Here’s a round-up of recent baseball tidbits. Sigh. It must be November.

In case you missed it, Red Sox catcher (and captain) Jason Varitek did one better than handing out candy this Halloween: he gave out autographs. After the Variteks’ Halloween party broke up (the guest list included the Mirabellis and the Lowells), Tek took a lawn chair out to the driveway and started signing, at the suggestion of his 7-year-old daughter. The short version:

Christopher Roberts, 10, dressed up as the catcher - a white number 33 Red Sox jersey, baseball pants, and red colored socks pulled up past his calves - only to find himself standing face-to-face with his hero.

“He signed my shirt, right on the first three,” Roberts said.

Two police cruisers came to direct traffic and control the crowd, which swelled to some 50 youngsters and parents on a leafy block in the tony village of Waban, in Newton.

“Varitek looked really tired,” said Chris O’Connell, 45, who brought his sons Joshua, (dressed as a Japanese ninja), 9, and Zeke, (Darth Vader), 7, to get autographs. “It was great - for him to be sitting out there after 9 o’clock on Halloween says a lot about the guy.”

At the local commuter station a few blocks from Varitek’s home, the village’s affection for the Sox catcher is articulated on handwritten signs hung on a fence - “Waban Loves V-Tek!” and “Tek is the best” - that he passes on his route to Fenway Park.

“Waban has been good to us and respected our privacy,” Varitek said yesterday in an interview at his home. “It was a good opportunity for me to say thanks.”

At the O’Connell house, Joshua woke up the morning after Halloween in disbelief. He spotted the baseball signed by the catcher of the 2007 World Series champions, but still ran down stairs with a question. “I asked mom if it was a dream,” he said.

And not quite a family man yet, Jonathan Papelbon took to the airwaves, using some colorful language on The Late Show. He also exposed fellow fan favorite David Ortiz….as an avid Bedazzler:

I kept waiting for Letterman to ask him about the Papel-face. Oh well.

Manny Ramirez also went on the Late Show, where he at first seemed almost in thrall of Jay Leno, which was kind of cute. Despite some requests to be traded away from Boston in the past, it sounds like Manny is quite happy to stay there now:

Steve Carrell was the other guest and just seems happily bemused by the whole thing.

And to round out our late-night lineup, we present the video Conan O’Brien interviewing one Bedazzled motherf*cker, David Ortiz, who came bearing gifts:

His advice to you? Go home and get some ass. (Seriously, he said that!)

In other news, Scott Boras continues to furiously backpedal from his mismanagement of A-Rod’s already dubious public image, which he cast into further disrepute by announcing his client’s free agency during Game 4 of the World Series. He now insists that A-Rod didn’t really mean to stand up Hank Aaron. Nonetheless, any warm feelings that half-assed excuse could stir were instantly negated by news leaking out that Boras and A-Rod considered the Yankees’ lucrative $230 million contract to be about $100 million short. The Hardball Times has a full breakdown on the challenges Boras and Rodriguez face en route to securing that massive contract.

In other douchery, Barry Bonds whined about getting scapegoated. If you don’t click on the link, did he make a sound? The AP reports that Bonds won’t attend the Hall of Fame ceremony inducting his record-setting home run ball if the ball is branded with an asterisk, as fans have demanded (an artist bought the ball and set up a website where seamheads could vote on whether the ball should be asterisked or not; the result was overwhelmingly in favor of asterisking). Bonds explained:

““You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can’t do it. “

Those are some strong words. Does this mean we can count on George Bush to invade Barry’s house?

A few last Red-Sox-as-World-Champs notes: Charlie Pierce has an engaging column on the Sox’ win that a) refreshingly demonstrates that the Red Sox are not, in fact, the New Yankees, and b) contains this interesting nugget:

On Sunday, they brought out Papelbon, and that fearsome goofball ended the game by blowing away pinch hitter Seth Smith with some high heat, and by demonstrating some impressive upper-body strength by hoisting the fully armored Jason Varitek off the ground.

(Note to Papelbon: Baseball etiquette requires that the catcher lift the pitcher in such situations.)

