Mr. 499

On September 2nd, 1993, Manny Ramirez made his major league debut. The next day, against the New York Yankees, Ramirez hit the first (and second) home run of his career. 15 seasons later Ramirez is poised to hit the 500th homer of his career.

Courtesy of Baseball-Reference is a complete list of every Manny Ramirez home run, including the pitcher that gave it up, the score of the game, and if anyone else scored. The sheer number of pitchers and games involved in this is mindblowing.

Your 2008 AL East Champs, The Tampa Bay Rays

If there's anything worse than that sting you feel seeing Tampa Bay in first place, it's that video.

After my initial heart attacks, reason came back to me and I remember the track record of young, previous cellar-dweller teams in recent years. Best recent example being the Brewers - an early tear followed by big drop off. While the Rays '08 squad is very impressive, they do not seem to have the veteran presence that held the Marlins together in their 2 Series runs.

For Sox fans, this means that if Boston can get its act together and if Tampa falls off, Boston might have not any other AL East teams nipping at its heels.

Return of the Ridiculous Sox Player Commercials

First up is Dustin Pedroia. This commercial keeps up the grand tradition of awkwardness and whimsy that we expect from Sullivan Tire Sox-player ads. "I can't believe it, it's Jim Rice" may be the "It's like a baby New York" of '08 (close second - "My job is NUTTY").



Jonathan Papelbon with another slam dunk commercial. This one also gets many bonus points for awkwardness, and keeps up the grand tradition of people drinking out of the corner of their mouths in Dunkin' Donuts commercials.

We are truly blessed by the strange athlete tie-in commercials that grace the breaks between the innings... but I really miss this guy: