Canada is embracing native son Francis  —  Legend growing north of border for Game 1 pitcher  —  BOSTON - Jeff Francis was a Canadian rarity.  He didn't grow up playing hockey.  —  "I played street hockey when I was young, but nothing competitive," he admitted.  —  Baseball was his passion.

Simulations say ... Red Sox will be champions  —  The 2007 postseason has produced one of the more intriguing World Series matchups of recent years: the hot-hitting Boston Red Sox, fresh off yet another dramatic ALCS comeback, against the Colorado Rockies, winners of 21 of their last 22 …

Floyd wants to end career playing for Marlins again  —  Free-agent outfielder Cliff Floyd said he is thinking about retiring after 15 seasons.  But first he wants to take a swing at ending his career where he had some of his best years - in Florida.  —  "I would love to come to the Marlins.

Mets set to pass on Rangers' Rudy Jaramillo, stick with HoJo  —  BOSTON - The Mets are expected to stick with Howard Johnson as hitting coach and intend to pass on pursuing the Rangers' Rudy Jaramillo for that position, GM Omar Minaya said.  —  Three years ago, Minaya had interviewed Jaramillo …

Mailbag: Will Teixeira re-sign?  —  Braves beat reporter Mark Bowman answers fans' questions  —  What are the chances the Braves will be able to re-sign Mark Teixeira?  If they can't sign him before the Winter Meetings, should the Braves trade him immediately for a starting pitcher?

Rangers' Wakamatsu hired as A's bench coach  —  rdurrett@dallasnews.com  —  Rangers third base coach Don Wakamatsu accepted the position of bench coach with the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday.  —  Wakamatsu, 44, was the Rangers' bench coach for four seasons under former Rangers manager Buck Showalter …

Much To Learn About Mattingly the Manager  —  Yesterday, Don Mattingly received his official interview with the Yankees brass in Tampa.  Like one of those internally posted positions at your company that you have to interview for even though you've worked there for a decade and everyone knows you well …

actober.com winners announced  —  Filmmaking trio to be honored at Game 3 of World Series  —  Dating back to the All-Star break, we asked baseball fans to tap into their inner Steven Spielberg and capture their version of baseball's best playoff moments for the actober.com contest.

Pearce earns Spinks Award honors  —  Topps names Bucs slugger outstanding Minor Leaguer  —  PITTSBURGH — Steve Pearce began the 2007 season playing first base at high Class A Lynchburg, finished it playing right field at PNC Park, and had an unbelievable season in between that continues to earn him national accolades and awards.

BOSS' SON NEEDS TO REMEMBER THESE ARE THE YANKEES, NOT THE HANK-EES  —  HANK Steinbrenner was in a question-asking mood over the weekend when he posed this beauty to this newspaper: "Where was Joe's career in '95 when my dad hired him?"  —  The Joe is Joe Torre.  The dad is George Steinbrenner.