Living in a Box

If today's not the worst day of the sports year, it's in the conversation. Unless you feel like watching the ESPYs, there's next to nothing to watch. Maybe there's a Major League Lacrosse game somewhere, or an English Premier League repeat on Fox Soccer Channel. Neat.

What a great time, then, for a recap of the Sox season to-date. Except that work has sucked the essence out of me this week, leaving the brittle hull of a man with not even enough energy to pound out 1,000 words on the emergence of Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, or the question marks suddenly surrounding the Sox' rotation and the 3-5 slots in the batting order, or Coco Crisp's otherworldly defense and scorching last month at the plate, or Julio Lugo's disappearing act, or even, even the quietly disconcerting notion that a 10-game lead doesn't feel all that comfortable. (I'm chalking it up to the fact that I'm cranky and haven't had my first beer of the evening yet.)

So that'll have to suffice. I promise to do better at the trade deadline. I do want to thank Whitney's guy Billy Wagner for helping ensure that the Mets will come to Boston for the first two games of the Series rather than vice versa.

That sound you hear is the furious knocking of wood.