The Links...

*First off today, some very sad news out of Arizona. Former Red Sox pitcher Rod Beck was found dead in his Arizona home. He was just 38 years old. Foul play is not suspected. Some of the Red Sox remembered Beck yesterday.

*Sportsguy compares Durant and Oden. Will he ever write about baseball or football again? Probably not. He also has a diary of the NHL draft. I know, I'm as surprised as you are.

*The White Sox GM is unhappy with his teams play and is going to make some moves. Rumor has it that the Red Sox are first in line for Mark Buehrle right now. We trade Lester or Jacoby, Theo is going to have a very unhappy SoxGal on his doorstep. The big names that have come up so far are Clay Buchholz, Michael Bowden, Jacoby, and Jed Lowrie. I guess also in the trade the Sox will give Buehrle a 5 year contract extension.

"I'm not a big Buerhle guy at all,” Eckersley said this morning in an interview on Boston sports radio station WEEI. “Talk about pitching to contact. Everybody hits him. The only thing good about him is that it doesn't take very long to pitch a game, one way or another. He throws a lot of strikes. I mean not to get on him, lefthanders have always amazed me how they get by. He knows how to pitch obviously, he threw a no-hitter, he's one of the best lefthanders around. I just... I'm afraid of him. I'm afraid of him because he throws too many strikes. I just, Fenway Park, I really don't know. You're only renting him for a couple of months, but beyond that, I'm just not a big fan of his because I think he's very hittable ... to me [Kason] Gabbard's like Buerhle, but younger and throws harder."

Well, Dennis that is reassuring.

*Oregon State won back to back College World Series.

*Really nice article by Chris Jenkins on how Red Sox fans invade stadiums across the country.

*From Chad Finn, In this space a week ago, we expressed some combination of skepticism and awe at the revelation in Phillies pitcher Jose Mesa's bio that he fathered a child at age 12. Well, it turns out that amid all the small type, as usual we missed the bigger revelation, which is this: Mesa's son Ralph, 12 years his daddy's junior, was apparently his second child. Yup, according to Mesa's official bio, he became a father at age . . . (wait for it) . . . seven. Mesa claims to have been born on May 22, 1966, while his daughter, Yamely, was born January 15, 1974, meaning that the 41-year-old reliever has a 33-year-old offspring. Now, this saga has understandably become something of an internet legend, with theories ranging from Yamely's birthdate being incorrect by a decade to Mesa lying about his age, but no amount of Googling seems to come up with the true story. But don't fret. Our crack staff of researchers here at Nine Innings vows to get to the bottom of this, though frankly, we're not really sure we want to know the answer.

*Josh Beckett has become the man.

*Al Horford impressed the Celtics in workouts. Too bad the worst case scenario happened for the Celtics and we won't have a chance to get him.

*There must be some Twins fans freaking out out there. Justin Morneau is still in the hospital after a home plate collision left him with bruised lungs and coughing up blood, but will hopefully be released today.

*Derek Lowe celebrated 10 years in the majors.

*Ken Griffey Jr. was welcomed back in Seattle with open arms. (hey, he didn't sign with the Yankees.) You got to wonder if things would have gone differently if he had stayed in Seattle.

*Larry also has a sweet myspace page, and a kool-aid designed SUV, and some sweet pictures with Chad Johnson. I really am not quite sure how I should feel about it. (make sure you click on that one)