Exactly one year ago today, Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay were making history in Beijing at the 2008 Olympics.

Today, the two track stars find themselves in Berlin at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics – this time, reliving history.

While attending Ohio State University just before the '36 Olympics, Owens was known as the "Buckeye Bullet"

Both men cruised into the semifinals of the world championship’s 100 meters: Gay, the three-time world champion from the U.S., won his quarterfinal in 9.98 seconds while Bolt, the three-time Olympic champion from Jamaica, finished second in his heat at 10.03.

Still, as the week’s most prominent headline seems to be the matchup between these two running heavyweights, there’s no doubting the underlying historical significance of their competing in Berlin, where Jesse Owens won four gold medals during Hitler’s 1936 Olympics.

Hitler and his Nazi Germany anticipated the games that year to exhibit to the world at large the emergence of a new superpower and, above all else, the superiority of the Aryan race as demonstrated through athletic competition. But much to the chagrin of the ruthless dictator, Owens had other plans as he went on to win the 100-meter sprint, the 200-meter sprint, the 4×100-meter relay, and the long jump. The infamous moment coming when Hitler refused to acknowledge Owens’ accomplishments by neither applauding nor shaking his hand after the games.

However, Owens memorably conceded that it wasn’t Hitler’s snub that irked him most, but rather his own country’s lack of progress when it came to race issues. The Olympic-champion had this to say in an article by ESPN.com’s Larry Schwartz:

“When I returned to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn’t ride in the front of the bus,” Owens said. “I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either.”

Almost 30 years since his death, the U.S. is a different country from the one Owens described in the quote above. Civil rights have become a permanent institution in the country’s structure, and race relations in general are nothing near what they were in the 1930s. Owens, too, has received his due honor in the form of a Medal of Freedom from President Ford, the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Bush the first, and perhaps most notably, a street in Berlin re-named Jesse-Owens-Allee.

During the 2009 world championships, members of the U.S. team will wear “JO” on their uniforms in tribute to Owens.

“The JO on the uniform is basically just letting me know it’s bigger than me just going out and running for myself,” said LaShawn Merritt, the reigning Olympic champion in the men’s 400 meters, in a recent New York Time’s article.

As Bolt and Gay prepare to potentially face each other in what would be a global showdown for the ages, there’s no doubting Owens will be on everyone’s minds in Berlin. Bolt, he said, is going to use that for some inspiration:

“It’s going to be big because Jesse Owens made history here. I’m going to come here and try to do the same, try to make great things happen.”

For the fourth year in a row, Sox fans will get the opportunity to watch Boston’s minor league teams in action during a doubleheader at Fenway this Saturday featuring some of the best raw talent in the farm system.

Since August 2006, “Futures at Fenway” has featured two Sox minor league affiliates playing regular-season games against teams from their respective leagues. This year the event will feature the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs against the Bowie Baysox in the first game, and the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox against the Norfolk Tides in the second.

During the Futures game, fans get the opportunity to see the future of Red Sox talent today.

The idea to showcase the minor league affiliates in a major league park came from non-other than Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in an attempt to make affordable baseball games available to the public in Boston.

“We hope that these games and these family-friendly ticket prices will open the doors of Fenway Park on a summer Saturday to thousands of fans from across the city and throughout New England who may not otherwise be able to afford a Red Sox game,” the mayor said in 2006. “With Red Sox tickets so tough to come by, this event is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the City of Boston and America’s most beloved ballpark for thousands of families and especially the children for whom this opportunity will mean so much.”

To date, all six Futures games have resulted in wins for the home team (the Red Sox affiliate). What’s more perhaps more amazing though, is that four of those wins have come in the last half-inning.

2006

The first game featured the Single-A Lowell Spinners against Oneonta Tigers in which Lowell won 3-1. Spinners’ closer Joshua Papelbon (younger brother of, you guessed it, Jonathan Papelbon) came on in the ninth to a roaring ovation from the Boston crowd before ending the game and earning a save.

The second game featured the Triple-A PawSox against the Rochester Red Wings. The teams traded the lead various times throughout the game, before Pawtucket star and Boston-native Carlos Pena belted a two-run shot in the eighth to put the Sox ahead and seal the deal.

