Red Sox Report

          With long bus ride at stake, Red Sox take to relay race with gusto

          FORT MYERS, Fla. -- There was no tug of war, potato sack race, or three-legged sprint.

          But the Boston Red Sox obstacle-course/relay race Sunday morning was not lacking in creativity, or in spirited competition. Two teams of position players. At stake: Avoiding the two-hour-plus bus ride to Jupiter for Tuesday's exhibition game against the Miami Marlins. Winners get to stay home. Losers on the bus.

          Manager John Farrell said he'd looked at the schedule -- two weeks left in camp, the long bus ride on Tuesday -- and come up with the idea of staging a competition.

          "That's something I'd been thinking of for quite awhile," he said. "I thought it was a chance to get a good conditioning day in, looking for ways to having a little team-building event, I think it accomplished all that and maybe a little bit more, the way guys took to it. Nobody wants to take that bus ride. A little incentive."

          A referee was drafted for the occasion, complete with zebra stripes and whistle: David Ortiz.

          Among the events: The fireman's carry, which involved hoisting a sandbag on your shoulder and sprinting 10 yards with it. Placing a ball on a series of three cones, with no balls allowed to drop. Navigating ladder runs. Knocking a water-cooler jug off its mooring with a well-aimed throw [Not so easy, eh, Garin Cecchini?]. Hurdles. Shuffling weighted balls from one side platform to another. Navigating one more ladder run. Two times through the course, for every player.

          The outcome: Mookie Betts [it's been that kind of spring] nipping Jemile Weeks at the finish to give Team Pablo a win over Team Pedroia, the winners celebrating like they'd just won the Final Four.

          Later Sunday, Betts hit an inside-the-park home run against the Phillies, the first he can recall hitting since high school. But asked which was more satisfying, the insider-the-parker or running the final leg on the winning relay, he laughed. "That's a good question," he said. "I don't know. Both were fun. Always good to win, and always good not to go on the long road trip. Best of both worlds."

          Sandoval has won three World Series rings. Hard to imagine him more jubilant than he was after winning the relay. How much did it mean to him?

          "A lot," he said. "He (pointing at Hanley Ramirez) has to go on that trip. I'm not. Mookie, he's my boy. I love him."

          Ramirez homered and knocked in five runs Sunday. He liked the idea that might win him a reprieve from Jupiter. But Farrell said that isn't happening-- "Non-negotiable," he said -- and Ramirez chose to be gracious in defeat.

          "That was good," he said. "I liked it. It brought everybody together, you saw a lot of people smiling, that's team. You got everybody on the same page, and everybody's happy. Chemistry, man, is the most important thing right now on this team."

          And for Red Sox fans in Jupiter, a chance to see some regulars they might not otherwise have seen.

          "There will be a representative team in Jupiter," Farrell said.