There's a difference between an incorrect call and a bad call. An incorrect call is when there's a play that could go either way, the ump makes a call, and is proved wrong by a super slo-mo replay. A bad call is when an ump misses a call because he was in a bad position, or he blinked, or was influenced by the crowd (like all umps at yankee Stadium are). I don't think there were any bad calls tonight. There were three incorrect calls, though. The Manny non-catch, Varitek being tagged, and Dave Roberts not being tagged. The Roberts play--the one that went against the Sox--was not brought up by the ESPN announcers. I don't know if the NESN guys caught it. All of these calls could have gone either way.

I don't care that Kotsay argued the Manny play. But how typical Oakland A's was the play where he purposely traps the ball in the outfield to try to prove a point? He could've dove for that ball. In fact, he could've just run a little harder, and put his glove below the ball, to make the catch. Just like Byrnes and Tejada in the playoffs last year--true Knoblauchian behavior. Assuming that all play will just stop so they can complain. And if something doesn't go their way, they just give up.

About the actual game--great job by Bronson, I thought, especially after the hard hit balls early on. David Ortiz, thank you for that HR, and more importantly, the three-run double. I love you, man. I also saw Manny give a double-point to someone in the crowd. Always good to see so many Sox fans everywhere the team goes.

After seeing the six 10:00 games in a row on the schedule, starting tonight, I was kind of pissed, because with the yanks playing TB, they can put the pressure on us every night. But we obviously didn't let that bother us tonight. Now I'm thinking how frustrating it'll be for the yanks waking up to find out that we kept pace.

Now let's talk yankee nonsense. They really are trying to get a forfeit out of this deal with Tampa Bay not making it to NY in time due to a hurricane. Steinbrenner, after the 22-0 loss, was saying how New Yorkers never quit, and even brought 9-11 into it, comparing the yanks to the resilience of New Yorkers after the attacks. Then his team is playing a team who's 20 games behind his, who can't get to New York, because a major hurricane has swept over their families' homes in Florida, and he says, Sorry, game time was 1:05 and you weren't here, we win.

I don't really believe in heaven and hell, but when that man dies, I know he'll be somewhere where he'll feel eternal pain and suffering.

The magic number is down to 29, which is how old I'll be on Wednesday. We should have Damon and Trot in the lineup, and we'll have Pedro on the mound that day. So hopefully the Sox will get a win on September 8th for the first time since 1991. But the key is, will Burks be back? Because like I said in my March 8th post, he was in the lineup the last time the Sox actually won on my birthday. And the last time they won on the road on my birthday, they went on to play in the 1986 World Series.

But that's two games away. Gotta win with Lowe first. Hope everybody's ready for 5 more late nights.