Even less exciting than the Bruins preseason schedule The Patriot Act presents the Pats 2008 training camp schedule.

ESPN’s Rob Neyer, who frequently reports on the Red Sox even though he doesn’t read any Red Sox blogs, says the Sox should only bring Jason Varitek back if he’s willing to accept a secondary role. But, since Varitek might not like that option, Neyer could imagine the unquestioned leader of TWO Red Sox World Series teams ending up in another uniform next year.

Actually, I absolutely can see it…Sure. Willie Mays played for the Mets. Ty Cobb played for the Athletics. Pete Rose played for the Phillies and the Expos. Joe Morgan played for everybody.

(And they’re four people you’d lean on for life advice.)

Varitek doesn’t turn 37 until shortly after Opening Day in 2009. If the Red Sox don’t offer nearly as much money this winter as some other team, what’s he supposed to do? Retire?

(Um, yes? Have you seen him much this season, Mr. Neyer? He looks like he’s swinging at house flies with a coal shovel. Moreover, he knows it.)

Hard to blame the Red Sox, too, if they don’t do whatever it takes to keep Varitek in the fold. There are people in the front office, smart people (read: Bill James), who believe that Varitek’s meant so much to the franchise that he belongs in the Hall of Fame some day. I find that notion utterly preposterous, simply because Varitek doesn’t have anywhere near the statistical credentials for such an honor.

* ESPN’s Rob Neyer, ostensibly hung over after the bacchanalian SABR convention, finally awoke from his slumber and linked to Bugs&Cranks this week, about the Diamondbacks’ potential for signing Barry Bonds. At the beginning of his latest post, Neyer points out (to stalking bloggers everywhere): "You know how blogging works, right? You link to me, I link to you, and so on and so forth." Apparently Rob has an itchy back and is tired of handing out free rubs. He still features a peculiar blog roll – five Yankee blogs and no Sox blogs among his 21-team pow wow – but it’s good to see he’s reading Bugs&Cranks, whose 32-member delegation got lost en route to the SABR convention and wound up in Ogden, Utah.

Rob’s latest entry discusses the case of Andy Marte. Remember him? He was the guy the Sox acquired from the Braves for Edgar Renteria and $11 million in 2005. He spent about four minutes in Boston; I might have run him over in 2005 and not even realized. Anyway, after Johnny Damon fled to the Yankees, Marte was the centerpiece in the trade for Cleveland center fielder Coco Crisp, whom the Sox targeted as a replacement for Judas. These were big developments for all four teams back then, involving two center fielders, a shortstop, and a supposedly marquee prospect. Three years later, you could throw them all against the plate-glass window at Sonic and have a pickle-slide race. Marte would probably finish last, but would any fans care? None of these guys had the impacts they were expected to have. Sure, Rent-a-Wreck hit .332 last year for Atlanta, but he’s now been unmasked as a National League creation — again! — hitting .254 in Detroit. This after hitting .276 for the Sox during his one season in Boston, when he committed 176 throwing errors.