She had noticed ”Sweet Caroline” was used at other sporting events, and she decided to send the sweetness over the Fenway speakers.

The song was picked up by fans, and the more it caught on, the more superstitious Tobey became about playing it.

Tobey would play the song somewhere between the seventh and ninth innings if the team was ahead, depending on whether she felt the team was going to win.

She didn’t go by any specific margin of runs, but rather who the opponent was, and her gut instincts.

”I actually considered it like a good luck charm,” Tobey says. ”Even if they were just one run [ahead], I might still do it. It was just a feel.”

In 2002, when new management took over at the park, they requested that Tobey play the song during the eighth inning of every game.

The Red Sox have clinched the 2009 American League Wild Card! Boston returns to the playoffs for the sixth time in seven years and will face the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the best-of-five AL Division Series starting next week. The Red Sox, World Series champions in 2004 and 2007, advanced to the ALCS in 2008. This year’s team has won 91 regular-season games with five games remaining.

The Boston Red Sox brushed aside the 100-win Angels in four games, dismissing their best-in-baseball regular season as last month’s news.

When it turns to October, no one dominates like Boston.

Jason Bay slid home with the game-winning run with two outs in the ninth inning Monday night as the defending World Series champions beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series and advanced to play for the pennant for the fourth time in six seasons.

Boston travels to Anaheim to play the Angels in the ALDS starting Wednesday. The last three times the Sox won the World Series, they beat the Angels in the first round. History is on our side.

But Pierce …

I mean …

We watched that guy grow up. We watched him become a man. We believed in him, we gave up on him, and we believed in him again. I don’t mean to sound like the old man in “Pretty Woman,” but part of me wanted to walk onto the court Tuesday night and just tell Pierce, “It’s hard for me to say this without sounding condescending, but I’m proud of you.” The guy gave us everything he had, altered his NBA tombstone, earned a place in the rafters and brought us a 17th title — just like he promised, by the way — and his sterling play in Games 4 and 5 ranks among the all-time greatest Celtic performances. We spend so much time complaining about sports and being disappointed that our favorite players never end up being who we wanted them to be, but in Pierce’s case, he became everything we wanted him to be. When he held up the Finals MVP trophy after the game and screamed to the crowd in delight, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier for a Boston athlete. How many guys stick with a crummy franchise for 10 solid years, then get a chance to lead that same team to a championship? Does that EVER happen in sports anymore?

From The Sports Guy.

Give the Lakers credit. They could have rolled over like dogs. They could have folded their designer tents, lost Game 5 at home, and spared themselves a cross-country trip. Instead, they stood tall in their own building, and their reward is the ultimate beat-down they’ll suffer in the New Garden tonight.

It’s a sure thing.

Like the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

Read the whole column (or don’t) at boston.com.

Kobe. This one stunned me a little bit. Who doesn’t know Kobe Bryant right? I only know what I have heard, starting awhile back with the entire Shaq debacle. I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other on or about him other than to know that people feel he might be one of the 4-5 greatest players to ever lace it up. What I do know is what I got to see up close and hear, was unexpected. From the first tip until about 4 minutes left in the game I saw and heard this guy bitch at his teammates. Every TO he came to the bench pissed, and a few of them he went to other guys and yelled about something they weren’t doing, or something they did wrong. No dialog about “hey let’s go, let’s get after it� or whatever. He spent the better part of 3.5 quarters pissed off and ranting at the non-execution or lack of, of his team. Then when they made what almost was a historic run in the 4th, during a TO, he got down on the floor and basically said ‘Let’s f’ing go, right now, right here� or something to that affect. I am not making this observation in a good or bad way, I have no idea how the guys in the NBA play or do things like this, but I thought it was a fascinating bit of insight for me to watch someone in another sport who is in the position of a team leader and how he interacted with his team and teammates. Watching the other 11 guys, every time out it was high fives and “Hey nice work, let’s get after it� or something to that affect. He walked off the floor, obligatory skin contact on the high five, and sat on the bench stone faced or pissed off, the whole game. Just weird to see another sport and how it all works. I would assume that’s his style and how he plays and what works for him because when I saw the leader board for scoring in the post season his name sat up top at 31+ a game, can’t argue with that. But as a fan I was watching the whole thing, Kobe, his teammates and then the after effects of conversations. He’d yell at someone, make a point, or send a message, turn and walk away, and more than once the person on the other end would roll eyes or give a ‘whatever dude’ look.

From Schill’s blog at 38pitches.com.

I’m still reeling from Boston’s 4-game sweep in the World Series. Two championships in four years. And I sorta miss all those short Frank TV commercials. Especially the Al Pacino. Only five months until spring training, then we can start singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game all over again.

If you’re a Boston sports fan, you’ve gotta take 10 minutes and read this. Edge: Bill Simmons.