Guess who’s coming back to Boston.

Detroit Tigers outfielder Johnny Damon confirmed to reporters that he has been claimed on waivers by the Red Sox this 2010 MLB baseball season.

“My teammates are making this decision easier by saying they want me to stay,” Johnny Damon said after their 12-3 win over Kansas City. “My gut and everything else tells me that Detroit’s the place for me.”

Damon, though, said he wants to talk to Tigers president Dave Dombrowski before making his final decision. His contract includes a clause that gives him veto power over trades to all but eight teams. Because the Red Sox aren’t one of those eight clubs, he can block a return to Boston, where he was a long-haired, bearded folk hero as a key part of the 2004 “idiots.”

Detroit could work out a trade with Boston to complete the deal if Damon gives the OK, and that might bring the Tigers a prospect in return.

“I understand if it could help the Tigers in the future, I have to look at it that way, but my teammates are making it much easier on me,” he said. “If they want me to stay, teammates normally win out.”

It is still unclear whether the Red Sox claimed Damon in order to try to acquire him or to prevent him from joining another contending team, such as the Tampa Bay Rays, who are in need of an outfielder. If Damon decides he wants to return to Boston and the Red Sox are interested, the team has 48 hours to work out a trade with the Tigers, who also could let him go for nothing or decide to pull him back off waivers and keep him.

Damon has hit .270 with seven home runs and 40 RBIs during his…

Yep, it has come to this.

A pal of Manny Ramirez’s considered the coming week and what may follow, how far the Los Angeles Dodgers have fallen this 2010 MLB baseball season, and the club’s opportunity – now that Ramirez is on his feet again – to save the last few million of a lot of wasted dollars.

“Manny’s days in L.A.,” the friend of Manny Ramirez said, “are over.” One way or another. As he once followed teammate Johnny Damon out of Boston, Ramirez will follow Damon to the waiver wire, two Idiots in limbo.

Damon hadn’t dismissed returning to the Red Sox for WWJDD II. And Manny was Waived Man Walking, though Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti hadn’t yet pulled that trigger. It’s coming.

While life with Manny in L.A. was often complicated – the drug suspension, the injuries, the dramatic loss of power, the blind idolatry, the consecutive trips to the National League Championship Series, the wig sales – Colletti’s next decision will not be. Now he tries to turn the last few bricks of Mannywood into something useful.

At 38, Ramirez has nearly half as many trips to the disabled list (three) as he does home runs (eight). The trick will be to keep him on the field long enough to push him through the waivers process (48 hours) and, assuming he is claimed, through trade negotiations (as many as another 48 hours).

Ramirez has full no-trade rights, which adds another layer to…

Two of the best all-around baseball teams collide as the New York Yankees slug it out against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6.

That’s right, the 2009 MLB World Series is on as the Yankees and the Phillies play in what is shaping up to be an interesting championship face-off, to say the least. With fans from New York on one side and Philly fans on the other, you can almost smell a brawl brewing.

But who has the advantage? Sure, the New York Yankees are having a terrific season considering that just a few months ago, Alex Rodriguez was in the middle of controversies involving performance enhancing drugs. But do they have enough to dethrone the defending champs?

The Philadelphia Phillies are looking to win it all again after winning the title last year. They have assembled enough talent to bring themselves back in the big dance. This time they have the Bronx Bombers from New York challenging them for the title. Can they make quick work of the Yankees like they did the Tampa Bay Rays last year?

These two teams boast two of the best hitting lineups in the game.

For the Phillies, they have some great hitters including Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Shane Victorino. However, the most powerful and feared bat in their lineup is the incomparable Ryan Howard…

We are.

You can almost feel the intensity of the 2009 MLB World Series as the ALCS and the NLCS will decide which two teams will come out to play for the world championship.

In the ALCS, the New York Yankees are looking to return back to the big dance as they go up against the Los Angeles Angels, a team looking to get at least one team from Hollywood in the World Series.

