For the first time since 1983/1984, the Stanley Cup Championship will be a rematch of the previous year’s. In the 2007-2008 finals, the Red Wings won the series four games to two and sent the pride of the NHL, Sidney Crosby, home without any hardware. Detroit has a chance to extend their dynasty further if they can repeat.  Detroit has won four of the last 11 championships, and has made the playoffs every year since 1990. The Pittsburgh Penguins dominated the NHL in the 1990’s as well, winning two consecutive Cups and qualifying for the playoffs each season for the entire decade. It would take Sidney Crosby’s debut in 2005, as well as Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal joining the team the next year to help the Penguins gain a playoff berth.

The series starts on Saturday night. 2009 Stanley Cup Finals tickets are available now!

In what might be a unique situation in major-league baseball, the managers and catchers from each team were ejected in the 7th inning of Thursday’s getaway game. In the top half of the inning, Jeff Bailey was called safe at home plate on a play that could have gone the other way. Twins catcher Mark Redmond (who had no previous ejections in his 14-year career) and manager Ron Gardenhire took issue with the call, were sent to the showers. In the home half of the inning, Josh Beckett was frustrated with a pitch he thought should have been called a pitch. Acting fast to keep Beckett in the game, Varitek got in umpire Todd Tichener’s face and was ejected as well. Sox manager Terry Francona left the dugout and was promptly shown the door as well.

Varitek’s two homers previous to the ejection helped to make up for Jason Bay’s scheduled day off. Jonathan Papelbon pitched a scoreless ninth to rack up his 13th save of the year.

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Rumors are circulating of a two-night stand in Mansfield for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Current speculation is that the shows would be in mid-to-late August, just after a proposed stop in Connecticut. Dates on this tour have been released slowly, so a confirmation may not be in the cards for a while. Sign up to be notified as soon as Bruce Springsteen tickets are available!

On Tuesday night, struggling Sox slugger David Ortiz batted lower than 4th in the order for the first time in over 5 year. Ortiz managed to snag a hit and a walk, but the DH still has a .197 average on the year.  While Boston was missing any display of power, Minnesota made up for it. Twins’ first baseman Justin Morneau hit a towering three-run shot in the fifth inning to grab the lead for good. Sox starter Jon Lester continued a rough ‘09 season, running his record to 3-5 with a 6.07 ERA.

“I felt like I threw the ball pretty well. Made one mistake. He hit it out. That’s what makes him a good hitter,” Lester said of Morneau’s homer. “I don’t think it’s a mental lapse or anything like that. It’s just not executing pitches.”

The Sox continue the series at the Metrodome on Wednesday night at 8:10pm, with the final gameat 1:05pm on Thursday afternoon.

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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady joined teammates for his first official practice with the team since suffering a knee injury in the first game of the 2008 season. After surgery to repair his ACL, and subsequent procedures to clean out an infection, Brady has been given a clean bill of health. The Pats QB participated in private throwing sessions with top targets Randy Moss and Wes Welker. Brady’s mechanics are said to be solid, and he is adjusting to playing with a knee brace on.

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The Boston Celtics were not able to make it in the playoffs without Kevin Garnett. The veteran big man was out for most of the second half of the season, and all of the postseason. Garnett underwent surgery to remove bone spurs from the affected knee, which team doctors are saying was a success. The Big Ticket is expected to start the 2009-2010 Celtics season on time, and should be at 100%.

“I expect Kevin to return to active duty in full force and be that consummate two-way professional that he has shown all of us throughout his fantastic NBA career,” Doc Rivers told the AP in a press conference.

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Despite a sinus problem that was affecting his stomach, Brad Penny had one of his best outings with the Red Sox. Aside from a Michael Cuddyer three-run homer, Penny was spotless. The right-hander gave up just the three runs on 6 hits while striking out 7 in 5 1/3 innings of work. “He handled it really well, and I actually thought he threw well even if he wasn’t sick,” Terry Francona told the AP. “But you add on that— that’s pretty good.” Penny has benefited from 58 runs of support in his starts (an average of 6.4 each), and run his record to 5-1 with the win on Monday.

