A typically giddy postscript to last night’s Red Sox win over the Devil Rays from the Boston Herald’s Tony Massarotti.


Keith Foulke was descending the dugout steps after allowing a home run to Carl Crawford when he apparently was heckled by a fan sitting directly behind the Sox dugout. The pitcher backed up slightly and exchanged words with the fan before entering the dugout, where television cameras caught him firing his glove in frustration.

The scene was somewhat reminiscent of an occasion several years ago when then-Sox pitcher Frank Castillo was similarly the target of pointed remarks after leaving the game. Castillo revealed later that a fan suggested he kill himself.

I have no reason to doubt the veracity of Massarotti’s reportage, but something doesn’t add up. Why would a fan tell Keith Foulke that Frank Castillo should kill himself?

Saying “It’s nice to get medicine three months after your diagnosis,”, Mono isn’t just one of Paul Westerberg’s better solo albums for the Angels’ Casey Kotchman (above), who kvetches to the LA Times’ Bill Shaikin.

Kotchman, the Angels’ starting first baseman, batted .421 in spring training but .152 through May 9, when the team put him on the disabled list. In the interim, he said, he received intravenous fluids three times a week and used a hyperbaric chamber in what he called “individual efforts to help myself, because I wasn’t getting it here.”

He said he kept team trainers informed of those treatments. He also said he believed the Angels did not send him to specialists because he appeared to play well enough while tolerating the illness.

During the last two weeks, Kotchman said, he had 10 doctor’s appointments, including visits to a cardiologist and an infectious-disease specialist, who prescribed the medication that he said has eased his fatigue and dizziness. He has yet to resume baseball activities, as he concentrates on regaining his strength. He expects to return this season, but he isn’t sure when ” or why his recovery should have taken so long.

“I’m just now seeing a specialist. They’re the ones who told me I had mono,” he said. “You guys make your own [conclusions]¦. If you wait to treat something, it might take longer, and you might have relapses.

“I just want to get my health back. My quality of life has been brutal.”