Where Angels go ... heartbreak follows

Go Angels. If you didn't stay up to watch, the Angels came back from a 2-0 deficit last night and had the go-ahead run on third base with one out in the top of the ninth, only to have the situation blow up in their faces when manager Mike Scioscia (right) called for a suicide squeeze and it lived up to its name.

Erick Aybar missed the 2-0 pitch and pinch runner Reggie Willets was chased down by catcher Jason Varitek to end the threat. The Sox won a trip to the American League Championship Series on an RBI single by Jed Lowrie in the bottom of the ninth.

Frankly, I was a bit surprised by the squeeze call, since reliever Manny Delcarmen buzzed Aybar up and in with his first two pitches, no doubt hoping that play was on earlier. Even though Delcarmen was behind on the count, he still had the luxury of playing loose with the strike zone with first base open. Scioscia obviously wasn't confident Aybar could deliver the run with a hit or a sacrifice fly, and there is some logic there, too, since he was just 2-for-18 (.111) in the series.

Oh well, it's still a no-lose situation in the ALCS. Orioles fans have to root for the Rays, because they represent hope for other beleaguered franchises and because they aren't the Red Sox. If Tampa Bay cannot get it done, their loss could set up what probably is the best storyline of the postseason if the Red Sox face a Dodgers team led by former Yankees nemesis Joe Torre and former Red Sox enfant terrible Manny Ramirez.

The Dodgers still have to get by the Phillies in the NLCS, but most of my friends in Philadelphia are already resigned to that.

Yay, Lance? Boo, Lance? Which is it?

Boo Boo. I covered every day of Lance Armstrong's final three Tour de France victories. It took about five minutes into the first stage of the 2003 Tour for me to realize something. Lance was way better than anyone. He belonged on that bike, he had found his perfect sport. He was smooth. He rode effortlessly. He was the best.

The best athlete, the best rider, the best competitor. He was a winner.

Part of me believes he was enough better that he didn't need the doping that clearly was rampant in the sport. Part of me thinks Armstrong's competitive nature wouldn't allow him not to use whatever advantages others were using. Part of me doesn't care because if he was using unnatural ways to enhance his talent, so were most of the other top 100 or so finishers in the Tour de France.

It took about two days to realize that Lance wasn't a particularly nice guy, but so what?

He had competed all his life in Europe, often as the only American on a team, and in a sport where jealousy, backroom gossip and insider conniving are common. Was he paranoid? Maybe a little. He probably should have been.

And whether he was nice or not wasn't the point. Watching someone so fiercely in need of winning was fascinating. It wasn't an accident that Armstrong avoided disastrous crashes or draining respiratory illnesses, that he didn't miss turns or skid in the rain.

He was always better prepared.

So he goes away for three years. He dates starlets (the whole Olsen twin dating, I can't even remember which one, was a disappointment because Lance is a smart guy), his face has been in every US Magazine/National Enquirer/TMZ tabloid rag around, to the point that he's become almost a caricature, a 30-something guy who happily abandons the discipline that made him great to become a glorified frat boy.

Now he comes back. He wants to race his bike again. Great, I thought. The sport will be back in the spotlight. I was holding out hope Armstrong might join one of the new American-based teams -- Bob Stapleton's Team Columbia or Jonathan Vaughters' Garmin-Chipotle -- two teams committed both to having drug-free squads and shepherding young riders through the years it takes to become top road racers.

And maybe if Armstrong started totally fresh, separating himself from Johan Bruyneel, who, fair or not, will be considered by many to have been part and parcel of whatever underhanded methods Armstrong supposedly used, Armstrong might prove to doubters that he is and always has been a clean rider.

He didn't. Armstrong is remaining with Bruyneel.

And then I became conflicted. Will Armstrong erase the small good vibes that men like Stapleton and Vaughters brought to cycling last year? Fairly or not, is the Armstrong/Bruyneel partnership forever linked to the disastrous doping age of the last decade?

Armstrong said he wasn't going to take a salary this year, that he only wanted to raise more money for his cancer foundation, Livestrong, which is, whether you believe Armstrong was a clean racer or a doped racer, is a foundation that has done immense good in raising money for cancer research and will always make Armstrong a legitimate hero.

But there were suggestions raised by three people in the cycling world that Armstrong also was asking for more than donations to Livestrong from race directors, that he was asking for appearance fees as well. So well-remembered is Armstrong's reputation for exacting revenge on those who publicly speak against him that these sources don't want to be named.

But that knowledge made me more conflicted about Armstrong's comeback. Was he just being greedy?

Until yesterday when Greg LeMond offered up a whiny rage at a Las Vegas cycling convention by harranguing Armstrong and former UCLA drug testing guru Don Catlin with accusations that Catlin, who has been hired by Armstrong to be his personal anti-doping assistant, was signing on only as an enabler who would help Armstrong present a facade of being clean.

Catlin has never proven to be anyone's dupe. When he ran the UCLA anti-doping lab he worked for the World Anti-Doping Agency and almost always his testing proved accused athletes guilty of doping.

