Hardball Heaven

Ah, time to break out the kelly green jerseys and green beer - a perfect excuse to begin drinking before noontime. Where's Troy O'Leary when you need him? Not a lot of news coming out of the Fort this week, but a couple of things worth mentioning:

- Terry Francona finally got a well-deserved contract extension. I'm not his biggest fan (will we every truly love a Sox manager? Nope.) but I do respect his ability to relate with his players, which I think is a huge aspect to managing in today's game.

- Team USA bowed out of the inaugural World Baseball Classic with its 2-1 loss to Mexico. Once again, Roger Clemens suffered from a lack of offensive support. I'm just glad that Varitek can get back to camp and work with the pitchers. Timlin, too.

- David "The Jerk" Wells is spouting off again, saying he'll be pissed if Tito leaves him out of the rotation at the start of the year. Unbelievable. Guy wants to be traded, decides to stay, and now wants to dictate the terms. He embodies the worst characteristics of today's egocentric ballplayer. Dale Arnold asked Tito an interesting question this morning: Does Wells care about the success of this team? Of course, Tito can't answer that one diplomatically so I will: Abso-lutely not. Not even close. The reason Boomer wants to be in the rotation at the start of the year has nothing to do with the health of his knee -- it's all about the incentive comp he receives for games started. I do have to give him some props, though - he knows how to completely manipulate the hungry-for-morsels Boston media.

- Josh Beckett displayed an ornery edge in dealing with the media yesterday. After an impressive outing, Beckett entered the press room and asked the huge throng, 'Is this really necessary?' Will be interesting to watch how this relationship evolves throughout the year. Hard-headed Texans typically haven't fared well in Boston, but I say it's time to put the media on the losing end of that equation - and Beckett, depending on his performance, may be just the guy to make that happen.

- Corner infield alert! The Red Sox have never quite gotten their corner infield situation right (at least since Mo's heyday), and there's plenty of reason to fret this year. You need to have some power in those spots, and I'm afraid it's missing in the form of the Lowell, Snow, Youkilis trio.

Happy St. Pat's Day. More later today...