Does any athlete do deadpan comedy as well as Cam Neely? Of course, the Farrellys gave us Neely as the memorable Sea Bass in “Dumb and Dumber,” but the Bruins legend is at his acting best in these classic ESPN spots. Hadn’t seen the first one in years, but it’s an all-time favorite. The second spot…boy, lot of irony in that one.

“You guys want to kick my dog while you’re here?”

Let’s give the Orioles their due. Coming back from a 9-1 deficit isn’t an easy thing to do, and it is indeed one of the shining moments in recent history of this franchise.

So maybe we can cut O's fans some slack for over-romanticizing the evening a bit. Case in point:

Coming soon: "Faith Rewarded...One Night Only."

Let’s see The Batting Stance Guy pull these off:

Here’s Josh Womack, an outfielder with the Long Beach Armada, showing off some crazy bat skills in a pair of clips that have been tearing up the Internet of late.

Alas, Womack, a 2002 draft pick of the Seattle Mariners, only has a .257 career batting average over eight minor league seasons. So, as one commenter asked on FanIQ, “If that guy has that type of hand eye coordination, why can't he hit a baseball?”

After the United States blew a 2-0 halftime lead over Brazil in Sunday’s Confederations Cup soccer final, many compared the loss to blowing a 10-run lead in baseball.

So, we sort of have that now, too.

OK, it was “just” a nine-run lead the Red Sox surrendered last night in the greatest comeback in the history of the Baltimore Orioles. But both events reeked of historic collapse.

To be honest, I wasn’t all that gung-ho about Tim Wakefield’s chances to make the All-Star team. Then, Saturday came along.

Wakefield was brilliant in a 1-0 win over Atlanta, giving up just three hits and a walk over six innings of work. It was the second 1-0 win started by Wakefield in his Red Sox career, the other being a May 30, 1995 victory in Oakland.

That was Wakefield’s second start for Boston. Saturday was his 382nd

Wakefield was 7-1 by the time the Midsummer Classic came in ‘95, but wasn’t really considered for the squad thanks to his limited service that season (his first start didn’t come until May 27). But after dropping his first game on June 14, a 5-3 loss at Toronto, Wakefield whipped off 10 straight victories, a memorable run that petered out with a solid level of inefficiency from there on out.

Almost 200 wins later, Wakefield is finally in the All-Star discussion, though as is often the case with these things, that hardly solidifies him as a candidate.

Just some quick items of note as we head into the weekend...

• Former Globe sorrespondent Justin Rebello had the line of the night in summing up John Smoltz’s first start for the Red Sox last night: “Smoltzuzaka?”

• In breaking down 2009's free agent busts, SI’s Tim Marchman brings us the 2009 resume of one of the nominees, old friend Edgar Renteria:

  Thirty-three and a mediocre defender with an unreal amount of wear on his treads, he has had one year in the last six in which he was something more than a decent hitter, and is thus exactly the sort one doesn't want to tie on to. So of course the San Francisco Giants, who have made a cult of this class of player, signed him for two years and $18.5 million, and have been rewarded by the sight of Renteria trying to keep his slugging average and OBP above .300.

  Beautiful. It’s interesting to note that this is the first season since dealing Renteria to Atlanta after the 2005 season that the Red Sox aren’t paying him not to start for them. They also happen to be paying Julio Lugo not to start for them.

• Peter Gammons breaks down why exactly the Red Sox are likely not in the market for a shortstop as the trading deadline nears:

  "As much speculation as there has been about the Red Sox trading pitching for a shortstop, look at the Red Sox's shortstops versus the league average:"

  

If there were any lingering doubts that Rodney Harrison wouldn’t be a phenomenal NFL commentator, yesterday’s appearance on the Dan Patrick Show should put those to rest.

The former Patriots safety ripped into Packers/Jets/Vikings quarterback Brett Favre, calling the diva “selfish.”

