Doug Mientkiewicz returned to Fenway tonight with the Royals and continues to gripe about the World Series ball. Can we give this a rest already? The ball is in it's rightful place in Cooperstown and the story should be over.

Keith Foulke then decided it was necessary to chime in that he thought that he should have had the ball instead of Mientkiewicz. He also appears to be annoyed that the Hall of Fame still has the shoes he was wearing when he got the final out of the Series. Typically people give these things to the Hall for keeps, but Foulke seems to want his shoes back to put in a trophy case in his home. Y'know, Foulke will always have my eternal gratitude for the way he pitched in the 2004 post-season, but he sure says some stupid things sometimes.

Do Doug Mientkiewicz and Mark Grudzielanek make up the all-time hardest to spell right side of an infield?

Speaking of World Series balls, I recently finished the wonderful Lou Gehrig biography Luckiest Man by Jonathan Eig. Eig mentions that Gehrig kept the ball he caught for the final out of one of the Yankees six World Series championships during his career. Apparently, none of the Yankees management asked for the ball back. Of course, if David Ortiz or Manny had wanted to keep the ball instead of a role player like Mientkiewicz, Red Sox management might not have made such a big stink about it either.