This may be true, but at least on the Red Sox, the last time I saw Tek hoist the pitcher, it was when he lofted 120-pounds-soaking-wet rookie Clay Buchholz after his no hitter. Everyone else seems to insist on hoisting Varitek (as Foulke did in 2004, I might add).

And sadly, just as I was coming to rely on Will Leitch’s Fair and Foul blog, it is stolen from me. But not before he points out a few salient items, one of which I was thinking of myself as Leno interviewed Manny: why doesn’t anyone ever ask him about hitting? Maybe that’s not of interest to the typical Late Show viewer, but I would dearly love an opportunity to hear the Maestro break down his art. Maybe some day.

Just wait ’til next year: 23-year-old Jon Lester hung on into the sixth inning without allowing any runs, despite giving up three walks, by scattering the three hits and notching three strikeouts.

Just wait ’til next year II: In the 9th, with the Sox only one run ahead, 24-year old Jacoby Ellsbury goes back, back, back to the left field wall—leaps!—and comes down with Jamey Carroll’s looooong fly ball. It was the spread-eagle, banging-into-the-wall catch Ellsbury has been trying (and heretofore failing) to make all season long. (Well, ever since his September call up, anyway.) Can I mention that he started the year in Double-A?

Nice guys finish first: Mike Lowell wins the World Series MVP. Justice is done at last. Can we re-sign him now, please?

Scary guys also finish first: Papelbon’s facial expressions only got more terrifying as the postseason progressed. Soon, he will come with a parental advisory label.

Storylines finish last: The Rockies just looked completely overmatched this entire Series. It would have been a great Cinderella story….except some big, hairy-chested dudes from the Hub had to just come along and rain on their parade.

How can you not love this man?: And Jason Varitek, in his postgame interview, with tears gleaming on his cheeks, says in a quavering voice, “Uh, I’m sorry, um, I’m just a little ha-happy right now.” A wooja wooja woooooo!

How can you not hate this man?: A-Rod finds a way to horn his way in. Have you no decency, sir?

That’s just disturbing: Lonestar singing God Bless America. I really liked Lonestar…before I saw them perform. Seriously, what are country singers doing with the Hansen brothers’ hair?

That’s just deeply satisfying, in a spiritual way: Watching David Ortiz stand on a table and try to spray all of his teammates with champagne at once, while hogging not one, not two, but three commemorative World Series Champions hats (one on head, one in each back pocket).

Only 100 days until the Red Sox equipment truck leaves for Fort Myers!

Tonight, the Colorado Rockies will try to forestall what increasingly looks like the inevitable: a fresh round of World Series rings for the Boston nine. How could they do it? Some thoughts:

1. Their Opening Day starter, Aaron Cook, will make his first start since August 10, and he needs to come up huge. The Red Sox offense is on fire right now. Can Cook smother them? Personally, I doubt it. But you know what they say; momentum is that day’s starting pitcher. Cook has a daunting task in front of himself: leave the ball too much over the plate, and these Red Sox will give it a ride. But miss the plate, and these Red Sox are happy to take the walk. He’ll have to find the tiny scrap of middle ground.

2. Their offense needs to wake up. Last night they showed some promising signs and managed to hit the ball hard off the Red Sox bullpen, but they ultimately fell short. They need every hit they can get at this point, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re hitting end-of-the-bat dying quails or tearing the cover off the ball. How can they accomplish this? For one, by taking a page from Boston’s playbook: wear out the opposing pitcher. Despite spending parts of two seasons in the majors, Jon Lester has not yet settled in as the Red Sox organization hoped he would. When they were prospects together, his stuff was considered on par with Jonathan Papelbon’s. But in the big leagues, Lester has struggled with his command. Despite having an 11 and 2 record, he has a career 4.68 ERA and an average walk rate of about 4.4 walks-per-game. He also relies on a huge curveball that may be harder to deploy in that Rocky Mountain altitude. Plus, he’s spent the last month coming out of the bullpen. How many pitches can he really throw tonight? The Rockies showed last night they can hit the Boston bullpen, so if the Rockies hitters relax, face Lester with patience, and chase him early, they have an excellent shot at keeping Boston’s champagne on ice.

