As my fiancée and I were filling out paperwork to get a marriage license today, just around 3:58 in the afternoon, the front offices in Boston, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh were doing something similar -- shuffling sheets filled with stats and dollar figures and sending them off in flurries of transcontinental faxing.

The Red Sox were ending a marriage.

A big deal for "the man with snakeskin boots"

We'd tell you more, except the entire internet is down right now.

UPDATE Sports Illustrated says Jason Bay goes to Boston. Pittsburgh gets minor leaguers. We sincerely hope one of them is named Andy LaRoche. While we're in speculative mode, we wonder if LA also gets Jack Wilson somehow?

Future Sox/Love Sounds?: Matt Kemp

As is customary in the days leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline, rumors have dominated much of the discussion in the baseball world (well, rumors and the Sheets-Zambrano matchup tonight in Milwaukee which is inexplicably not on national television).

We'll have much more on this in the days and weeks ahead, but Peter Gammons has bid civility adieu and wrote a full-on attack of Manny Ramirez. We are aware that Gammons in the past has been sometimes used as a secret mouthpiece for the Red Sox - and other teams' - front offices, but there seems to be something different about this one.

Again - much more on this tomorrow.

(Via The Sports Hernia.)

IS SICK AND @#$% TIRED OF ALL THIS @#$% MANNY RAMIREZ CRAP!!!

GOD IN HEAVEN, WHERE DOES IT END?

WHY DO WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE SAME @#$% BULLSHIT YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT?!?!

It sure sounds like Alex Cora may have fallen out of favor with the Red Sox brain trust. How else to interpret the rumblings that the team has been pursuing veteran shortstops to help back up Jed Lowrie in Julio Lugo's absence?

Cora's defense hasn't been too good this year, and with Lowrie hitting well, there's no real role for him.

John Tomase.

Reilly says it best: there are gonna be an awful lot of pissed-off aspiring sportswriters out there.

I was never inclined to pile on the guy like so many were. Mistakes happen. But the fact is that Tomase — and, of course, his editors — screwed up royally on the Pats beat, and now he’s being handed one of the plum jobs in town.

This is the first in a series of posts looking at possible trade targets for the Boston Red Sox in the days leading up to the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline. This is part one, looking at three left-handed relievers said to be available.

Brian Fuentes is a left-handed reliever who currently serves as the Rockies' closer.

What are the odds that Manny comes back next year?

What does this face (in reaction, of course, to the atrociously ugly blooper that can be viewed here) tell you?

If only it could be an animated .gif that would properly convey the disgusted shaking of his head.

Theo's icy glare does not inspire much confidence.

- “Game 7 of the WS will be played in Japan this year.”

- “Ortiz is done with rehab by now.”

- “I'm just going to shower after this game is over so as not to miss my car pool.”

- “All this baseball must be torture for Joe Buck.”