Speak for Your Supper.

On December 1, Larry Lucchino will be speaking at the St. Mary's Education Fund Fall Dinner. The fund supports scholarships for students in the Fall River Diocese allowing them to attend catholic schools. Lucchino was selected for his history of charitable giving. Says E. Dennis Kelly, chairman of the event:

"The Red Sox organization has certainly had extraordinary success with Lucchino at the helm but beyond that, led by Lucchino, the organization has transcended the baseball field to serve an important role within the community. As a charitable foundation, the Sox are out front. Lucchino epitomizes the ideal of giving back to the community."

Movin Up.

The Houston Astros announced this afternoon that they would be going into next season with Brad Mills at their helm. Terry Francona had nothing but good things to say about his friend:

"I think he's ready. He's been ready. That's subjective, but he's been working his whole life toward this. When he was second in charge, he did a great job. Now he's going to be making the decisions, and he'll do a great job. You can't find a better guy. He deserves this opportunity. Again, I hope he takes it and runs with it. I'm thrilled for him."

Good luck to Mills. He has, to put it politely, a challenge ahead of him.



And as long as we're talking about one, we might as well mention the other: Assistant GM Jed Hoyer has also gotten himself a new job. He has been hired as the General Manager of the San Diego Padres for the next four years. He also has a challenge ahead of him.

Signs That Times are Tough.

Even gazillionaires are affected by the crummy economy.

John Henry has taken to blogging for NESN (as Don and Heidi were very excited to inform everyone today--Jerry? Not so much) in order to earn a little extra scratch. I won't make fun of him because 1: Clearly, the man is overly intelligent, has an extensive vocabulary, and spells oof in a very French manner, 2: He uses quite a few exclamation marks and I find a love of exclamation marks endearing, and 3: He's a little scary--in a he-could-make-you-disappear-and-no-one-would-ever-question-it kind of way.



Meanwhile, Larry Lucchino was spotted moonlighting as a member of the custodial staff between games this afternoon. Running a baseball team isn't cheap, you know? And every little bit helps.

A Merry Milkman.

Minor league baseball and Jonathan Papelbon were probably meant for each other. Minor league ballparks always seem to have some sort of sideshow going on and Papelbon is a sideshow on his own. I imagine that he's probably always marched to the beat of his own drummer.

Theo Epstein took part in a press conference earlier today during which he discussed next week's amateur draft. He does have some interesting things to say like should the club end up in dire financial straights, they won't scrimp on drafting (and I'll infer he means signing bonuses) because ultimately you'll end up with a cheaper club if you can put all young guys out there. He was also asked (and very helpfully answered the question by repeating the question so I could tell what he was talking about) to discuss his favorite pick. He chose Jonathan Papelbon for obvious reasons. He then went on to tell a slightly amusing story about going to see him pitch up in Lowell not too long after he was signed and finding him happily milking a cow.

Graduation Season.

A couple of honorary degrees were passed out to the Sox glitterati this past weekend.

Bryant University in Rhode Island saw fit to honor Red Sox CEO/President Larry Lucchino with a doctorate of humane letters.

Also getting an honorary degree this past weekend was Johnny Pesky. Pesky received a doctorate of humane letters from Salem State College in Salem, MA. Pesky was very thankful for the honor, saying:

"I am very flattered by this. I don't know why they wanted to do it, but I am very flattered."

Awww.

California Dreaming.

Coco Crisp (What do you mean he doesn't play for them anymore?) will be the grand marshal of the Desert Hot Springs Holiday Parade in Desert Hot Springs, CA on December 7. His folks live in the area.

and

Mike Dee, Chief Operating Officer of the Red Sox and President of Fenway Sports Group, will be speaking at the CMO Summit on December 10 and 11 in Monterey, CA. The theme of the conference will be finding new "routes to revenue."

Here's a Story 'Bout a Man Named Werner.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence honored Red Sox chairman Tom Werner on November 9th by giving him the Sarah Brady Visionary Award at their Target for a Safe America Gala. He was given the honor because of his financial support of their effort to keep guns out of the hands of criminals by creating sensible gun laws. It's certainly a worthy cause. Congratulations to him.