Sox get down at Lowell’s Dancing with the All Stars

Mike Lowell, Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon and Alex Cora each made asses of themselves for charity last night.

The “Dancing with the All-Stars” event benefited Lowell’s charity, which raises money to help treat Miami and Boston kids who have cancer.

Lowell won the event, and Pedroia must be developing a little brother complex after losing to the third baseman in both ping pong and dancing over the last week.

Papelbon wore a hideous black lace shirt that he somehow pulled off.

At this point, would you flinch if Papelbon channeled Kevin Bacon in Footloose and did a back flip on the mound while yelling, “Hey, hey! What’s this I see? I thought this was a party. LET’S DANCE! “

Me neither.

Pedroia made up for his lack of drag by ripping off his shirt while he was on the dance floor and throwing it to John Henry. For reasons that will probably never be known, “Daddy” was written across his chest in glitter.

Terry Francona described Pedroia’s idiocy as follows:

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack. My chest hurt, I was laughing so hard. Pedroia is a moron. You can write that. He is a moron. He was dancing, he looked like a puppet on a string. He’s such a little gamer, but he’s looking over knowing we were crushing him. He’s drinking the Red Bull. He’s exhausted. He’s trying to do these things with this girl he’s not strong enough to do. It was hilarious.”

Sox and Dogs has some video footage if you want to take a look.

Mike Lowell is a ping pong ninja

Not sure how I missed this one, but here goes.

On Tuesday, Kevin Youkilis suggested the spring training equivalent of a sunset duel, offering to “play anyone [at ping pong] at anytime if someone would get him a table.”

Comcast SportsNet brought the table, a round robin tournament was setup between Youkilis, Pedroia and Lowell, and Lowell kicked everyone’s ass.

For a trophy, he was presented with the Golden Paddle. A fine trophy if I’ve ever seen one, this beauty appears to be a regular ping pong paddle with the rubber ripped off.

Lowell re-signs with Red Sox

Mike Lowell is headed back to Boston after agreeing to a 3 year 37.5 million dollar deal with the team this afternoon.

Apparently the Phillies bluffed their disinterest over the weekend (perhaps to keep the Sox from bumping their offer), and it nearly worked—they had Lowell *this* close to agreeing to a 4-year 50 million dollar offer on Sunday night. But in a move that will forever endear him to Red Sox fans, Lowell decided to take a home town discount and return to Boston in 2008.

This was a great move by the Sox, and it’s one of the rare instances in sports where what the fans want is also what’s best for the club.

The front office stuck to their guns and signed Lowell on their terms, picking up a veteran 3rd baseman without having to surrender the pitching prospects it would have taken to get Cabrera from Florida.

By signing Lowell in free agency, the Red Sox have their young guns available for any other trades they may want to pursue (Bucholz would be a worthy inclusion in a deal for Santana). And that flexibility is worth every penny they paid for Lowell.

Yanks may halt pursuit of Lowell

The Yankees are rumored to be relinquishing their pursuit of Mike Lowell at first base, and will instead go with a combination of Shelly Duncan and Jason Giambi. Even if the Red Sox can’t sign Lowell, I can sleep easy knowing that one of the best defensive third basemen in the league won’t be limited to slapping pick off tags and snagging short hops (no offense, Youk).

The Red Sox are reportedly the only serious suitor at this point in time, with the Cardinals, Phillies and Yankees all denying interest. There must be an offer or two out there that the media hasn’t picked up on yet. Maybe clubs are trying to decide whether they should pursue Cabrera before making a move, or at least waiting until the Sox’s Monday deadline nears to gauge the action before entering heavy negotiations.

We’ll see if anyone is willing to offer that important 4th year, and if the money that comes with that extra year is enough to lure Lowell out of Boston.