More Papelbon Goodness

"For me, it's been a thing that I've been thinking about all spring," Papelbon said. "I hadn't been sleeping well since the whole Spring Training started. I felt that there was always that feeling deep down in my heart that I wanted to close.

"For me, it just kept getting at me and getting at me until finally I went to our captain [Jason Varitek] one day and I said, 'Tek, I'm not sleeping good at night. I've got to do something about it.' Basically I told him, 'Man, I think I want to close -- that's what I want to do.'

"Tito happened to be walking by. We came in and I told Tito, 'If you want to give me the ball in the ninth inning, I want it,' and that's basically it."

I do not really care if this is the absolute truth when he said it, the fact that it's what he said is good enough. It is about damn time an athlete said the right thing and put the team first. More than that even, this move really solidifies the Sox as a force in the AL East. I think we stack up well against anyone now. I cannot wait for the season to begin. Any true fan of the Red Sox and the "Dirt Dog" mentality should be running out to buy a #58 jersey to support this boy right now.


GO SOX!


TomC