E-Mail This Article to a Friend Ballpark figures for July BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Tidbits culled from the wide, wide world of sports while watching Carl Spackler — er, Ben Curtis win the British Open:

• Gotta love those four-game series scheduled for right out of the All-Star break. While the Red Sox managed a Saturday-night special and a shotgun-blast victory Sunday to salvage a split of their four-gamer with Toronto, other teams were not so fortunate. Take defending world champion Anaheim, which entered the weekend six games over .500 heading into its weekend series with woeful Baltimore (41-50) — and lost all four. As of Monday, the Halos are seven and a half games behind in the wild-card race. They proved their penchant for miraculous finishes last season, but to win a wild-card berth this year — which was their catapult to the crown last year — the Angels would have to overtake not only first-place Boston, but Oakland and Toronto as well. Despite the fact that it’s only late July, we’ll know in about two weeks whether Mike Scioscia’s club will have a shot at the postseason. By that time, the Angels will have completed home series against Oakland, the Yankees, and Toronto, and a road series in Boston. If Anaheim manages to improve its lot by Labor Day, it will still face the following daunting schedule in September: Minnesota, KC, Oakland, Seattle, Oakland, Texas, Seattle, and Texas. Yikes.

Another team from the West suffering a lost weekend was the A’s, who entered the break with a five-game winning streak and were blessed by the schedule-makers with a four-game series against arguably baseball’s coldest club: the Minnesota Twins, losers of eight straight, and 22 of 28 overall heading into the All-Star respite. Gentlemen, place your wagers. So who wins? Minnesota in four straight. Obviously. Oakland’s four aces — Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Ted Lilly — all went down to ignominious defeat in the Metrodome, and Oakland is now three back in the wild-card race after seeing its road record fall to 18-27.

And Kansas City? Whoa. The surprising first-place Royals took three out of four from the West-leading Mariners over the weekend, proving that Tony Pena’s bunch is apparently a legitimate contendah. Even with a line-up that includes such immortals as Aaron Guiel, Desi Relaford, Julius Matos, Raul Ibanez, Ken Harvey, Angel Berroa, Dee Brown, and Gookie (!) Dawkins, KC has moved to 12 games over .500 and six games up.

• Last Thursday, Sox manager Grady Little didn’t feel like Pedro Martinez should be pitching on the day that he flew back from the Dominican Republic. Fine. But is it a coincidence that Petey would have faced the Blue Jays’ Roy Halladay, who entered the game at 13-2 with 13 straight victories? And by game’s end, Halladay’s streak was at 14 after his 5-2 complete-game gem over Boston. It’s a mystery, that one. (And yes, Martinez still would have been slated to start against the Yankees this weekend.)

• The Bronx Bombers celebrated Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Back to bask in the shadow of the 26 World Championship flags fluttering in the afternoon sun were such pinstriper stalwarts as Don Larsen, Phil Rizzuto, Whitey Ford, Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent (ouch), Mike Torrez (double ouch), Wade Boggs (neigh-hh-hh), and Don Mattingly. I said it a year ago, and I’ll say it again today: why don’t the Sox do this?

• The Red Sox have not had one of their patented excruciating, can’t-look, barkeep-keep-’em-comin’ losses in two full weeks (July 7’s bottom-of-the-ninth bases-loaded Todd Walker muff to cap off a 2-1 cringer). That’s 11 games without reaching for the Pepto. That streak should continue this week if Boston can take care of business against the 26-70 Tigers and the 34-62 Devil Rays in the coming days. In fact, Detroit is throwing out onto the Colosseum floor a pair of hurlers who have already combined for 26 losses — Jeremy Bonderman (3-13, 4.88 ERA) and Mike Maroth (5-13, 5.01 ERA). My prediction? Same as Mr. T’s Clubber Lang spouted before his rematch with the Italian Stallion in Rocky III: pain.

• The Red Sox’ fortunes will most likely be decided in a critical one-month stretch coming up in three weeks. Beginning on August 11, the Sox will be at Oakland for four, Seattle (three), home with Oakland (three), Seattle (four), Toronto (two), and the Yanks (three), a one-game make-up tilt in Philly, two at Chicago, and three more at the House That Ruth Built. If they survive that 25-game challenge, the Red Sox will be in dandy shape for the remaining schedule, which will include Baltimore seven times, Chicago at home, Tampa for seven, and Cleveland on the road.

