Football at its finest

Why wait for September to get your fix on football? Jump the pond and you'll find the finest footballers in the world. And Wednesday night in Rome, you'll find the two best teams in European club soccer battling for arguably the most competitive tournament in all of sports.

Italy will play host to La Liga's Barcelona of Spain versus the Premier League's Manchester United of England in the UEFA Champions' League Final. Man U. is the defending Champions' League victor, while Barcelona is undoubtedly still seeking revenge for the 2008 semifinals loss that the mighty reds laid on them.

Not only did they eliminate Barcelona, they did so by shutting them out in both contests of the two-game, home-and-home series, winning by a 1-0 aggregate.

This isn't 2008, however. Both sides are loaded (as they always are). Man U. is soccer's equivelant to the New York Yankees, while Barcelona isn't far behind when it comes to shelling out some change to get the world's best stars to dawn their uniform.

Barcelona will sport the likes of Samuel Eto'o, Thierry Henry, Xavi and the ever-dangerous Lionel Messi (leading Barcelona in Champions' League goals with eight). Those players have contributed to another La Liga championship, which they wrapped up last weekend.

But La Liga doesn't present the challenge that Man U gets each and every week in the Premier League. Case in point: Barcelona struggled in the Champions' League semifinals to escape a strong English club in Chelsea, prevailing by scoring a road goal in a 1-1 aggregate over the two games.

Man U, you may be wondering, also wrapped up another championship in the Premier League last weekend. To get their spot in the Champions' League finals on Wednesday, they dismantled a Premier League foe in Arsenal, 4-1 aggregate, including a 3-1 win at Arsenal's home stadium.

How is Manchester United so dominant? Having FIFA player of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo, doesn't hurt. But that's not the only offense they tout. Man U has an offensive triumvirate of the aforementioned Ronaldo, as well as England's Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov of Bulgaria (leading Man U in Champions' League goals with four).

It's tough to find a flaw in Manchester United when breaking down the matchup of two powerhouses. From keeper Edwin Van der Sar to defenders such as Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, and all the way up to the forwards, Barcelona is going to have a tough time stopping and scoring against anyone wearing red on Wednesday.

Not even a prolific scorer like Messi will find his way into the scoresheet tomorrow. And that will be key in Barcelona's success of dethroning Man U. If Messi does get on the board then yes, Barca will have an excellent chance in taking their second Champions' League title in four years.

The question is: Will he score? My answer: No. And, thus, Man U will leave the pitch in Rome a two-time defending UEFA Champions' League champion. The champion of champions if you will. Final score, 2-0 Manchester. Your scorers, Ronaldo and Berbatov.

Cleaning up the mess

It’s late May and all baseball fans got to see something they haven’t seen since late in the 2008 season: a David Ortiz homerun. September 22, 2008, was the last four-bagger Ortiz hit. In total, the homerun drought for spanned 150 at bats.

Many will say it’s due to the fact that Manny Ramirez is now living the high life in Los Angeles (steroids or not), leading the Dodgers to their second consecutive National League West title. Others will say that Ortiz’s struggles originated from a wrist injury he suffered in Baltimore against the Orioles early in the 2008 season.

And then there’s some cynics that feel Ortiz has just hit the downside of his career and will no longer be the “Big Papi” that all of Red Sox Nation has grown to love.

Lost in all this “Big Papi” nonsense is the fact that the Red Sox, despite lackluster pitching from starters expected to perform at a high level -- Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka -- is the fact that Boston sits in second place, just behind a Toronto Blue Jays team that has steamrolled through one of the easiest early-season schedules in the American League.

There are many factors that have played out for the Red Sox to be where they are in the standings.

Jason Bay has taken over in left field, and has contributed with a .302 average, 12 homers and 42 RBIs to this point in the season; Tim Wakefield -- with his unconventional contract (a one-year option, mutually agreed upon by both sides until he retires) and pitch (the knuckleball) -- has compiled a 5-2 record and sub-4 ERA in leading the rotation; Jonathan Papelbon has been his usual self; Ramon Ramirez has been a bright spot for the bullpen; and Julio Lugo has stepped in for the injured Jed Lowrie and has been formidable (along with Nick Green).

But under the radar in all this (yes, injuries may be part of the lack of buzz) is the cleanup hitter for the Red Sox, Kevin Youkilis. Dustin Pedroia may have taken home MVP honors for the 2008 campaign, but Youkilis has clearly been above and beyond the call of duty for Boston to this point in 2009.

