse to link to Fire Joe Morgan is a good excuse - and the upcoming series with the Rays is just such an excuse.

Jose Mota loves him some "aggressive", "National League style" baseball.

National League-style baseball: "Wow. So exciting."

I have heard and seen the expression so many times from announcers and in print, referring to a small handful of American League teams that seemingly exploit an opponent's weaknesses in a different manner than the typical A.L. team.

But to me, there isn't a clear distinction between so-called league "styles." The leagues are more alike than the average fan realizes.

Several A.L. teams have adopted the so-called N.L. approach. The Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays are at the top of the list.

"It's just downright a more alert way of playing the game from the offensive side: Execution to the max," Rays manager Joe Maddon told me, and I couldn't agree more.

Do you think Rays manager Joe Maddon put up an inspirational poster of like Yosemite's Half Dome in the clubhouse with the inspirational phrase "EXECUTION TO THE MAX" written in an inspirational font?

I do.

I'm never going to be able to watch the Rays, or read about the Rays, or see the words "Tampa Bay Rays" in print again without automatically thinking, "EXECUTION TO THE MAX!" This quote should always be said really excitedly, either in a creepy corporate seminar voice - or in a valley girl accent. Either option works equally well.

It's already been eight - er, seven and a half - long year since the beginning of the new millennium, and so naturally VH1 has already put together a retrospective called "I Love The New Millennium". Thank goodness - it's been so long, I'd forgotten what happened... in 2007.

In any event, VH1 wisely saw that the Red Sox' World Series victory was one of the biggest stories of 2004 - and so that got its own segment on the "2004" episode. As a special Tuesday morning treat, here's video of the segment.

The ESPYs are yet another in a long line of award shows, that seemed to be created in attempt to Hollywood-ize every industry possible... or at least those industries that people will tune in to watch awards shows for on television.

But just because they're meaningless doesn't mean they're not fun to win. And the Red Sox are nominated in a bunch of the categories for the 2008 ESPY Awards later this month. As I posted before, David Ortiz will also be one of the presenters.

Best Team
Boston Red Sox
New York Giants
Boston Celtics
Kansas Men's Basketball
Tennessee Women's Basketball
Detroit Red Wings

Best Moment
Central Washington Vs. Western Oregon Softball
Jon Lester's No-Hitter
Danica Patrick Wins

Best Coach-Manager
Terry Francona, Boston Red Sox
Tom Coughlin, New York Giants
Pat Summitt, Tennessee Women's Basketball
Doc Rivers, Boston Celtics

Best Championship Performance
Venus Williams, 2007 Wimbledon
Josh Beckett, 2007 Baseball Playoffs
Rafael Nadal, 2008 French Open
Tiger Woods, 2008 U.S. Open

Best Baseball Player
Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees
Josh Beckett, Boston Red Sox
Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia Phillies
Jake Peavy, San Diego Padres
C.C. Sabathia, Cleveland Indians

Hummer "Like Nothing Else Award"
Manny Ramirez
Sidney Crosby
Ashley Force
George Martin

Obviously the Hummer "Like Nothing Else" Award is clearly the most vaunted award of the bunch - how could you not be honored to be nominated in that category? The prestigious "we needed to name an award after our sponsor, so how about this one for general sports excellence in one particular situation judging based on random criteria?". Manny was nominated because of that single high-five double-play... George Martin, the former NFL player, walked over 3,200 miles and raised over $2 million dollars for the Ground Zero efforts in NYC. Those two achievements are totally compatible and definitely belong in the same category!

Tim Wakefield is looking a liiiiiiiitle rough these days.

Either that, or the ESPN crew last week made an error with their graphics. But surely that can't be the case.

Happy 34th Birthday to the Mayor!

The happy, happy, joy, joy clown party hat just seemed appropriate for Sean.

Peter Bendix at Beyond the Box Score posted an interesting look at the strength of schedule of the top AL East contenders (Sox, Yanks, Rays). With the Rays sitting atop the division standings, they obviously have the best W-L record in the East -- but Peter found that they've also arguably played the toughest schedule along the way. The Sox have also played a comparably tough schedule -- and the Yankees lucked out with a relatively easy schedule of opponents during the first half of the season.

Tampa Bay Rays: 51-32 / .614% (68 games against clubs with .500+ record)
Boston Red Sox: 50-36 / .581% (65 games against clubs with .500+ record)
New York Yankees: 44-40 / .524% (41 games against clubs with .500+ record)

Looking forward to the second half of the season, the tables will turn -- the Rays will gain the benefit of a much easier schedule, the Yankees will face a significantly tougher slate of opponents, and the Red Sox can look forward to a slightly easier run.