3. Speaking of relaxing, that will be the main key for the Rockies in this game. They need to take it one pitch at a time, one at-bat at a time, one inning at a time. The looks on their faces last night were understandable—-and they’ve looked lost this whole Series—-but that’s not the way to win ballgames. They need to remember that, by rights, they don’t even belong here. At the beginning of September, they weren’t even on the radar screen. The Rockies need to have fun out there—they need to play like they have nothing to lose. At this point, the pressure should be all on the Red Sox to close the deal (or at least, that’s what the Rox should tell themselves). And though they haven’t looked like it this Series, if there’s one team that could recreate Boston’s 2004 feat of returning from a 3-0 series deficit, it is this masters-of-the-improbable Colorado ballclub.

Now, what do I think will actually happen tonight? I think the Red Sox will win. I think Jon Lester has been aching to pitch this game ever since he was in Little League. I think this is the game he dreamed of pitching when he was undergoing chemotherapy just 12 short months ago. I think Jon Lester was pissed about moving to the bullpen for the postseason and is burning to show his bosses what a mistake that was. I think Jon Lester is going to come up big tonight.

As advertised, I am live blogging Game 3 of the 2007 Fall Classic. But first, some preliminaries:

1. This new Fox postseason music. What do we make of it, sportsfans? Frankly, I was looking forward to the old music. It was, you know, sporty. But with the new music, I keep thinking someone on The West Wing is receiving a Congressional Medal of Honor.

2. As much as I personally want the Red Sox to win, if Josh Fogg can beguile the Red Sox we will be in for some fabulously awful headlines. What do you think? “Fogg Rolls In.” “Sox Lost in Fogg.” “Boston All Fogged Up.” It would be almost worth it. Almost.

3. Before things get underway, I just want to take a moment and recall the poignancy of the pitching matchup in Game 2. There’s Schilling, doing it with finesse and guile and wisdom and painting the corners. And boy does he look old. And there’s Ubaldo Jimenez, who looks like a terrified teenager, who has nasty stuff and his whole future ahead of him but who’s throwing the ball all over the place. It was almost like the passing of a baton. And Schilling, pulled by his manager, starts walking off the field—the Fenway Faithful rise to their feet, for this man who has given them so much—Schilling bites his lip—and—AND!—Fox cuts to commercial. Thanks, Fox.

And now, the game.

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The tag cloud in this blog is a one-eyed monster and said eye is none other than a tag that spells the name of a certain team with red stockings. Lest we forget there are two teams in this year’s World Series, I decided to compile some random links concerning the Other team.

» Consumerist sheds a light on the ticket fiasco in Denver:

The FBI is investigating after the Colorado Rockies blamed an “external, malicious attack” for the meltdown that prevented fans from buying World Series tickets.

» The Feds are on the case as well [BostonHerald]

» Game On, sez there’s an eerie similarity between the ‘96 Series and this year’s Fall Classic:

Today’s entry is inspired by the eerie similarity between the 1996 and 2007 World Series.

• 96-66: The regular season record of the Atlanta Braves (1996) and the Boston Red Sox (2007).

• 17: The combined number of runs scored through the first two games of each series — Atlanta 16, Yankees 1 and Boston 15, Colorado 2.

• 2-0: The advantage each “favorite” — Atlanta and Boston — held after Game 2.

» BigRapidsJackass at FanHome doesn’t like the shameless plugs Taco Bell is enjoying during each game:

Absolutely sickening. Doesn’t MLB have any standards anymore? They’ll take the highest bid and not even require the most minimal standards for separating advertising and coverage.

That Taco Bell thing is out of control. I absolutely refuse to believe that Royce Clayton spontaneously starts spouting off about Taco Bell in the dugout when he happens to be mic’d. A shameless plug, and then they repeat it in Game 2. Followed up by a pre-wired interview with some Taco Bell exec in the stands.

Oh, and by the way Ellsbury’s “stolen base” should’ve been recorded by the scorer as “took 2nd base on defensive indifference.” Screw your free taco, that was no stolen base.

