Red Sox fans just can’t catch a break. First there’s the World Series disappointment, then the A-Rod debacle with the Yankees, and now a political ad capitalizes on their misery. Yesterday’s Congressional Quarterly Today Midday Update reports the following:

AND FINALLY . . .

It seems baseball players aren’t the only members of Red Sox Nation who are in spring training. The Barre Montpelier Times Argus reports that GOP Senate hopeful Jack McMullen began airing a radio ad yesterday that
compares Democratic Sen. Patrick J.Leahy’s effectiveness with that of crunch-time losing Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, hoping to capitalize on frustration over the loss of the Red Sox in last year’s playoffs to the rival New York Yankees. “A tiring Pedro Martinez is on the mound, and the Yanks have runners on second and third,” the ad says. “So, what do you do? Time to take him out? Unfortunately, you didn’t get to make that decision.
But next November you will have the power to make a similar, and a more important one. For 30 long years, Pat Leahy’s represented Vermont in the Senate. But can we really risk sending him out there one more time? Because this is not just a new inning, it’s a new century.” The ad is airing more than six months before the Sept. 14 GOP primary, in which McMullen is the favorite. The only other announced candidate is Peter Moss, a retired chemical engineer. Leahy, who is seeking his sixth term in the Senate, has no primary opponent.