2007

Lowell was again featured in game one of the Futures doubleheader in what turned out to be an intense pitching duel between the Spinners and the Hudson Valley Renegades. Hudson Valley scored early in the first, but failed to get another run for the rest of the game. Lowell struggled offensively as well, until the eighth inning when a single from Brett Lewis tied the game and a clutch two-out hit from Jorge Jimenez won the game in the bottom of the ninth.

In the second game, the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs finally got their chance to play at Fenway against the Harrisburg Senators. Unlike the previous game, this one had plenty of offense. With the score 11-9 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Sea Dogs made a dramatic comeback, ultimately winning the game 12-11 on a double down the leftfield line. The two teams combined for 24 hits, 17 walks, and 20 strikeouts.

2008

The first game of the 2008 Futures was like déjà vu. Once again, Lowell faced Hudson Valley at Fenway, and once again the Spinners triumphed in walk-off fashion. After exchanging leads all game, Hudson Valley tied the game in the ninth on a misplayed groundball and the game went to extra innings. In the bottom of the twelfth, Will Middlebrooks’ line drive to centerfield just barely missed being caught and the Spinners walked off with a victory.

The second game was seemingly less eventful as the Triple-A PawSox returned to Fenway, this time facing the Charlotte Knights. In a stellar pitching performance from Pawtucket’s David Pauley, the PawSox cruised to a 5-2 win with great hitting from Dusty Brown and Jeff Bailey.

For more information on the Futures at Fenway games or to find tickets, visit the Red Sox official site. To watch highlights from past Futures games, click here. For the Red Sox press release, see below:

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR 4^th ANNUAL FUTURES AT FENWAY PRESENTED BY COMCAST

 BOSTON, MA – The4^th Annual Futures at Fenway Presented by Comcast minor league doubleheader will take place on Saturday, August 8, 2009.  The following is the schedule of events for the day and entertainment options for fans and their families.

10:35 a.m. – Ballpark opens to the Public

Fans will be able to come into the ballpark one-and-a-half hours before the first game of the doubleheader between the Portland Sea Dogs and the Bowie Baysox (AA-Baltimore) commences at 12:05 p.m.  There will be family-friendly entertainment throughout the Fenway Park concourses.  On Yawkey Way, there will be an inflatable T-Ball and moon bounce setup along with a rock wall, face painter and balloon artist.  There will be a second moon bounce setup at the Gate C.

12:05 p.m.  – First pitch of the game between the Portland Sea Dogs and the Bowie Baysox

There will be numerous in-game entertainment that has been scheduled.  Slugger, the Portland Sea Dogs mascot will be featured in a number of skits that will be appealing to kids and adults alike.  Mascot performances with kids are also scheduled to take place on top of the 1^st Base and the 3^rd Base dugouts along with other skits where kids will be selected at random from the crowd.

1:30 p.m. – Autograph Session with Pawtucket Red Sox players

There will be a 45 minute autograph session from 1:30 – 2:15 p.m. in the Gate B Big Concourse near the Best Buy Players Club with the players from the Pawtucket Red Sox.

4:00 p.m. – Approximate First pitch of the game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Norfolk Tides

Similar to the first game, there will once again be entertainment for fans at the game.  One lucky kid who signs up for a Red Sox Kid Nation membership will be upgraded to a premium seat and another will receive the opportunity to spend one inning inside the Green Monster scoreboard during the game.  There will be a pizza eating contest for adults, a mascot race, two t-shirt tosses to the crowd  and a mascot ball toss for fans as well during the game.

5:00 p.m. – Autograph Session with Portland Sea Dogs players

There will be a 45 minute autograph session from 5:00 – 5:45 p.m. in the Gate B Big Concourse near the Best Buy Players Club with the players from the Portland Sea Dogs.