» Taking it to another level. David Kuo writes in his J-Walking blog at Beliefnet.com:

That makes me think that maybe Jesus wants the Rockies to get swept in four games by the mighty Sox just so they can show the world that their faith in him is such that they will positively rejoice at the Sox victory. How extraordinary would it be for the Rockies to gather on their field if the Sox win and applaud? What an amazing witness for the transformative power of Jesus would it be if the Rockies doused the Sox in champagne and celebrated their victory and praised God all the time. That would make people wonder about Jesus.

» And finally, Cubby-Blue illustrates what getting picked-off must feel like to Matt Holiday.

Man, the Rockies are toast…

As some of you may know, the Rockies have had one of their own fall prey to the UFH police. So it’s only fitting that one Todd Helton makes a cameo in this edition of UFH’s Most Wanted alongside the culrpit, Jamey Carroll.

A smooth man with his glove, Carroll’s smoothness went a little to his head, as he is now committing a copycat crime in trying to sport The Stash ala Jason Giambi.  Sure Giambi’s was a horrendous best of nature all in it’s own, but Carroll’s is a very feeble attempt at suave. Enough to prompt fellow teammate (and UFH parter in crime) Todd Helton to mock it in some fashion. Which, of course, is a nice segue way into a very appropriate World Series Write Your Own Caption.

On the one hand, I will be sad when this World Series is over, for it will mean that summer is over, winter is here, and months upon months of suffering an arid, baseball-less television landscape.

But on the other hand, I will be unspeakably happy. For once this World Series is over, it will mean the end of this nonsensical debate over what Terry Francona should do to his lineup in Coors Field. Some of the alternatives being bandied about are positively Byzantine in scope. The two most popular:
Option A: Put Ortiz at first! Move Youkilis to third base! Put Lowell in at shortstop! Bench Lugo!

Option B: Put Ortiz at first! Move Youkilis to right field! Bench J.D. Drew!

This just goes to show that Red Sox Nation in October is incapable of keeping its collective head. People have gone temporarily insane. The only remedy for this madness? Remind ourselves of certain facts:

Fact: Mike Lowell has never played shortstop. Mike Lowell only has 9 games played at a position other than third base, compared with 1,253 games played at third base. Mike Lowell holds the all-time National League record for the fewest errors committed by a third baseman. You do not want to move Mike Lowell from third base.

Fact: Kevin Youkilis has never played right field. Though the receptionist in my ophthamologist’s office tried to contradict me on this fact this morning, I have now double-checked ESPN.com and confirmed this indisputable fact. It is true that he has a whopping 18 games in left field, but I am sure none of those games involved left fields as expansive as the left field at Coors. Kevin Youkilis sweats hard enough in the batter’s box. The very notion of seeing him huffing and puffing his way to and fro across the vast Coors outfield should come with a warning label: CAUTION: MAY CAUSE DEHYDRATION.

Fact: J.D. Drew’s bat, for reasons known only to itself, has chosen this moment to awake, throw some clothes on, and join the party. J.D. Drew is hitting .349 in October and .500 over the past seven days. You do not want to bench J.D. Drew.

Then there’s the simple truth that Terry Francona is not a “tinkering” manager. Terry Francona is a manager whose motto is, “First, do no harm.” Terry Francona is not going to choose Game 3 of the World Series to suddenly start cooking up wild experiments like converting his third baseman to a shortstop or his first baseman to a right fielder.

So what will we see in Coors? There are two options, neither of them as attention-grabbing as the two options above, but both far more likely to occur:

Scenario 1: Ortiz starts at first base. Youkilis is ready to come off the bench either as a defensive replacement, or if David’s knee starts bothering him, or, in a close game, the half-inning after David draws a walk and comes out for a pinch runner.

Scenario 2: Youkilis starts at first base. Until, with runners in scoring position, the Red Sox in need of a run, and Lugo up to bat, David Ortiz suddenly becomes the world’s most insanely overqualified pinch-hitter.

Of these, I think Scenario 1 is more likely. As hot as Kevin Youkilis has been in the postseason, David Ortiz is still David Ortiz. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot of offense with Youkilis starting: this postseason, he’s actually been slightly more productive than Ortiz with 4 homers, 1o RBI, 9 walks, 19 hits, and 16 runs scored; Ortiz is actually lagging just thismuch behind his teammate with 3 homers, 8 RBI, 13 walks, 15 hits and 15 runs scored. But Scenario 1 gives Terry Francona more options, which a manager can never have too much of in October.

