Dawson had 12 knee operations during his career. Two of those surgeries came when he was with the Sox, giving fans only glimpses of his Hall-worthy skills. He played just 121 games in his first season with the Sox, 75 the second, and hit a total of just 29 home runs in that span.

“I hurt my knee in the beginning of my first season [with the Red Sox] in Texas,” Dawson told me in a 2006 interview. “I got caught between sliding and standing up on a passed ball. I was on second base, and I took a chop step between strides and hit the corner of the third-base bag.

“I had knee surgery and they decided to use me in the DH role. Then I had knee surgery the following year, too. I never got untracked the way I wanted to in Boston, which was disappointing because I was a free agent then and Boston had shown a lot of interest.”

Dawson was teammates with Terry Francona on the Montreal Expos, and was the first player to Francona’s side when the Sox manager blew out the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. Francona, after double-digit surgeries, underwent knee replacement surgery in 2006. Dawson has had replacement surgery on one knee, and has plans to have the same procedure on the other.

“We had a long conversation about it,” Dawson said before his first surgery. “I’ve been putting it off as long as I can. I have some apprehensions about it. I don’t do real well with anesthesia. I’m like a guy who’s been flying all his life who doesn’t want to get on a plane. I’ve had 12 knee surgeries and all of a sudden I’m afraid of having knee surgery.”

For a list of Red Sox players in the Hall of Fame, click here.

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Hawkins, 36, was 1-4 with a 2.13 ERA, including 11 saves in 65 appearances last season with the Houston Astros.

After intense negotiations with the Astros and a handful of other teams — believed to be the Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays — Hawkins and his agent, Larry Reynolds, were disappointed that Astros general manager Ed Wade and the organization wouldn’t offer more than a one-year deal.

In the end, Hawkins believed Milwaukee presented him with the best opportunity.

Despite being a Type A free agent, the Brewers don’t have to surrender draft picks for signing Hawkins, since the Astros didn’t offer the right-handed reliever arbitration Dec. 1.

Brewers general manager Doug Melvin made pitching a priority this offseason as he attempts to build Milwaukee into a legitimate NL Central contender. With future Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman re-signing in October, as well as the addition of Hawkins, manager Ken Macha has the luxury of utilizing the lethal duo late in ballgames.

Also, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that Milwaukee signed free-agent left-hander Randy Wolf to a three-year, $29 million contract.

At this point, the late-inning options on the market continues to dwindle with Billy Wagner, Takashi Saito and Rafael Soriano (accepted arbitration) already signing with the Atlanta Braves. With Jose Valverde unhappy with the Astros, he’ll likely land a multi-year deal with another team for roughly $10-12 million per season.

Basically, the remaining top bullpen options Wade can possibly target include Mike Gonzalez, Kevin Gregg, Fernando Rodney and J.J. Putz — unless Wade makes a trade to acquire a closer.

According to FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal, Wade continues to explore the possibility of acquiring Florida Marlins reliever Matt Lindstrom. It’s also been rumored that Wade participated in discussions Wednesday with Braves general manager Frank Wren about Soriano.

The 29-year-old Lindstrom was 2-1 with a 5.89 ERA, 15 saves and 39 strikeouts over 47 1/3 innings in 54 appearances in 2009.

Ultimately, when it comes to the Astros’ trio of Type A free-agents Valverde, Hawkins and Miguel Tejada this offseason, Wade has basically closed the door on Valverde and Tejada returning to Houston for the 2010 season, and Hawkins will be pitching for the divisional-rival Brewers.

However, if the Astros acquire Lindstrom, he’ll provided stability in the closer’s role.

Also, Wade could still target Gonzalez, Gregg, Putz or possibly Octavio Dotel to fill the eighth-inning void left by Hawkins.

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Gammons, 64, is expected to write a farewell espn.com column Friday. His future work plans have not been announced.

