What we now know is the fact that the Philadelphia Phillies have already punched in their ticket.

And while Philly awaits who’ll come out of the ALCS to play them in the 2008 MLB World Series, it all heats up in Boston where the locals try to will their Red Sox to force a Game 6 on Saturday, trying to slow down a Tampa Bay team that’s only a win away from advancing to the big dance.

It’s Game 5 of the ALCS as the Tampa Bay Rays, who are now holding a commanding 3-1 series lead after winning three games in a row, look to finish off the Boston Red Sox, a team on the receiving end of three straight debacles after starting this best-of-seven series with a 2-0 win in Tampa.

For what it’s worth, the guy who helped the Boston Red Sox to their only win in the ALCS will be back on the mound. Of course, the Boston faithful will be hoping that he will be able to give their team a similar result the last time he was on the field.

And for all ya’ll wondering who that guy is, it’s Daisuke Matsuzaka. The last time he faced the Rays, he held them scoreless, only giving up four hits in a defensive 2-0 triumph to give Boston the early 1-0 lead after Game 1. He comes back to the mound with his team down 3-1 and another stellar performance from him is BIG considering that it’s win or go home time for his boys.

Game 4 was perfect for the Rays, Evan Longoria hit his…

Baseball, baseball and more baseball. You’ll be seeing a lot of it with football still a few months away.

The 2008 MLB baseball season continues to heat up as a significant piece of the TV audience starts to tune in and see what’s been happening on the diamond lately. Don’t worry, baseball is still the same as it always has been in the past, boring as hell.

And what’s better to kick off this article with the defending MLB World Series champions, Boston Red Sox? The champs have a three-game season series with the Houston Astros for the weekend. Let’s hope that we’ll be seeing a little excitement here and there.

Red Sox starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, a right hand pitcher with a 3.46 ERA, will kick off this three-game series against the Houston Astros. Matsuzaka came off the 15-day disabled list for his last start against the Cardinals, looking nothing like the 8-0 starter that mowed down opposing lineups before suffering a right rotator cuff strain on May 27.

You have to wonder how good will Matsuzaka be against the Astros this Friday.

For the Houston Astros, it will be Runelvys Hernandez taking over Shawn Chacon’s spot in the rotation to face the Red Sox at Minute Maid Park. The 30-year-old right-hander has a 6-3 record with a 3.72 ERA over 15 starts for…

Jeez… They did it again.

MLB baseball’s comeback team, that’s the Boston Red Sox, did it again. After going down 3-1 to the Cleveland Indians, the Red Sox won three straight games, winning their third one in Game 7 to advance to the 2007 MLB World Series against the Colorado Rockies.

Facing elimination for the third straight game, the Boston Red Sox simply dominated the stunned Cleveland Indians in Game 7, winning in convincing fashion, 11-2, to become the 2007 American League champions.

You can almost feel how disappointed the entire ”Tribe” in Cleveland is right now after coming so close from advancing to baseball’s biggest stage. Hell, they had three opportunities to put Boston away and they wasted each one.

Boston’s most expensive import, that’s Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka who the Red Sox bought at a whopping $103 million in the offseason, was the star this time. Dice-K (Matsuzaka’s ”Western” nickname…) retired Cleveland’s first eight…

So, what about Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka? Do they consider him white too?

He he… Yep, there’s now a study that reveals MLB baseball umpires call strikes more for Caucasian pitchers than they do African. This is a study conducted by a team of one Daniel Harmermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas. (Who probably doesn’t know squat about baseball…)

Hamermesh’s team analyzed the calls on about a whopping 2.1 million pitches thrown in the Major League between the 2004 and 2006 MLB baseball seasons.

Controlling for all other outside factors, such as the pitcher’s tendency to throw strikes, the umpires’ tendency to call strikes and the batter’s ability to attract balls, researchers found evidence of same-race bias, and the data revealed that the bias benefits mostly white pitchers.

After all, 71 percent of MLB baseball pitchers are white while a whopping 87 percent of the umpires are… yep, white too.

The highest percentage of strikes were called when both the home-plate umpire and pitcher were white, and the lowest percentage were called between a white ump and a black pitcher.

Also according to the study, minority umpires judged…

Hell, the only thing left for the Celtics to do now is convince Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen to come out of retirement and play for them.

It seems that all these superstars want to play for Boston lately. First it was Japan’s hottest import to MLB baseball, Daisuke Matsuzaka (now known simply as Dice-K just because he’s now in the proud US of A…) signing with the Boston Red Sox to show that the Japanese is not only good at cartoons and… well… cartoons.

Then it was Randy Moss with all these other stars from different teams signing with the New England Patriots to join Tom Brady for the coming to the 2007-08 NFL football season.

And then there’s Ray Allen, leaving all those rainy days in Seattle (literally and figuratively…) playing for the pathetic Sonics to sign with the Boston Celtics. After sweet-shootin’ Ray, Kevin Garnett came in, instantly changing Boston’s agenda from just staying above .500 to win the goddamn NBA title in the 2007-08 NBA basketball season.

And now, Boston wants more and the latest of which is trying to convince Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller to come out of retirement and play for the stupid-looking…

Lately, it seems when people talk about baseball, I begin to hear stuff about Barry Bonds and this whole steroids thing.