Unless, of course, you’re talking about inane, pie-in-the-sky options like rewiring the entire roster with only two wins to go.

UPDATE: It is as I predicted.

1. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves…this is exactly where the Red Sox were in ALCS Game 1 after Sabathia imploded at Fenway, and that series ended up going to seven games. Let’s not get cocky.

2. Sweet Lord, those Rockies looked ridiculously overmatched last night. They looked like a Triple-A team! They can only hit fastballs! And not even that many of them! It was embarassing. Embarassing!

3. Let there be no doubt: the Red Sox Way (TM) is being pushed at all levels of the organization. We already knew that if Manny Ramirez doesn’t swing at it, it’s not a strike (no matter what the home plate umpire thinks). But when I watched #9 hitter and September call-up Jacoby Ellsbury, who at that point was 0 for 3 and must have been desperate for a hit (after all, everyone else in the lineup had one) stand in against Ryan Speier and take the bases-loaded walk, I realized just how hard the Red Sox organization has been pushing patience at the plate. Let it be known, Colorado: these Red Sox simply refuse to swing if it’s not a strike. Speier was called in to get one out—-just one out!—-and instead ended up walking all three batters he faced, and pushing three runs across the plate. Ouch. Nonetheless, there came a point in the fifth inning—maybe when I realized it was creeping up on 11pm and we were barely through half the game—when I just wanted the Red Sox to start hacking away. Beauty rest, people.

4. An interesting point made on WEEI this morning: Manny never seems to foul the ball off himself. Youkilis does it all the time. David Ortiz has been known to do it. I’ve seen it happen to Mike Lowell. In fact, most hitters foul a ball off of their ankle at least a few times. But I have never seen Manny Ramirez do it. Why? The consensus on the radio was that he just doesn’t swing at the low, out-of-the-strike-zone pitches that are prone to such activity.

5. Post-2004, Red Sox Nation is capable of magnanimity, even pity. We felt bad when we watched Victor Martinez weep into his sleeve after Game 7 of the ALCS. (Not as bad as if the Red Sox had lost, but, you know, a little bit bad.) And we feel sorry for the Rockies this morning. (You know, in a gloating kind of way.)

6. Given that tonight’s game could be very different, I am going to do two things today. Yes, I will read as much about last night’s blowout as possible, reveling in every word. But first, I need to make some more coffee.

Alright people, it’s upon us. I think this is one of the most anticipated Fall Classics in quite some time. But let’s take that with a grain of salt, FOX hasn’t been necessarily killing them with the ratings (boy, isn’t Selig glad the Sawks made it this year); but if we take into account the pure baseball aspect of the Series, we have to agree that the Rockies and the Red Sox have written two very interesting subplots.

Of course, there’s the Rox’ unprecedented run of 21 wins in 22 games to end the season and into the post-season. And then there’s the storied Red Sox, with the powerful line-up, the veteran leadership, the experience, the over-priced, over-hyped Japanese import. But I digress.

Well the only bad thing that comes to mind about this year (as in previous years) is the fact that we have to watch it on FOX - and listen to her. And him. I guess life is just full sour apples.

Live-blog thread after the jump.

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And as you may have heard, there is only one October. There is also only one postseason, and unless we are sorely mistaken, the Fall Classic is equally singular. And folks, it starts today. Thus, in today’s Boston Metro column, I (naturally) pick the Red Sox to win the 2007 World Series.

I had originally set out to do the kind of point-by-point comparison I’d done before: Rox versus Sox in the various categories of pitching, defense, baserunning, and offense. But I was stymied at every turn once I tried to get beyond the barest of bones. The NL and the AL have so diverged, it’s hard to make any meaningful comparisons between them with traditional stats. And when you’re also trying to take into account the park factor with Coors Field and Fenway Park, well, it’s was an exercise in futility.

I guess we’ll just have to let baseball decide. May the best team win!