I blogged for about 10 and a half years. Then I didn't blog for about 10 and a half years. What did I learn? That I like blogging better than "social media." Call me quaint, but I kinda liked it when the only people on the Internet were the few who went through the trouble of starting their own space. When the only people who took photos were the ones who bothered to buy a camera. When it took a *little* talent to be allowed to display it. Humans have officially proven that almost none of them deserve to have a platform. Should the option be there for everyone? Sure. But people should learn that when they're not good at something or have absolutely nothing to offer in a given field, they should just dis the fuck appear. (Interrupting myself to remind you that you're reading the thoughts of someone who once did a public access cable TV show...) Or, maybe even better, say it but in a place where nobody has to look at it unless they want to. And I never wanted the Internet to come to me, I prefer to go to it. Notifications will kill you. Why does everything you do need to go out to everyone you've ever known? How about messaging just the friends who would care about that moment's bullshit? What's different about me? Well I do think I'm better at providing people with actual content that can't be confined to 162 characters. But even if I were the most interesting person in the world, I wouldn't want to force my crap on people. I want the select few who care about my unique brand of unique-brandiness to find it. Wait, is that what I really want? When I would go on X and say some incredibly groundbreaking thing, wouldn't I want the world to hear it and tell me how awesome it is?? Maybe. But I realized it's more rewarding to take that thought and share it with a friend or two, the ones who'd specifically appreciate it. Doing that feels better than 1,000 strangers hitting the like button and not even commenting. More importantly, it feels better than NOBODY seeing it despite that it went out to, technically, the universe. Blogging to me is the perfect middle ground. Millions could see it, but only my tiny-yet-worldwide network of friends will. The Internet in general is a great thing. I love connecting with people from all over that I couldn't have possibly met 35 years ago. But I like to do it this way. So if you found me, welcome. If you found me again, it's good to see you (italics-free) again. And if you got a notification of this new post somehow, if that exists, and it didn't kill you, you get a gold star. All that to say, in the words of Frank Costanza, I'm back, babeeee! I swore I wouldn't blog again, only that I'd update things on here like my snagged ball list or to fix broken photos, etc. But here I am. More to come..... (if I actually keep this up).

Nice job by HH and BroHo today in an 11-0 win. The loss on Saturday still kills me though--we could have gone into the break on a 5-gamer.

So the first half ends with us 5 back of the Yanks and 10 back of first place in the loss column. The perfect set-up to a second-half funtime comeback. And we start at home against the Royals, just like in the Morgan's Magic season of 1988. I was lucky enough to be at that doubleheader that started all the fun that year.

I can't believe all the original Ramones are dead now, with the passing of Tommy. Joey and Dee Dee died two and three years before I started this blog, but I see I mentioned Johnny's death here back in 2004. Note: the game I said I'd be going to in The Bronx the next night was that classic 9/17/04 Mariano-blown "catch the ball!" game. That night was one of my favorite baseball game experiences.

Fine fine win last night against the blind/deaf school. VaZQuez with a huge 3-run half dong, and two other hits, that guy knows what he's doing out there. I won't say anything about the Rish/Lyons announcing combo because there's just not enough time. That play by Badenhop was incredible, wish they'd given it more credit. I didn't stay up for the post-game but hopefully they played it a million more times at full and half speed and notified the WebGems department if that exists.

(Okay I just went to redsox.com and that highlight popped right up on the video player thing, so by all means go check it out.)

Out of work at 5. Game had started at 4. Had Castig on way home. Took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get home. Normally takes 37. But the "working in Newport" experience is vastly different in the summer months. Traffic doubles with every five degrees the temp rises. Heard us go from being no-hit to winning in car. Got home, saw last three innings and Kim and I would then listen to Koji wrap it up on the way to the Providence outdoor movie, Adaptation. But as we passed the strip clubs, he blew it. Got our Gordito Burrito and headed back to car, hoping it was still tied. It was. While looking for parking for the movie, heard the winning hit, our second walk-off win (Castig always says it correctly unlike Don and the rest of the entire world) in as many days. Then watched the brilliant Adaptation. Fuckin' Cooper. Fuckin' Cox. Fuckin' Cage times 2, as fuckin' Kauffman times 2. Just as deep as Eternal Sunshine, but on the funny end of the spectrum as opposed to the serious. But both great just the same. Got home, lit'rally heard just the words "Yanks lose 9-3" as I flipped on some sports channel. Also saw before the screen changed that Tanaka is out at least 6 weeks. Fun stuff.

