Finally the Sox are coming home to play again. No big deal, right? Just another home series.

The Sox — along with Toronto — have played the fewest home games in Major League Baseball this year. Here’s why this is a big deal, every team in MLB stinks on the road, with the exception of Anaheim, which is an MLB-best 31-18 away from The Big A. St. Louis is five-games over and there’s a handful of teams two games over. Nearly every other team is below .500 on the road. It’s almost NFL-like with the home field advantage this year.

The Red Sox have the biggest home field advantage in all of baseball, having gone 36-11 at Fenway, but as I stated, they’ve played the fewest home games, which makes the fact that they’re in first place this morning all the more impressive. Tampa has now lost seven straight road games, which has helped.

It’ll be a big test to that home field advantage over the next six games though. The red hot Yanks come to town for three and then even hotter Anaheim for another three. Thankfully dead-in-the-water Oakland follows, but the next six are huge.

It doesn’t seem possible, but the Sox have fewer than 60 games left to play, 59 in fact. Of those 59, 35 are at home and only 24 will be away. There’s a good chance they’ll be back in the postseason again. And if they are you can bet home field advantage will be a big reason.

Okay, it’s Thursday, which means I’m up to my nose in work to do and am falling behind more and more by the moment. Since I can’t catch up, and write a good blog, I found something on the net that will make you smile.

If you’re anything like me, you love Will Ferrell. How can you not? He’s only the greatest actor of our, or any, generation. The man is walking hyperbole.

So, some random site came up with a list of his greatest lines. Try to not laugh while reading them and watching the vids. Just try. Not possible.

For the record, the Frank The Tank lines in regards to the beer funnel are my favorites. And, yes at a Pearl Jam show a few years ago I did one just so the kids who had it could yell “he’s gonna do one.”

Enjoy

Summer’s nuts. The boss on vacation, which doubles my load here, and there are so many different things going on that it gets hard to keep up with the blog.

Being so busy I spend a lot of time in the car this time of year, which without air conditioning isn’t fun, but what are you gonna do? I plan on driving this thing into the ground, so I have to suck it up for three months and deal with it.

But, being in the car without a good radio is not acceptable. A few years back I got Sirius for Christmas and have never turned back to regular radio. The satellite stuff is just so much better. I listen to Howard and Bubba, and several different music stations like Lithium, Channel 20 (alt rock) and Classic Vinyl. Every now and then I also check out the Bruce Springsteen channel and there’s ESPN and a couple of other sports channels. During NFL season I’ve got every game there is, and also NBA and some hockey and college sports too. If the merger with XM ever goes through I’ll have MLB too, which would be great.

So there’s a ton of good stuff to listen to. And, let’s say you get a phone call but you’re really into what you’re listening to. No worries, just like TiVo at home, you simply pause what you’re listening too and then pick it back up when you’re done. It’s awesome. The pause can hold up to 45-minutes worth of stuff, so you never have to miss anything. What’s great about that is that on the few channels that do have commercials, you can fast-forward through them if you’ve paused what you were listening to. The music stations, though, are completely commercial free.

So I love my Sirius, but about two weeks ago the antenna broke. You’d think that this would be an easy fix, but it wasn’t. I went to Radio Shack and they didn’t have any. I checked the store in Hyannis too, and they were out. I was told they had them in the Yarmouth store, so I headed out there after covering a game that way only to find out that they close at 7 PM (I got there at 7:30). Days were slipping by and all I had was WEEI, which is okay, but it gets very tedious listening to the same arguments over and over and over again. “Manny doesn’t try.” “Manny’s an icon.” blah blah blah … shut up.

Last Wednesday I stopped in at the Falmouth store and asked if they could order one for me. They said they’d do a store-to-store transfer (from Yarmouth, of course) for me and that they’d call when it came in. It took — ready for this — six days for the part to move 23 miles from Yarmouth to Falmouth.

But I finally got it back yesterday and I couldn’t be happier. I had no idea how much I missed my crystal clear radio until I plugged it back in. I hope I never have to go back to regular radio ever again.

There are days you wish you could blog about personal stuff. I can’t … sorry. I’ve got a lot to say about other stuff, you know sports, but it’s hard to think cogently when you’ve got steam leaving your ears. So, hopefully it’ll all cool down tomorrow.

I think we all thought that game was going to end in a tie, but as I sit here and write this — at nearly 2 AM Wednesday morning — the American League has won another All-Star Game, there 11th straight decision.

