This piece originally aired as the Sports Rundown, which can be heard every Saturday at noon.

This means the Red Sox now have 2 pitchers named Ramon Ramirez in their bullpen.  That can’t get confusing…

-Becs

It’s the Red Sox offseason.  Most people are talking about recent acquisition Marco Scutaro and hoping that he will finally solve the Sox shortshop issues.  Others are focused on the bullpen, which seems a little empty now that Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito are gone.  Few are talking about the Sox new firstbase coach, Ron Johnson.

Photo curtesy of Creative Commons user Eric Kilby

Also know as RJ, Johnson has been coaching in the minor leagues for 18 years and with the Red Sox organization for 10.  He has been the manager of the Pawtucket Red Sox for the past 5 years.  He’s worked with many players, including Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, and Clay Buchholz.  After seeing them succeed at the major league level, now it’s Johnson’s turn.

Johnson has served as a bench coach for the Red Sox during the end of September, after the minor league season was over.  He told me back in September what a privilege it is that Red Sox manager Terry Francona brings him up along with the minor league call ups.

I always take it as an honor when Tito calls and invites me to join his for the last part of the season.

One of RJ’s strengths is his positive attitude.  Even when the PawSox struggle, he always points to good things he saw from his guys.

And our goal here, if it is indeed to win at the major league level, which it is and the good thing is the people that I work for understand that.  You know, we’re no different than everybody else; we can sit in here after some of these tough losses and it’s been a tough couple of months as far as the wins/losses, but on a daily basis, I think this staff does a phenomenal job.  We want these guys to be able to come into the clubhouse and when they walk in the door, be happy to be here.

Johnson’s replacement in Pawtucket is Torey Luvollo, who managed the Cleveland Indians’ AAA affiliate.  He played for Red Sox manager Terry Francona for the Phillies back in 1999 and recently said that Francona was the manager who influenced him most.

Changes for the Red Sox organization do not only come through blockbuster deals.  Sometimes they come through rewarding a guy for his tireless work with young players.  RJ serves as a guy who knows the young players and can help them make the transition to the big leagues easier.  He fun loving and he deserves this promotion to the major leagues after working with so many athletes who are now big impact players in Boston.

For WBRU Sports, I’m Becs.

This piece originally aired as part of the Brief, which airs every Monday at 11pm.

This picture courtesy of Creative Commons user wonker.

Some songs just evoke memories of sports games, whether it’s Queen’s “We are the Champions,” AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” or even Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, which is played after every Patriots touchdown (with the militia men firing their muskets).  Theme songs for Sunday Night Football and the Olympics are  recognizable even among those who wouldn’t consider themselves sports fans.

ESPN recently obtained exclusive use to King’s of Leon’s “Be Somebody” and asked members of the band which professional athlete would they be if they weren’t rock stars.

Drummer Nathan Followill chose anyone on the Oklahoma Sooners.

lead singer Caleb Followill said he’d like to be football great Billy Sims (who also happened to win the Heisman Trophy as a Sooner)

Bassist, Jared Followill chose Adrian Peterson, a former Sooners running back.

Lead guitarist Matthew Followill actually chose a non-Sonner.  He went for former Major League Baseball player Mookie Wilson.

-Becs

Click here for ESPN’s original article.

Barron, 40, has played in only 4 tournaments this year on the developmental Nationwide Tour and once on the PGA, where he failed to make the cut.

Barron had many health issues, so it is possible that he took something without clearing it with the Tour first, but after the constant media attention on steroids in baseball, wouldn’t you think that all athletes were making an extra effort to avoid these situations.

You know, I’m as sick of steroids as anyone else, but really, golf????

-Becs

Based on the Big East coach’ poll, the Friars have a light  schedule.  They face Syracuse (picked 6th), Marquette (12th) and South Florida (14th), which is the second easiest in the conference.

URI plays Temple (tied for 5th), UMass (9th) and Fordham (14th), which is just harder than St. Bonaventure and Richmond.

-Becs

After last night’s results, all of which went New England’s way, the Revs only needed a tie to secure the final playoff spot, but the win gives them momentum heading into the playoffs. Now, the Revs will face the Chicago Fire later this week.  (Times and dates will be announced later.)  This will be the fifth straight season where the Fire and Chicago face each other in the playoffs and the 7th time in 8 seasons.  The two teams played to a 0-0 tie last week at Gillette.

-Becs

After a couple months of school sports, the fee is not bringing in the revenue the town hoped for.  Stephen Lindberg, superintendent of schools, is set to discuss the program tonight.  Though no numbers have been released, the ProJo reports that the effort to raise money through this fee is “disappointing.”

-Becs

Lefebvre’s recall is on an emergency basis.  Lefebvre was invited to Bruins’ training camp on a tryout agreement, and he impressed enough during the preseason to warrant the early call up.  In five games, he tallied 1 assist and 14 penalty minutes.

Brad Marchand, the PBruins’ Rookie of the Year last year scored 2 goals for the Bruins this preseason.  Already in 6 games in Providence, Marchand has scored 6 goals and picked up 2 assists.

Vladamir Sobotka has split the last two seasons between Boston and Providence. With Boston, he has appeared in 73 regular season games, recording two goals and 10 assists. With Providence, scored 30 goals and 34 assists.

Milan Lucic was placed on long term injured reserve after suffering a broken finger in the Bruins 3-0 win over the Dallas Stars on Friday.

-Becs

Knowing the import of this game, the Revolution came out firing.  They dominated the early going, including 2 crosses in the first 2 minutes.  By the middle of the first half, the momentum had evened out and the Revs were unable to capitalize on their early dominance.

From the defense, Kevin Alston was a spark coming up to help out the offense.  He made some of the nice crosses throughout the game, including the Rev’s best scoring chance in the 57^th minute.  Alston crossed and the ball seemed to go under Kheli Dube’s foot.

Entering tonight, the Revolution were holding on to the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 2 games left in the regular season.  A win would not clinch a playoff berth for the Revs, without a multitude of other factors going their way, but would put them in a good position going into the final week of the season.

With Toronto’s victory over the Kansas City Wizards, the Rev’s have dropped to 9^th place and as it stands are out of the playoffs.  They go to Columbus to face the first place Crew on — for the last game of the year.  They have an outside chance of making the playoffs with a win, but I think we have seen the last of soccer in Foxboro in 2009.

Penalty summary- yellow cards

NE
Sainey Nyassi (41st min)

CHI
Mike Banner (5th min)
Chris Rolfe (62nd min)

-Becs