Dare I say it, but unless we’re in for a few more rounds of Midwestern-style tempests, it could be a crisp and efficient series this weekend at Fenway between the Red Sox and Yankees.

But that’s what should probably concern Red Sox fans about the prospects of an AL East title.

Despite claims of New York pulling off their recent streak of wins with “smoke and mirrors,” the numbers tell a much different story. No other team in the American League has pitched better than the Yankees this month, 12-6 in July with a 3.07 ERA. The Red Sox are second with a 10-8 mark and a 3.38 ERA.

They begin preparation for the 2008 season not only as favorites, but as punch lines.

Eighteen-and-one. It’s not only a sure sign of their greatness of a year ago, but also of their epic failure.

Never before has an NFL team entered training camp with such a lopsided winning record armed with much to prove and even more to forget. The Patriots open training camp today in Foxborough looking to improve on an 18-1 campaign that ultimately left them thirsty in the desert five months ago, choking up the opportunity for history.

In the month of July, all Daisuke Matsuzaka has managed to do is go 1-0 in three starts with 0.49 ERA. Overall, he’s 10-1 with a 2.65 ERA and conceivably could have 12-13 wins if he hadn’t missed a month with shoulder fatigue.

Looks like an ace. Sounds like an ace.

But Matsuzaka is, of course, no ace, thanks to his continued maddening inability to throw strikes consistently. Matsuzaka is fourth in the AL with 57 walks, despite having pitched only 88 1/3 innings, far fewer than top three Daniel Cabrera (62 walks in 134 innings), Dana Eveland (60 in 118.1), and A.J. Burnett (59 in 133).

I can’t ever remember a time when familiarity dictated so much in a baseball season.

Perhaps the major reason that few are up in arms over this weekend sweep at the hands of the Angels is because the Red Sox are hardly alone in looking lost away from home. Yes, in the American League, only the Orioles, Indians, A’s, and Mariners have fewer road wins than the defending champs, but you know how many AL squads actually have a winning road mark?

One. The aforementioned Angels of Anaheim.

In the NL, only the Phillies and Cardinals can boast road records over .500. That’s three teams in all of Major League Baseball that manage to put up more W’s than L’s away from their friendly confines. Last year on this date, there were nine, including the Red Sox, who were 25-20 on the road, a far cry from this season’s pathetic 21-32. The reason behind this? It's probably partly thanks to the emerging parity we're seeing in the game, partly teams building to take advantage of the strengths of their home fields. Whatever the case, that old adage about playing .500 on the road is going to be a major challenge for the likes of Boston.

If you can stick through the whole five minutes of this clip, you’ll be astounded to discover how this woman calls out the score in front of the TV, thus determining how many runs the Yankees score.

I’m sold.

In which we learn the going rate for Gil Hodges, among other things…

A parade with Red Sox players down the streets of Manhattan? What could possibly go wrong?

Former Foxsports.com colleague Mike Philbrick (now an editor at ESPN’s Page 2) checks in to describe what it was like to chauffer Jonathan Papelbon down Sixth Avenue yesterday, a day after saying, then, not saying, that he should close the All-Star Game. Or, something like that.

In any case, the Daily News nearly incited a riot by taking the Red Sox closer out of context with a story that proclaimed him, “Papel-bum.” See how they did that? To be in on a meeting with those cutting-edge editors at the Daily News, boy, that would be something.

But these are rationale Yankee fans we’re talking about here. Surely they could see through the blatant misrepresentation that the Daily News was out for.

Oh, right.

In the truck ahead of us, Justin Morneau was thrown a baseball to sign (it fell short, slamming into the side of the truck -- an event that would be repeated many times). Luckily for the fans seeking autographs, Morneau brought his wife, who spent the first couple blocks directing the roving cameramen to pick up the fallen memorabilia so Morneau could sign everything.

Seeing the success they had with Morneau, fans started throwing items at Papelbon to sign … all the while hurling insults as well and waving the now-infamous New York Daily News back page. Until the NYPD put a stop to it by ordering the players not to sign anything, our truck was pelted with taunts, baseballs and pens. It got so bad that at one point my co-pilot Al rolled up his window, saying, "I don't know what's coming at us next." To put it in perspective, this is a guy who is a member of El Barrio's Bravest, whose only negative comment about life in the FDNY is that he doesn't get to fight enough fires.