Ticket prices will remain the same this year as last year’s Futures at Fenway event.  They range from as little as $5 (for Upper Bleachers) to just $30 (for Green Monster Seats, Dugout Seats, the EMC Club and the State Street Pavilion Club).  Tickets can be purchased on www.redsox.com or by calling 1-877-REDSOX9.  Tickets will also be available for purchase at Fenway Park at Gate E beginning at 10:35 am on Saturday.  Fans with disabilities may also call (877) REDSOX-9 to purchase accessible seating (while supplies last). The Red Sox’ TTY number for hearing-impaired fans is (617) 226-6644.  Fans will also be able to enjoy selected concession items at discounted prices.

So the Red Sox got manhandled by the Yankees Thursday night – big whoop.

Boston may have lost that minor battle, but ultimately the city has won, and will continue to win, the greater war. When it really boils down to it, this rivalry isn’t about baseball but rather about pride. It’s about which city is the superior metropolis.

Forget about New York, we've got Boston

So without further adieu, I present to you a head-to-head match-up of Boston vs. New York:

History and Politics:

This category undoubtedly goes to Boston for one simple reason: without us there would be no United States of America. That means no baseball, no apple pie, and no New York for that matter. Hell, if it weren’t for Boston, we’d all still be British subjects paying too many taxes without due representation.

But Boston didn’t stand for that. When the Brits tried to exert more control over their American colonies in the early 1770s through greater taxation, it was the Bostonians who told them they could take their taxation and shove it up their knickerbockers.

The Beantown colonists started their uprising by throwing snowballs at British soldiers with loaded guns in March 1770, sparking the infamous Boston Massacre on State Street.

Three years later, they were dressed as Native Americans on British merchant ships as they dumped hundreds of pounds of tea in Boston Harbor to protest the newly instated Tea Act.

The train had left the station (or, given the time period, perhaps it would be more appropriate to suggest that the carriage had left the barn?). Bostonians had ignited the American Revolution and done the country yet another useful service: producing Paul Revere, without whom we would have never known that the British were coming.

So in short, you’re welcome for establishing this country, New York – you ungrateful schmucks.

Not to mention, Boston has produced some of the country’s finest politicians and leaders including John Adams, John Quincy Adams, JFK, and George H.W. Bush.

Nickname:

This is what New York is working with:

· The Big Apple (lame)

· The City That Never Sleeps (exaggerated)

· The Capital of the World (so cocky it’s unbelievable)

Boston, on the other hand, has been called “The Cradle of Modern America” (true), “The Hub” (a historical reference), and most notably “Beantown,” due in large part to the colonial obsession with Boston Baked Beans.

Advantage Boston.

Accent:

Both accents epitomize the characteristics of their respective cities. Both are also non-rhotic, meaning people drop the “r” sound at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant.

But Bostonians have a far more prominent dialect made famous by JFK, the Simpsons’ Mayor Quimby, and of course, Martin Scorsese’s “The Depahted”. They not only drop their r’s but also broaden their a’s.

So Bostonians don’t take baths, they take baaths. They don’t park their cars in Harvard Yard, they pahk their cahs in Hahvahd Yahd. Drunken Fenway fans didn’t root for Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, they rooted for Nomaaaah!

New Yorkers, in contrast, reverse their er and oy sounds, making for a truly terrible noise reminiscent of Archie Bunker or Vinnie Barbarino.

Simply put, if you were stuck on a bus for an extended period of time, whom would you rather be with?

The guys from Good Will Hunting?

Or her?

I thought so.

Music:

New York has plenty of songs written about it. I’m still sticking with “Dirty Water” and “Shipping Up to Boston.”

Sports:

Alas, we’ve arrived at the final and perhaps most epic of all the battles between these two powerhouse cities.

In typical arrogant New York fashion, New Yorkers are quick to point out the 28 combined World Series Championships won by the Mets and Yankees, the five Superbowls won between the Jets and Giants, the eight Stanley Cups between the Rangers and Islanders, and the two NBA Championships that belong to the Knicks.

I’ll concede that my dear city can’t compete with all those rings.

With the exception of the 17-time champion Celtics, Boston hasn’t racked up all too many championships in its long sports history. In fact, most of them have been recent acquisitions (Patriots in 2001, 2003, and 2004; Red Sox in 2004 and 2007; Celtics in 2008).