And since Armstrong has left the peloton there hasn't been a winner, not a real winner who grabbed the big race by the throat and shook the fight out of everyone. Armstrong will try to do that again. He is, in his competitiveness, so much like Michael Jordan. He is in it to win it and will take on all comers.

If Armstrong can stay healthy while he endures his typical spartan training lifestyle, I predict there won't be many bigger stories than the Tour de France next summer. And if he stays healthy, Armstrong will win it. He loves to hear the whiners.

Croatians fined £14,920 for England racism

Stop racism in sport. The Croatian Football Federation have been fined £14,920 for the racist behaviour of some of their supporters in the World Cup qualifier against England earlier this month.

England striker Emile Heskey was subjected to monkey chants from a small section of the crowd at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb after being booked during the 4-1 victory for Fabio Capello's side.

The FA had asked Fifa to investigate the incident and the world governing body have today issued the fine.

A statement said: "Racism has no place in football. Fifa is determined to continue broadcasting this message around the globe and deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination."


It is the second time in a matter of months Croatian fans have been found guilty of racist behaviour with Fifa issuing a small fine during Euro 2008 following chants during their quarter-final against Turkey.

FIFA's disciplinary committee have now warned the Croatian Federation further incidents could result in "more severe sanctions".

The statement continued: "The FIFA disciplinary committee has fined the Croatia Football Federation CHF 30,000 (£14,920) for the racist behaviour of some of their supporters at the 10 September 2008 Croatia v England preliminary competition match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

"The Croatian Football Federation was found guilty of a violation of article 58, paragraph 2 of the FIFA disciplinary code, and received a warning regarding its future conduct according to article 13.

"Further infringements of article 58 would lead to more severe sanctions by the FIFA disciplinary committee."

For fifth time in six years, Sox wrap up a playoff spot

Happy berth day to you. The celebration erupted again at Fenway Park last night, Red Sox players storming from the dugout and streaming from the bullpen, a scene as familiar and predictable by now as the fall chill moving in. Korbel and Budweiser awaited in the clubhouse as they leaped on one another in the infield. There will be October baseball in Boston, something once rare, now expected, and always cherished.

On the strength of a 5-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians before 37,882, the Sox clinched a postseason berth, their fifth in six seasons, and with it comes the opportunity to defend their World Series championship. Game No. 157 also may have given Sox followers a measure of schadenfreude, for the Yankees' streak of 13 consecutive seasons in the playoffs was officially snapped.

The Red Sox, who spent the playoffs at home 75 times in 85 seasons between 1918 and 2004, have become postseason stalwarts. But they remain unjaded, appreciative. They doused one another as if it were their first playoff trip, 50 Cent bumping on the clubhouse speakers.

"You never, ever, ever take it for granted," said general manager Theo Epstein, taking a pull from a Bud Light. "One of our organizational goals is we wanted to transform the franchise into the kind of franchise that can be counted to be in just about every October. And that's not easy.

"We wanted to be like the Braves or like the Yankees, a team when you think of October baseball you think of the Red Sox. Now it's five out of six years and we're starting to get there. And starting to feel pretty good about it."

"It's not easy," said chairman Tom Werner. "It's remarkable to be here. We never take it for granted."

The bash carried from the field to the dugout. There was John Henry, the owner, smoking a cigar by manager Terry Francona's office. He overheard a reporter joke to Epstein that the GM deserved a raise. Henry poked his head toward the group of reporters and said with a smile, "He'll get one."

There was Jason Bay, soaked with champagne for the first time, the left fielder who replaced Manny Ramírez at the trade deadline. There was Jed Lowrie, swim goggles strapped to his forehead, the rookie shortstop fill-in who began the season in Pawtucket. There was David Ortiz, sipping a bottle of beer, the historically clutch slugger who missed 55 games this year.

Those three, perhaps more than any others, symbolized how arduous this season's achievement was. Between constant injuries, new additions, and one blockbuster trade, "it was more about survival this year," Epstein said. Survive they did, thanks largely to the farm system that produced MVP candidates Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia, and the maneuvering of Epstein that added secondary but integral pieces like Paul Byrd and Mark Kotsay.

Ronaldo set to make first start for United: Winger to join kids for Boro clash

I hate MU. I really do. Manchester United face Middlesbrough in the Carling Cup and it is likely that Cristiano Ronaldo will be included in a squad that mixes young players with experienced stars in need of game time.

The Portugal winger has come on as a substitute in the previous two games - against Villarreal and Chelsea - after undergoing ankle surgery during the summer which forced him to miss the start of the season.

Sir Alex Ferguson wants to give Ronaldo valuable match time in a bid to get him back to full fitness.


He said: 'We have had a tough start and it is difficult to know where the Chelsea result leaves us.

'What I do know is that come October we will be fine.

'The players will have minutes on the clock and the level of our game will have gone up by then.'

Ferguson will also use the game to take a look at the likes of Darron Gibson, Danny Welbeck and Rafael Da Silva.