First of all, I think 90% of Red Sox nation would gladly pay David Ortiz double what he's getting simply for giving us the gift of a World Series championship. Ortiz is everything that's right about baseball: great attitude, pride in the shirt, involvement in the community, love of the game, role model for kids, etc. Ortiz is money well spent.

Second, don't tell anyone that you can park for free, on the street in Cambridgeport and walk across the BU Bridge and up to the ballpark in about fifteen minutes. It's about twice the distance as the walk from that stupid gas station, but stupid people will pay stupid money for stupid things.

Thirdly, with the T running into Kenmore Square, only the wealthy, lazy and stupid bother trying to drive to Fenway anyway.

OK, Barry is still pretty good at hitting baseballs, and he's mediocre as a fielder and there are a lot of different ways to quantify that. But I'd like to propose a new stat. I'll call it BLV (bottom line value). Pick your favorite offensive stat, say OPS, and any defensive stat you want, Errors/Attempts maybe. Multiply them together. Now divide by the player's salary. Then take that number and divide it by the team's current place in the divisional standings.

I'm not going to do the math, because I don't think I have to. Bonds is and has been a complete waste of baseball time for the Giants for the last few years now.

I'm sure a lot of San Franciscans are coming out to the park to watch the Barry circus, and that translates to big gate receipts, but I don't think you can seriously believe having Barry Bonds in left field is a good thing for your baseball club's chances of winning a World Series.

That's ok though. Ruth was something of an albatross in his final seasons, too. In that regard, I suppose, Bonds has already arrived.

You should never speak or write about Ann Coulter. To do so is to afford her some legitmacy, which she certainly doesn't warrant. Her work is completely bereft of any intellectually value. You might as well discuss and/or rebut the infantile rantings of my one-year-old son.

Please stop.

Thanks.

First of all, if you've ever been to a Bruce Arena press conference (I have) you know that Bruce Arena is not measured and reasonable. He's an egotistical prick, a sneering, bombastic jerk.

Having said that, coaches don't sell sports. Players do. Jordan made the NBA. Shaq and Kobe and LeBron keep the fire lit. McGwire and Sosa saved baseball. A-Rod and Pujols are the show now. "Neon" Deion Sanders, Terrell "TO" Owens, etc., etc., etc. Soccer will claw its way into the national consciousness when the league's best players are also its most colorful.

Currently, MLS is trying to sell squeaky clean Landon Donovan to a country that would (on the evidence of the other major leagues) prefer someone more like Clint Dempsey, a player with a bit more dirt under his finger nails and a more than passing interest in gangster rap. Dempsey isn't the answer to soccer's marketing problems, but he might be part of an answer.

Finally, why are we always talking about the one thing that will make America wake up and realize how great soccer is, as if there is a simple solution to what, for American soccer fans, seems an all-consuming problem.

I have been playing and watching soccer since I was a kid (I'm 34 now), and what I have seen is a slow and steady increase in the sport's popularity. Slow and steady wins the race.

Every time.

There are many things I disagree with Ben Nelson on. He is far right of where I stand on the spectrum, but it seems to me you can't both chastise Democrats for standing pat and/or offering muddled proposals to serious problems AND chastise them for working with Republicans to actually get things done.

It seems to me that what you want is slash-and-burn politics, where anything that's not 100% right is 100% wrong. This is exactly the approach we excoriate Republicans for. Ben Nelson falls far short of my standards for progressive liberal values, but if he is actually able to find a way to work with our idiotic president to make SOMETHING productive happen in the three remaining years our sentence. I mean, his term.

King,

I love ya. I do. But what's the point of trashing the Tour or gloating about being right that Americans aren't interested in it? Do cycling fans write you such nasty notes that somehow rubbing their noses in the Tour's shabby ratings makes you feel better? I mean, I think that's sort of sad and a waste of your talents. Instead you could have told the Floyd Landis story, the one about the American who's going to win this year's Tour and then immediately have a hip replacement because he has a degenerative bone disease. This is Walt Frazier times ten. But you missed the story, and that's a bummer.