BOSTON BLUES: It was quite a bizarre sports weekend in Boston this Labor Day, even by usual, self-loathing Beantown-fan standards. First we saw a sight- Roger Clemens tipping his Yankees cap and being cheered in Fenway Park- that as recently as a week ago looked about as likely as a Red Sox championship. The occasion was the Rocket Man's final career appearance on Yawkey Way, which happened to coincide with his 100th career Fenway victory.
And in other bizarro Red Sox news, slugger Manny Ramirez is in hot water with the Fenway Faithful because, despite missing last weekend's series against the Yankees, he was spotted at a bar on Saturday night along with Yankee infielder Enrique Wilson. Now as usual, I think the Sox fans have overreacted- after all, Ramirez lives in the Boston-area Ritz Carlton, where the bar was, during the season, and he is said to have not consumed an alcoholic beverage. But as with the Larry Eustachy incident, Manny's biggest crime of all was "fraternizing with the enemy"- namely, a Yankee. Dan Shanoff even suggests the incident will lead to Ramirez' departure from the team.
And in other Red Sox weirdness, this headline: "Martinez' Vicissitudes Keeps (sic) Red Sox Nation on Edge." "Vicissitudes"- that's kind of a big word for the Massholes.
Meanwhile, showing that the strange vibe has extended all the way down to Foxborough, the Patriots today released four-time Pro Bowler Lawyer Milloy, after failing to reach agreement on a restructured, more cap-friendly contract. Now I'm sure there's a good explanation for why they'd dump their team captain, one of the top defensive players in the league, days before the start of the season, without so much as a draft pick in return. But I don't know what that is... therefore, the Pats and their fans will have to adjust to life without the man Steve Rushin called "the second-most famous Lawyer in New England, after Alan Dershowitz."