Friday Real Quick Links

The Red Sox completed a 4 game thrashing of the Rangers 10-0. 7 scoreless from Dice-K, including his normal 5 walks, but whatever, they won.

The Rays survived another injury, this time to the DL-bound Troy Percival, and knocked off the hapless A’s in 12.

The White Sox knocked around the Royals, thanks to 4 home runs in the 6th. The winning pitcher was sent back to AAA after the game.

The Twins tried to make a deal, but couldn’t.

The Mets finished off the Nats and regained first place in the NL East.

The Phillies offense took the night off again (a paid night off) and were downed by Hiroki Kuroda and the Dodgers. Manny finally cut his hair, albeit just a bit ( he went 0-3). Brad Penny is going back on the DL.

Michael Phelps adds to his remarkable Olympic Gold totals.

Maine’s own Ian Crocker had the 3rd fastest 100M butterfly in prelims this morning, which sets the stage for what may be Michael Phelps only real challenge in these games. The 100m Butterfly final is 10:10 PM live Friday Night EST.

US Gymnast Nastia Liuikin won gold.

The US Baseball team lost a close one to Cuba in extras.

The New England Patriots bolstered their secondary with more veteran leadership Thursday, by signing veteran John Lynch.

Buffalo played in Toronto last night and looked sharp in victory.

In Celtics news rookie JR Giddens signed a 2 year deal.

In related news Jayme Parker from NESN loves the Central Maine Sports Blog.

Oh Captain, My Captain?

Unusual Suspects?

The news is out, Jason Varitek and his wife Karen have filed for divorce. No reason as to why yet, but I have a theory (far-flung, and done mostly because I have nothing better to do today)…..

One of Jason Varitek’s good friends is ex-Red Sox pitcher Derek Lowe. When Lowe (who was married with two children at the time) went to LA, he had an affair with former “Dodger Dugout” reporter and FSN employee Carolyn Hughes, a former Miss Texas who was also (at the time) married. It derailed her career, and Lowe came out of it fine, and you don’t hear about it a ton, although reports have Hughes and Lowe still living together today (which is a good thing for her considering she lost her job over the whole thing). Now I want to preface this by saying that yes, people are different, but I cannot help but wonder if Varitek may have strayed. Tek and Lowe came up through the minors together, and if they are still good friends to this day, they could have something in common besides being baseball players, right? Also, for those of you who watch the Sox, you may have noticed that there has been some upheaval at NESN, and that Hazel Mae and Tina Cervasio both moved on to other things, and Cervasio’s replacement is Heidi Watney. Let’s look at each possible scenario and decide if it ‘s a strange coincidence, or cause and effect…

1. Varitek and Hazel Mae, causing Tek’s divorce and Mae’s departure. Mae still does not have a job yet, but I am sure that if something had happened like this that caused her to leave it would have come out by now, right?

2. Varitek and Cervasio, causing Tek’s divorce and Cervasio’s departure (Cervasio is still married by the way so I highly doubt this one).

3. Varitek and Watney, causing Tek’s divorce and his slumping batting average, because let’s be honest here, if it is scenario number 3, he must be one tired sumbitch. She is also the one thing different this year, and this is by far Varitek’s worst season in Boston. (Also, like Carolyn Hughes was Miss Texas, Watney is a former Miss California, hmmmmm…)

Look , baseball players screwing around is not new (see Boggs, Wade; Clemens, Roger; and irony of all ironies, Rodriguez, Alex), tv personalities moving on is not new, and (unfortunately) people getting divorces are pretty common, but when athletes get divorced, and tv personalities leave and/or arrive on a time frame that seems to fit when a marriage might be struggling, you have to wonder. Maybe I am completely off, and hopefully I am, but something just does not seem right about this whole thing. Does anyone else have a theory?