But I will tell you one thing, and I can say this with the utmost sincerity: Boston cares more.

We live and die with every pitch, every free throw, every extra point kick, and every faceoff. We see sports as a reflection of our city and, in turn, we expect only the best from our teams. It’s a unified effort in which we have one team for each respective sport – one choice, like it or not. Yes, for some time our teams were garbage. For years the Patriots couldn’t buy a Superbowl, and the formerly glorious Celtics forgot what it meant to win. And there’s the Red Sox, who every time came so utterly close to changing history, only to fall short in excruciating fashion.

But our teams persevered, our fans stayed true to their loyalty, and it’s for these reasons that winning these past few years has felt so good, so significant.

So New York can have all their World Series, their Superbowls, their NBA Championships, and Stanley Cups.

I’m fine being a Bostonian.

The Red Sox walked away from the trade deadline a better team.

They got an All-Star slugging catcher in Victor Martinez and a solid defensive first baseman in Casey Kotchman, and all it cost them was Justin Masterson, Adam LaRoche and two minor leaguers.

Buchholz, Bowden, Bard – all of them are still Red Sox.

Just because the trade deadline has passed, doesn't mean Theo won't still be dealing.

But as former Sox player Lou Merloni points out on today’s Full Count Blog, there are still “a lot of questions about the roster.” The starting rotation, the shortstop position, and the bench are just a few of the impending issues the Sox face as they enter the tail end of the season, but all is not lost simply because the trade deadline has come and gone. Championships can sometimes be won and lost on the waiver-wire, and Sox GM Theo Epstein usually treats the waivers period just as he does the deadline: it’s yet another opportunity to improve his team.

History proves that waivers shouldn’t be disregarded. Some notable Red Sox have been born — and lost — through this post-deadline period:

Dave Henderson – On August 19, 1986 the Sox traded Rey Quinones, three players to be named later, and some cash to the Mariners for Spike Owen and Henderson. Henderson went on to hit the series-winning homerun in the ALCS against the Angels that year, propelling the Sox to the World Series against the Mets. What ensued wasn’t as great…

Tony Armas, Jr. – On August 13, 1997 the Red Sox and Yankees made a deal that sent Mike Stanley to New York in exchange for Tony Armas, Jr. and Jim Mecir. While neither of the two players Boston received ever became All-Stars, Armas was sent along with Carl Pavano to Montreal for Pedro Martinez. Needless to say, it worked out pretty well.

John Smoltz – On August 12, 1987 the Detroit Tigers made a mistake the franchise will regret for years: they traded away John Smoltz. Then only a 20-year-old prospect, Smoltz was dealt to Atlanta for veteran starter Doyle Alexander. (WEEI.com’s Alex Speier writes about the 1987 trade and how Smoltz, a Michigan native, reacted.)

David Ortiz – Before Ortiz was “Big Papi,” before he was belting clutch homeruns, and before he was surrounded by the recent steroid controversy, he was a Wisconsin Timber Rattler in the Seattle Mariners’ farm system. In 1996, the team dealt Ortiz to Minnesota for Dave Hollins. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jeff Bagwell – I bet the Sox wish they could have a mulligan on this one. In what has become one of the famous waiver deals in MLB history (infamous, if you hail from Boston), the Sox sent Bagwell to Houston for Larry Andersen on August 30, 1990. Bagwell ended up playing all 15 years of his major league career in Houston, hitting 449 homers along the way.

Last season, Theo traded for veteran pitcher Paul Byrd and outfielder Mark Kotsay, both of whom helped out during the team’s playoff push. But this year, the Sox GM isn’t so sure there will be much available pitching talent on the wires to address perhaps the team’s most pressing need:

“You’re always looking for an impact starting pitcher if you can find one, especially this time of year, but it didn’t come to pass,” Epstein told reporters on Friday. “I don’t think we’re going to see much impactful starting pitching move in August.”

To track the latest players to clear waivers, visit MLB Trade Rumors.

Long before Manny was being Manny, Rickey was just being Rickey.

