Hardball Heaven

You know, we all need to exhale every now and then and realize just how good we have it with the current Boston sports scene. On a seemingly mundane Monday night - with the Red Sox in action against the Triple-A Royals and the Celtics across town preparing for tomorrow's night's Eastern Conference Finals opener against Detroit - wouldn't you know Jon Lester and Jason Varitek would make a little history.

Lester became the second Sox pitcher in 2 years to throw a no-hitter, blanking the hapless Royals 7-0. It was the first no-no by a Sox southpaw in 52 years, and followed Clay Buchholz' masterpiece last Labor Day against the Orioles. It was also the fourth no-hitter Varitek has caught in his career, which sets a new MLB record. Tek has now caught no-hitters thrown by Hideo Nomo, Derek Lowe, Buchholz and Lester. Not too shabby.

Meanwhile, the Celtics are getting ready for another brutal series after beating LeBron James and the Cavaliers yesterday in another Game 7 at the Garden. It was a great game, with Paul Pierce and LeBron both submitting heroic performances. While it wasn't pretty, the bottom line is the Celts are still alive. Anything can happen against the Pistons. As for the Cavaliers and their young superstar, you've gained my eternal respect, LBJ. You're a treat to watch play the game, and your postgame comments after a tough loss - actually, your demeanor during the whole series - was classy. Remember in Game 3 when Pierce and KG went crashing into LeBron's mom, and he started yelling at his mom to sit down? The whole arena was rapidly turning on Pierce for his hard foul on LeBron, and LeBron just went over to Pierce, patted him on the shoulder and made everything cool. Every set of eyeballs in the stadium saw this gesture, and it completely defused what could have quickly become a hostile sitchy-ayshun.