Those of you only half paying attention to the Boston Red Sox might not have heard that Manny Ramírez was traded yesterday afternoon. Those of you only half paying attention to me here might not have read that I had a hand in this (see Shipping up to Boston).

While I generally don't recommend that anyone read Dan Shaughnessy in the Boston Globe (he who coined "The Curse of the Bambino" to make, well, coin on books). But tooday Shaughnessy has a good column "Going, going, gone".

And here's The Globe's Amalie Benjamin to tell us about new Red Sox leftfielder Jason Bay - "Hollywood ending".

I know they're trying to play up the differences, but man does this British Columbian sound down-to-earth and normal. And not just compared to Manny - possibly the weirdest human on the planet - Bay just sounds all around normal.

Hopefully he can hit ...