At first glance, Rickey Henderson is the prolific leftfielder who played for nine teams in 25 seasons and became widely regarded as the sport’s greatest leadoff hitter of all time, holding the MLB records for career stolen bases, runs scored, and leadoff homeruns – the man who will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Just Rickey being Rickey

But after further examination, he is also the idiosyncratic Rickey Henderson whose unintentional humor and candor inspired SI’s Tom Verducci to write this in 2003:

“There are certain figures in American history who have passed into the realm of cultural mythology, as if reality could no longer contain their stories: Johnny Appleseed. Wild Bill Hickok. Davy Crockett. Rickey Henderson. They exist on the sometimes narrow margin between Fact and Fiction.”

The legend of Rickey Henderson far surpasses anything he ever did on the baseball field. His true greatness lies in his stories, his personality, his inner-Rickeyness. Like Yogi Berra and his witty malapropism or “The Big Aristotle” and his pithy humor, Henderson transcends the platitudes and clichés that have become all too common in post-game press conferences and interviews around the league – around the world of sports, for that matter.

He is perhaps best known for referring to himself in the third-person, as in the time he called San Diego Padres GM Kevin Towers and left a message saying, “Kevin, this is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.” (Although Verducci reported this to be true in his 2003 SI article, Henderson denied the quote during a 2009 interview on Mike & Mike in the Morning).

But there are so many more anecdotes, myths, and legends. Like the times he checked into hotels under the aliases Richard Pryor, Luther Vandross, and James Brown (confirmed as true). Or the time he was sidelined for three games in mid-August with frostbite after he fell asleep with an icepack on his ankle (also confirmed as true).

There was also the game in 2001 when the 42-year-old Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s all-time runs record with a homerun, and to celebrate, he slid into home plate.

Other Rickey Henderson folklore has not yet been confirmed, but knowing Henderson it almost doesn’t seem too farfetched. Number 24 on The 25 Best Stories of ‘Rickey Being Rickey’ asserts the following:

“To this day and dating back 25 years, before every game he plays, Henderson stands completely naked in front of a full length locker room mirror and says, ‘Rickey’s the best,’ for several minutes.”

There’s also the widely known story about Henderson and former teammate John Olerud:

“The story went that a few weeks into Henderson’s stint with the Mariners, he walked up to Olerud at the batting cage and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field. Olerud explained that he had an aneurysm at nine years old and he wore the helmet for protection. Legend goes that Henderson said, ‘Yeah, I used to play with a guy that had the same thing.’ Legend also goes that Olerud said, ‘That was me, Rickey.’

The two had played together on the Blue Jays and Mets. Unfortunately, the story is too good to be true.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is replete with baseball superstars – sluggers, aces, and defensive whizzes. But Sunday, the Hall will welcome Rickey Henderson, a true legend of cultural mythology.

“He wasn’t just a ball player,” said Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins in a recent interview on MLBTV. “He was an entertainer.”

As WEEI.com’s Alex Speier writes in Friday’s feature article, today marks the fifth anniversary of “perhaps the most important regular-season win in franchise history”: the much heralded Red Sox-Yankees, Varitek/A-Rod melee that ended with a Bill Mueller game-winning homerun off Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the ninth, ultimately propelling the Sox to their first World Series championship in 86 years.  Coincidentally, today also marks 26 years since George Brett’s notorious “Pine Tar Incident” at Yankee Stadium.

George Brett kicking and screaming during the infamous "Pine Tar Incident" of 1983

While these two baseball moments are seemingly unrelated (the former was an all-out team against team brawl, while the latter was simply George Brett throwing a bigger temper tantrum than this kid), they do have one important lesson in common: sometimes it doesn’t hurt to ruffle your opponent’s feathers a bit. In fact, sometimes it can be the galvanizing spark that powers teams to victory.

The Sox could use that spark right about now. They’ve lost their last five games in a row and currently trail the Yankees by 2.5 games in the AL East standings. Things aren’t looking good.

But tonight presents an opportunity for Boston to get back on track – and do a little fighting while they’re at it.

