Five keys for the Red Sox  —  ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Think the Tampa Bay Rays are going to be an easy opponent for the Red Sox [team stats] in the American League Championship Series?  —  Think again.  —  Get beyond all the cute modifiers - plucky and upstart, for two …

Torre's brother: What Yanks did to Joe ‘was not right’  —  PHILADELPHIA — Frank Torre, the 76-year-old brother of Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, walked onto the field Thursday at Citizens Bank Park, and had one question:  —  “I wonder what the (New York) Yankees are thinking …

Burrell turning jeers to cheers  —  THERE IS a guy who sits 12 rows back in the leftfield bleachers who has, over the years, embraced Pat Burrell like a brother, kicked him around like a dog, and now loves him like an old army buddy again.  Anyone who has sat back there on Sunday afternoons has heard him …

Cuban: Financial crisis will slow Cubs sale  —  What, you expected the Cubs' sale to go smoothly?  —  After the club's torturous playoff loss to the Dodgers, which brought on a great depression?  —  While the U.S. financial system is in convulsions?  —  No.

Conspicuous by absence  —  Viewers of baseball on television, sometimes for good reason, have complained over the years about having to watch so many national telecasts involving the New York Yankees.  —  Pinstripes here, pinstripes there, pinstripes everywhere, has been known to grind …

A.J. Burnett in no hurry to talk to Blue Jays  —  A.J. Burnett, in possibly his last game as a Jay, salutes the home crowd.  “It was storybook,” Burnett said of the sendoff on Sept. 24, 2008.  —  CATHAL KELLY  —  The Toronto Blue Jays may have to wait well into November …

Bucs' Moss should be ready for camp  —  Arthroscopic procedure replaces microfracture surgery on knee  —  PITTSBURGH — It looks as if Pirates outfielder Brandon Moss should be ready to take the field with no limitations in Spring Training after all.  —  Moss traveled to Vail, Colo. …

Women getting Mohawk-style bikini wax to support The Rays  —  Talk about team spirit.  —  The latest style to sweep the west coast, home of the Rays, is a bikini wax.  Mohawk style.  —  Try waving that around at a game!  —  Michelle Foster of Skin Deep Spatique says she was inspired by her son's Mohawk, reports

Baseball players suspended in match-fixing probe  —  Former US major league baseball player Cory Bailey and two Taiwanese players were suspended yesterday because of their alleged involvement in match fixing, baseball authorities said yesterday.  —  ¡

The Heilman Maneuver  —  Everyone, it seems, has a blueprint for fixing the New York Mets' bullpen.  Most of the “solutions” coming from writers, sports talk show hosts, bloggers and fans have the Mets bringing in lots of arms, and getting rid of most - if not all - the members of the 2008 relief corps.