Fantastic. It’s just too bad that Red Sox fans can’t really reciprocate the hate for Yankees closer Mariano Rivera because, well, they kind of like seeing the guy.

Former New York Times baseball writer and Red Sox fan favorite Murray Chass has launched his own web site (not a blog) where he will post baseball columns (not blogs). Got that? Turning the world on its axis, this Chass.

“This is a site for baseball columns, not for baseball blogs,” reads the “About” section of murraychass.com. “The proprietor of the site is not a fan of blogs. He made that abundantly clear on a radio show with Charlie Steiner when Steiner asked him what he thought of blogs and he replied, “I hate blogs.” He later heartily applauded Buzz Bissinger when the best-selling author denounced bloggers on a Bob Costas HBO show…

“Otherwise, this site will most likely appeal primarily to older fans whose interest in good old baseball is largely ignored in this day of young bloggers who know it all, and new- fangled statistics (VORP, for one excuse-me example), which are drowning the game in numbers and making people forget that human beings, not numbers, play the games.”

It kind of reminds me of the day my grandfather finally decided to get a color TV, but made damn well sure that we knew the world was a better place when “The Adventures of Oky Doky” came over amidst a sea of snow-specks. We all just sort of humored him with a nod and went on back to watching baseball on our, and I’m sorry if this confuses Chass, HD 720P DLP.

Chass also proclaims that Red Sox fans are welcome to visit the site, which is awfully swell of him.

It’s not so much that last night’s All-Star pre-game show wasn’t enjoyable (other than it going for 45 minutes), because it certainly was. Major League Baseball and Fox handled the thing well, as baseball fans got to see the likes of George Brett, who looks like he could still play.

It’s just, can we think of something new?

It’s as if a doctrine were handed down after 1999 that every baseball pre-game experience must try to repeat the night of the Fenway Park All-Star Game, when Ted Williams prompted that evening’s All-Stars to surround him. And thus, everything afterward has been an attempt to bottle magic of that night. Last night came close, but the blatant attempt was still transparent.

Still, all those Hall of Famers gracing the field of Yankee Stadium was fun to watch, each of them sporting the hat of their induction.

Except, Wade Boggs.

While Dave Winfield wore his Padres hat, and tucked a Yankees hat along with him to show off to the crowd, there was none of that for Boggs, who sported a Yankee hat only at third base. No Red Sox cap, which adorns his plaque at Cooperstown.

Come to think of it, no Red Sox.

No Carlton Fisk. No Carl Yastrzemski. No Bobby Doerr.

Not one Red Sox Hall of Famer took the field last night prior to the game. Was it a concerted effort by Major League Baseball not to turn the event into a hostile environment, or did each simply decline an invitation? You’ll remember at the 1999 pre-game ceremony, a passionate jeer for Roger Clemens seeped into the introductions of subsequent players.

Which could be why MLB granted Boggs the permission to go NY on the field last night. Sporting a Sox cap out there probably would have sparked a wide array of reaction on the end of Yankees fans.

Plus, he would have been the only one.

This little factoid, courtesy Jeff Blair at the Globe and Mail, pretty sums it all up for the Tampa Bay Rays: “The coolest kids on the block, over .500 for 78 days, 12 more than in the first 10 years of their existence combined.”

That’s an average of 6.6 days spent above .500 per year.

Losing seven in a row isn't the way a resurgent team (or yes, any team), wants to head into the All-Star break, with the talk of impending doom on the minds of many in the Bronx. Is it the beginning of the end, or a mere blip?

At what point did the All-Star Game cease to be the Midsummer Classic and morph into a grand, old celebration of the New York Yankees?

Look, we’re all for celebrating the life and times of the dump once known as Yankee Stadium next week, a gala that Major League Baseball and Fox plan to shove down the throats of millions who couldn't care less about seeing Great Moments in Yankee History yet again. We understand the outrage over Mike Mussina not being named to the All-Star team with an 11-6 mark that would have left little argument over him being named the starter by AL skipper Terry Francona.

