enviable ability to sign Jason Heyward to an eight-year, $184 million contract-and bench him during the World Series.The Red Sox marketed and sold themselves as a ragtag band of rebels

BOSTON -- David Ortiz is down to his final regular-season game, and it will be an important one for the Boston Red Sox.With their 40-year-old slugger heading into retirement, the Red Sox could use a victory on Sunday to help their chances of earning home-field advantage in their AL Division Series against Cleveland.Obviously, we would like the home-field advantage, Boston utilityman Brock Holt said after a 4-3 loss to Toronto. Well come ready to go. ... Hopefully well play that first game here.The Indians (93-67) would open at home if they win their last two games, or even one if Boston (93-68) loses its finale against Toronto on Sunday.One night after the Blue Jays blew a 3-1 lead and gave up Ortizs game-winning homer, Torontos J.A. Happ seemed poised to pick up his 21st win.But with the Blue Jays leading 3-2 in the eighth, Mookie Betts doubled, took third on Brock Holts hard-hit double-play ball and then scored to tie it when closer Roberto Osuna balked in the winning run.In the ninth, though, Ezequiel Carrera delivered a sacrifice fly and Toronto won to move into a tie with Baltimore for the top spot in the AL wild-card race.We had the lead and the tying run scores on balk. I was worried about the baseball gods, said manager John Gibbons, whose team is tied with the Orioles at 88 wins with one to play. We want to enjoy this one. Theyre hard to come by.Toronto owns the tie-breaker with Baltimore. Detroit is also still in the wild-card hunt.Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel (2-6) has losses in two of his last three appearances, issuing six walks while completing two innings. Since Sept. 22, his ERA has risen from 2.52 to 3.40.The 21-year-old Osuna (4-3) retired the Red Sox in order in the ninth to recover from his sixth blown save of the season.PREGAME FESTIVITIESHockey great Bobby Orr, NFL Hall of Famer Andre Tippett and the entire current Boston Celtics roster joined David Ortiz on the field at Fenway Park on Saturday night to help celebrate Big Papi on his way into retirement.The ceremony before the Red Sox played Toronto also featured former patients at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, who Ortiz helped through his work for the Jimmy Fund. And Boston Marathon bombing victims also joined the sports stars on the field to thank Ortiz for his defiant and inspirational speech following the 2013 finish line attacks.The basketball players all wore Celtics jerseys with Ortizs No. 34. Many of them asked the Red Sox designated hitter to sign their shirts, and several posed for selfies with him.Ortiz has said he will retire at the end of the season, and the Red Sox planned celebrations for the final weekend series at Fenway. Friday nights ceremony included beneficiaries of the David Ortiz Childrens Fund; Sunday is expected to feature Ortizs former teammates.AT THE PLATEAs they have much of the season, the Fenway fans rose to a standing ovation when Ortiz came to the plate in the first. With a runner on first, he worked the count full against Happ and drew a walk.It was the 1,319th walk of Ortizs career, tying him with Tony Phillips for 40th on baseballs career list.Ortiz was tagged out going from first to second when Betts followed with a grounder.Ortiz grounded out in the second inning with two on and two out, hitting a grounder that got under the glove of shifted shortstop Troy Tulowitzki but was grabbed in shallow right by Devon Travis.In the fifth, Ortiz singled on a line drive to right and was replaced by a pinch hitter. He tipped his helmet to the cheering crowd as he left the diamond.We know what hes dealing with, manager John Farrell said of Ortizs difficulty running. Under the conditions tonight and the way he got down the line in that second at-bat, it felt like three was enough.UP NEXTBlue Jays: RHP Aaron Sanchez (14-2, 3.06 ERA) goes in the regular season finale Sunday. Hes allowed one run over six innings in each of his last two starts after extended rest for a blister.Red Sox: Former Blue Jays left-hander David Price (17-9, 4.04) will start for Boston on Sunday. He took the loss in his previous start Tuesday against the Yankees, giving up six runs and 12 hits in 6 1/3 innings, halting his career-best, eight-game winning streak. College Jerseys Cheap .com) - Christian Ponder will get another chance to prove himself for the Minnesota Vikings, with head coach Leslie Frazier announcing Wednesday that the struggling quarterback will start this weekends game against the Green Bay Packers. Wholesale College Jerseys .C. Lions has come to an end. Banks told TSN on Jan 2 that he had no interest in playing out the option year of his contract with the Lions in 2014, and he again made that clear in a conversation with Lions GM Wally Buono last week. http://www.cheapncaajerseysbywholesale.com/ . Mitch Holmberg added a goal and three assists. Connor Chartier also scored for the Chiefs (3-0-0). Luke Harrison spoiled Garrett Hughsons shutout bid with a power-play goal at 13:17 of the third period. The Spokane goaltender finished with 28 saves, including a Brandon Fushimi penalty shot in the second period that would have tied the game 1-1. Cheap College Jerseys Wholesale .1 million pounds ($61.2 million) on Saturday, giving the