Enough already. It’s about time we let that go and move on. Of course, doing that is harder than you think. With a guy like Barry Bonds having a date with history while using illegal substances like steroids to get there, turning away from MLB’s major issue is next to an impossibility.

But then again, if we have two or three guys who can play good enough for people to talk about them OTHER than Barry Bonds, then maybe people will start talking about the sport and not drug junkies in the San Francisco Giants locker rooms.

One of which is baseball’s fastest rising superstar, the Japanese pitcher of the Boston Red Sox, Daisuke Matsuzaka., Daisuke, or ”Dice-K” as he is called in the States, has brought international attention back to baseball since Hideo Nomo began all that hitting streaks in the past.

With guys like Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners and our little Japanese dude, Dice-K here, baseball is in good shape as far as Asia is concerned.

As far as local talents go, the States do have guys like…

Just when you thought Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees have it finally figured out, they had to come to Boston.

After a series of come-from-behind victories that saw Alex Rodriguez bring the New York Yankees back to win baseball games, all the drama came to a stop in Boston where the Boston Red Sox didn’t gave them a chance to win anything, THRICE.

Yep, the Boston Red Sox swept the red-hot New York Yankees, 3-0, winning their first season-series of the new 2007 MLB baseball season. It was all lucky sevens for the Red Sox, winning 7-6 Friday, 7-5 Saturday and 7-6 Sunday to finish off what became a one-sided, highly contested, series of baseball games.

And yeah, you just know that last Sunday’s game was the most contested of all. After all, the Yankees definitely didn’t want the Red Sox to sweep them this early in the season considering everything they had going coming to Boston. The only problem was, the Red Sox was looking to have exactly that.

Sweep the stupid Yanks’.

As magical as the New York Yankees have become the last few games before their trip to Boston, it was the Red Sox who had their fair share of magic. Last Sunday’s win over the Yankees was Boston’s third consecutive come-from-behind win. Yep, exactly what the Yankees have been doing before this epic three-game series.

The Boston Red Sox were in bad shape, as they almost saw a sweep of the Yankees out the window. But after the third-inning homer off rookie Chase Wright, everything changed as it gave Boston…

Daisuke Matsuzaka is human. And Asians don’t always look like Jacky Chan.

After two starts by Boston Red Sox star Daisuke Matsuzaka, he showed us that the 2007 MLB baseball season still is a learning curve for him. Oh yeah, he also reminded us from those two starts that he is STILL a rookie too.

Against Ichiro Suzuki, Dice-K (thanks to the Western coining of his Asian name…) showed that he can also be vulnerable at times. Heck, it showed, when the guy saw Ichiro Suzuki at bat when his Boston Red Sox played Suzuki’s Seattle Mariners.

Round One of the Daisuke Matsuzaka – Ichiro Suzuki show belongs to Ichiro after the Mariners beat the Red Sox, 3-0. Maybe Daisuke is not yet the messiah Boston fans were hoping him to be? Well, for what it’s worth, Dice-K still does have a lot of learning to do so you can’t nail him to a cross just yet.

Matsuzaka, despite the setback, is still happy about his debut to MLB baseball.

”(On Tuesday), during the Opening (Day) ceremonies when my name was called, I was given a grand welcome by the fans here, and it gave me goose bumps,” Daisuke Matsuzaka said through…

So Forbes snubbed Calvin Ayre on it latest billionaires list. But theys ure are lovin’ this guy for making a fortune on a sex device.

Koichi Matsumoto, a former auto mechanic, decided to make his sexual overdrive a history by inventing the Onanicups. You say what the hell is an Onanicup? Well it’s little device designed to help men get a grip on their sexual desires when a live mate is unavailable.

Read: so you won’t feel the need to masturbate. But whay would you want to do that, right?

But his fellow Japanese are responding because as of today Matsumoto’s company, Tenga, is selling a good 100,000 of them a month. Now we know a lot of guys in that part of the world aren’t getting it.

Matsumoto assures his market that his little invention really works because he tested and perfected it on himself even he had to resort to swallowing a few Viagras. Wait, so this is Viagra-proof too?

Onanicup is now being sold in 120 retail outlets in Japan. And for online shoppers don’t be left out, you can easily order them on Amazon.com.jp.

Or contact your nearest porn distributor if you like a more discreet transaction somewhere in a dark alley.

Yep, it seems this guy is having too much beer lately.

Daisuke Matsuzaka has yet to throw his very first curve ball for the Boston Red Sox and yet, he has already raised a couple of eyebrows within the organization. Apparently, this guy is downing too much beer lately, and the Red Sox organization watched him drinking all them beers on TV.

A slick commercial for Asahi ”Super” Dry beer features Boston’s new Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka donning a Red Sox jersey and throwing in full uniform in front of a simulated frenzied throng.

In between those shots, the same Daisuke Matsuzaka, in street clothes, is shown first taking a couple of gulps from a large glass of beer. After a quick cut, the shot returns to Matsuzaka downing the beer and, with foam on his lips, smiling and sighing contentedly.

Nice. But we all saw that with the ”Got Milk?” campaign already… ANYWAY…

Sports athletes drinking beer in TV advertisements is normal in Japan, but in the United States, it’s a big NO NO. In the United States, beer can’t be consumed in TV ads and Major League Baseball (MLB) teams does not allow any of its players endorsing any kind of…