Gammons, who wrote for the Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated before joining ESPN, was in the first wave of print reporters who got TV jobs. Says ESPN executive editor John Walsh: “Peter was the best and brightest in making the transition from print to video.”

Gammons, who in a statement says he is “conflicted” about leaving, adds that “ESPN gave me a great deal more than I gave it.”

Gammons survived a potentially life-threatening aneurysm in 2006. He appeared across ESPN’s media outlets and, occasionally, was involved in game coverage. ESPN executive vice president Norby Williamson says ESPN is “sad to see Peter go” but understands “his desire for new challenges and a less demanding schedule.”

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The victim of the jarring rally was closer Jonathan Papelbon, who entered Sunday never having allowed a run over 26 postseason innings. The Angels started their improbable rally with two outs and nobody on in the ninth. Erick Aybar laced a single up the middle. Chone Figgins worked a walk. Bobby Abreu brought the Angels within one on a double to left. The Red Sox walked Torii Hunter intentionally to load the bases for Vladimir Guerrero, and the star slugger delivered with a two-run single that gave the Angels their first lead of the day, silencing the Fenway faithful.

With some pep back in their offense, the Red Sox rode a two-run double by Dustin Pedroia and a two-run homer by J.D. Drew to a 5-1 lead through four innings against Angels starter Scott Kazmir.

Clay Buchholz performed well for Boston, allowing two runs over five-plus innings. The Angels got one back in the sixth, and two in the eighth to make it 5-4.

But Mike Lowell gave the Red Sox breathing room with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth. As it turns out, it wasn’t enough breathing room.

The Red Sox entered the day 13-3 in potential elimination games under manager Terry Francona, and seemed primed to give themselves life again and force Game 4 on Monday night.

This time, however, it didn’t happen.

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“The MRI came back negative other than the turf toe,” Weis said Tuesday. “So rumors of him having a broken foot and being done for the year are incorrect.”

Clausen injured his right foot while getting sacked during Saturday’s 33-30 win over Michigan State, then was scheduled to have the MRI on Sunday to determine the nature of the injury.

Clausen is the nation’s No. 2-rated passer, completing 68.1 percent of his passes for 951 yards and nine touchdowns through three games this season.

Weis will hold Clausen out of practice Tuesday and then ease him back into work on Wednesday and Thursday with the intent of the junior starting Saturday.

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MIAMI — Chipper Jones knows that he’s going to irritate a number of Georgia fans when he arrives on ESPN’s College Gameday set on Saturday morning sporting the colors of his beloved Florida Gators.

But for now, the Braves third baseman isn’t revealing which Southeastern Conference football power he’s going to further agitate with the pregame prediction that he’ll be asked to make.

With ESPN’s popular College Gameday show kicking off the college football season in Atlanta on Saturday, Jones has been invited to make a guest appearance and predict the winners of the Georgia-Oklahoma State and Alabama-Virginia Tech games.

While Jones has already determined his picks, the only revelation he’s providing is that he’ll be hearing a round of boos from either the Alabama or Georgia fans that are in attendance for the live show at Centennial Park.

“Let’s just say that one group will be happy and the other won’t,” Jones said.

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Chinese Taipei will go up against Chula Vista, California. Chula Vista, Calif., routed San Antonio, Texas, 12-2 on Saturday night to advance to the
Little League
World Series title game while Chinese Taipei took advantage of six errors by Reynosa, Mexico and took the game, 9-4 victory Saturday to take the international title.

It was the first time Chinese Taipei has back to title game since 1996 while it is California’s first appearnace in the
World Series final since 2004 where they palyed against Curacao and lost.

Watch
Little League Championship Game live! 2009
Little League
World Series live streaming on ESPN360.com.

Who will take the international title.

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The two days of semifinal games did not disappoint the fans in person at the Lamade Stadium in Williamsport, Pennsylvania or for those watching the Little League World Series on ESPN. The eight remaining teams were made of four from the International pools and four from the US pools. Only the top two teams from each pool advanced to the semifinals.

