Between the Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots, the great City of Boston owns Texas-based professional sports teams. A combined 11-0 comes to mind. I thought I’d mention it, because it feels great.

Bring out the brooms Sox fans, because our boys just crushed the Texas Rangers in a four-game sweep that resembled the power of one of our great city’s roadside street cleaners.

Let me start off by saying that the Red Sox combined to outscore the Rangers 30-14 over the four-game set.

In Game 1, the Sox won 11-3 in a contest that was highlighted by designated hitter David Ortiz crushing a simply marvelous grand slam; it was the eighth slam of his career. Good old “Dice-K” netted his fourth victory of the year while surrendering five hits and notching four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.

Second baseman Dustin Pedroia mashed his first home run of the season with a sweet two-run bomb. I just don’t know how his 5-foot-9, 180-pound frame packs so much punch.

Man, I didn’t know they made that type of shirt in short sleeve too. Sweet. BTW, this guy’s impersonation of Man Set on Fire ends rather abruptly, no? Probably because some usher told him to sit down and respect Kate Smith’s grainy rendition of “God Bless America” (aired for the 900th straight home game). Personally, I think it’s criminal to stand between a senior citizen and his hard-earned right to “work it.”

The Curse of the Bambino? The 1978 playoff? The 2004 American League Championship Series? Yeah, that’s all touched on in this groundbreaking video by The Gorillaz, who preview this weekend’s Yankees/Red Sox series.

Cam Martin is a Sox fan who lives in Yankee country (Fairfield County, CT).  He also covers baseball for Bugs&Cranks. E-mail: cdavidmartin@yahoo.com

As we all know by now, the Toronto Blue Jays used the Red Sox to build a nice little comfy nest atop the American League East over the weekend. They were outscored 23-9 and looked absolutely atrocious.

The pitching was horrendous, which was glaringly evident in the team’s combined 7.00 ERA and the bats were rendered powerless against a Toronto staff that combined to record a 3.00 ERA.

Plus, a soon-to-be 40-year-old Frank Thomas hit .333 with two dingers and eight RBIs over the three game set.

There’s not much to say in regards to a recap of this pitiful, putrid and nauseating series. I couldn’t bear to watch, so I subjected myself to shopping with the lady at the Natick Collection. Let me just say, it’s sad when you’d rather drink coffee, sit in fine leather seats inside a shopping mall and watch a 10-year-old strut his stuff on Guitar Hero.

Most of you know me from my unbelievably fantastic fantasy insight. But for the remainder of the 2008 baseball season, I’ll be doing a series wrap-up for our beloved Red Sox as well.

It will be a nice little tidbit dedicated to my personal views and critique. In some cases, I might even congratulate Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew on a good performance. I might even give shortstop Julio Lugo props! How are you doing Orlando Cabrera and Edgar Renteria? Jed Lowrie anyone?

For those that are wondering. Yes, I am totally skipping over the two-game series against the Athletics in Japan. That was a week ago and was in another country.

Game 1
Boston 2
Oakland 1

Here’s your box score link: Yahoo! Sports

Winning Pitcher: Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-0) 6.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K

Offensive Prime Producer: Kevin Youkilis (1B) 4 AB, 2 R, 3 H (including a 3B)

Although the bats were a bit quiet in regards to power, the Sox still managed to produce nine hits in the cool Oakland air, seven of which came off of Oakland starter Joe Blanton who departed after six innings of work.

It goes without saying that fans of other teams don’t care about the trials and tribulations of Red Sox Nation, but it’s going to be strange when the reigning World Champions finish their two-game set with Oakland on Wednesday afternoon and many Boston fans still won’t have seen the team play much (if at all) this season. Considering all the press the team has received in traveling to Japan to open the season and then to Los Angeles to play an exhibition with the Dodgers before a record-setting crowd on Saturday night, it’d be easy to assume that Sox fans have been spoiled in the early going; that we’ve seen our team play as much (if not much more) than fans of other teams. That’s simply not true. With two 6:05 a.m. starts in Japan, then a 10:05 p.m. start on Tuesday night in Oakland, followed by a 3:35 p.m. start on Wednesday afternoon, only school-age kids or die-hard Sox fans will have seen the team play for any length of time before Friday night’s game in Toronto, which is scheduled for 7:05. Mind you, I’m not complaining, because the start times haven’t really affected me personally. After all, I work from home (read: I’m unemployed), so waking up at 5:45 in the morning or staying up late is not a hardship. The same, however, cannot be said of your average working guy.

Those of you baseball fans who have ever attended a Cape Cod League Baseball game know it’s a great take. It is quality baseball played by college kids who use wood bats, just like the pros. Admission, to all games,  is free and run by volunteers. The CCL has produced over 200 MLB players over the years including World Series MVP Mike Lowell and Red Sox Captain Jason Varitek.

Now Major League Baseball is saying that it’s going to withhold its yearly $100,000 donation to the league unless they start purchasing all their merchandise (for six CCL teams that share nicknames with MLB teams) through a more expensive MLB-licensed vendor. Teams such as the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, Orleans Cardinals and Harwich Mariners.

Why after all these years is MLB doing this? Your guess is as good as mine.

Since Nomar and his fundraiser “The Nomar Bowl” left town, Red Sox Ace Josh Beckett has taken it over and made it into “The Beckett Bowl”. The star-studded 10-pin bowling tournament which benefits community-based programs that strive to improve the health and well being of disabled or disadvantaged children, will hold it’s second annual on July 10, at the Town Line Ten Pin in Malden.

The event will begin at 5 p.m. with a Red Carpet event and autograph session. The bowling tournament will kick-off at 9 p.m., and festivities will conclude with the official After Party hosted at the adjacent Rain Nightlife. Here is a release from Josh.

 “I am pleased to announce that we are bringing Beckett Bowl back and am confident that we will raise even more money for the children that truly need it. It is our intent to make this event an annual staple on the Boston sports and entertainment calendar,” said Beckett. “Last year, the local sports and business communities really pulled together to support our cause and we couldn’t be happier with the new friendships and partnerships we made. We’re looking forward to building on last year’s success to make an even greater impact.”

Once Dustin Pedroia took his shirt off he was doomed…

I’m bored. Either give me the NBA playoffs or bring on opening day… Seriously, if I have to spend another Saturday and Sunday afternoon choosing between college hoops and golf- I don’t know what I’ll do. You can only do so much work around the house in the winter. Trust me, the college hoops scene blows when your alma mater is 4-11 in conference play which is good for 13th in the standings and won’t even make the Big East tourney. As a result, here’s some of what’s been floating through an angry sports mind as I still try to shake the Tyree hangover…

So Kevin Faulk likes to chill the old fashioned way… Does anyone really care? The bigger question is why was he at a Lil’ Wayne show? Didn’t he have some crony who could do the dirty work for him? Oh wait- this just in- Faulk grabbed someone else’s jacket! The drugs weren’t his… Where’s Ty Law’s cousin? I love the jacket excuse. Did Faulk just see the old episode of ‘The Brady Bunch’ when Greg accidentally grabs someone else’s jacket and gets busted for having a pack of butts. Unreal! Or maybe he watched, ‘Meet The Parents’ last night and saw how Greg Focker accidentally grabbed the jacket with the pipe… Totally classic! Regardless, he’s next year’s Rodney and will now miss the first four games of the year. I don’t think we’ll even notice him being gone. Typically, the September weather in Foxboro is ideal for passing and Tom will being doing just that as he and Randy begin to hook up for another record-breaking season.