You know...good, bad, ugly, etcetera, etcetera

Jimmy Foxx was the youngest man to hit 500 career home runs. He was an unstoppable beast by the time he was 30. At 33? Pretty much washed up. After reaching 500 home runs in his early 30's he only hit 34 more homers in his career. I guess you can't call that a sad story, precisely, but it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with better health or dealing better with whatever made him fall off that cliff. Until last night, he alone held the Red Sox single-season home run record, with 50. Big Papi launched a Boof-ball last night to reach 50 of his own. With ten days left, I would suspect Jimmy's going to be in second place before too long. Watching Papi hit that (actually hearing it on the radio and then later watching the highlights) made it tough to believe that he isn't going to be the MVP. The way he just elevates the team and brings the crowd to a frenzy unlike any other player in the game- it's really something to see (well, again, to hear, and then see it repeated every fifteen minutes on NESN).

The other interesting thing about the 50th homer is the number of great Sox hitters that never got there. Jim Rice, Mo Vaughan, Yaz, Manny, and of course Ted Williams. None of them ever hit 50. But Papi did. He crushed them.

Last night's game could actually have been a good one. Thanks to Papi, the Sox were up 2-1 heading into the eighth inning. Schilling pitched a pretty good game for his first time back from the injury corps. Manny Delcarmen got through his work unscathed, as did Foulke. Then came Hansen. Oh my, Craig Hansen. This is the guy who was the unstoppable closer in college? This is the relief ace of our future? This is the guy we wouldn't let go of to have a shot at getting Roy Oswalt at the trade deadline? I'm just not sure what's going on here. It's got to be his head, right? It can't be his stuff. Where's Tewksbury with his Red Sox-logo couch? Hansen needs to find his happy place. Maybe sending him to Thailand to help with the coup would help his confidence.

I still say that Manny Delcarmen holds more near-term potential as a closer. He's got 45 strikeouts in about 53 innings, with only 16 walks. He's allowed a bit too many hits, but he doesn't seem to come unglued as often. I see him taking a larger step forward next year. Speaking of coming unglued, could it possibly be true that the Sox are considering Matt Clement for a closer candidate next year? If there was one pitcher we had that seemed psychologically least suited for that role, it's our friend with the chipmunk on his chin. My suspicion is that the Sox are floating that to convince other teams that we might actually try to use him next year and thus we can trade him for more value rather than just dumping him on someone and eating most of the salary.

So the Yankees, thanks to the Sox late-game collapse, clinched their ninth-straight division title. Remember who won in 1997? The Sox? Nope. The Jays? Nope. The Orioles. They went wire-to-wire behind Mike Mussina, Roberto "Ptooey" Alomar, Rafael Palmiero, and what was left of Cal Ripken. I lived in the DC area that year. That Davey Johnson is not managing in the majors right now is a huge loss for some team.

And now tonight, in order to save a perfect 0-6 season record against the Twins, all the Sox have to do is have Josh Beckett outpitch Johan Santana. Johan Santana who has been 31-2 with a 1.75 ERA in post-all star break pitching since 2004. Johan Santana who may win the first MLB pitching triple crown (wins, strikeouts, ERA) since Dwight Gooden in 1985. Johan Santana who is always #1 in my fantasy baseball draft (well, #2 after Papi). Johan Santana who probably deserves as much MVP consideration as Jeter or Ortiz, and more than Morneau or Mauer. That Johan Santana. Think Beckett can do it? I'm thinking no-hitter. Guess who I'm predicting throws it.

Oh, one more- Johan Santana who is a free agent after the 2008 season. Memo to John Henry: Starting saving pocket change today.