From the US pool Chula Vista, California, San Antonio, Texas, Warner Robins, Georgia and Staten Island, New York made it through round one into the semifinals. Japan, Curacao, Mexico and Chinese Taipei all made it to be able to play in the semifinal International games.

Wednesday was the first day of play for the Little League World Series semifinals. Japan faced Mexico for that days’ International Semifinal game. Mexico powered past Japan for a 6-0 win. The US semifinal game featured Staten Island, New York against the team from San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio played tough defense to pull out a 4-1 win over Staten Island.

The last two semifinal games were played on Thursday. Chinese Taipei’s pitching shut down strong hitting Curacao for a 5-2 victory in the International semifinal game. The US semifinal game between Chula Vista, California and Warner Robins, Georgia could have been one of the best games in the Little League World Series history. Chula Vista came back from being down five runs to pull out a win in the bottom of the sixth inning on a wild pitch with a final score of 11-10.

The results from the semifinal games have created an interesting scenario in the pool Championship games. Both games are repeats of the final two games of round one. Mexico beat Chinese Taipei 3-2 to determine who would be the top seed of Pool D. Likewise, San Antonio outscored Chula Vista 6-1 for their victory giving them the top seed from Pool B.

Chinese Taipei will have their chance to revenge the earlier loss when they play Mexico Saturday at 12 in the International Championship game. San Antonio will try to sweep the team from Chula Vista in the US Championship game at 3.

This time there is more at stake than just a ranking going into the next round. The winners from Saturday will play on Sunday in the World Championship game. The losers will play in the Consultation game also on Sunday.

After the games on Saturday, the Little League World Series results will tell which team is the best International team and which the best US team is. Those two teams will have to wait till Sunday to be able to say if they are the World Champions or not.

taken from: HuliqNews

The deal was confirmed first by Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman on his Twitter feed, with the same outlet and source pushing along the story there all day, just hours after Wagner had reportedly rejected the proposed trade because of health concerns and a desire to not be offered arbitration in an offseason bent on landing another job as a closer.

Wagner could be an intriguing addition to the Red Sox, who have used a strong bullpen as one of the team’s main supports throughout the season. The longtime Phillies and Mets closer is just coming off Tommy John surgery and has serious health concerns about his own durability. The Boston Globe’s Tony Massarotti cited those elbow concerns as the primary reason for Wagner rejecting a Red Sox deal last night, though his concern over his future desirability in free agency — he’s likely to be considered a Type A free agent this offseason — also weighed heavily into Wagner’s considerations.

So, why the sudden change in heart from the reliever? Well, according to Heyman’s Twitter feed (it was awfully active today, huh?), the Mets reached out to Wagner to “try to talk some sense into him,” essentially convincing him to accept the deal as a way to join a team in a pennant race. And while the two players to be named that Boston will send to New York are said to be mid-level minor leaguers, Boston will still be in line to receive two compensatory draft picks for Wagner should the Red Sox offer arbitration and Wagner signs with another team.

While Wagner’s arrival should bolster both power pitching and depth in Boston’s bullpen, it may also jar one of baseball’s most harmonious bullpens. When the potential “Wagner to Boston” waiver deal was first discussion last week, Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon openly questioned why the team would add Wagner. The now perennial All-Star closer asked what Wagner had done this year, and even said, “It’s kind of like the Gagne thing, I guess.”

As you might expect, that tune has changed within the past day, with Papelbon endorsing the move as a way for Boston to get better. We’ll see if any sparks fly when the two first meet up, but the quotes Papelbon gave to NESN.com some 18 hours before the deal were straight out of a love-in.

“Believe me, there’s nobody else on this team that wants that guy in our bullpen more than me.”

“He’s a competitor, and I see a lot of myself in him. For me, having him down there in our bullpen is not only going to make me better, it will make the rest of our bullpen better. He’s going to bring a professionalism and competitiveness to our bullpen that every bullpen could use. Believe me, I want this guy more than anybody on our team.”

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