I planted my golf spikes firmly in the Georgia clay more than a decade past. But I’ve developed no allegiance to the Braves, Falcons or Hawks in all that time. My only local rooting interest is the Georgia Bulldogs, primarily because my oldest daughter is a freshman pup. Because as the saying goes, you can take the boy out of the Bay State, but you can’t take the Bay State out of the boy. So these are heady times for New Englanders, with the Red Sox two games from another World Series title, the Patriots undefeated ...

C.C.. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona are an excellent pitching tandem for the tribe, and match the Sox duo of Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling handily. But despite the usual pronouncements that October baseball success is predicated mostly on pitching, the Bostonians are clear favorites to reach the World Series. This goes beyond their first-rate closer in Jonathan Papelbon, their hot-hitting duo of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, and the fact that the Boston roster has literally twice as much experience at this level of the playoffs than do their counterparts. (The Red Sox personnel have played in ...