Some flashback footage of Tony C. singing, yup singing, on the Merv Griffin Show, courtesy of the brilliance of YouTube. 

Other links of note today:

* Win Varitek’s Fourth of July equipment (and look like Evel Knievel) — (Sox and Dawgs)

This is a semi-regular feature here at Red Sox Blog, as we ask Don Orsillo’s decapitated bobblehead to use a familiar baseball term — three up, three down — to hand out compliments and insults to Red Sox players, coaches, owners, beat writers, broadcasters, groundskeepers, sideline reporters and inferior opponents.

Take it away, Decap…

Up: Hurray for seeing-eye singles! Rocco Baldelli tied the game with a two-out single in the 9th inning, a multi-hopper that found the outfield grass near second base, and Julio Lugo pushed across the go-ahead run in the 11th with a chopper that bounded past a drawn-in infield. As Pete Vuckovich said to Wesley Snipes in Major League, "You really knocked the crap out of that one."

Down: Listen, John Henry, I respect the fact that you bagged a young chick with your rich, droopy-ass skin, but let me tell you something: Handing out bobbleheads dolls — of you and the trophy wife — as wedding favors is insulting to those of us born with bobbled heads. Know this, my friend: "There can be only one!"

Up: Boy, those Yankees must be feeling good about themselves, winning seven in a row against three vaunted powerhouses like the Braves, Mets and Mariners. Print those playoff tickets now, Bommahs!

Down: One-time Red Sox player Cecil Cooper, who now manages the Astros, was no doubt glad that yesterday’s extra-inning Sox game didn’t last long enough to allow Jason Bay to match Cooper’s 35-year-old Red Sox record of 6 strikeouts in one game.

Fang Bites reports on last night’s advance screening of the new Ted Williams documentary at Fenway Park, where guests watched the 75-minute biopic in the EMC Club or (and this is damn cool) on the stadium’s centerfield scoreboard, then listened to Johnny Pesky reminisce about the Splendid Splinter.

It’s done very well and in the same style as previous documentaries in the "Sports of the 20th Century" series. I was quite impressed how the film did not pull any punches and did not whitewash his marriage problems or his relationship with his three children.

The documentary premieres July 15 at 9:30 p.m. on HBO.

Leigh Montville, whose biography of Williams I bought for $2 (in hardcover!) two weeks ago, was in attendance last night, Fang Bites reports, as were other Boston media luminaries, including Jackie McMullen and Dan Shaughnessy.

Other links of note today:

* John Henry and his wife gave out bobbleheads of themselves as wedding favors (Bob’s Blitz)

* Sign the petition to re-sign Leon Powe (iPetitions)

David Ortiz seems to have regained his Big Papi status of late, and the timing could not have been better because the Dominican slugger will soon be lending his nickname to a restaurant in Framingham, the Boston Business Journal reports.

David Ortiz is swinging for the fences, this time with a restaurant that will mix traditional steakhouse fare with high end burgers and salads.

The Red Sox slugger has taken a financial stake in Metro 9 Steak House in Framingham, which will be renamed Big Papi’s, the restaurant’s owner confirmed with the MetroWest Daily News late Tuesday.

(Metro 9 sounds like the name of a local news team.)

Peter Sarmanian, president of Classic Restaurant Concepts LLC, which owns Metro 9 along with The Kinsale in Boston, The Asgard in Cambridge and Desmond O’Malley’s in Framingham, told MetroWest the revamped eatery will complete its transition by the end of July, but remain open in the interim weeks.

A help wanted advertisement on the online marketplace Craigslist says the restaurant is hiring “for all staff positions including servers, bartenders, cocktail servers, food runners, bussers, hostesses and cooks.”

 This kind of business always works out. Just ask Bernie Kosar.

When the rains came to Baltimore during last night’s Sox-Orioles game, Boston led 9-1 in the top of the 5th inning, and I told my wife, "I hope the rain lets up so the game will go official and the Sox can get the win." The tarp was on the field, the rains were heavy, so I stopped watching and went to bed, exhausted from a long day.

Thank god I did, because last night’s historic implosion might have driven me to drink (more).

Seriously, I don’t even want to know the particulars, and I certainly will not be checking SportsCenter to see the lowlights (or highlights if you’re an O’s fan). It’s enough for me to check the box score and see that Masterson and Okajima didn’t have it last night, and that Papelbon blew the save. This was the first loss to Baltimore this season. Hats off to the O’s, who must be basking in this victory, their own equivalent to last season’s Mother’s Day Miracle, when the Sox bested them at Fenway in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion.

So, was this a bad loss? Absolutely. Was it a rarity? I sure as hell hope so.

Anyway, the best way to forget a loss like this is to get back on the field as soon as possible, and in that regard the Sox are fortunate, because today’s getaway-day game starts at 1:35 p.m.

Giddy-up, BoSox.

J.D. Drew is among seven MLB players who will have to repay money made in investments with alleged Ponzi-schemer R. Allen Stanford. 

Stanford sold fraudulent “certificates of deposit” promising outrageously high returns and siphoned many of the funds into his own bank accounts. He used Pershing, a clearing broker, to hold brokerage accounts for retired shortstop Jay Bell, retired pitcher Greg Maddux, retired New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams, current New York Yankee Johnny Damon, current Texas Rangers outfielder Andruw Jones, current Tampa Bay Rays first basemen Carlos Pena and current Boston Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew.

Damon is at the lower end of the spectrum, standing to lose $400,070, comprised of the $400,000 he originally invested and $70 of interest from Stanford. Maddux is at the higher end of the spectrum and could return as much as $3.7 million, a $3.5 million original investment plus $170,000 in profit. – NESN

 Other links of note today:

* The misery of an O’s fan when the Sox come to Baltimore (Camden Chat)

This guy might be the oldest (and most out of shape) fan to ever run onto a Major League Baseball field. I have to admit that one of the joys of attending a live game — something you miss when watching at home — is witnessing the occasional genius who drinks himself to the point of thinking, "I’m bored, let’s go get tackled by security guards."

(H/T to Red Sox Monster)