Consider it the 8th inning stretch. Neil Diamond, who’s iconic “Sweet Caroline” has been the rallying cry for the Red Sox since 1997, performed the song before the bottom of the inning Saturday during the first game at Fenway since the Boston Marathon bombing. They ended up beating the Royals 4-3 immediately after.

It’s a rough economy, folks. That means job security is at a premium for plenty of hard working ‘Muhricans, not the least of whom is Bobby Valentine. The Red Sox skipper, by just about everyone’s estimations, had a disappointing first season in Boston, but there’s no universal consensus that he won’t be back in the Fenway home dugout next season. That’s because Bobby himself thinks he’ll be wearing BoSox fatigues again in 2013.

Boston Red Sox pitcher John Lackey was nearly brought to tears last night after his team won a 7-4, 14-inning nailbiter in New York. But it had nothing to do with his team’s victory over the Yankees: Lackey was visibly upset because of a text message he says he received from a reporter before taking the field.

Boston Red Sox broadcasts are looking more like an episode of Raul’s Wild Kingdom with praying mantises Thursday and chickens (or at least chicken hats) Friday night.

The Red Sox-Royals broadcast last night on NESN was completely derailed by a member of team Mantodea.

At several points in the broadcast, both booth announcers and field reporter Heidi Watney reported on mantis facts and — yes — criticism.

Without a doubt, it has been memorable couple of months for umpire Joe West, whose most recent controversy arose over a double ejection of both White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and starting pitcher Mark Buerhle. Here now, SportsGrid offers a collection of quotes about Mr. West from around the MLB.