american league baseball

BALTIMORE -- Boston Red sox pitcher Josh Beckett, complaining of "tingling and numbness" in the fingers on his throwing arm, will have his next scheduled start pushed back to next Tuesday. "We want to be cautious and do the right thing," manager Terry Francona said.

With all the time, money and effort the Tampa Bay Rays put into assembling the team they hoped to put on the field, they have also been focused on who was behind them.

For fear of being labeled, Los Angeles Angels outfielder Garret Anderson doesn't want to think much about the recent numbers showing that he may be becoming a second-half player.

With all due respect to the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay is baseball's feel-good story.The Cubs and their fans can get all worked up over the attempt to end a 100-year drought and claim their first world championship since 1908, but it's the Rays who should be capturing the attention of the baseball public.

We don't think the Los Angeles Angels won the World Series on Tuesday, although it's quite possible they set fate in motion. We do know they did the next best thing. The team with the best record in baseball made themselves the best team.

The road to baseball's attic is long, if you can find the road. How to get here? Be the best that ever was.Or, in the case of Goose Gossage, exceptional enough to endure a nine-year torment while voters waffled and others took bows. "All I regret," said Gossage, "is my mother did not live to see this."

BOSTON -- For a change, Manny Ramirez and the Boston Red Sox are on the same page. Ramirez revealed Sunday that he wouldn't mind being traded and the Red Sox are now engaged in talks with at least four teams in an effort to accommodate him by Thursday's non-waiver trading deadline.

BALTIMORE -- Think of this: Mark Teixeira, playing first base and hitting in front of designated hitter Manny Ramirez, followed by Vladimir Guerrero and shortstop Miguel Tejada. Not a bad middle of the lineup, eh?

Help is on the way for the Boston Red Sox in the form of David Ortiz. The Sox expect to activate Ortiz before Friday's game against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. Ortiz, who hasn't played since May because of a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist, has spent the last week rehabbing at the Red Sox Class AAA Pawtucket and AA Portland affiliates.

Why is it that every time I check the sporting Internet, I feel like I'm standing in line at Safeway?