Now, what does he do? He’ll have to give the honor to some scrub like Roy Halladay, Scott Kazmir, or Justin Duchscherer. The horror.

Or, he could give the job to a pitcher who hasn’t made a start since “The Single Guy” was still seen as a burgeoning hit for whatever unapparent reason.

Dan Dumont gives a pretty good roundup of the 20 most irrelevant Red Sox of the past 20 years though I might have saved the likes of Tim Naehring and Carlos Quintana for omissions like Pat Rapp and Bob Zupcic. If we want to get down to real, honest-to-goodness, “Who?” irrelevance, we can go all night with guys like Chris Snopek, Ed Sprague, and (easily my favorite name in Red Sox history) Gar Finnvold.

Darren Lewis is on the honorable mention list which is sort of odd too, considering Jimy Williams found the man far too relevant over a four-year stretch.

Another item to note. Remember, Kevin Romine and Randy Kutcher played on the same team for multiple seasons. That’s like the Red Sox of today saying, “You know, one Kevin Cash on our bench isn’t enough. We really need two of them.”

Speaking of, who makes this list 20 years from now on the current roster of players?

Big doings down in Florida, where Sarasota grows even closer to luring the Red Sox from their spring training home at Fort Myers.

If they can do something about the county fair.

According to today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

The separate but somewhat overlapping proposals put forth by city and county officials call for a complicated three-way land deal that would move the county fair to Twin Lakes Park, build a stadium and practice fields for the Red Sox at the current site of the fair and turn the land that Ed Smith Stadium sits on into a regional park.

The county proposal further sweetens the deal for the Sarasota County Fair Board, which manages the annual county fair and controls the land it sits on, by offering the board $12 million up front to help pay for sewer lines and new buildings at the Twin Lakes site and $100,000 a year for a decade for operating costs.

OK, we’re not really sure what all that means other than JetBlue could be re-routing its spring training service to Sarasota, but Fort Myers isn’t going away without a fight. Why, here are the Top 10 best things to happen to the Red Sox since they started training in Fort Myers, courtesy The News-Press. There must be a direct correlation.

1. Won 2004 World Series, ending 86-year drought since last World Series triumph.

2. Won 2007 World Series.

3. Overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series.

4. New ownership group headed by John Henry took control of the team in 2002.

5. Fenway Park is the site of the 1999 All-Star Game, and Red Sox legend Ted Williams, in a wheelchair, is honored.

6. Lefty Jon Lester, a cancer survivor, threw a ho-hitter [sic] early in the 2008 season.

7. Slugger David Ortiz set a franchise record with 54 homers in 2006.

8. Shortstop Nomar Garciaparra hit .372 in 2000, the highest average by a right-handed hitter since Joe DiMaggio hit .381 in 1939.

9. Red Sox sign Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka.

10. In 1996, Red Sox ace Roger Clemens struck out 20 batters in a game, tying his own major-league record.

See? No Fort Myers, no World Series. You’ve been warned.

Doug Mirabelli was back in the Fens last night hanging out and drawing warm greetings from his former teammates. But it was nothing compared to the welcome he received over the weekend.

The former Red Sox catcher was the center of attention Saturday at Chicopee's annual Fest-of-All, where an estimated 134 Doug fans waited in the rain to secure Mirabelli's autograph.

The cost: $20.

Not for nothing, but a signed Mirabelli Topps card is going for 99 cents on eBay.

Writes the Springfield Republican's Ron Chimelis: "I am reminded that Red Sox fans are the best. And I realize that if this many people are this eager to pay $20 for a Doug Mirabelli autograph, the economy can't possibly be as bad as I'd thought."

Not to mention, for $3.51 more, Mirabelli fans could have purchased one of the catcher's bats, described by its seller as, "in great shape and doesn't look like it's ever hit a ball."

I'm not sure if that's an enticing factor or not.