"Each and every offseason bringing so much attention to himself. It's just really a disappointment to hear that time and time again….If you've been in the league 13, 14, 15 years or so you know if you want to play. The circus shouldn't have to go on for three to four years. It's just a disappointment. Then the media they're just so caught up and in love with Brett Favre ... It's ridiculous because a lot of guys are doing good, positive things in the National Football League and those keep things keep getting overlooked."

Good stuff, but it cements the fact that Harrison will never work for ESPN.

You can hear the interview here.

Ellis Burks, Joe Carter, Wally Joyner, Ozzie Smith, and Rick Sutcliffe on a 1990 episode of Family Feud.

You need a more compelling reason to watch?

Hey, look. Rob Neyer doesn’t think a pitcher with one win and an 8.23 ERA will be missed either.

In retrospect, investing $103 million in a pitcher who'd never pitched against most of the best hitters in the world seems at least a little bit risky, right? Particularly a pitcher who had, by all accounts, thrown an immense number of pitches before reaching physical maturity? Oh, and do you remember when Matsuzaka was held up as a shining example of why young pitchers should not be babied?

Dice-K's contract runs through 2012, and there are a lot of things could happen between now and November 2012. But $103 million is an awful lot of money, and if there's one thing I've noticed over the last decade or so, it's that a healthy majority of massive investments wind up looking foolish within a few years.

Maybe that's just the cost of doing business. It's hard to win if you don't spend a great deal of money, and if you spend a great deal of money you're inevitably going to spend some of it (as events transpire) foolishly. But it's still striking, isn't it, how much money the Red Sox, with all their analytical tools, have blown over the last few years?

It’s funny. I’m not quite sure where all the ardent Matsuzaka supporters were prior to his being placed on the disabled list. But suddenly they’re out in force, labeling anything negative said about the guy a “hatchet job.” Neyer and Bob Ryan both seem to be willing to go the “bust” or “failure” route, one I’m not quite willing to take just yet.

But please, can we get a bit of a grip on reality here? Matsuzaka has been a nice No. 3 starter for the Red Sox, nothing more. For $103 million, shouldn’t we be expected to wonder exactly what the Red Sox have on their hands until 2012? Otherwise, we’ll just keep staining our upper lips from the Kool-Aid and singing about gumdrops and lollipops. Maybe that’s just easier than actually having an opinion on anything these days.

I was in Washington D.C. over the weekend visiting family. My sister-in-law alerted me to the Red Sox section they happen to have in one of the local $1 stores. I'm not sure if that speaks to the amount of Boston fans in the D.C. area or something else entirely, but anyway...

• Red Sox president Larry Lucchino will be in Washington today to present the Smithsonian National Museum of American History with memorabilia from the 2007 World Series. So now, the Sox will be present at any future visits you might have planned to the Smithsonian.

  Or, not.

  Turns out, the exhibit is only on display until Sunday, a matter that has the Washington Post’s Baseball Insider convinced this is nothing more than marketing on the part of the Smithsonian, trying to lure out-of-town Sox fans into checking out the museum while in Washington.

  But does this seem like pandering to the crowd or simply taking advantage of a rabid fan base? Further, the 2007 World Series? That's the lesser of the two for Boston fans and, frankly, the series wasn't terribly exciting unless you were a Red Sox or Rockies fan.

  Personally, I'm just curious to see if Boston fans will now flock to the museum to see World Series artifacts. So yeah, any Red Sox fans out there let us know if the Smithsonian has lured you. But I'm also wondering, is this a new low for any host city trying to cater to a visiting team's fans?

  Probably. Though at this point, they might as well just start serving Fenway Franks in Baltimore.

We have no idea how John Smoltz will look Thursday in Washington. It doesn’t matter.

Now that Daisuke Matsuzaka is gone, the Red Sox could probably insert Zane Smith into the rotation with better results.

There’s a lot of good to be said about the World Baseball Classic. What that is, you’ll have to refer to Bud Selig’s press releases on the matter, because I sure can’t tell you.

