Could this be it? Is our long nightmare about to end? It sounds like it might because there are strong indications out of Minnesota that the Twins are finally going to trade Johan Santana and the front-runners right now are the New York Mets! While the Mets haven’t been able to match the Red Sox or the Yankees in terms of top prospects, they appear to be willing to provide more prospects, up to five......

A Historic Collapse: The Mets held a seven-game lead with 17 to play and were caught looking ahead to the playoffs. What followed was among the worst collapses in history and one that revealed the weaknesses of the players, the manager and the general manager. Jose Reyes and his questionable -- and downright poor -- play summed up the the performance on the field. Manager Willie Randolph's mismanagement of the bullpen came to light......

As if baseball didn’t have enough problems Curt Schilling has decided to weigh in on the Mitchell Report. Schiling, the never-shy pitcher for the Red Sox opined that Roger Clemens should either clear his name or give up his four Cy Young awards won after 1997. "If he doesn't do that then there aren't many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and three Cy Youngs he won......

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist......

Yankees 4 Red Sox 3: Boston will still win the AL East and will probably have the best record in all of baseball, but the Yankees have shown that they can beat them when it counts. After starting the season 1-5 against Boston, New York won the season series by going 9-3 in the final 12 games. Sunday’s win was a flashback to the old days. Derek Jeter had the big hit, Roger Clemens had......

Phillies 3, Mets 2: With Shawn Green's weak ground ball to shortstop, the Mets appeared ready to tie the game. With runners on first and third and one out in the ninth, Endy Chavez jogged home as the tying run. But Marlon Anderson, who was on first, blatantly -- and unnecessarily -- pushed Tadahito Iguchi with two hands. Umpire C.B. Bucknor called interference and the automatic double play, ending the game. Thanks in part to......

It's our favorite July 4th tradition, this side of smiley-face fireworks: The Annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, held at Nathan's in Coney Island. And this year's competition is particularly tantalizing: Current champion Takeru Kobayashi has been having jaw pains, while Joey Chestnut broke the hot dog eating record, by scarfing down 59.5 at a June event. So we shall begin our liveblogging, and Jen Chung and Tien Mao will be providing other commentary......

Yankees 8, Red Sox 3: A loss would have dropped the Yankees 11 1/2 games back. Although they wouldn't have admitted it, losing two of three to Boston would have forced some early wild-card thoughts. Instead, the Yankees are within 9 1/2 games and have some life. For the second time this season, Andy Pettitte outperformed Curt Schilling, but Wednesday's game ended up better for the Yankees than did the one April 22, when the......

With the news that Roger Clemens is returning to the Yankees, reactions from the local media and Yankee fans are generally positive. Clemens made the announcement during the 7th inning of yesterday's 5-0 win over the Seattle Mariners. After the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," Bob Sheppard directed the crowd to the owner's box for a special announcement. Only then did the public find out that Clemens would be returning to......

Who could forget the bloody sock of Curt Schilling during game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series? Certainly not Red Sox fans and maybe not Yankee fans. To refresh - Schilling had ankle surgery after game 1 of the ALCS to stabilize a tendon in his right ankle. He returned in game 6, winning that game. Boston won the series and went on to win its first World Series in 86 years. On......

Red Sox 7, Yankees 6: This outcome shouldn't be all that surprising. Over the last two games of the series, the Yankees sent two Triple-A pitchers and a lineup without three regulars and still hung tough with the Red Sox, who sent two aces and their full lineups. Daisuke Matsuzaka didn't look all that great -- just like Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling before him -- but the Yankees have gotten nothing out of their......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? Phillyist is concerned that the war on Trans fats could affect it's beloved cheese steak sandwiches, something for which we should all be concerned.......

Every year the All-Star game seems to get dumber and dumber. When they decided that home-field advantage for the World Series would be determined by the winner, it seemed like things had reached a low, until this year. May we present your 2006 A.L. All-Stars. (Please hold the applause until the end of the column) What was that? You were wondering how Mike Mussina (9-3 3.17ERA) and Curt Schilling (10-2 3.54ERA) didn’t make it while......

-Red Sox 4, Mets 2: Boston completed a three-game sweep of the Mets on Thursday. Aaron Heilman gave up the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, and the Mets were shut down by Curt Schilling. Although many Mets fans may panic, this series in Boston doesn't pose an immediate concern for the club. During the course of a season, teams get swept all the time. Mets fans shouldn't worry simply because their team got swept......

