We at Sox & Dawgs have been on Camera-gate since the very beginning and you can see everything we’ve written on it. While in the beginning I thought the magnitude would in no way be what it became, we were there and we will continue to be because as we all know this may fade but it will not go away for quite a while.

One of the reasons is because of Senator Arlen Specter. He continues to try to make it an issue, even though other members of his committee, granted it’s Ted Kennedy, say there are bigger fish to fry.

Another reason is that fans of other teams will not let it go. You can tell by some of the comments from postings within our very own blog, not only on Camera-gate but on other things New England Patriot as well.

Yet another reason it won’t go away anytime soon is because of the “Parade of Apologies”, the “Mea Culpa March” being issued by everyone at the Herald from the publisher to the editor in chief to John Tomase to the cleaning lady. At this point it wouldn’t surprise me if the Herald has all their paper carriers issue apologies to their home delivery customers.

That brings me to the point of this post. Tomase got back on parade route today and issued yet another statement.

Reader reaction has been strong to today’s explanation of where we went wrong with our Rams walkthrough story on Feb. 1. One addendum - there are people I need to personally apologize to.

I must apologize to the Patriots in general and the Kraft family in particular. My story contributed to much of the heat the organization has taken over the last three months, and my hope is that the message of their exoneration eventually receives the same attention as the presumption of their guilt.

Secondly, I owe an apology to head coach Bill Belichick, his staff, and every player from that 2001 team and the two more Super Bowl champs since. They did not deserve to have their accomplishments falsely called into question, and I plan to apologize in person to as many of them as I can.

Thirdly, I owe an apology to Patriots fans, over 1,000 of whom have e-mailed since Feb. 2 to express their displeasure at the story’s timing and content. I recognize the pall that story cast over Super Bowl Sunday and it’s something I regret deeply.

John don’t tell us who you need to and are going to apologize to, we know who the victims are. This could have all been included in today’s earlier Tomase sized expose´.

Just do what you need to do and get on with it. The sooner, the better for you, the Patriots organization and us, the fans.

Destination Red Sox Nation is our look at how the minor league teams of the Boston Red Sox fare each night. Game story links and links to team stats and league standings are after the jump.

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Now that order has been restored here at SOX & Dawgs (once again I apologize) as you can tell by the inundation of blog posts, it’s time to move back to the Boston Red Sox for a moment.

The Red Sox had a rough road trip in which they went 4-6 and saw 3-0 leads slip away in the last three games. I keep saying this and I will say it again, baseball is funny like that. You get good starting pitching but the bullpen sucks, you get bad starting pitching and good hitting, you get no hitting but excellent pitching. I think you catch my drift here.

Now it’s time for the battle of the Boston Red Sox beat writers. After an impressive outing for the Pawtucket Red Sox yesterday, Bartolo Colon figured to be on track to make a start for the Red Sox on Tuesday when they will need another pitcher.

Gordon Edes from the Boston Globe thinks Colon will start on Tuesday, Michael Silverman from the Boston Herald thinks he will make one more minor league start and Jeff Goldberg from the Hartford Courant thinks he will make the start for the Sox as well.

Good Oki vs Bad Oki

With a 1/4 of the season down the hatches, it’s obvious the Red Sox have some flaws. Steven Krasner from the Pro Jo lists what he thinks is wrong with the Sox.

• Hideki Okajima
• The “Bridge”
• The Offense

One of the big ones he forgot is Julio Lugo’s defense.

I got these links last night from our friend Dan over at Red Sox Monster. First link is an interview with the fan who received the high-five from Manny that he found perusing the internets. The second link is about Heidi Watney and the controversy surrounding her departure from a Fresno television station.

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will be without the services of point guard Daniel Gibson for one to weeks after a MRI determined he separated his shoulder in the Cavs Game Five loss Wednesday night in Boston.

Gibson left in the fourth quarter after a collision. He is one of Cleveland’s best perimeter shooters and his injury could be the end of his season as Cleveland faces a must win situation in Game Six Friday night at the Quicken Loans Arena.

Diamondbacks 1B Conor Jackson missed yesterday’s game with a sore hamstring.

The Angels and Dodgers are playing this weekend for bragging rights of Los Angeles.

The Giants called up Alex Hinshaw from Triple-A Fresno.

The A’s pitchers will have to bat this weekend in interleague play.

Glendon Rusch declined the minors assignment given to him by the Padres.

Mariners reliever Arthur Rhodes is working his way back from surgery.

Jason Grilli is quietly having a solid year for the Rockies.

The Rangers are embracing their past and future.

Here is the statement by the Boston Herald’s John Tomase on CameraGate. It runs in it’s entirety here at Sox & Dawgs after the jump.