So my plan of "us and Baltimore" fighting it out at the end is starting to take shape. At least in my mind. The Jays are falling, the Yanks are a bus with no wheels, and while the Rays started doing better, they were still just too far back for it to matter. Which is probably what they're saying about us, considering they're actually still ahead of us, but hey, who are the world champs here? We're gonna have a great September as all these young guys become a somewhat well to well-oiled machine. Will our July and August be good enough to make that September matter? It's an easy division, we just gotta keep "plugging" along for the time being. This can be done!

This was a fun one, hopefully you didn't give up on it. We were down 4-0 at Sweet Caroline time, and it felt like we were down by more than that. Mookie Betts started the inning by beating out a grounder to short, and when he saw nobody at second base, he bolted. An infield double! Remy said it was all the fans had had to cheer about, as he inexplicably forgot about Jackie Bradley's inCREDible catch in center earlier. Two outs later, Sale was taken out at 107 pitches. The next three dudes went: single, double, walk, double. So it was 4-3 White Sox going to the ninth.

Koji, who, awesomely, replaced the injured Tanaka on the All-Star team today (Why the balls wasn't he on there in the first place, I mean what the crudding crud?), shut 'em down and we went to the bottom of the 9th, down by 1. With one down, Mookie got hit by a pitch. And when Nava's deep fly took a high hop off the scoreboard in left center, you knew Mookie would be racing all the way around. Tied. Next batter is Kelly LeBrock Holt (See how I tied in both cinematic ballplayers who came out of nowhere to become a legend AND supermodels? In fact, the "Le" could represent both "LeBrock" and the first two letters of "Leak," as if Kelly Leak went crashing into Brock Holt creating a beautiful Kelly LeBrock. Holt.), and he lines one into right. Nava scores and it's over. We win.

Side note: When that ball hit Gomes in the nose in left field, how was it that Remy didn't realize he got hit at all until after the replay? Did he think the ball bounced off the wall and took a 90-degree turn to the left?

Side note 2: Indians squandered one against the Yanks. I just wasted hours of my life watching it into the 14th inning. But they're baked scrod anyway, what with their whole rotation on the DL including the one guy who's been good so far. And no hitting and whatnot.

The Yankees' Ivan Drago, Tanaka, is headed home for an MRI and has been placed on the DL. Nice to see the lights dimmed on their one bright spot, at least for now. And CC may be done too. It's a shame, I kinda liked watching him drag his droopy derriere onto the diamond.

In other news, you can say goodbye to AJ Pierzynski. The man with the golden arm has been called up. And with Holt starting at short tonight, maybe the Stephen Drew self-imposed prison sentence is over!

Kim and I decided to do a spur/moment Northampton trip yesterday. So we had the game on in the car, heard us cut it to 2-1, then heard it go to 3-1 before flipping it off for a while. Just before arriving at our desto, we heard the Ross dong. Was excited that it was close again...until Castig said "and it's six to two Baltimore." Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

So we hang out in lovely Northampton, walk around Smith, eat at this place called Mulino's which had a good eggplant thing, do our usual stop at the coffee shop, get some Key lime pie, and head home. Music in the car, and a long circular conversation about consciousness and life and dying and reincarnation and neurons firing and all that. Got home and decided to watch this movie called The Cruise about an eccentric tour bus host. Went to bed. About to fall asleep.

Oh right, let's check that final score. I had this thought that went "watch they actually came back to tie it only to lose in extra innings." You know I'm a Positive Poncherello, but I guess I'd just chalked this one up already, so instead of "come on, 7-6 Red Sox, come on 7-6 Red Sox!" I just had that one brief negative thought.

And there it was. I got that feeling you can only get when you've accidentally predicted the nearly impossible worst and then you find out it happened just like that. 7-6 Orioles in 12 innings. I then read the article about how all the runs I'd missed on both sides came on squeakily deakily bingles and how baseball is a game of centi-inches and that none of this stuff could have possibly happened but it all did.

6-2 Orioles would have been so much easier to deal with....

Herrera knocks in Gomes in the bottom of the ninth in this battle of the two teams that will duke it out for the AL East title this year, once the Jays and Yanks are out of it. Lester gave up 0 earned runs. Big win for us. Lackey goes tonight in game 2.