Hole uncovered in sock story

"They're talking to Masa," Papelbon said, referring to Matsuzaka's interpreter, Masa Hoshino. "You've just been traded to the Milwaukee Brewers."

With a quick translation from a Japanese reporter, Matsuzaka broke into a wide smile. Moments later, after catcher Doug Mirabelli, the member of the Sox traveling party actually in the center of the scrum, broke free, Mike Timlin stood in front of his locker, clapping.

So it was here yesterday in the aftermath of Bloody Sock Redux, in which an on-air remark by Orioles broadcaster Gary Thorne that Curt Schilling in the 2004 postseason wore paint, not blood, on his sock and that Mirabelli had told him so created a national stir but was treated more with amusement than angst by most of those in uniform.

The exceptions were Schilling, who declined comment, and Mirabelli, who spoke with Thorne in a phone call requested by the broadcaster through Sox PR man John Blake, before clubhouses opened yesterday.

"It's not like the NCAA is going to put us on probation," said Sox manager Terry Francona, who said his phone started ringing at about 7 a.m. after Thorne's comments appeared in print. "Somebody said something, it got some legs, like everything does in Boston, and then it will quickly go away.

"We haven't lost a game since it happened."

While Schilling, as of last night, hadn't even blogged about the matter, Mirabelli and Thorne addressed what they both called a misunderstanding, stemming from a conversation neither of them could recall with acuity.

"We both came to understand what he said and I heard were two different things," said Thorne, who did the play-by-play last night on Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, just as he'd done Tuesday night when he casually commented that Mirabelli said the bloody sock was a fake.

Thorne said he didn't recall when he spoke with Mirabelli. "I don't know if it was a year ago or two years ago," he said.

"He was with the Sox [Mirabelli was with San Diego last April].

"It was one of those 'before the game' things in the clubhouse. I remember asking him about something, it wasn't even about the sock we were talking about. It was something else, like one of those 'last question' things."