BOSTON — Boston’s major sports teams know how to win. The Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox have won 30 championships between them and are teaming up with the Jimmy Fund to help win the ultimate championship - a victory over cancer.

Representatives of four Boston professional teams will come together to host The Ultimate Boston Pre-Game Show presented by Mellon Private Wealth Management, from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Boston Marriott Copley Place on Thursday, Aug. 17. The event will kick off the 5th Annual WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon. Jeremy Jacobs of the Boston Bruins, Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics, Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots, and Larry Lucchino of the Boston Red Sox will be on-hand to talk about their most memorable moments and the future of professional sports in Boston. Guests can mingle with their favorite WEEI and NESN personalities as well as celebrities and professional athletes in attendance.

The night will culminate with an “Auction of Champions” featuring one-of-a-kind sports experiences, memorabilia, and fantasy packages. Some of the items up for bid are: the chance to travel with the Celtics for a road game during the 2006-07 season; dinner for four and four premium tickets to the home openers of the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox; the opportunity to fly to New York and sit in box seats at Yankee Stadium for a Red Sox-Yankees game; and Patriots season tickets, including a VIP tailgate package for each game.

Tickets to the event are $150 per person and include a limited open bar, hors d’oeuvres, access to the “Auction of Champions,” and a commemorative hat. Tickets can be purchased online at www.jimmyfundradiotelethon.org or by calling (617) 632-5008 or toll-free at (877) 738-1234.

The 18-hour radio-telethon will be broadcast live on WEEI and NESN beginning at 6 a.m., on Friday, Aug. 18, featuring celebrity guests and callers as well as personal stories of the patients, doctors and researchers supported by the Jimmy Fund. In its first four years, the radio-telethon raised more than $5 million to support research and care for both children and adults at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The goal for the 2006 event is to raise $2.6 million. Be sure to tune in and call (877) 738-1234 to contribute.

According to the feature Elias Says from ESPN.com:

David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez each hit home runs for the Red Sox on Monday. It’s the 41st time since Ortiz joined the Red Sox in 2003 that Papi and Manny have homered in the same game. The only other teammates who have even done that 25 times over the last four seasons are Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds, who have connected in the same game 30 times since 2003.

According to projections, Ortiz is on pace to hit 56 home runs and drive in 158 runs this season. The 56 home runs would easily break Jimmie Foxx’s record of most home runs in a single season for the Red Sox (50 in 1938), and the 158 RBI would place him fourth behind Foxx (175 in 1938), Vern Stephens (159 in 1949), and Ted Williams (159, also in 1949) in the team’s record books. Ortiz is already in fourth place with 148 RBI, set last season.

23 July 1956 - For eleven seasons between 1935 and 1945, Joe Cronin not only managed the Red Sox, he played for the Red Sox, then managed Boston for two more seasons before moving to the position of team general manager at the conclusion of the 1947 season.

However, Boston was not where Cronin made his managerial debut. In 1933, Washington hired its 27-year-old shortstop to manage the club and he responded by leading the team to a 99-53 record, winning the American League pennant, before losing the World Series to the New York Giants in five games. Cronin ended that season with a .309 average and 118 RBI and was second to Philadelphia’s Jimmie Foxx for MVP honors. However, a lackluster 1934 season found Cronin, who had married the adopted daugther and niece of Senators owner Clark Griffith only a month earlier, traded to Boston to replace out-going Sox manager Bucky Harris.

During the next seven seasons, Cronin split time between making game-day personnel decisions on the field and playing shortstop at an average rate of 136 games per season; the only considerable time missed was the first half of the 1936 season after breaking his thumb on a force play at second. He also drove in better than 100 runs three times in that span and was given MVP consideration in 1937 and 1938; he also made the American League All-Star roster five times in that span.

During those years, the team never finished better than second, although he had winning seasons in all but one of those years. In 1942, with the arrival of rookie sensation Johnny Pesky, Cronin started to play fewer games, appearing in just 173 games between 1942 and 1945. After breaking his leg in 1945, Cronin ended his playing career for good to concentrate more on managing the club. The following season, with several of his All-Stars back from war, Cronin led the Red Sox to a record of 104-50 and the American League pennant before losing a seven-game World Series to Enos Slaughter and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cronin managed just one more season as manager, compiling a team-record 1071 wins for Boston, before moving to the Red Sox front office, where he served for eleven more years. On 23 July 1956, Cronin was given baseball’s highest honor when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame; in 1984, he (4) and Ted Williams (9) became the first two players in Boston’s storied history to have their numbers retired by the franchise. Just a few months later, on 07 September, Cronin passed at the age of 77.