While I commend Tomase for wanting to set the record straight his explanation seems a little weak. As Dave Scott at Scott’s Shots points out he failed to answer some questions that need to be answered. Like the papers policy on one source stories? What happened to the missing blog post from Tuesday where he used the term spying when talking about Walsh at the Rams walk through? And how has this affected the Herald’s coverage?

I think Tomase is a little off thinking he will be on the Patriots beat or deserves to be there. After a gaff like this he needs to be removed from the beat and re-assigned elsewhere.

Also what editor(s) allowed a story to run based on one anonymous source or possibly two with neither actually confirming in anyway the existence of a videotape of the walk through? As I said before these are the people that are really responsible for what happened. They had the ability and the authority to squash this because the leg work wasn’t thorough enough. It’s time we heard from them.

All in all it’s apology or an explanation that was in all likelihood stripped down to the bare bones by the Herald’s legal staff.

I am afraid it’s about as good as we’re going to get. Unfortunately for me and many others it just isn’t good enough.

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After US Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) said he favors a Mitchell Report type independent investigation, US Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who sits on the 19-member Senate Judiciary Committee had this to say about his favorite NFL team.

“With the war in Iraq raging on, gasoline prices closing in on $4 a gallon, and Americans losing their homes at record rates to foreclosure, the United States Senate should be focusing on the real problems that Americans are struggling with,” Kennedy said through a spokesman in response to a question posed by a Globe reporter. “I’m looking forward to another great Patriots season where they can let their play on the field speak for itself.”

Amen, Teddy, Amen.

Friday, May 16^th @ 7:05 PM

Jeff Suppan (R) (2-2, 4.63) vs Daisuke Matsuzaka (R) (6-0, 2.45)

TV: NESN, MLB.tv

Radio: Red Sox Radio Network, MLB Game Day Audio

Saturday, May 17^th @ 3:55 PM

Dave Bush (R) (1-4, 6.06) vs Tim Wakefield (R) (3-2, 4.25)

TV: FOX

Radio: Red Sox Radio Network, MLB Game Day Audio

Sunday, May 18^th @ 1:35 PM

Carlos Villanueva (R) (2-4, 6.00) vs Josh Beckett (R) (4-3, 4.21)

TV: NESN, TBS, MLB.tv

Radio: Red Sox Radio Network, MLB Game Day Audio

New England Patriots President Jonathan Kraft appeared on Thursday mornings Dennis and Callahan show on WEEI and talked about his thoughts on Senator Arlen Specter’s desire to see an independent investigation, the Boston Herald’s apology and whether or not the team was still contemplating a lawsuit and is there a way to quantify the damage done to the Patriots?

You can hear his answers to all this and more in his session with D&C.

Former New England Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh talked to the New York Times on Wednesday morning before taping his interview with HBO and then heading to Connecticut to see his parents before flying home to Hawaii for a golf date with Ian’s brother.

It was at the offices of his Washington attorney that he sat down with Greg Bishop for a Q&A.

We bring to you some of the Q&A with Walsh:

Q. What is the first time you remember videotaping something?

A. When I was hired in ‘99 as a video assistant. At that time, I didn’t know really anything about video. My only experience prior to that was back in ‘97, when I worked in media relations. The first half of the games that season, I helped them work on game day and set up the printers and the cameras on the sidelines, but I had never shot anything myself. When I started in ‘99, they said, “Don’t worry. We’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

Q. Who told you that?

A. Jimmy Dee.

Q. What was that training process like?

A. Everything from the basics, from how to set up the tripod to how to operate the camera. At first, I had to shadow Fernando and learn a lot of what he was doing. But the job itself is comprised of very routine patterns of what you’re doing during the week, how you’re making tapes for coaches, cut-ups, what not.

Q. Did it surprise you how extensive it was?

A. I had somewhat of an idea what the job was like. Just from my experience prior, working there and being around. But I didn’t have firsthand knowledge or was really made aware of the extensive preparation coaches go through in getting ready for a game. And just seeing the number of different cut-up tapes we’d do on scouting an opponent.

Q. How many tapes?

A. On average, when you’re scouting a team, we’d do anywhere from 60 to 70 cut-ups on offense, 40, 50 cut-ups on defense. Special teams, you’re making another 10 to 15 tapes.

Q. Did that change when Bill Belichick took over as coach?

A. When Belichick came along, we added even more to the preparation. We were doing more cut-ups, and we were also coming into the age of digital technology, too. So we were able to attach statistics to the video, on computers. The great thing about technology, it’s supposed to make things easier, but in a sense it creates more work for you. The system was actually designed to allow coaches to do their own cut-ups if they wanted. Majority of coaches still preferred having somebody to do that for them.

