Catching Up

I've been in Puerto Rico the past four days on the northwest coast, where Internet connectivity was about as common as snow. So rather than post broken gibberish, I decided to wait until I returned to catch up on everything. So let us go back a few days and start with Manny.

The Boston fan in me wants to say "He never did this in Boston!" The reality is that he most likely did. To deny that overwhelming possibility would make me like a delusional Yankee fan thinking A-Rod went clean the second he slipped on the pinstripes. There is a difference between acknowledging this likely reality and wallowing in it like Dan Shaughnessey, who derives equal pleasure from ripping down Manny and shivving Boston fans in the process.

Beyond doubt now, the time period of 1988-2008 will go down as a tainted era, where great feats were achieved thanks to talent combined with illegal PEDs. It's the Era of Cheating, and no one is beyond question anymore.

Make no mistake, it is cheating. Everyone seems to forget that Fay Vincent sent a memo out a long time ago declaring that PED use was a violation of the rules of baseball. And everything that has happened since this time, even with the lack of penalties over the years, has been cheating by any definition.

Now Manny has fallen into this pit and has likely cost himself a shot at the Hall of Fame. It appears that this will be the ultimate penalty for players from this era who have been exposed as PED users. MLB won't touch the record books, but the HoF voters will deny them entry.

Who's left now? Who is the great player of our era that never used PEDs? The one name that stands out it Albert Pujols. His numbers are phenominal and he has never tested dirty. Most of his career has occurred with testing as the norm in the game. But if he ever goes down...then the game will never recover. Pujols is, in many ways, the game's last hope. Fans need to see someone put up numbers based on their talent and will to succeed, and on that alone. And players need to see that as well.

The next big story I couldn't talk about was the passing of Dom DiMaggio. Known as "The Little Professor," he was a lifer with the Sox. He played 11 seasons in Boston, with a break from 1943-45 to serve in the military. He was a seven-time All-Star and one of the better centerfielders in Boston history.

Dom was just shy of a lifetime .300 hitter (.298 for his career). He was a light hitter (only 87 homers for his career) but regularly ranked among AL leaders from year-to-year in hits and runs scored. He was a damn fine ballplayer who had the bad luck to have a brother who was a phenominal ballplayer and never got the widespread recognition he deserved. But Boston fans always loved Dom and never would have traded him for Joe.

Finally we come to the weekend series against the Rays. The Rays have owned the Sox so far in 2009. But Boston was able to grab two of three from Tampa and that hopefully represents a change in Boston's fortune against their new nemesis. Because at this point the Yankees are a distant second in the nemesis category.

Brad Penny and Josh Beckett were able to grind out a couple of quality starts on the bookend games to grab the two wins for the Sox. And truth be told, the Sox should have won the Saturday game as well. But Julio Lugo saw fit to flub yet another key play and spark a six-run Tampa fifth inning to put that game out of reach. Honestly, isn't it abundantly apparent to everyone that Nick Green should be the starter until Jed Lowrie comes back to the team?

And it looks like the Sox will be without their MVP second baseman for just one game. Tito expects Pedroia to start on Wednesday. Nice call on his part; nothing wrong with giving him an extra day's rest when you have an excuse to do so. Otherwise, Pedroia would never take the day off. As it is, you have to drag him off the field when he injures himself.

Tonight begins a six-game road trip through Anaheim and Seattle. I hate these trips; more often than not the Sox end up on the short end of the stick. If they can come through this with a .500 record, I'd consider than a rousing success.