No one was happier to see that game end than Terry Francona. The Sox skipper was out of pitching. He could have thrown Scott Kazmir one more inning, but the lefty had thrown over 100 pitches on Sunday and the Rays didn’t really want him in there at all. Clint Hurdle might’ve gotten one more out of Brad Lidge if it had gotten that far, but that was all he had too. We were this close to the second tie in six years.

Me, I wondered if I’d ever see a run. I saw the NL take a 1-0 lead early on a Matt Holliday homer in the fourth, but then the wife wanted to watch some shows and I jumped on the computer to surf. I threw the game back on in the ninth, and wouldn’t you know it, tie game.

I’m a bit of a sicko when it comes to tie games. If I see a playoff hockey game in OT, or a baseball game in extra innings, or a hoops game in OT, I have to watch until the end. I just can’t turn it off. Even if it means sleep deprivation, I have to see the end. I may live forever just for that fact alone.

So the game finally ended and the MVP ends up being a Red Sox player at Yankee Stadium. You gotta love that. JD Drew won the MVP. He had a homer, a single, reached on an error and a walk. He extended the 15th to get it to Michael Young for the sac fly.

What else will we remember from that game? Well, Russell Martin playing unreal defense behind the plate for the NL. Nate McLouth throwing a runner out at the plate to keep the game going. Both teams wiggling out of extra innings bases loaded jams, oh, and Dan Uggla.

Poor Uggla. The guy is a fun player to watch, but he had a horrible night. He hit into a double play with a chance to win it in the top of the 10th, then made two errors in the bottom of the frame and nearly cost his team the game there. He then went on to set a record by committing his third on a ball hit by Drew, although that was a tough one because the ball bounced funny on him. He struck out looking late too. Tough night for Danny boy.

But now I can go to bed. The game’s finally over. I won’t have to watch the T2000 tell me why I need DirecTV anymore tonight (ever notice he sounds an awful lot like George Bush? Maybe it’s just really late). And I won’t have to see that horrible Heineken commercial anymore with the song about love that just sticks in your head forever.

Until tomorrow, it’s love, love, love, la-la-la-la-love, it’s love …..

As much as I don’t like the team that plays there, and the place itself is a dump, Yankee Stadium sure has a ton of history going for it. Last night it got one more great moment to add to the list.

Sure it doesn’t top Lou Gehrig’s speech, or Don Larsen’s perfect game, or even Aaron “F’n” Dent’s homer. But Josh Hamilton’s display in the first round of the home run derby was something we’ll never forget as baseball fans.

Sure it was a 71-year old geezer throwing lollipops over the middle for Hamilton to pummel. Sure it was an exhibition, but the pure awesomeness of those homers will live on in memory for a long, long time.

The fact that he didn’t win the event (who came up with the great rule that total homers don’t matter?) doesn’t matter. Hamilton destroyed 28 baseballs, hitting them more than a combined two miles (thank you ESPN). For the record, Justin Morneau of the Twins won, but it’s a lot like the ending of Tin Cup. Our Hero Tin Cup didn’t win, but his amazing 12 would live on in history as one of the most special, crazy moments in golf history.

That’s a lot like how Hamilton’s first round will be remembered. He didn’t just hit a ton of homers, he hit them into the far reaches of the night. People in the back of the bleachers were catching baseballs. People sitting halfway up the upper deck were glad they brought gloves. He was responsible for more souvenirs than Kyle Farnsworth bobblehead night. Well, maybe they handed out more Farnsworth bobbleheads, but more of the baseballs actually made it home than the toys did.

It’s hard to believe that this is the same guy that was so deep into drugs just a few years ago that he wondered if he’d live to see another day. He doesn’t go out places where he can drink, and he doesn’t go out with teammates so he won’t be tempted to throw a few back. Hamilton has turned his life around and last night was sort of a culmination for the Born Again Believer. He’s been having an outstanding season for the Rangers, but last night he told the world “hey, I’m back and I’m worth rooting for again.”

Hats off to Hamilton. The guy’s been through Hell and come through it.

Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

Josh Hamilton knows that verse, and has lived it. Last night he had a lot of fans singing “alleluiah.”

It’s a Friday afternoon and I’ve got one of those too much coffee, not enough sleep, headaches that’s raging in my cerebellum. So instead of any real thought, we’re going to hit up some random-ness.