Q. Was there any taping of signals in ‘99?

A. No.

Q. Did you get the sense that Belichick had been doing it in Cleveland with the Browns?

A. No. That never came up in conversation.

Q. So it was a small circle. Who knew?

A. The people that came to know were Jimmy Dee, obviously, Fernando Neto, who was the assistant video director at the time, found out just because we worked in such close circles. He knew what I was doing. Ernie Adams was the person I presented the tapes to. And then the quarterback that I had spoken with said Charlie Weis and Bill Belichick also knew about it.

Q. And you were told not to tell anyone else?

A. It was implied to me that this is something that should be kept very quiet. And that further got reinforced when we started discussing our alibis or the reasons that we would give to other teams for why I needed to be positioned where I was. Or if somebody questioned what I was filming and why I was filming in that direction, what my answer or explanation to them would be.

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Here is a statement from the New England Patriots regarding single game ticket sales:

Patriots fans who wish to purchase tickets to individual games in 2008 will have the opportunity to do so Friday, May 16 at 9 a.m.

The New England Patriots annually cap their season ticket sales, leaving a limited number in reserve for fans throughout New England who wish to attend just a couple of games each season. Those tickets will be released for sale through Ticketmaster. Visa will be the only form of payment accepted.

All ticket orders will be processed through Ticketmaster. Tickets will not be sold at the Gillette Stadium Ticket Office. Ticket orders can be completed online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone. Ticketmaster phone numbers vary by area code, please check your local listings. In the greater Boston area, call 617-931-2222.

So who is responsible for the site crashing today? Is it my host? Was it all the influx of traffic? The answer to those questions is a resounding no.

The only thing my host is reponsible for is blocking my IP address from allowing me to access the site to fix it. The fault lies with me. I messed up. Plain and simple.

The site can handle the traffic normally. I forgot to set something when I knew the site was going to receive a load of traffic. The problem has been fixed.

I want to apologize to anyone who tried to view the site today and to everyone who linked here. It will definitely not happen again. I felt so bad about this today, I was ready to forget about the site entirely. Then when I couldn’t get onto it because of my blocked IP, I almost threw it in.

What kept me from doing that is well for one, Steve. He’s been a great source of information here for y’all and you wouldn’t see his musings here if I gave up. Two, it’s because of all y’all readers. Without you, SOX & Dawgs wouldn’t be here. So I thank you for reading the site and look forward to hearing your thoughts on a daily basis.

Destination Red Sox Nation is our look at how the minor league teams of the Boston Red Sox fare each night. Game story links and links to team stats and league standings are after the jump.

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Sorry for the lateness of the post this morning. Like the Red Sox, I needed a little bit of rest and decided to sleep in for a bit but I am here now and ready for business.

Since we are a multi-team blog for some of the local teams up here in New England (Boston Red Sox, UConn Huskies, New England Patriots and Boston Celtics), you may have missed two blog posts about Manny Ramirez. First here is a link to the Manny catch where he high-fives a fan from yesterday and secondly here is a link to the Top 10 Manny Being Manny from last night’s Baseball Tonight on ESPN.

It really has been a bizarro world as of late for the Boston Red Sox. Three games in a row they have scored the first 3 runs of the game only to lose. Plus last night you get good starting pitching only to have the bullpen blow it. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, baseball is a funny game like that. I should know, I’ve seen in it person when I spent time working in the minor leagues.

Bad news for the Red Sox came yesterday when they had to place Clay Buchholz on the 15-day disabled list with a broken fingernail on the middle finger of his pitching hand.

“I knew something had happened when I threw it, so I didn’t even look at it,” he said. “I just kept throwing, and when I went in the dugout, it was bleeding a bit and I didn’t tell anybody. It’s my own fault, I guess.”

With Bartolo Colon pitching today for the PawSox and the Red Sox needing a pitcher on Tuesday, Clay’s days in the big leagues FOR NOW could be numbered.

Orioles reliever Jim Hoey underwent shoulder surgery and is lost for the season.

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Ty Wigginton may not play until Friday for the Astros.

Joe Borowski and Jake Westbrook are progressing in their rehab for the Indians.

The owner of the Brewers is willing to open his checkbook for a starting pitcher if necessary.

The spotlight is shining on Royals closer Joakim Soria.

Injured Cardinals pitcher Mark Mulder is looking to throw in a game soon.

Gary Sheffield is back to being a DH for the Tigers.

The Cubs have signed Jim Edmonds to play center field.

Scott Baker could make a rehab start for the Twins this weekend.

Ryan Doumit will miss at least a month for the Pirates with a broken thumb.

Ozzie Guillen made some changes to his White Sox lineup on Wednesday night.

The Reds called up their shortstop prospect Paul Janish.