Having Fun With Asterisks and Then Some Clarity on Steroids

I'm pretty sure we now need to call the Red Sox past two World Series, the *04 and *07 wins. Actually, let's just wipe them out and start the 1918 chant again. Much more fun that way.

How about three great Bill Simmons tweets to really break the spirit of Boston fans:

Of all the days for me to fly cross-country... I nominate this as my all-time worst finding news out on a blackberry moment.

I'd like to thank George Mitchell one last time for doing his best to keep our boys out of this PED mess. You tried, George. You tried.

When Jeremy Schaap is narrating an essay with sad piano music and showing your favorite players, it's never a good thing.

Now for some links (sorry...just had too much fun as a Yankees fan with this...):

• Deadspin checks out PapiGate straight from Boston (pretty funny stuff)
• It Is High... talks about Gammons and the rest of the ESPN analysts bemoaning "poor, poor Papi"
• Rob Neyer tries to translate Big Papi's past statements
• Baseball Musings remembers something that could have been a clue
• IIATMS gives a PED auto-response template
• Gerry Callahan says "Papi goes the weasel" and says the slugger tarnished the Sox
• Tony Massarotti says that "Big Papi" was revealed as a myth
• Curt Schilling weighs in (I hope he's on that list too...)
• Jorge Says No recalls Ortiz's comments about A-Roid
• The Big Lead follows trainer Angel Presinal to see where the next big name may come from (warning: both New York second basemen are on this list)
• Deadspin drinks in the "hilarious naïveté of Red Sox Nation"

And now for some clarity

• Shysterball is always a good place to go to clarity and says that you're not surprised, you're not betrayed, the Red Sox are no more tainted than any other team, and whoever is revealing this information is committing a far greater offense than what Manny or Papi did. That's why he asks the more important question: who is the leaker?
• Craig Calcaterra also does a great job on NBC Sports of letting everyone know why the rest of the names cannot be released.
• ESPN's Howard Bryant says that faith for Red Sox fans went unrewarded because David Ortiz really wanted us to believe he was different from the rest
• Bronson Arroyo provided some insight and maybe a confession
• Peter Abraham points out that these names being released balances out the comical slant of the Mitchell Report
• Tyler Kepner may have the most levity of all saying that if every player was doping, there really was no need for asterisks