In the NLCS, the Philadelphia Phillies are looking to return to the World Series and defend the world title they won last year after dominating the Tampa Bay Rays in five games. They do battle with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team looking to give Joe Torre his first world championship ring since moving to Hollywood.

What’ll happen if the Yankees face their old mentor and take on the Dodgers? Will the World Series be settled in Hollywood this year? Can the Philadelphia Phillies win back to back titles and beat whichever team that’ll come out of the American League?

Here’s a look at all four possible matchups and who we think will take it. Unfortunately, we’re not picking the Los Angeles Angels to win ANY matchup. Sorry.

Los Angeles Angels vs. Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2009 MLB World Series

Another cross-town World Series match-up in the making? As everybody knows, this kind of scenario never materialized like the New York Yankees – New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals – Kansas City Royals matchups they were gunning for before mainly because there still is the ”baseball doesn’t exist west of Kansas” reaction.

And since East Coast fans usually can’t stay awake to…

The New York Mets are not the worst team in baseball.

They are not even the most incompetently run franchise in their own division. Yet, their campaign this 2009 MLB baseball season may have forever redefined the concept of losing.

Nothing has gone right for the poor New York Mets in this calendar year. From the ownership down to the bat boys, the entire organization has been beset by financial issues, management missteps, injuries, errors, poor timing, and just plain bad luck. Every week seemed to bring a new crisis or terrible disaster and through it all, they constantly found inventive and entertaining ways to squander victory. And there’s still a month left!

Let’s take a look at this disgruntled franchise on what has gone wrong this year. Actually, it started in the offseason when the Mets first gave Francisco Rodriguez a three year, $37 million contract. This was the biggest buyers market in years and no other big market teams were in the mix for a closer, and yet they still gave him premium money. Frankie finishes 55 games in 2010, 100 games between 2010 and 2011, and is deemed healthy after the 2011 season, his fourth year option vests for $17.5 million. The bad news is, Frankie has been declining the past four seasons and the decline has continued this season.

Then the injuries.

The first set of injuries came within a few days of each other in May. Carlos Delgado got injured in a game against the Pirates on May 10th, yet doesn’t go on the disabled list until May 16th, despite requiring hip surgery. Jose Reyes injures his calf in a game against the Braves on May 13th but was placed on the disabled list on the 26th, almost two weeks after the initial injury. Reyes has not been seen since, and apparently everybody thinks he’s a wuss for making sure he is completely healthy before returning to the field.

The Mets lost their last remaining star when David Wright was…

It looks like these Yanks’ just made a huge statement.

With all the problems these guys have been having prior to the start of the 2009 MLB baseball season, it looks like the Yanks’ are finally pulling it together. They won three games in a row to further establish their spot on top of the American League and after they added into that by sweeping their rivals from Boston 4-0, these Yanks’ definitely have something going on now.

In case you didn’t get that, yes, the New York Yankees just swept the Boston Red Sox to win their four-game season series in the Bronx. Them Yankees did that in style too, beating the Red Sox for the fourth and final time with back to back homers from Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira in the eight inning. And mind you, they were down to their last out then.

The Boston Red Sox simply had no answer for the Yankees as New York defeated Boston 5-2 for the four-game sweep. To say that the last four games in the new Yankee stadium were special could very well be an understatement since the four-game series with Boston marked the first time that the crowd watching Yankee games screamed that loud.

”It felt like the playoffs,” Johnny Damon said.

It sure felt like the postseason as Yankee fans were in a sense of hysteria only reserved for huge playoff games with a lot at stake. After the Yankees rallied with four runs on 15 pitches in the eight inning with Matt Teixeira hitting another homer…

Peter Rose definitely deserves a second chance.

There are reports claiming that MLB commissioner Bud Selig is considering lifting the lifetime ban on should-be Hall of Famer Pete Rose, saying that Selig was close to letting the game’s all-time hits leader back in the game.

Before Rose entered the recognizable door on a possible reinstatement this 2009 MLB baseball season, Selig slammed it again. Ugh.