beleaguered English Premier League champions a major lift. Cheap NCAA Jerseys Authentic . Robinson finished with 17 points, all but two in the second half, and Lawson had 14 after halftime and finished with a game-high 11 assists as the Nuggets handed Dallas its first home loss in eight games this season. J.J. Hickson led Denver with 22, and Kenneth Faried added 10 points and 10 rebounds. This story appears in ESPN The Magazines Nov. 28 Tall Ball Issue. Subscribe today!It has been a few weeks now, and the Chicago Cubs are still World Series champions. And if history is any guide, everything familiar about the identity of the fan base and organization will be erased as the price of that title. The Cubs can no longer mask a century of incompetence with curses, afternoon drinking and low expectations. Theyve always had the resources of a superpower -- and now they have to start acting like one.Having witnessed the same shift in Boston, Theo Epstein knows this better than most. After almost 100 years of failure, the Red Sox still do business now the same as they did before winning the World Series in 2004-last winter, they signed David Price to a seven-year, $217 million free agent contract, just as they signed Manny Ramirez to an eight-year, $160 million contract in December 2000. But the national sympathy for their eternal heartbreak is gone. Even before Game 7, there was nothing cute or disadvantaged about the Cubs either, as evidenced by their enviable ability to sign Jason Heyward to an eight-year, $184 million contract-and bench him during the World Series.The Red Sox marketed and sold themselves as a ragtag band of rebels fighting both the supernatural and the omnipotent Yankees. Fans of the Rays, who happened to be the real underdogs, even coined a term for Bostons sly deception, referring to them as the Just as Evil Empire. Chicago, like Boston 12 years ago, can no longer claim the image of underdog on the field-especially since the Cubs are far from underdogs on the balance sheet, where they rake in profits. An identity change is coming, and they should embrace it.In this money game, with no salary cap and limited revenue-sharing, the Cubs, in the third-biggest market in the country, should have been dominant for decades. Instead, they were baseballs family screwup, partying with the trust fund money, winding up on academic probation. The generations of fans desperate for a winner have certainly suffered since 1946, but ownership certainly did not. The Cubs have been one of the richest teams in baseball. The team sold in 2009 for $845 million and in March was estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.2 billion, fifth best iin MLB.ddddddddddddThe lovable loser narrative was lucrative-it sold lots of tickets, beer and T-shirts and allowed an enormous fan base to feel sorry for itself-but in reality, the Cubs were cursed only in one way: by their own ownership mediocrity.Today, they have the opportunity to be the dominant team in the National League-and probably in baseball-for years to come. In Epstein, they have a president of baseball operations who knows how to build a farm system so well he can take big gambles on free agents, and the Ricketts familys enormous resources can help the team survive even a deal like Heywards. With old money but a new-school attitude, baseball wants its teams built the Epstein way, lest they face oppressive luxury tax penalties.You have to embrace the suck, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told me earlier this year. Look at Theo and the Cubs. They had money, but they built the farm system, lost and lost, and told their fan base the payoff was coming. George Steinbrenners way is gone. You cant do it that way anymore. Thats why we made the Aroldis Chapman deal with them. Embrace the suck. Build the contender.The Cubs can now go back to being the power they once were, for from 1906 to 1945 Chicago went to the World Series 10 times and won it twice. But the opportunity to shed the underdog image will come at an enormous cost: the identity the franchise has cultivated for the past half-century as a great place to start the bachelorette party before the North Side pub crawl kicks into high gear.Perhaps Chicagos transition to superpower wont be as harsh as in Boston, where agony was replaced by pink hats, expensive seats and gentrification (though Wrigleyville already has a leg up on the latter). Maybe the team will maintain its old identity even if it dominates, because so many of its celebrity fans are comedians, and because the beer has always flowed during weekday baseball when everyone else is being killed by office meetings. As expectations undoubtedly rise for the Cubs to stay on top, maybe Chicago will do something truly remarkable: win big while still being best known for having a good time. Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap Adidas Hockey Jerseys Wholesale Nike Baseball Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys China Wholesale NFL Jerseys China Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Free Shipping Cheap Nike NBA Jerseys Authentic Cheap NHL Jerseys Canada Cheap Nike MLB Jerseys Cheap Soccer Jerseys China NCAA Jerseys Cheap Nike NHL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys Store Cheap Football Jerseys Store Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Jerseys NCAA China Jerseys NFL Cheap Cheap Nike NBA Jerseys ' ' '