Jonathan Papelbon’s recent struggles continued. He notched his 12th save, but gave up a two run homer before doing so.  Papelbon has been working some new mechanics and a slider into his outings, which may have caused some of the recent consistency issues as he is adjusting.

With Toronto losing again, the Red Sox are at the top of AL East, with the New York Yankees just one game behind.

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The New York Mets took two out of three games from the Boston Red Sox this weekend. On Friday night, Daisuke Matsuzaka returned from the DL to face New York’s ace Johan Santana. Santana pitched well enough to overcome two costly fielding errors, giving up just 2 earned runs in 7 innings of work. Daisuke Matsuzaka was solid in his first game back. Although he gave up four runs in five innings of work, he did not seem to be slowed by his injury. Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez pitched a clean 9th to notch his 12th save in as many tries.

The Red Sox held on to a slim, one-run lead for most of Saturday’s game. Kevin Youkilis drove in two runs with a single in the first; which would be the only offense the Sox would get. Josh Beckett was outstanding for 8 innings, giving up just a run and striking out five in his best start of the year. Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon had a rocky outing, as a two run homer by Omir Santos gave the Mets a late win. The homer was the first play to be reviewed by Fenway’s new instant replay system, and the play was upheld by the videotape.

The Sox fared better on Sunday afternoon. The Mets struck first, with a Ramon Castro solo homer in the top of the second. The Sox took their first lead on a three-run Mike Lowell shortly after; but the Mets would explode for 3 runs in the next half inning. Kevin Youkilis lost what appeared to be a home run off of the left field foul pole. “I thought it was a fair ball,” Youkilis said in a post-game press conference. “He called it a foul ball and I guess there was no camera angle.”

The next time Youkilis didn’t leave it up to the cameras. The Sox cleanup hitter hit a three-run bomb over the middle of the monster, as the Sox scored 9 unanswered runs to take the final game of the series.

The Sox took sole possession of first place in the American League East with the win. The Toronto Blue Jays lost their 6th consectutive game on Sunday afternoon, ending their reign atop the East for now.

Coming in to Wednesday night’s matchup, Blue Jays rookie pitcher Bret Cecil had not given up a home run at the major league level. Sox DH David Ortiz had not hit a homer in what seemed like forever; 240 days, 149 at-bats, or 39 game depending on how you looked at it. Ortiz managed to break out of funk, teeing off with one of four roundtrippers against the Jays phenom. Sox captain Jason Varitek was responsible for two, and left fielder Jason Bay had a shot that ricoched off of a car in the parking lot across from Fenway.

Brad Penny had a particularly effective outing, giving up only two runs in 6 2/3 innings of work on 9 hits and a walk. Daniel Bard struggled, giving up a run on aLyle Overbay double, but Hideki Okajima was able to work out of the jam. Takashi Saito pitched a scoreless 9th to put the Sox just a game and a half behind the Jays.

Sox centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury got a quite a workout recording a major-league record tying 12 putouts in a 9 inning game. “My legs felt a little tired,” Ellsbury said in a post-game press conference. “I was just happy we were getting quick outs. Brad’s a flyball pitcher and when he’s getting the flyballs that means his pitch count’s down; he’s doing everything he needs to do.”

The Sox could end the series half a game behind the Jays with a win on Thursday night.

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Tim Wakefield’s outing on Tuesday started with a strikeout, and went up from there. Wake pitched like the ace of the rotation, going 8 innings hile giving up just one run on five hits and two walks.”Swings and misses and popups are usually good signs the ball is moving pretty well,” Wakefield told the AP’s Jimmy Golen. “Tonight was just one of those nights when I had very good stuff. I was trying to keep them off-balance and get a win.” Despite allowing a homerun to former teammate Kevin Millar, Wakefied kept the ball in the infield and kept his appearance to a tidy 97 pitches.

Jonathan Papelbon followed with a perfect inning to notch his 11th save. The Sox offense came courtesy of an RBI each from Wakefield’s personal catcher George Kottaras and Kevin Youkilis’ temporary replacement Jeff Bailey. The win puts the Sox just 2.5 games behind the Jays in the AL East. On Wednesday night, Bret Cecil matches up against Brad Penny for game 2 of the series.

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