** Okay, I have to address the idiot that beat up the New Yorker — allegedly — here in Falmouth. Why would anyone do this? I mean if you’ve go some alcohol in the bloodstream you’re more apt to do some stupid stuff. However how does it get into your brain that it’s a good idea to beat someone up because of where they’re from? They’re Yankees fans so they deserve a beating? Maybe in a rhetorical way, but never in a literal way. I mean come on, don’t sports fans know at this point that we really root for laundry and geography. Is it worth going to jail over those things?

I hate the Yankees franchise too. I don’t think I’d ever get into a brawl, let alone start one, over that fact. If that dude is guilty he deserves to rot in the clink for a long time, and I hope his cellmate is a big, brawny New Yorker.

** Speaking of the Yankees, I support the Jason Giambi facial hair experiment. We know that the dude has a history of abuse of performance enhancers so I can’t help but wonder if hgh has made that mustache grow even more. He looks so ridiculous that it’s cool.

I think the Giambino has to be Eagle One’s favorite Yankee for sure. I mean Jason G looks like he just got out of the State Police academy.

** I’m watching TV as I type this and wondering, why is Tiger Woods hitting golf balls on the moon and what does it have to do with Gatorade? Shouldn’t he be rehabbing his knee?

** I miss Big Papi.

** I was at Starbucks and got into an interesting conversation with my favorite barista, Joe. He’s a big BC fan and we get talking and my stay at the coffee shop usually goes a lot longer than planned. I hope I don’t get him fired one day for wasting the empire’s time.

Anyways, somehow the topic of Keanu Reeves came up and his movies. So the discussion turned to best Reeves lines from movies. Here’s what we came up with …

“Whoa” — Pretty much all of his flicks

“Pain is temporary. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever.” — The Replacements

“I am an F-B-I agent.” — Point Break

I’m going to go with Point Break as his best movie. Yes the first Matrix is a sci-fi classic, but if you’re looking for klassic Keanu, you’ve got to love Point Break. It’s one of those movies that I could watch a million times. Between Keanu’s attempts at cool and Swayze’s mullet afro perm, it’s a tour de force.

Hey everybody, let’s all line up to kick Alex Rodriguez while he’s down. This story claims that the Red Sox’ 2004 championship came down not to just the greatest comeback of our lives, but also A-Rod’s extracurricular activities while in The Hub.

My wife thinks that A-Rod should be shot. I think that might be a little harsh, but let’s face it, the guy’s a jerk and cheating on his wife is just wrong. It’s funny how people’s morals get shadier and shadier the more money they have their bank account. Sure there are plenty of hundredaires that also would cheat on their wives, but it seems that more and more millionaires are comfortable with it.

Regardless as the Yankees unfold more and more everyday, and the richest man in baseball hopes his prenup holds up, let’s rear back with our Nikes and aim for the face.

Thursday, a win, nice.

Friday, another win, on Hank Steinbrenner’s father’s birthday no less, and things were great.

Then back-to-back disgusting losses. If the Sox win one of those two games on Saturday or Sunday I’d be feeling a whole lot better about things right now. But, they lost a pair of gut-wrenchers, ones that they really had no business losing. But, they did, and it stinks.

You see, the genius that is Joe Morgan actually got something right last night. He mentioned that the Sox were behind seven in the loss column to Tampa, and that you can’t make those up because you’ve already lost them. I know, groundbreaking stuff, but the King of the obvious is right.

Sure Tampa may not have the experience that the Sox have, but they do have a comfortable lead, and that’s going to be good for them. They might not feel any pressure down the stretch if the Sox aren’t breathing down their necks. If you’re in a race, do you really worry if you look over your shoulder and don’t see anyone? Nope, you just keep running your race and you’re usually fine.

Certainly the schedule will help the Sox in the second half. And, getting Papi back eventually, hopefully, will also be a good thing. But for now, we’re more focused on the wild card race than the division because the division is slipping away.

Thankfully it’s only July. There’s a lot of baseball to be played. Let’s just hope it’s less frustrating than the stretch between July 5-6.

It wouldn’t be the Fourth of July without something Steinbrenner related. As you know, today is George’s birthday and I hope Papa Stein is coherent and happy despite his team’s 9-0 shellacking at the hands of the Sox last night.

Well, thanks to Hank, we’ve got another Hank-ism to throw into the mix on this holiday. From yesterday’s Post.

“Maybe a little less outside distractions, and a little more concentrating, and they’ll start hitting better. I thought they would go on a consistent tear, and it hasn’t happened yet.”