Baltimore is a weak team. They sit at the bottom of the division standings, 16.5 games behind the first-place Yankees. Whenever the Sox visit Camden Yards, it essentially becomes Fenway Park Jr., and as if that wasn’t bad enough, the Orioles haven’t had a winning season since 1997.

Now I don’t typically encourage picking on the little guy, but in baseball we must rely on the wise teachings of Sir Charles Darwin and remember that it’s all about survival of the fittest. If Boston doesn’t do something soon to light a fire under the team’s collective ass, we could one day wind up like the sorry team from Baltimore.

That’s why I propose a fight, a brawl if you will.

It can’t be planned ahead of time. It can’t seem too obvious. It needs to be something subtle that eventually erupts into a fist-swinging, head-bumping fracas that gets players out of the dugout, umpires in between them, drunken fans yelling and screaming!

Like the 2004 Yankees brawl or Brett’s Pine Tar-inspired outburst, it needs to revive a misplaced sense of urgency. It’s no coincidence that both the Sox and the Royals emerged victorious from their respective games.

I know I sound callous, perhaps even like a bully. I promise you my intentions are only good. I’m just looking out for the interests of Boston sports fans everywhere. After all, aren’t we a belligerent bunch?

Our quarrelsome nature is contagious, spanning all the way from Fenway to the Garden, and even out to Foxboro. It’s a historical aggression, dating back to the Revolutionary War when Bostonians like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams led the fight against the tyrannical British in a passionate pursuit of liberty and justice for all. Our passion for sports runs just as deep, as exhibited on the ice, the football field, or the hardwood court.

In keeping with tradition, it’s the Red Sox civic duty to throw a pitch high and inside, make a snarky remark to an Oriole, or even just pull a Coco Crisp and swing for the fences (with fists, of course).

Who ever said a little fighting was a bad thing?

Note: The author of this article does not condone fighting or violence in any way, shape, or form. He simply wants the Red Sox to win really badly.

Today, July 21, is a notable day in American, as well as local sports, history.

In 1925, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class and was subsequently fined a hefty $100 after a heated trial that pitted science against religion.

In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, representing not only the United States but all of mankind in an inspirational and unprecedented journey into the depths of space.

"Pumpsie" Green became the first black player to play for the Red Sox in 1959

And in 1959, Elijah “Pumpsie” Green saw his first-ever major league action as he pinch ran and played shortstop for the Red Sox in a game against Chicago.

There was nothing special about the way Green played baseball. He only lasted five seasons in the majors in which he batted a paltry .246 with only 13 homers and 74 RBI in 344 games with the Red Sox and Mets. But it’s not Green’s unimpressive statistics that make him the focus of today’s LEEInks entry – it’s the fact that he was the first black player to play for the Red Sox who, in turn, became the last major league team to integrate.

Boston has always been a city marred by racial turmoil. From the busing riots in the 1970s to the Charles Stuart murder case in 1989, the race issue has dogged a city that prides itself on its forward-thinking, progressive liberalism.

Nowhere has this been more evident than in one of the city’s most beloved pastimes, baseball. There’s the famous story of the 1945 tryout the Sox held for the then-relatively unknown Jackie Robinson. According to a reporter who was there that day, someone yelled “Get those (racial epithet deleted) off the field.” Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers two years later and became a baseball legend and a Hall of Famer.

In 1949, the Sox gave up the chance to sport an outfield that included Willie Mays and Ted Williams because Mays wasn’t their type of player, according to team management.

Barry Bonds called Boston “too racist for me” in a 2004 interview and said he “couldn’t play there” just based on what he’s heard about the city.

While there’s no denying the racial issues of the city’s past — both in baseball and beyond — not all of Boston’s major league teams were considered hotbeds of intolerance. The National League Boston Braves were the fifth MLB team to field a black player when they played Sam Jethroe in 1950. Willie O’Ree became known as the “Jackie Robinson of Hockey” when he debuted as the first black NHL player with the Bruins in 1958. And the Celtics under Red Auerbach became not just the first NBA team to sport an all-black starting lineup, but also the first NBA team with an African-American head coach in Bill Russell.