• The last five PGA Grand Slam events have been won by Ernie Els, Rich Beem, Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, and Ben Curtis. Anything strike you as funny (peculiar, not ha-ha) about that?

• Anything going on over at Causeway Street regarding the Boston Bruins hockey club? While it seems as if nearly every other NHL club has been busy horsetrading or securing valuable free agents, the biggest news out of the Bruins’ bunker has been the re-signing of a few youngsters and the weekend addition of 34-year-old former Ted Donato. Donato’s a fine fellow, but he’s hardly what the Bruins faithful have been longing for. After all, since Donato was traded to the Islanders during the 1998-’99 season, he has collected all of 29 goals in 219 post-Boston games, and that includes stops in Uniondale, Ottawa, Anaheim, Dallas, the Islanders again, LA, and St. Louis. That tells me that this guy hasn’t made sizable impressions anywhere along the way, and the current Bruins roster has enough guys like that already — no offense, Ted. Bruins fans remain hopeful that something will come out of the return of Red Wings netminder Dominik Hasek to the NHL. But the dominos game that should begin with the departure of Curtis Joseph from Motown has yet to unfold, and the B’s right now face the prospect of Steve Shields or Andrew Raycroft in net for the upcoming campaign. Worse, former defenseman Kyle MacLaren’s still in San Jose, but the man that Boston got in return in that long-awaited trade — goaltender Jeff Hackett — recently signed a free-agent contract in Philadelphia. Raycroft, for his part, has six career wins in the NHL, and has spent the majority of his time down at Boston’s AHL affiliate in Providence; Shields has been a back-up for most of his time in the NHL, and has collected just 76 victories during his eight-year career.

• The Celtics, meanwhile, have re-signed center Mark Blount and forward Walter McCarty to new multi-year deals, but that just means that this year’s Celtics team will have a lot of the same faces as past Celtics teams, and the only significant upgrade to last year’s Eastern Conference semifinalists will be rookie point guard Marcus Banks, who will add significant speed and defense to the position. Otherwise, there is no truth to the rumor that Vin Baker continues to receive unsolicited green bananas at his Connecticut home.

• It is rare for Major League Baseball manager to work without a contract beyond the current season — particularly for a skipper whose squad won 93 games last season and whose 2003 team is 17 games above .500 and is leading the majors in nearly every offensive category. You never know with those Red Sox — Jimy Williams was fired nearly two years ago with his club cranking away at a 65-53 clip — but it seems mysterious that an extension proposal has not been offered to Grady Little by the Sox brass. Team president Larry Lucchino et al. continue to say that they don’t feel it’s appropriate to negotiate contracts during the season, but I get the feeling that Sox management wants to see how it all turns out first — which is its right — before committing to Grady beyond this year. Many feel that if Boston does not reach the playoffs this season, Little will be given his walking papers, even though his two-year winning percentage will most likely approach .600. That does not seem fair, particularly since Little’s rapport with the players is so positive, and there is no obvious replacement manager waiting in the wings as an upgrade. Or is there? While the Yanks have certainly played solid ball as of late, the talk in New York is the same as it is here, at least on a reduced-expectations scale. For better or worse, Yankees watchers believe that if Joe Torre does not get the pinstripers back to the pinnacle of the baseball world this fall, then he will no longer fit into Steinbrenner & Co.’s long-term plans.

With Torre available — and at age 63 he may very well have had enough — the Sox conceivably might pursue him with great enthusiasm, especially given the situation and roster that Torre would receive upon taking the reins in 2004.

For Sox brass, that’s perhaps just another reason to hope and pray for the Yankees’ ultimate downfall this season. And imagine the scenario in which a Joe Torre–led Red Sox team fights a Bobby Valentine–led Yankees team for AL East bragging rights.

And you thought the Tuna Bowl was a big deal? It’s not all that far-fetched to imagine the steaming plate of Chicken Catch-a-Torre that will be on the menu when the Evil Empire meets the Red Sauce, er, Sox, in the years to come.

Mangi!

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com