Candlesticks Make a Nice Gift.

Mark Wagner is supposed to be a personality unto himself; he's supposed to be gregarious, outspoken, and amusing. As it turns out, "Wags" as he refers to himself is a bit of a wise ass. Asked today about visiting Casey Kelly on the mound:

"No, well, I had a question for him because there was this girl I met the other night, and we were on the mound and I was like, ‘Dude, I don’t know what to do.’ No, it was good. When he goes out and throws his game, there’s nothing you even need to talk about. It was good.”

Hardy har har.

Hop on Papi.

It seems perfectly reasonable to pick on David Ortiz as he has yet to find his swing this spring.


Gotta keep those glove skills sharp.

"So...You got plans tonight?"

"It's a European Shoulder Bag."

Only included because the shirt looked very unflattering in the last picture.

Brian Roberts looks to the dugout for help as David Ortiz, overcome by Roberts' boyish appeal, attempts to pick him up and take him home.

Live From Fort Myers: It's Batting Practice.

If you didn't buy MLB.tv because you've got NESN and since you've got NESN you don't live outside NESN's viewing area, then your next chance to see live baseball may very well be March 13; which seems like a depressingly long time from now. So you take any crumbs you can get and at 10 o'clock today, the News-Press down in Fort Myers will be streaming the Red Sox and the Twins batting practice live on their website. It's just a little thing but it'll have to do.

Exchange Student.

They say that knuckleball pitchers belong to a fraternity. If Eri Yoshida has her way, then they may have to come up with a new term. (I'd guess, though, that since in Romance languages the word 'brothers' can mean 'brothers and sisters' 'fraternity' would include women so they probably wouldn't have to technically change it--it was a good start and I'm not willing to abandon it.) Wake, being the dear kind soul that he is, took the time to meet with Ms. Yoshida and give her a few pointers on throwing the knuckleball yesterday. It was very good of him and I'm not sure that there are many of them who would have bothered.

Meanwhile Out in Arizona...

I would like very much for the Red Sox to win the World Series year in and year out. That would please me. But if there had to be a team besides the Red Sox to win the World Series, I would like it to be the Cubs. I'm not a fan of the Chicago Cubs but I do empathize with their fans. I would like them to experience that joy, to feel that release; barring, of course, that victory coming against the Red Sox.

Although, I suppose the best way to say it would be: If my boys were going to lose the World Series, then the least offensive team to lose to would be the Cubs. Obviously, if it came down to a Cubbies-Sox series "Go Sox!" but from the distance of early March I'd be okay with Chicago taking it all.

And so out there somewhere in Arizona, Kevin Millar tries to work his magic and convince the Cubs that they stand a chance against the Cardinals and the dark-horse Reds. As he tries to find himself a seat on that bench the Chicago media is digging the stories of Jack Daniels in the Gatorade and "Don't let us win tonight." Says Millar of playing in the World Series:

''I always thought experience was overrated until you get to those playoff games, until you get to the World Series and your heart rate's about a bazillion. That's something I'll never forget. And the good ones have a way of bringing that heart rate down, like your Joe Montanas or your Derek Jeters.

''Everything's so fast. Every pitch means something. Every ball, every strike. You try to slow it down like it's a regular-season game. You're finding a way to bring that heart rate down to a regular beat and talking it out.''

If Millar wants to play, then I'd like for him to get a job doing so. But if he doesn't find a spot, then the Sox should snap him up, appoint him Secretary of Keeping it Real and give him something to do. They could force NESN to give him Heidi's job; he would be fantastic at that--miles better than Ms. Watney.

Blooper Reel.

The Globe put together a blooper reel of sorts from picture day. A couple of notes: Josh Beckett may have a very dry sense of humor. Jon Lester is thrilled, THRILLED, to wish you a happy Fourth of July. And JD Drew is either madly in love with his hat or was suffering from hat head. (I'd vote for hat head.)

Fear of Flying.

For all intents and purposes, Dustin Pedroia seems fearless when he plays baseball. He's not afraid of anything or anyone on the field; be it rolling his wrist diving for a groundball and ending his career or disturbingly overweight pitchers in New York who might not be able to curb their hunger until the end of the inning and decide to snack on him in the meantime. But it turns out that off the field he's not that brave. He is afraid of going 500 miles per hour and falling 30,000 feet. In short, he's afraid to fly.

Also, JD Drew has his pilot's license. So that's something interesting about him.