Before things get out of hand and this delves into full-fledged panic mode, let's simply remember that the phrase, "Talk to me in September" is a perfectly acceptable response to the increasingly boisterous fan base down there in Florida.

That being said, you might want to start hoping there is indeed something to talk about.

The Red Sox left for this just-completed road trip in first place. Today they're five games out after a disastrous 3-7 mark that included a sweep at the hands of the first-place Rays.

It should serve as a reminder of how quickly things can change in baseball, which is precisely why you're not hearing many hackneyed references to the Tobin Bridge in reference to Sox fans, who are back in familiar territory -- panicking before the Midsummer Classic.

With their – believe it – Major League-best record of 51-32, the Tampa Bay Rays are the talk of baseball, attempting a worst-to-first that would make the Celtics’ own bottom-to-top pale in comparison.

Look at it this way: If the Rays manage to go just 20-58 from here on out, that will still be good enough for the best record in franchise history.

To put that in some sort of historical perspective, Boston would need to go 55-23 the rest of the way to top its franchise-best 105-win season in 1912. Apple. Orange.

In 2002, Tampa won just 55 games all season.

Tom Jones, he of the St. Petersburg Times, came up with a novel idea for a column today, and - God bless him - he followed through on it.

“10 reasons to hate the Red Sox”

Reminds me of this.

And this.

And this.

Anyhow, far be it from us to point out a few inaccuracies, but here they are*:

They’re no longer cute.

Still, despite the fact that the Tampa Bay Rays have transformed from annual also-ran to fierce and legitimate contender in the American League East, in no way can we consider Tampa, the Bay, St. Petersburg, or wherever residents want to demand the team be called home, a baseball town altered for the times in its midst.

Case in point: In today’s Tampa Tribune: “10 tips for new Rays fans.” That’s one for every year of irrelevance.

You’ve got to love a baseball town where the local paper has to urge you to “Purchase Rays gear,” and “Learn the fight song,” which apparently goes, “Feel [pause] the Heat [pause] Rays."

Uh-huh.

Among some of the other things we learn:

During my college years, I spent many a night across the border at Ye Olde Olympic Stadium, a generally antiseptic environment where watching a baseball game often denigrated into an experience of the surreal. Three dollar seats, thousands of which went uninhabited, were the ultimate draw, not to mention that new-fangled Iced brewed Labatt’s.

The Expos were good back then, or least in existence, and I found myself often riveted by them on a daily basis, learning to appreciate Pedro Martinez years before he arrived in Boston, erroneously believing that Mike Lansing was baseball’s best second baseman. But going to the games was just ... well, weird for someone who grew up spending summer evenings at cramped Fenway Park. The French, the dome, the deafening din of empty seat backs clapping. It was baseball for sure, but it was baseball as you’d imagine they’d play it one day on the third moon of Bespin.

Apropos of nothing, I remember vividly watching incredulously one night as a car drove from the bullpen, across center field, and onto home plate in between innings, part of a local dealership promotion. For some reason, that sealed it for me. This was the game played in an environment that no other place would ever challenge, a cavernous dump that drew me in for its sheer oddity. I found myself leaving most evenings, shaking my head, "[Insert peculiarity here] would never happen at Fenway."

Not sure which was more riveting: the Red Sox' come-from-behind win or the wacky stimulation of Walt Hriniak.

Somewhere in between the endless and often embarrassing fawning over Jerry Remy last night, the Red Sox beat the Diamondbacks, 5-4, in a contest that gets instant access into the "Game of the Year" debate. Down 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Boston rallied for four runs, with Jason Varitek lining a shot down the right-field line to drive in Mike Lowell (who had tied the game with a nifty wall-ball double) with the go-ahead run.

Jonathan Papelbon didn't allow anyone to hit the ball to Coco Crisp, thus securing his 22d save on the season.

This brings us to Game 3 of this three-game set against the D-Backs tonight, otherwise known as Game 81 of Boston's 2008 campaign. For those with some level of difficulty determining fractions, percentages, and portion distribution, that's known as the somewhat irrelevant halfway mark. It is the point during the season when it's easiest to multiply by two every stat on the board in order to determine the final book on individual 2008 stats sheets.