It has been nearly 20 years since Pete Rose was banned from baseball by late commissioner Bart Giamatti following allegations that he gambled on the sport that gave him a different name, ”Charlie Hustle” and made him one of the most adored players in baseball.

In his final decision, Giamatti concluded that Rose violated Major League Rule 21 and was placed on the ineligible list on Aug. 23, 1989.

No one knows whether or not Giamatti, who passed away a few weeks after issuing the ban, had planned to reinstate Rose in the future, but one thing is for certain, Rose has paid his dues and even admitted to gambling on baseball when he released a book five years ago.

Rose definitely deserves a second chance, which is what life is all about, second chances and learning from past mistakes. Even Hank Aaron himself has hinted recently that Rose deserves a second chance.

Rose the manager may have broken the rules, but…

Now that’s something new right?

And in case you didn’t get that, yes, the Rangers have been playing terrific defense this 2009 MLB baseball season. And for a team that has been known for anything BUT their D, it definitely looks like this club has finally moved on since losing A-Rod years ago.

The Texas Rangers have done a lot to get this defense going the way it is right now. For one, they knew they would get a full season from Chris Davis, a very good defensive first baseman, otherwise known for his power. To tighten the defensive skills of catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, they dispatched former big league catcher Scott Servais to Saltalamacchia’s home in Florida over the winter for some defensive tutoring.

The Rangers installed rookie Elvis Andrus at shortstop while shifting erstwhile shortstop Michael Young to third. ”It made us better at two positions,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. They have jumped from last in defensive efficiency to second, similar to the worst to first improvement by the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rangers’ pitching has also improved. The hiring of pitching coach Mike Maddux away from Milwaukee was an inspired move. Ace Kevin Millwood (4-3, 2.93) not only has set the tone for a rotation that goes deep into games, but ”has set the example for everyone else as far as conditioning and work ethic,” Daniels said.

”In the past couple of years we had people to…”

Vindication, that’s what Pedro should be gunning for at this point of his career.

Well, that’s what the Philadelphia Phillies are hoping for after they just signed the veteran for the remainder of the 2009 MLB baseball season. They just signed Martinez to a $1 million, one-year contract that can earn him up to $1.5 million in incentives and as far as the Phillies are concerned, they’re hoping he’s worth every penny.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner hasn’t pitched since last season with the New York Mets. He was miserable, to say the least, in his final two seasons in New York, winning only eight games in 25 starts. Still, that didn’t stop the Philadelphia Phillies from signing him up.

”Of course there’s some risk here. But we’d rather risk it on someone of his caliber and who knows how to win,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said of Pedro Martinez.

As for Pedro, he’s just happy that somebody gave him a second chance. He knows he’s no longer the same player he was a few years ago but he’s willing to find out just how good (or how bad…) he could end up to be this season.

”I might surprise you, I might not,” the 37-year-old Martinez said. ”It’s going to be really fun to go find out.”

”I don’t expect to be the same Pedro that I was when I was 26. There’s…”

And while you probably wouldn’t give a flying fuck about it, at least we informed you about it.

That’s right, the 2009 MLB All-Star Game is set this Tuesday as the players fans voted in to play will hope they won’t make an ass of themselves like Brock Lesnar did over the weekend.

So who made the cut? Let’s start with the 2009 MLB National League All-Star starters. The NL team consists of catcher Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals, and top vote-getter Albert Pujols at first base.

And since Pujols was the leading vote-getter in balloting for the Midsummer Classic, he became the very first Cardinal to start an All-Star game in his home ballpark. ”It feels great to be there and represent the organization and the city you play in,” Albert Pujols said.

Albert Pujols is well on his way to another amazing year, leading the majors with 31 homers and 82 RBIs. He collected 5,397,374 votes to finish with the second-highest total in Major League history, trailing only Ken Griffey Jr.’s six million votes in 1994. Pujols has made the NL team eight times in nine seasons and will be making his sixth start.

The rest of the National League all star infield consists of…