Only two others have accomplished that feat in the past five yearsDon't forget all the free goodies the bowls give out tooHowever two stick out more than any othersOf course I could just be making a big deal out of all of thisMessi should have a good day with the teamI think Auburn will have Dyre and LattimoreSEOUL Jan 6 Reuters POSCO Co Ltd 005490Just like BJ Penn lost to the UFCs welterweight champ GYeah thats basically how The Last Emperor rolls20 am the bureau said in a faxed statementThat's not to say the new Beantowner's stuff is pedestrian far from it.Nevertheless, if yougauge your hurlers by velocity and filth, you will overlook John Lackey.Mistake. Big mistake.Too often, these two elements are seen asprerequisites to a successful career when, in reality, they are only advantages. Possibly significant advantages, but Major League Baseball's history is rife with stellar right and left arms that amounted to exactly squat. Likewise, the record books are full of chuckers who didn't dazzle, yet got the job done with the best of 'em.One of the most dominant pitchers of my lifetime (Greg Maddux) is a testament to one simple observation: hitting a baseball is insanely difficult, so every hitter has a weakness.Unless your name is Albert Pujols or a close approximation, you can be had by any pitcher with the right combination of velocity, movement, and control, plus a brain capable of exploiting the holes in each splinter.It's a sliding scale and one on which John Lackey measures extremely well .Hit the link and you'll see for yourself. Butremember the laundry he now wears the Sox' bullpen and rotation is uniquely configured to ease the stress on the individual by spreading it over the collective.Surely general manager Theo Epstein has another trick up his expensivesleeves so the roster is probably still in a state of flux. 
However, the stable includes Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Tim Wakefield in the starters' paddock.The bullpen bristles with Jonathan Papelbon, Ramon Ramirez, Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima, and a collection of other viable candidates for sudden emergence.Ladies and gentlemen, that is what you call a "buffer" both to take innings off of healthy arms by deploying a ferocious 'pen and to absorb innings lost to injury. It's currently so enormous the eventual leveraging of a piece (or more) won't matter.Furtherdiluting the stink of injury is John Lackey's postseason resume.Pointing to the cold numbers 78 IP, 29 BB, 53 K, 4 HR, a 3.12 ERA, and a 1.33 WHIP actually understates the situation, superb though they are.Consider those 78 innings include a whopping 53 and two thirds against either the New York Yankees or the Red Sox squad he just joined. In those frames (get ready for this), Lackey tallied 36 strikeouts against 23 walks, surrendered three taters, registered a 2.68 earned run average, and a posted a 1.34 WHIP.In other words, John Lackey has been stellar on the diamond's grandest stage and he's been even better than that against two almost unfair offenses for much of the last decade.Which brings me all the way back to those San Francisco Giant fans.We rejoiced because John Lackey once made us cry in the Fall Classic. When he put on the Boston Red Sox uniform for the first time, he finally sealed the door on our bitter nightmare.But when one door closes, another opens.That's bad news for Yankee fans and anti-Red Sox the world over .
ZAGREB, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Croatian oil and gas group INAINA.ZA (HINAq.L) said on Tuesday that delivery of Russian gasto Croatia had been stopped because of the gas row betweenRussia and Ukraine. Stocks Russia "Since 0330 GMT delivery of the Russian gas has beencompletely stopped," INA said in a statement. Croatia imports 40 percent of its annual gas needs and INAcalled on consumers to hold back consumption. "INA's delivery of gas to big industrial producers has beenreduced," the statement said. ISTANBUL, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Turkey's Petrol Ofisi (PTOFS.IS)said on Tuesday it had failed to complete its $80 millionpurchase of a 27 percent stake in a Black Sea natural gasproduction project led by Toreador Resources Corp (TRGL.O). Stocks Mergers & Acquisitions Petrol Ofisi, which is owned by Austria's OMV (OMVV.VI) andIstanbul-based Dogan Holding (DOHOL.IS), said due to the"existing economic situation" it had failed to meet theconditions of the agreed sale, according to a statement to theIstanbul Stock Exchange It is seeking a meeting with Toreador to discuss the sale.
"As the market dynamics have changed significantly since theannouncement, it is natural to re-negotiate the terms of theagreement," analyst Hasan Sener at Oyak Securities, said in aresearch note. Toreador agreed in September to sell the stake in the SouthAkcakoca natural gas field off Turkey's Black Sea coast toPetrol Ofisi, which operates Turkey's largest fuel retailers. The field was discovered in 2005, and Toreador has ledproduction at the eight-block, 4,000-square-kilometre site whereit says there are proven reserves of 3.6 billion cubic metres. The sale would reduce Toreador's stake in the project to 10percent.
