01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, July 10, 2004

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH:

A baseball season is not decided in July, one way or the other.

That's something to remember, as we follow the fortunes of the Red Sox, whose every season has become a soap opera. Last week it was Armageddon. Now? Now it looks different. What a difference a week can make.

The bottom line? This is a team that's going to be in the race the entire way, a season that still has many miles to go. This team may still continue to underachieve. There undoubtedly will be more bad times. But the Sox are too talented not to be in this for the long haul, too talented for this season to be decided in July, one way or the other.

If Oprah owned a baseball team, Terry Francona would be the manager.

There's no truth to the rumor Joe Thornton wants to go to Switzerland to find Heidi.

Or that Derek Lowe needs a psychologist more than he needs a pitching coach.

Why doesn't Harrah's just drop the pretense and buy the General Assembly?

Quiz of the Week: Four players in Red Sox history have had six hits in a game. How many can you name? (answer near the bottom of the column)

Line of the Week comes from "Dana from North Kingstown," who said on a Boston radio station that a movie about this Red Sox season would be called, Still, We Bereave.

Line of the Week II comes from colleague Bill Angell on the sweep of the A's: "The horses are back in the corral, getting saddled up. And the cowboys are getting ready."

The Anchorman is embarrassingly bad.

And my standards are low, Bunky, in case you hadn't noticed.

Memo to Pedro: what's with the hair, buddy?

If Shaq leaves, the Lakers are toast.

According to an Associated Press story, there are at least 11 children with a first name of Espen, in honor of ESPN. Better than a boy named Sue, I suppose.

Separated at birth: John Edwards and John Ritter.

Rocco Baldelli is flirting with .300 after a slow start, if you haven't been keeping score at home.

If the Pats were a baseball team, they'd be playing "money ball."

Remember when the Russians wanted to take us over militarily? Now they're doing it with sports. Tennis. Hockey. Basketball. The Russians are coming? Forget that. They're here.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is the liberal version of "The Savage Nation."

Jason Giambi starting in the All-Star Game is a joke.

As is the New Orleans Hornets hiring Willis Reed to run their basketball operations. What's the matter? The Hornets don't remember the mess he once made with the Nets?

Kevin Millar's funky hairstyles look better when he hits the ball.

Maria Sharapova did more for tennis last week than a second serve.

A solution to Vinnie Mesolella's hotel? How about putting it right in the middle of the proposed casino and call it a Full Rhode Island?

College basketball, as we've come to know it, is under more attack than at any time I can remember.

Even so, the odds on Coach K. actually going to the circus that's become the Lakers always seemed like a long shot.

Ed Shein, my tennis guru, says Roger Federer has the most physical gifts of anyone who has ever played the game.

Even if no one has ever heard of him.

Emeka Okafor told the New York Post last week that the toughest opponent he played all last year was the Friars' Ryan Gomes.

Two new novels by local writers are worth it: Home Body, another in the mystery series set in Maine by Gerry Boyle, who grew up in Rhode Island; and Warp and Weft, a more literary endeavor, about Fall River mill life in the '70s by Ted Delaney, who teaches at Roger Williams.

And The Prince of Providence comes out in paperback this week, the ultimate beach book, Sopranos by the shore.

Mark Blount is mediocre, but in an NBA where there are too few quality centers his signing by the Celtics makes sense.

The new John McEnroe TV show needs two rackets, Bjorn Borg, and 25 years off the calendar.

How the A's keep winning eludes me.

Dodgeball only works if you cut out half your brain on your way into the theater.

Derek Lowe can say all he wants that his contract status is not on his mind, but do we really believe him?

If Randy Johnson goes to the Yankees, the Sox are officially playing for the wild card.

Quiz Answer: Jimmy Piersall. Pete Runnels. Jerry Remy. Nomar Garciaparra.

I suspect that hip-hop "oldies" shows two decades from now are going to seem ridiculous. But that's just me.

Ken Rix, the basketball and softball coach at Pilgrim High School, writes to say the last game Hendricken ace Jay Rainville lost was two years ago to Pilgrim's Zack Zuercher, the URI ace who is the A-10 pitcher of the year and could very well be drafted after next season. Talk about a matchup.

You know you've achieved marquee status in Rhode Island when your bill in the General Assembly is referred to by your first name, as in "Vinnie's hotel bill."

And if you don't know who we're talking about, Bunky, go back to Connecticut with the rest of the tourists.