-Ex-Yankee Grimsley set to name names: Remember Jason Grimsley? The reliever who had an effective half season with the Yankees in 1999 before reverting to mediocrity or worse? Now, his house has been raided by federal authorities in search of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. He's reportedly set to name others who he knows/suspects of taking them. Given his resume, that might prove substantial. Stay tuned. -Yankees vs. Red Sox, ppd, rain: The third of four games......

Was that a big hit? Can we think of A-Rod as a “real Yankee” now? Maybe this will spare him from being booed in the first inning of tonight’s game. Nah, it probably won’t, but let’s give A-Rod credit for hitting a big home run last night that propelled the Yankees to a 7-3 victory. A-Rod wasn’t the only Yankee to batter Curt Schilling. Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada both connected for home runs part......

Are you a fantasy baseball nut who finds your loyalties divided between your fantasy team and your real team? Are you a Mets fan who “owns” Chipper Jones, a Yankee fan with Curt Schilling on the roster? Maybe you are one of the millions who hate Duke Basketball. Tonight offers a chance to learn more about both subjects as Dan Shanoff of ESPN.com's Daily Quickie launches a new reading series “Varsity Letters” devoted specifically to......

They didn't need to win this game, but the Yankees were certainly pleased to take the opener of a four-game set in Boston. The Yankees trailed 4-0 after one inning, but they rallied several times before taking the lead on Alex Rodriguez's go-ahead home run in the ninth of new Red Sox closer Curt Schilling. The Yankees trail Boston by only a game and a half after sleep-walking through the season's first half. One day......

Through the first seven games of the season, the Yankee offense just wasn’t getting on track. Sensing that things needed to change, Joe Torre decided to shake things up Wednesday night, by changing his lineup. Tony Womack was promoted to lead off, Alex Rodriguez was put in the fifth spot and Bernie Williams was put at the bottom of the order. The changes helped as the Yankees managed to score five runs against Red Sox......

When did it become acceptable to act like a jackass and risk the safety of the players and umpires on playing field by throwing baseballs onto the field. It's one thing to express your displeasure with a call by booing or even cursing, but there was no excuse for the Yankee "fans" that threw balls onto the field in the 8th inning of last night's game. Those that threw the balls last night are......

So much for going to bed early. Sixteen hours after the end of their last game, the Yankees and Red Sox met up again for game 5 of the AL Championship Series and for the second night in a row, it went to extra innings. Last night, however, the game ran into the 14th inning and was the longest game time-wise in postseason baseball history at 5 hours 49 minutes. Like game 4, game......

It was bound to happen, no? After the trouncing they received on Saturday night, it's a wonder that the Red Sox could even win a game in the AL Championship Series, but that's what they managed to do last night in 12 innings. The Sox won last night, or this morning, on a game winning two-run homer by David Ortiz off of Paul Quantrill. The game finally ended at 1:23, more than five hours after......

Clearly, we were looking to work in some homonyms today. Too bad they aren't playing the Twins anymore. Anyway, last night, the Yankees defeated the Red Sox, 31 (box score). The Yankees now lead the best of seven series two games to none. While Pedro Martinez has proclaimed the Yankees are his daddies, his performance last night wasn't all that bad. He threw for six innings, giving up four hits and three runs. His......

Thursday's matinee at the Stadium was a classic pitchers' duel that ended in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth. Ted Lilly and Orlando Hernandez were nothing short of brilliant in their performances yesterday afternoon. It took a Ruben Sierra ninth inning walk-off home run to put the Yankees over the top 1-0. It was only the second time in Yankee history that the Yankees won on a walk off home run in the......

The big expose in the Post today is not some Page Six gossip bit but rather that the creator of Yankee Hater gear is from New Jersey. Curt Schilling made waves when he wore a Yankee Hater hat (red hat with Yankees' insignia) at a hockey game, which was the fruit of Mike Moorby's idea to send some hats to the Red Sox. Moorby told the Boston Herald, "I just thought there were a lot......

This weekend brings us the first meeting this season of the Yankees and the Red Sox, in a four game series that any baseball fan can enjoy. The two teams have not met since last October when Aaron Boone ended the ALCS with a home run and when there was an incident between Don Zimmer and Pedro Martinez. Boone and Zimmer are gone, and Martinez is not scheduled to pitch, but the rivalry has......