Still, held at gunpoint for one positive item to come out of the WBC, I suppose it’s that we’ve got a reprieve every fifth day now from watching the most maddening pitcher in recent Red Sox history. There’s Daisuke and then…who, Matt Young maybe?

Here it is: Pedro Martinez could conceivably sign with the Yankees by – sigh - Father’s Day.

I’m sure such a scenario wouldn’t make for nauseating headlines in the Monday morning tabloids.

The former Red Sox pitcher, who once called the Yankees his “Daddy” after a brutal late-season outing against them in 2004, will pitch today before New York scouts in the Dominican Republic, according to Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com. Scouts from the Cubs, Rays, and Angels will also be on hand.

However, according to The New York Daily News, Pedro in pinstripes is not likely to happen. The paper reports the team is watching Martinez as a courtesy to his agent, who also represents Mariano Rivera.

Still, what if they like what they see?

A friend of mine, Yankee fan (keep reading), had a story for me last week.

He was sitting with a friend at a Kenmore Square watering hole, hoping to catch a few innings of that evening’s Red Sox-Yankees game on TV before making the commute home. On the spur of the moment, however, they decided to try their luck at securing tickets for the game about to start a few hundred feet away.

They passed a few scalpers on their way to the box office at Gate A, where they were greeted by an unexpected surprise. Not only were there tickets available, for face, at the nearly vacant ticket window, but they managed to have a variety of seats from which to choose.

Ten minutes later, they were sitting in the grandstand section behind home plate.

Apparently, this was consecutive sellout No. 496.

Wasn’t Brad Penny due for a charter out of town some time on Monday?

Yet, there he is, scheduled to go up against his former team, the Florida Marlins, tonight at Fenway Park, where the most common question these days isn’t “What’s wrong with Big Papi?” but instead, “Hey, what are we gonna do with all this pitching?”

For now, it actually appears that the Red Sox are going to go with the mythical six-man rotation. John Smoltz will make his Boston debut in Washington next Thursday, in what would be Daisuke Matsuzaka’s spot in the rotation. With just one off day (July 2) between now and the All-Star break, such a scenario allows a little bit of added rest for everyone involved.

As for being able to thumb your nose at the rest of the league for the silly ability to do this in the first place, well that’s just icing.

Josh Beckett will have to wait until Saturday to try and rebound from his worst outing in nearly two months, yesterday’s six-inning, seven-run stint in Philadelphia.

It wasn’t nearly as bad as his upcoming opponent’s day yesterday.

It’s going to be a fun day at Fenway Saturday, when Red Sox World Series hero Derek Lowe returns to his old stomping grounds with the Atlanta Braves, his first trip back to Fenway since picking up his ring on Opening Day in 2005.

He hasn’t pitched on the Fenway mound since Oct. 17, 2004, Game 4 of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees. I trust you don’t need a recap.

If you’re not down yet with “The Beard of Truth” then…well, I’m not quite sure how to describe it.

In any case, the latest episode of this Kevin Youkilis-tribute web site is on a mission to get the Red Sox first baseman’s intro music switched to the Bob Seger classic, “Night Moves,” because, “Right now it seems like he typed in ‘misunderstood white kid from Ohio' into Pandora and walked away to get a beer.”

The Beard has set up a Facebook page, “1,000,000 Strong for "Night Moves" as Youk's batting song.” It currently only has 116 members. Well, 117 now.

“Watch out American League, we’re going to do this. We’re going to 'Night Moves' your face.”

In other news, the inevitable marriage of Jam’N 94.5 and NESN is finally upon us, as morning DJ Ramiro Torres is set to join the Red Sox post-game show. Who didn't see THAT coming a mile away?

Rumors that Dale Dorman has inked a deal to do the pre-game are unfounded.

Chien-Ming Wang has this going for him: He can’t be much worse than A.J. Burnett was last night.

