Many MLB division races are over, with playoff-bound teams ready to coast into October. If your team is already waiting ’til next year, Bill Littlefield suggests you throw your support behind the Chicago White Sox and unpredictable slugger Manny Ramirez.

Minor League baseball teams are always coming up with strange ideas to bring fans out to the ballpark. Recently, the Montgomery Biscuits held a “ladies night” promotion that caught the eye of Bill Littlefield. Bill explains in his commentary why the Biscuits might be on to something.

Roger Clemens is the latest in a long line of professional athletes whose off-field antics have made it harder for fans to enjoy a true escape when they’re following sports. In his new commentary, Bill Littlefield weighs the beauty of athletes’ on-field excellence against the ugliness of incidents outside the games they play.

Bill Lee’s strange antics and outspoken nature made him a Boston Red Sox legend. So his fans won’t be too surprised to learn that the 63-year-old “Spaceman” will take the mound again this week…for the CanAm League’s Brockton Rox. Bill Littlefield provides his comment on the return of one of baseball’s great characters.

There was a time when nicknames were given, not chosen. But NBA star Shaquille O’Neal has taken matters into his own hands on several occasions. That tradition has continued with his arrival in Boston, but Bill Littlefield wouldn’t mind seeing Shaq get a name the old-fashioned way.

As listeners to “Only A Game” probably know, last week’s program was a “best of” edition, meaning that the program’s staff, including Bill Littlefield, were on vacation. Having returned to work, Bill ruminates on one of the risks in taking time off.

Although Steve Ralston played 36 international matches for the USA in his career, he never made a World Cup appearance. However, that doesn’t mean his retirement from the MLS should pass unnoticed. In his weekly commentary, Bill says goodbye to a player whose professionalism and knack for setting up his teammates made him one of the best in the MLS.

George Steinbrenner, the owner who bought a declining New York Yankees team and turned them into perennial World Series favorites, passed on Tuesday morning. Steinbrenner was loved by many and hated by even more in his lifetime, but Bill says “The Boss” will be remembered as a man who simply loved to win.

Bill’s unyielding passion for soccer is no secret, so it makes sense that he would be a little crazier than usual during the World Cup. But he may have gone a little overboard during last week’s Spain v. Paraguay match. He explains in his commentary.

Political leaders in both Nigeria and France have taken action to try to attone for the poor performance of their nation’s soccer teams in the World Cup. As ridiculous as that may be, Bill says in his commentary that FIFA has only made the situation worse by sticking its nose into these national affairs.

Even though the Women’s Professional Soccer League All-Star Game on Wednesday featured some outstanding athletes, the players still haven’t forgotten the days when they first started playing the game in the schoolyard. Bill explains in his commentary.

French soccer fans upset by their teams embarrasing performance in the World Cup could take some solace in the fact that Italy, the team that beat their squad in the 2006 Final, also will be going home before the elimination stage. Bill warns supporters of Les Bleus not to overreact to the team’s poor performance.

The debate in the USA over whether soccer is boring or beautiful is not older than the chicken or the egg, but it’s certainly close. Bill Littlefield is willing to brave the drone of the vuvuzelas to enjoy the World Cup. You’re not? Well, he’s not here to convince you.

The national soccer teams from the USA and Nigeria are both going into the World Cup with modest expectations. Advancing past the group stage would be a pleasant surprise for both squads. But some students in Cambridge are providing reason for fans from both nations to remain positive despite little chance of either team bringing a trophy home from South Africa. Bill provides his commentary.

Soccer may be England’s most popular sporting creation, but it’s not the only one. Bill takes a look at a group of Brits in Gloucester who brave bodily harm to keep a strange tradition alive.

The Orlando Magic have scratched, clawed, and occasionally elbowed their way to two straight wins after trailing their series against Boston Celtics three games to none. While this improbable change in the series terrifies Boston fans still wounded from watching the Bruins blow a similarly insurmountable lead, Bill is thoroughly enjoying the action.

The Bruins may have found future stars this year in left wing Milan Lucic and goaltender Tuukka Rask, but that won’t console fans still steaming over the team’s failure to put away the Phildelphia Flyers after building a 3-0 series lead. Meanwhile, the advancing age and creaky limbs of the Celtics stars are a distant memory with the C’s halfway to the NBA Finals. Bill provides his commentary on the all or nothing attitude in Boston.

Astute listeners of Only A Game know that Bill Littlefield was on vacation last week, and those paying really close attention know how and where he spent at least one day of that vacation. Now that he’s returned, Bill offers more details…

Tired of four-hour baseball games with six pitching changes? Bored by the one shot – timeout, one shot – timeout pattern that seems to come at the end of most NBA playoff games? Only A Game Senior Producer Gary Waleik agrees … and he recommends checking out another professional sports league.

When he isn’t commenting on sports, Bill is sometimes teaching a creative writing course. In that capacity, he always tells his students that each semester they are entitled to write exactly one story that ends, “then I woke up.”

Despite two straight walk-off wins, the Boston Red Sox have the fifth-worst record in the majors, and sit five games behind the Yankees and Rays in the AL East. Sure, it’s only April, but Bill thinks it’s never too early for Sox fans to start eyeing the panic button.

The NHL Playoffs are underway and the NBA Playoffs begin on Saturday. Major League Baseball’s season is in full swing, and Major League Soccer’s season has begun as well. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by this profusion of sports, you’ll get no sympathy from Bill Littlefield.

“Chico” means “boy” in Spanish, but that didn’t stop the Chico Outlaws from signing a female pitcher to their roster. Eri Yoshida will throw her sidearm knuckleball for the independent minor league team this season. Bill Littlefield says the move will get people talking … for one reason or another.

The Masters Tournament begins on Thursday, and it’s got Bill Littlefield reminiscing about his own mercifully limited golf experiences.

As the long NBA season winds down, lots of analysts are speculating on playoff match-ups involving such teams as the Lakers, the Cavaliers, the Nuggets, and the Celtics. But not Bill Littlefield…

The 2010 Major League Soccer season will begin Thursday when the Philadelphia Union visit the Seattle Sounders. That scheduling note wasn’t a certainty until the players’ union and the league announced Saturday that they’d reached a new labor agreement. Bill Littlefield looks at the new deal’s strengths and weaknesses.

When your team is in the running for the designation of “Worst NBA Team Ever” you might expect your fans, if you have any left, to complain. But, as Bill Littlefield points out in his latest commentary, the New Jersey Nets’ CEO has forgotten that the customer is always right.

This week brought the news that Tiger Woods will return to the pro golf tour next month at the Masters Tournament in Augusta. Bill Littlefield is among those curious about how a man who’s become notorious for all the wrong reasons will fare when he returns to the golf course.

College basketball bubble teams find out their fate on Sunday and Monday when the brackets are announced for the NCAA tournament. But, Only A Game’s Bill Littlefield’s favorite basketball moment has already come and gone.

Major League Soccer gets its season underway on March 25. If all goes according to plan, the opener will pit the league’s new club, the Philadelphia Union, against last year’s expansion team, Seattle Sounders FC. But according to Bill Littlefield, there is some suspense regarding whether these clubs and the 14 other teams that comprise MLS will begin playing on time this spring.