In recent years it seems apparent that, despite what Barry Bonds says, race does not play a factor in Boston sports these days – including baseball. A 2002 NPR article highlighted the Red Sox’ new ownership group as taking aggressive steps to combat the negative reputation their team has been given over the years, including “reaching out to black churches” and “starting a scholarship program for city kids.”

Recent statistics even show that 2009 was the first season in 14 years in which there was an increase of African-American players since the last season (2 percent). The study also showed that “people of color accounted for 39.6 percent of MLB rosters.”

Earlier this year, Green visited Fenway to throw out the first pitch on the 50th anniversary of his signing with the Sox. Today, on the anniversary of his major-league debut amidst incredibly challenging circumstances, it is worth taking stock of his important place in franchise history.

“The legacy of players like Pumpsie Green and Jackie Robinson is evidenced by the presence of the diversity of players like Jim Rice, Mo Vaughn, Dave Roberts and David Ortiz as part of the Red Sox’s more recent history,” Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino told mlb.com earlier this year. “As fans and as an organization, we owe both Pumpsie Green and Jackie Robinson a debt of gratitude for their courageous contributions to the game and to society.”

In just his first year in office, President Barack Obama certainly has a lot on his plate.

A slumping economy to mend, two wars in the Middle East to command, a superpower nation to tend to — these are just a few of the issues he has faced since taking office in January. But Tuesday night, the commander in chief will face perhaps the most daunting task for any sitting president: reaching home plate.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry shows poor form during a 2004 Red Sox' game in which he threw out the first pitch from in-front of the mound

Obama will become the first U.S. president to toss out the ceremonial first pitch at an All-Star Game since Gerald Ford in 1976. And while this is quite the honor, Obama better be sure his pitch doesn’t hit the dirt like political first pitches of baseball games past.

When it boils down to it, Americans will be loyal to any president regardless of party affiliation. It’s because we respect the democratic process and frown upon the instability of countries that become slaphappy with overthrowing their leaders in bloody coups.

But if the leader of the free world proves incapable of tossing a baseball from the mound to home plate, well … may God have mercy on his soul.

Like the defamation of an American flag or the denial of democratic rights, we just won’t stand for it. It’s simply un-American.

Surely Bostonians remember John Kerry’s first pitch at Fenway in the midst of the 2004 presidential election. Not only did the Massachusetts senator throw from in front of the mound, but he also failed to reach the plate as his ball sputtered out of control and finally made a dispirited descent into the dirt. The Fenway faithful booed the presidential candidate relentlessly, and Kerry went on to lose the general election by 34 electoral votes.

Coincidence? I think not. Perhaps Kerry should’ve stuck with soccer.

His opponent that year, former President George W. Bush, learned his lesson three years earlier. Following the attacks on September 11th, Bush threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium during Game 3 of the 2001 World Series. Prior to the game, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter warned the president of the backlash he’d receive if he threw from in front of the mound and bounced it.

Much to the chagrin of terrorists abroad, Bush reached home plate with astounding accuracy and the post-9/11 New York City crowd loved it. Then Yankees third baseman Scott Brosius said the president “had a good arm.”

But this issue of throwing from the mound has just recently been thrust into the political arena. Presidents formerly threw out the first pitch from their seats, as shown here with William Howard Taft, FDR, Ike, and as recently as Nixon in 1970.

It wasn’t until 1996 that President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. president to pitch off the mound – a feat that likely saved him during his impeachment trials in 1998.

So Tuesday, as the 44^th president of the United States prepares to open the All-Star Game with the ceremonial first pitch, will he go down in history as a girly-man or a true all-American leader?

You Decide.

As the Fourth of July fast approaches, Americans are heating up their barbeques, donning their star spangled banners, and heading down to the Cape. But this year, there will be at least one more celebrating the great American holiday: Red Sox slugger Jason Bay.

The 30-year-old leftfielder officially became a U.S. citizen Thursday in a naturalization ceremony at Faneuil Hall. Originally from Trail, British Columbia, Bay said he’s still proud of his Canadian heritage, according to ESPN.com.

Taking the oath of allegiance just before being sworn in as new citizens.

“I don’t denounce being Canadian at any point, but I’m definitely proud to be an American,” he told reporters.

