...one thought still remains from the Red Sox-Yankees series last weekend - George Steinbrenner won't allow players to have long hair or beards in the name of professionalism, but visible tattoos (like the one Cory Lidle sports on the inside of his elbow) are okay?

...Steinbrenner can't be all bad, though - he did give $5,000 to that ungrateful jerk of a league president from Staten Island.

...strange but true: in The Bad News Bears, an adult slaps a kid in public and time stops for two minutes while everyone asks, "Did that really just happen?"; in real life, an adult slaps a kid on television and we're more concerned about the fact that the youngster said a naughty word on the air.

...how far have we really come since 1976?

...congratulations to Portsmouth, NH for making it to the final eight in this year's LLWS. I'm proud to have attended high school there.

...I love the commercial for "Yaz", a new birth control pill, for two reasons: one, it's called "Yaz", which can't make Carl Yastrzemski real happy, two, when the actress casually mentions something about having gone to medical school, they put the disclaimer "Doctor Dramatization" across the bottom of the screen. Makes me laugh every time.

...I made a decision after reading some October 2004 archives on Boston Sports Media Watch - I'm not giving up on the Red Sox until they visit Yankee Stadium in September.

...nice to see David Wells putting together a string of good starts in what could be his last hurrah at the major league level.

...Curt Schilling needs to do the same. A 6-0 September to lead the Sox into the playoffs could push his Hall of Fame candidacy over the brink.

...this year marks my first ever attempt at a "real" fantasy football league (my older brother asked me to "assistant coach" his team) - was it a bad idea to take Ahman Green in the fourth round?

...on the bright side, we drafted the Redskins defense - the Patriots only dropped 41 points on them today.

...why is it that every time I flip to the History Channel, they're running a program about ancient Egypt?

...and does AMC (American Classic Movies) realize that the majority of movies it shows are not classic movies?

...no television station is worse at promoting movies than the USA Network - last week, a promo for Big Fish said something about Ewan McGregor thinking his father was crazy. Funny thing, though - McGregor played the father in the movie. Also, several months ago, they spent an entire weekend running commercials for How To Loose A Guy In Ten Days.

...is there anything better than a baseball player charging the mound after almost getting hit by a pitch?

...maybe I'll write something with actual paragraphs next week.

...then again, school is starting next week, so maybe I won't.

Watching David Ortiz play the game of baseball, I think I know what it was like to watch Ted Williams in 1941, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 and Jim Rice in 1978. Those three are possibly the most dominant offensive seasons by Red Sox hitters in the past seventy years, the defining campaigns in careers that carried Williams and Yaz to the Hall of Fame and Rice right up to the front door.

Ortiz' 2006 has been, to this point, on a par with any of those seasons. As the calendar flips over to August, he is on a pace that would not only lead him past the Sox single season homerun record (Jimmie Foxx's 50 in 1938) but close to Roger Maris' American League mark of 61, which somehow withstood the massive homerun barrage of the late 1990s and early 2000s. In addition, he could become just the third major leaguer since 1938 to drive in more than 160 runs in a season.

Despite the level of dominance associated with all three of the above mentioned seasons - Williams' .406 average, Yaz's Triple Crown, Rice's 406 total bases - and the fact that Ortiz is statistically on a par with any of them, Big Papi has a chance to take it a step further, to a place that few players in any sport have reached. He has a chance to not only turn in an exceptional season, but to carry his team to victory while doing so.

In recent weeks, the Red Sox have shifted from division favorites to a team that is barely hanging on. Several formerly steady contributors (including Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon, Keith Foulke, Matt Clement and Tim Wakefield) are currently on the disabled list. The pitching staff in particular is in tough shape, consisting of one reliable starter (Curt Schilling), one starter who has shown flashes of brilliance (Josh Beckett), a lights out closer (Jonathan Papelbon) and an uninspiring combination of youngsters and veterans who are doing their best to keep the ship afloat.

With the team in danger of sinking and the Yankees only getting stronger, acquiring Cory Lidle and Bobby Abreu and expecting Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui back at some point, the Red Sox needed something to go their way in the days following the trade deadline and Varitek's knee injury. They received it in the form of Big Papi's bat, which delivered two game winning hits in three days earlier this week against the Angels and Indians before helping vanquish the Devil Rays last night with two mammoth solo homeruns. It appears that Ortiz plans to pick his teammates up, place them on his broad shoulders and carry them for as long as he possibly can. It is a role that suits few, requiring the mental toughness to raise individual level of play to make up for team shortcomings.

Who knows how long Ortiz will help carry his teammates. Schilling rediscovered the ability to take his game up a notch tonight, allowing Papi the opportunity to step in and be the hero, and Mark Loretta contributed a walk-off hit of his own against Cleveland on Wednesday night, but there are still question marks that need to be addressed - can Beckett avoid the long ball, can Javy Lopez still contribute as a starting catcher, will Craig Hansen emerge as a lockdown middle reliever? Until those areas are resolved - perhaps I should say if those areas are resolved - I for one am glad that Ortiz has shown the willingness to shoulder the load and lead the team in the right direction.