Wang and his 14.46 ERA get the call for the Yankees tonight, as New York looks to win its first game vs. Boston this season. Last night, Best “Stuff” In The Game Burnett was atrocious for New York, managing just 2 2/3 innings in Boston’s 7-0 win, featuring yet another standout performance by Sox ace Josh Beckett. Sooner or later though, you know?

But as bad as Burnett was last night, there have been no worse results from any starter in Major League Baseball this season than what the Yankees have seen from Wang. In four starts, the former ace of the New York staff is 0-3 with an astounding 23.63 ERA (runner-up, Toronto’s Brian Burres with a 14.21 starting ERA). In 10 2/3 innings, he’s allowed 30 hits and 28 runs, all earned. The opposition is batting .526 against him as a starter. No surprise, that’s at the bottom of the league, where more than .100 points separate Wang from Jeremy Bonderman (.421).

I caught this guy bragging about this last week on a Phish message board (yes, I know…), but now he has more than just an anonymous poster name to go by.

From today’s New York Post comes the story of a Yankee fan who managed to spread some Yankee Stadium Kentucky Bluegrass seed on the Fenway field during last week’s Phish concert by employing the use of a water bomb. Apparently, it’s now coised.

This is really going to cut into those Fenway turf sales.

In any case, here’s the story:

Ian Ferris, 30, a Bombers fan in the heart of Red Sox Nation, green-thumbed his nose at Boston by planting Yankee Stadium grass in the Fenway infield during a May 31 Phish concert.

Yankee Stadium grass seeds went on sale this year. Ferris hid the seeds in his pants as he entered Fenway, filled the bag with water and tossed it onto the infield.

"This is payback," said Ferris, who manages a Hooters in Vermont. "If even one blade of grass sprouts on the field, I feel it was a success."

I mean, you really can’t even get indignant over this. You just have to feel sorry for this guy representing the once-proud tradition of being a Yankee fan. Just plain sad.

The story also quotes Gino Castignoli, the construction worker who attempted to bury David Ortiz's jersey in the cement of the new Yankee Stadium. "My curse is working," he said. "It's typical of a Yankee fan to think you can buy a jinx in a bag. When will they learn, you don't win with your wallet but with your heart?"

Someone want to let ol' Gino know that the Yankees are 21-8 over the last month and that Ortiz has hit all of 25 home runs since that jersey was immersed last spring?

On another note, this is the sort of lame stunt I'd expect from Connecticut. Vermonters have to be hiding in shame today.

Perhaps feelings will sway following this week’s first-place-on-the-line series, but is anyone seriously concerned about the way things are going? I mean, really, honest-to-knuckleball concerned at all?

Granted, the last two home series for these Red Sox have been frustrating. They’re just 2-4 over their last six games at Fenway Park, where Boston still manages to claim the best home mark in the American League. The Yankees arrive there tomorrow night for what clearly will (and probably should) be the most-hyped series of the season thus far.

Pending tonight’s outcome in the Bronx between the Rays and Yankees, Boston and New York could face off tomorrow tied for first in the standings.

Bouncing toward the weekend with some random items...

• Pretty thorough rip job on Red Sox pitcher John Smoltz from Atlanta’s Mark Bradley (who, I guess, refers to himself as “MB”). Bradley apparently angered Smoltz some 12 years ago by saying he pitched poorly. And the two haven’t spoken much since. OK.

  We wouldn’t even say hello when we passed in the hall. (I know, saying hello is a two-way street. But I can be stubborn, too.) I did break my moratorium to shake his hand and say, “Congratulations,” after he won his 200th game. And he did say, “Thanks.” And that, to this day, is the extent of our contact over the past dozen years.

  You can tell right from the title of this entry, “John Smoltz gets his wittle feelings hurt. Imagine that,” a reaction of his rip-job of the Braves for releasing Tom Glavine this week, that the maturity level is going to be pretty low. Not that EW should be the authority on the matter, of course…

  FULL ENTRY