John Lackey has decided to follow up divorcing his wife for having a double mastectomy with an unexpected act of chairty; he’ll be improving Boston Red Sox rotation by having Tommy John surgery and sitting at home for the entirety of 2012.

From Joe McDonald at ESPN Boston:

Lackey recently received an MRI and was examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles, and it was decided the pitcher would undergo the procedure. A date for the surgery has not been set.

“John Lackey pitched through circumstances this year that I don’t think any of us can fully understand, and he got beat up for it a little bit,” Cherington said. “This guy was dealing with stuff both on the field and off the field that were very difficult, and he showed tremendous toughness pitching through that.”

It’s true. Lackey worked through a year of his tough $82.5 million contract to post a scrappy 6.84 ERA with a gutsy 6-8 record. Fun fact: he’s the third Sox pitcher to have Tommy John surgery this year, following in the footsteps of former sort-of-ace Daisuke Matsuzaka and lefty reliever/upscale housing complex Rich Hill.

The news of Lackey’s departure comes as a blow to Yankees fans, but hopefully he’ll return strong in 2013 with his 35% fastball intact.

MLB — It's been ages since we celebrated a Dice-K win with a Yoko Matsugane picture, so here we go: the Red Sox ace struggled through five innings, but improved his record to 15-2 thanks to plenty of run support in Boston's 7-2 win over the O's… Tampa Bay has the best record in the AL after beating the Angels last night.  Whoa, it's raining fire outside.  Is that normal? … Rich Harden shut down the Reds, striking out ten in seven innings while allowing only two hits, propelling the Cubs to a 5-0 shutout.  Wouldn't it be way cooler if Harden went by "Dick"?

Olympics — Kind of a boring night.  Lots of track.  American Sandra someone, the most dominant 400m runner over the last three years, finished with a disappointing bronze in one of last night's/earlier today's few finals… In other sports, USA's softball team needed extra innings to beat Japan and advance to the gold medal game.  What, no perfect game?  I thought the Americans were supposed to be dominant… the Redeem Team is almost done kicking Australia's ass.  See the Ball Don't Lie live-blog here.

Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, long known for both his mythical gyroball and sharing the same home country as top-heavy Yoko Matsugane, is going to do some charitable work by… um, having dinner?  Yes, there is an eBay auction to have dinner with Dice-K, with proceeds going to Good Sports.

Japanese sensation and Red Sox ace Dice-K and his wife, Tomoyo, will join you and three friends for dinner at the renowned Japanese restaurant, HARU, in Boston.

You'll enjoy the company of one of the world's greatest sports stars along with the finest food and service – all in your own private dining room. (A translator will be provided)

Get out your chopsticks for this once in a lifetime opportunity!

I'm not gonna lie to you: this story is as exciting as a box of dried shit.  But with baseball boring the shit out of the With Leather staff, we haven't featured Dice-K in ages.  I wanted to find a picture of Yoko eating so it would be semi-relevant to the story, so I looked through all these galleries of her, but I couldn't find one.  So I kept looking.  Then I looked some more.  And looked.  And continued looking after that.

Long story short, I'm a little sweaty and need a cigarette.

SEXY UPDATE: One intrepid Internet explorer found this delightful photo of Miss Yoko eating.  I suppose this one also kinda counts, assuming that's milk on her.  Umm, that IS milk, right?  Maybe you shouldn't click on that if you're at work.

[Boston's Tenth via Deadspin] 

for the win against the mysteriously hapless Tigers (0-7).  Dice-K is now 2-0, and no: there will not be a new Yoko pic EVERY time he pitches.  Why?  Because I'm mean.

Of course, the big story revolves around the pre-game ceremonies, in which the Red Sox received their championship rings commemorating their second World Series win in four years.  Thus it was also a good time to bring out Bill Buckner, the scapegoat for the team's World Series collapse in 1986, out for the first pitch.  Buckner's ovation was resoundingly warm, and it was clear that he was exorcising demons as he approached the mound, obviously struggling to keep his composure in an unexpectedly tender moment for Boston sports fans.  Nah just kidding.  Fags!

[Opening pitch video here, weepy Buckner interview post-ceremony here] 

Whoa, the Major League Baseball season started.  Kinda.  I mean, I kept hearing about the Red Sox and A's going over to Japan, but I figured it was for some kind of exhibition, or that the Opening Day game was next week or something.  I just heard a bunch of chatter from Red Sox fans and instinctively tuned them out.  It's a defense mechanism.

Anyway, my ignorance and lack of awareness has never stopped me from reporting on a story before, and it won't stop me now.  As of this sentence Boston leads 6-4 in the tenth thanks to a 9th inning solo shot by Boston's Brandon Moss to send the game into extra innings; Manny Ramirez then gave the Sox the lead in the 10th with a two-out double.  Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka went five innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 runs, while walking 5 and striking out 6.

And for any readers who are new to the site since last baseball season, pictured here is gravure idol Yoko Matsugane.  When Dice-K started being a story in the winter of '06-'07, it was next to impossible to find pictures of him large enough to satisfy the tabloid requirements of With Leather.  So I adopted his countrywoman Yoko in his stead, and she's been accompanying Dice-K stories ever since.  And we all masturbated happily ever after.

UPDATE: It's a final: Red Sox 6, A's 5. 

I was torn last night with wanting to see Dice-K earn the win, so I could post a picture of the lovely Yoko, and wanting to the Rockies win to stop an almost certain sweep by the Red Sox now, thus ensuring this will be the last time we gaze at lovely Yoko's  . . . eyes, yeah that's it, this year.  Too bad.  The Rockies made a valiant effort in the bottom of the 7th to tie the score, but fell short.  Just as I made a valiant effort to woo a woman wearing a demure school-girl costume at the Halloween party I was at last night, but prematurely . . . er, fell short.  If you'll kindly excuse me, I'm going to spend some time alone with my favorite gravure idol. -KD