It's begining to look a lot like baseball

Anyone watch the new last night? They had RED SOX HIGHLIGHTS. Of course, it wasn’t an actual game, it was Beckett, Delcarmen, Lester, and Papelbon playing CATCH. That’s right, catch, with an actual baseball and glove. After a winter of hot stove talk and “10 questions about the Red Sox” columns, I’ll take it gladly. I was at the gym when they showed the sports part of the news (I know, the gym, I’ve been so bored that I have gone to the gym the past two days to kill time). Anyways, Josh is sporting some new facial hair, which, I’m still up in the air about. Papelbon has some long on top, short on the sides thing going on (it’s not quite a party in the back yet, but well on its way). And, best news of all, Jon Lester looked tanned and healthy, which is so great.

Here’s some good quotes from Amalie Benjamin’s blog…

With a cap on, hiding his still growing-in hair, Jon Lester appeared almost like his old self today at the minor league complex. Lester was one of the first few to arrive in Fort Myers, where he's been for about a week already, as his strength and mechanics work back into the shape they were in before he was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma last season. He threw a session on the mound wearing a black T-shirt that read "it's a strong man's game" across the back.

"When I first saw Jon today, I almost didn't recognize him because I didn't expect him to look that good," said Jonathan Papelbon, after arriving today for the first time. "Look the same old Jonny to me. Obviously I've said prayer after prayer for him this off season, me and my wife. It's just awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome to see him come back from that. The fight that he's gone through, you know, it's just amazing. For me that's the kind of teammate I want, somebody that's never going to give up, somebody that's going to go out there and bust his butt to succeed and bust his butt to get where he wants and deserves. That was awesome, almost like a pick-me-up."

"It's a strong man's game"

Also within the blog, a story how Papelbon spend his off season hunting with Eli Manning among others. How do they know each other? Too bad there wasn’t a Dick Cheney like accident. (just kidding – think of how many less jokes there would be in the world without Eli around. It would even be hard to make fun of Peyton for not winning a big game. Oh, wait, never mind. That is it! That was my last Patriots related comment till the draft. Or the combine. Or until they tag Asante and he holds out.)

Also, Lester had changed his number from 62 to 31, Delcarmen from 57 to 17, Kyle Snyder from 52 to 39. Those three are all very lucky I am not currently an owner of their jersey. I wonder if Lester wore 31 in HS or something, seeing that 62 is 31 + 31 and then they didn’t have it available when he got here. I think he wore 62 in Portland too though. This is why I need to be a Red Sox reporter. Because I would get to the bottom of these important topics. Lenny DiNardo also reported yesterday. Also known as the second hottest Red Sox employee at Hot Stove Cool Music.

Matsuzaka arrived in Tampa last night.

Some good Lester stories out there today by Gordon Edes and Jeff Horrigan.

The Padres signed a minor league deal with a Marine who lost a finger in Iraq...

Marty's out in San Diego...

In other Boston sports news -

- BU won the Beanpot over BC (what else is new?)

- The Celtics are going to attempt to end the skid tonight against the Bucks in Milwaukee.

- 'The Chief' Johnny Bucyk is being honored tonight at the Fleet. (er, TD Banknorth Garden) and Ray, Cam, and friends are expected to be on hand. I saw an ad for this in the paper last week, was going to buy tickets because I thought it would be a fun thing to go to, and promptly forgot about 3.8 seconds later. I got more important things to spend my money on anyway, like, 150 dollar charity event tickets and PawSox games (especially if Lester and DelCarmen are down there) {are you supposed to capitalize the C? I think you are, but I'm not sure.} Okay, I'm rambling...(but who cares! People are throwing balls in Fort Myer's, woohoo!)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to be doing my, "so-much-snow-they-close-my-office" dance all day long in my beautiful gray cubicle. I also thing that I am going to take down all my Patriots stuff in my cube today. It is depressing me. (okay, that is the last time I write about the Patriots).