The Red Sox are certainly no foreigners when it comes to athlete citizenship. In 2004, Bay’s predecessor, the Dominican-born Manny Ramirez, missed a game against the Indians to become a U.S. citizen in Miami. The following day, he returned to Fenway waving a mini American flag as he ran out to leftfield.

Four years later, fellow Dominican and teammate David Ortiz swore his allegiance to the US of A, sporting a pin-stripe suit, dark shades, and his standard bling bling.

Still, others in the wide world of sports have never been too clear when it comes to their nationality – or, in the case of Alex Rodriguez, nationalities. Though he was born in the U.S., Rodriguez is also a citizen of the Dominican Republic and has constantly struggled with an identification complex. In 2005, while discussing which team he would play for in the World Baseball Classic, Rodriguez channeled his inner James Brown and declared, “I want to say it out loud: I am Dominican…and I am going to make the Dominicans feel proud.”

But come the 2006 WBC, the waffling Rodriguez was wearing a U.S. uniform and playing alongside fellow countrymen Derek Jeter and Jason Varitek.

In 2009, Rodriguez once again caused much confusion as he switched alliances and decided that it would be a “dream come true” to play for the Dominican team. But the Yankees third baseman was hampered by injuries and, tragically, his dream never came true. I guess no one told the advertising department.

All A-Rod bashing aside, there are some athletes who truly dream of making a better life for themselves and their families in the United States. They flee from the persecution of oppressive regimes in their respective countries, risking their lives to ultimately share in the democratic ideals our country values so much.

Take the Royals’ Brayan Pena, for example. On a tour with the Cuban Junior National team, the then 17-year-old catcher was forced to sneak out of bathroom window in Venezuela and go into hiding for several months in an attempt to defect to the U.S. He left behind his family, friends, teammates, and the life he had known for 17 years.

Today, Pena is not only the starting catcher for Kansas City – he is, most notably, a U.S. citizen. In an interview with MLB.com, Pena said: “I feel like the happiest man on earth now.

“I’m proud to be a Cuban, too, but I’m proud to be an American citizen because this is the country I live in, this is the country I respect, the country that really gave me everything I’ve got. It’s amazing. There are things that money can’t buy, and American citizenship is one of them.”

Undergoing hip surgery used to be a tell tale sign of old age – just another component of the senior citizen’s standard operating procedure along with playing mahjong and eating tapioca pudding.

Hip injuries have recently swept the MLB, affecting both young and old alike

But in recent months, an astounding number of major-league baseball players have fallen victim to hip ailments, and were consequently forced to undergo surgery. Thing is, these are no ordinary hip injuries: torn acetabular labrums are a new phenomenon among major leaguers, one that doctors had never even heard of a decade ago.

In the last eight months alone, prominent players including Alex Rodriguez, Chase Utley, Carlos Delgado, Alex Gordon and Mike Lowell have all undergone hip labrum surgery. But since this injury is only beginning to gain national recognition, its long-term effects are still unknown.

Lowell, who underwent surgery last October, was placed on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with a strained right hip. The 35-year-old Red Sox third baseman seemed to have recovered well as he batted .308 with eight homers in the months of April and May. But as the season wore on, he followed that up with a June in which he hit only .206 with two homers.

Only three and a half months after his surgery, Rodriguez hasn’t quite yet returned to his true form: this season, he’s only batting .239 with 13 homers. The Yankees third baseman also recently admitted that during his 15-year MLB career he used performance-enhancing drugs, which some doctors say might be the cause of this recent spike in hip injuries.

Others insist it’s simply an improvement in technology that’s brought the acetabular labrum injury to the forefront of sports medicine. In a recent New York Times article, University of Southern California Associate Professor Christopher Powers said:

“People and doctors are just more aware of it diagnostically. We’ve always had hip problems; now we are just finding it better.”

Still, according to the article, the number of players on the DL because of hip and groin-muscle injuries rose from 20 in 2007 to 34 in 2008. What’s more, at least 13 players have gone on the DL this season with hip injuries. If recent trends continue, that number seems likely to rise.