Sure, he was out with injuries for a couple weeks, but he picked up where he left off on Wednesday night. In his first game since May 4, Youkilis returned to the BoSox lineup, penciled into the cleanup spot by Manager Terry Francona. He proceeded to go 3-5 on the night, upping his season average to .404 along with his six homers and 20 RBIs.

On the same night of Youkilis' return is the end of Ortiz's homerun drought. Coincidence? Perhaps. However, if you believe Ortiz's struggles originated without the big bat of Ramirez behind him, then the end of this homerun streak is not coincidence that it occurred on Wednesday night.

Affectionately known as the "Greek god of Walks" (Youkilis is not Greek), the post-Ramirez cleanup batter for the Red Sox has an eye for the strike zone. He always is in the upper echelon of the pitches seen per plate appearance category; he's always near the top of the league in walks; and he finds a way to make contact. All these make him the threat that Ramirez was while suiting up in the Red Sox #24 jersey.

Youkilis has been nothing but remarkable in replacing Ramirez in the cleanup spot for the Red Sox and doesn't get nearly enough credit for the job he has done. That doesn't even take into account that he has been near-flawless at first base since moving over from third when Boston acquired Mike Lowell in 2006 as part of the Beckett deal. And, when Lowell needs a blow for a night, he'll slide over to the hot corner and fill in admirably.

If the most clutch hitter in Red Sox history (awarded that title by the Red Sox front office) is struggling to get on track this season (currently hitting a robust .204, 1 HR, 17 RBIs), it's certainly not because lack of protection behind him -- nor in front of him, with Pedroia batting .314.

Youkilis has been cleaning up "Big Papi's" mess ever since he was slotted into the four hole by Francona. He will continue to do so until he is either moved to a different part of the order, is benched, traded or released. It's about time he gets his recognition on a national scale.

Going to the ballgame.

Being from the Boston area, I'd say that we take our baseball pretty seriously out there. The atmosphere for a game against the worst team in baseball is going to be of high voltage. Cramming the park with roughly 35,000 fans every night is the norm.

Today, I experienced the norm for a baseball town that just doesn't have the passion of the fans out east. Hello, Oakland.

It doesn't really help the A's and their fan base that the stadium is designed for the city's professional football team. But even if it was a baseball-only stadium, which will typically seat between 30,000-40,000 people, they wouldn't come close to selling out.

Fans are, for the most part, disinterested in the game. Eavesdropping on conversation, I noticed that not even the subject of conversation was about the A's. Nor baseball. Nor sports. It's about sunscreen. It's about where they went this weekend. Is this how professional sports is supposed to be? Is this how "fanatics" spend their time at the game? Who are these people and what did they do to the true, die-hard fan?

Luckily for me, being a Red Sox fan, I was able to watch the game -- Oakland v. Texas -- without getting too caught up in the game, so I could observe these dreadful viewers. Yes, I've relegated the people who attended this ball game "viewers" -- not "fans" -- because they hardly mustered applause for their home-town-teams' players as the PA announcer was listing off the starting lineup. (Maybe it's the PA announcer's fault that the people don't get too interested, though. He wasn't very enthusiastic. Merely monotone. Or perhaps whoever is in charge of the audio, because the acoustics were drowned out by all the viewers' chit-chatting about what the newest treat Rachel Ray was whipping up this week.)

And the experience just wasn't one to write home about. I'm used to hearing "Center field" by John Fogerty as the home team makes its way onto the diamond going into the top half of the first inning. I'm used to hearing fans jeering, taunting and razzing the opponents of their home team as they step up to the plate, as they swing-and-miss, as they boot a ground ball. I'm used to a ruckus, sell-out crowd singing in unison in the middle of the eighth inning to the tune "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond. And those are just the sounds. I'm not even including the glorious smells you inhale when you step foot into the ballpark. The mixture of all the smells -- beer, hot dogs, pretzels, pizza, peanuts, grass, air, people -- all conforms a smell that welcomes you to Friendly Fenway. Walk into the McAfee Colisseum in Oakland and you don't smell anything.

Following the ball game, I went to a local pub in Fremont to watch my home team play the Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN and I talked about the issue with this lack of passion for the team. Even locals agreed that there wasn't a great atmosphere around these parts. In fact, I had a couple people say they root for the A's, but then for football, they'll root for the 49ers. Where is the allegiance to a town or city? Something isn't right in this area with the sports.

So, my question, in closing: What will it take to fix the sport world out west so I can feel as if I'm in the same world as an East Coast sports fan?