Perhaps most telling: the Yankees have already played out their series with the Royals, Mariners and Indians, and will no longer have those opponents to feast on. Of course this also means that the surging Rays are on the downhill slope, and will be looking to cruise on through to the postseason.

Now this is how you do a Rays-Sox rivalry article. Concise. Witty. Slightly mean, yet not douchebaggy. But most of all... funny. "Proudly Affleck-free since 1998"? Hilarious. The Varitek jab stings, but it's true... so they got us there. And I definitely support anything that is anti-Fever Pitch. That, my friends, is how it is done.

Are you paying attention, St. Petersburg Times? When even the title of your article in a major print newspaper is unprofessional - not to mention lame and not at all humorous - you need to go back to the drawing board.

Baseball's biggest popularity contest is right around the corner. No, not the ESPYs (although those are fast approaching on the July calendar as well)... the All-Star Game. You might also know it as the annual arbitrary recognition of the player at each position who can shoehorn the most votes out of the general public based on no stated criteria, and featuring a selection process influenced by blatant campaigning from the ballclubs. It's the Homecoming Court for ballplayers, except largely chosen by "the fans" - people bored and/or inebriated enough to bother filling out the ballot... always an accurate barometer for sorting baseball's wheat from the chaff.

Today marks the final day that Joe Q. Public can vote for the 2008 MLB All-Star Game roster. And despite the fact that All-Star selection process is often nothing short of a dog and pony show, there are still plenty of good reasons to get involved and vote - ranging from the logical to the juvenile. There's something for everyone!

So here they are, the Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Vote For The All-Stars:

1. Counteract The Masses
There are plenty of folks out there who believe that All-Star appearances bear some kind of statistical relevancy to a ballplayer's legacy, and help conclusively prove any given player's dominating skill at his position. Even with an ASG selection system based on popularity (and one that mandates every club must have someone on the team, no matter how mediocre), pundits and fans alike continue to cite All-Star appearances as a criteria for Cooperstown. So long as those people exist, it is the right - nay, the duty - of every logical and right-thinking baseball fan to vote based on actual skill and merit to counteract the drunken frat boy ballots.

2. Rage Against the Machine
If helping the All-Star voting process to become more legitimate doesn't motivate fans to vote, how about the complete opposite reasoning? Voting nonsensically to exploit the ridiculousness of the whole thing. See how many different alternate personas you can create, each with their own hotmail or gmail account. Foil the sponsors dastardly plans to fool voters into forgetting to check the "do not contact me over email" box on the balloting form, and load them up with useless email addresses. Vote to get Julio Lugo the starting shortstop roster slot. You know, general insanity like that.

3. Relive Your Childhood
Remember what it was like to snag a ballot at the ballpark, and punch out the little circles next to the names of your favorite players? If you were lucky, you'd get a nice usher who would slip you several ballots, and you could go town - punching out a whole bunch of ballots, and making it rain with paper chads. The 2008 version of that unforunately involves clicking buttons on a computer keyboard... but you could always concoct your own homemade ballot out of notebook paper, complete with hanging chads.

4. Or Just Act Like A Child
Go all out with the ridiculousness, and vote based on whatever random criteria you please. Vote for the All-Stink Team. Vote for the roster of guys all born in the state of Florida. Vote for the players with the cutest smiles. Vote for guys whose names all start with the letter "C"... Coco Crisp is finally a shoo-in!

5. Blatant Homerism
If the other four reasons aren't compelling, why not vote based on the simplest reason of all: blatant homerism. If I'm going to be forced to watch two teams of ballplayers duke it out in a largely meaningless exhibition game, with a roster selected based on popularity and not particularly based on merit, I'd much rather watch the guys from the Red Sox. Plus, if there's any chance I could somehow, in some small way, contribute to denying players I dislike (or players from teams I dislike) a spot on the All-Star roster, that's just an added (alebeit admittedly juvenile) bonus. Is it too late to band together and keep A-Rod off the roster?

As my Dad always said: close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Almost holding on to a 3-run lead? Doesn't count.
Almost hitting for the cycle? Doesn't count.
Almost getting 3 outs, instead of earning 3 runs? Doesn't count.
Almost coming from behind to win the ballgame in the 9th? Doesn't count.
Almost keeping the Rays from sweeping? Doesn't count.

Somebody needs to post a giant, posterboard-sized calendar on the wall of the visitor's clubhouse tonight in the Bronx to remind the guys that we've officially entered July, and there's no more June swoon allowed. (I'm looking at you, BA/OBP of certain members of the lineup... and you, majority of the bullpen.)

Oh, and one more observation...

Almost winning with class and walking away with dignity? Doesn't count.