The Ottumwa (Iowa) Courier reports a judge took pity on a man in the stir for a short sentence and agreed to give him a leave to see the Red Sox play in Kansas City tonight.

"These ball games are among the few pleasures the defendant has in life. He had been looking forward eagerly to attending this game with his family," King said.

Question: If the Sox play the way they have the past two nights, could he argue for early release because of cruel and unusual punishment?

Assuming Ben Affleck doesn't blow it up first, of course. After last night's amazing game (my favorite part: The look on Sciosa's face after that blown strike call in the ninth inning), Soxaholix tallies up all the elements that would make for a good Brown novel, including:

... And, of course, let us not forget Brown's favorite stock antagonist - the vaguely foreign narcissist with an awesomely sculpted body and bizarre sexual fetish that eventually leads to his downfall.

Ah, Mr. A-Rod, your reputation precedes you.

And can we keep him?

Bruce Allen likes what he sees:

... Overall, the online competition in Boston is heating up. With ESPNBoston.com would seem to impact the sports side of Boston.com the most, but is also a new competitor for WEEI.com ... which given some of the rumors out there, could be an interesting scenario. CSNNE.com plans to relaunch their site sometime in the fourth quarter, harnessing their new content from NECN, and creating a site of local voices, video content and fan interaction.

All of this adds up to plenty of options for Boston sports fans – the real winner of all this competition.

Serena Williams, the defending US Open champion, lost her semifinal match to Kim Clijsters in the most shocking and improbable manner last night, stunning the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Carlos Ortez-Somarriba vs. Duane Somers, Motel in the Sky, Inc, Totonno's of Yonkers, LLC, Jane Doe, John Doe and Patrick Grizzle

On Oct. 4, 2007, Carlos Ortez, a millworker from Quincy, was in Yonkers, NY on a work project. That night, he and a co-worker went down to a bar in the Ramada where they were staying to watch the Sox play the Angels in the playoffs. A pair of locals in the bar began to harass them, at one point impugning Ortez's Boston loyalties. Ortez says he complained to the barkeepers, who did nothing. When the two workers left, the locals jumped them and, Ortez charges, beat him so severely he still suffers permanent pain and faces additional facial reconstructive surgery.

One of the locals was found guilty of attacking Ortez. The suit seeks damages against the hotel, the bar and the bartenders for failing to prevent or stop the attack.

Ortez's complaint.

If you hurry down to your nearest RMV office:

As Paul Keleher discovered.

Posted under this Creative Commons license in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Red admonishes:

... I don't want opposing teams thinking that when the going gets tough, we put the kettle on. I want them imagining our boys drinking whiskey from a boot and mainlining lion's blood, all under the watchful eye of their clearly inebriated manager. ...

Traded to the Raiders.

Watching him try to hobble to first at one point and then, even worse, trying to walk from one end of the dugout to the other to get to the clubhouse was just really painful. I can only imagine what it felt like for him!