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)

It seems like everyone and their grandmother does some variation of these Power Ranking lists. Well our grandmother hit it big on a scratch ticket and doesn’t need the money anymore…so she let us take over. We’re doing it with a twist, though. This list isn’t about a particular sport. It’s about Boston. It’s about New England. Each week until Grandma can’t afford her new pool boy anymore and takes her duties back, we’ll let you know how we feel about each and every professional sports team in the area. Enjoy!

This Week	Last Week	Team	Comments
1	-		Just when we thought the Cs were going to get rid of Rondo for having a "bad attitude," we find out from our own Gary Tanguay that they want to play in the sandbox with Rasheed Wallace. There’s no such thing as bad press.
2	-		A quiet week in the fields of Foxboro. No Wilfork holdout rumors. No signs of Tom Brady floundering in a kayak. We enjoy the sounds of chirping crickets at times like this.
3	-		Suffer a humiliating defeat but then come back and rally late against the same team? Sounds like a decent week. Find someone to marry your owner who looks like a body double from Futureshock… we’ll call it a "push."
4	-		Remember in The Wedding Singer how Drew Barrymore finds out that her soon-to-be husband wasn’t telling her the truth? Well, the Bs had a moment like that with the Leafs on draft night. Kessell is still in the Black and Gold.. but Billy Idol could show up at any minute.

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)

So ABC has this new primetime show call The Superstars, where a crew of superstar athletes (and Bode Miller) team up with a C-List entertainers to compete in a series beach themed-games. 

If you’re having trouble picturing it, it’s essentially the same thing they did on Mr. Carosi’s beach in Saved By The Bell, except the roll of AC Slater is being played by Jeff Kent. Awesome, right?

Anyway, after watching about 15 minutes of this mess, I got to thinking about fantastical beach competitions between some of Boston’s Best athletes. 

Here are a few: 

50-Yard Sand Dash

Rajon Rondo vs. Jacoby Ellsbury

I’m imagining Ellsbury, the officials and all the fans standing at the starting line. They’re looking around and whispering; wondering when the hell this race will finally start.

Cut to Rondo, who’s off behind the trees, kicked back in a golf cart, sipping a Red Bull and smoothly bobbing his head to his music. He looks down at his watch. It’s 1:05, and the race was supposed to start at 1. He goes back to sipping his Red Bull. 

Five minutes later, he stands up, and casually makes his way to the starting line. Without speaking or looking at anyone, Rondo takes his place next Ellsbury, puts his head down and waits for the gun.

Bang!

We’re halfway through, and Ellsbury’s got a two-step lead. He thinks he’s got it made… but… Bam! Rondo appears out of nowhere…

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.

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)