2 1/2 back, but not the end of the world. Although it doesn't help to think about the fact that the New York Mets are also 2 1/2 out of first place.

It's weird about these yankee fans. The usual culprits at work seem to wear yankee shirts about 1/4 as much as they used to. If I judged this season by yankee shirts worn by yankee fans, and didn't watch any games or pay attention to the sports reports, (sound familiar, yankee fans?) I'd say the Sox were 8 games up. I think the Sox beating the yanks 6 out of 7 really affected them. Now we need to start doing that to some other teams.

Tried channel 78 today, the color bars are gone, and a new channel is on the air, and it's... BET. Still no NESN. Oh well, at least I can watch Diff'rent Strokes reruns. I think they have those on there. I'd rather see the Red Sox, though.

Unless Lowe is on the mound; then give me Arnold and Willis. And the Gooch.

Remember how we had Carney Lansford at third base, and he won a batting title, and he got injured, and the rookie sensation Wade Boggs took his place? Kinda like now with Mueller and Youkilis. Weird.

In other news, the yankees continue to be the luckiest, most despicable, disgusting team in the world, and they and the Orioles should take turns executing each other until both rosters are all dead. (Jeter would have to kill himself when everyone else is dead.)

But fear not, tonight I heard the sentence, "And the yankees take out Tanyon Sturtze, and here comes Bret Prinz." It's gonna explode soon.

Between that last paragraph and this one, I just watched the Orioles leave the tying run on third in the ninth against the yankees for the second night in a row. Over the past two nights: Contreras couldn't make it out of the first inning, Gordon stunk, Rivera stunk, Jeter made a key error, Tanyon Sturze and Bret Prinz pitched for the yankees, and the O-birds, who scored like 13 runs against us not three days ago, can't pull out one victory.

Magic number's still 113. F the yanks.

I've been listening to Air America a lot lately. It's the nationwide left-wing radio station--1190 AM in NY, I don't know if Boston has an affiliate. It's hilarious how Al Franken's people listen to Rush Limbaugh until they here a lie, and then report it on their show (which is called "The O'Franken Factor"). I think it's cool that they do this, and it's funny how that's what I do, too, only with Michael Kay's radio show and game broadcasts...

So I put on Michael Kay's radio show today, to hear some lies, but the whole time I was listening, he was talking about how you're not a man if you give someone a fruit basket. He and his stupid producers were talking about this for my whole ten-minute break. Then he finally decided to take some calls. Oh good, I thought, he's moving on. But no. He asked the callers how they felt on the fruit basket issue. It was really pathetic.

That whole ESPN radio station--1050 AM in NY--is ridiculous. They never talk about sports. They're always just joking around. Now I'm all for joking around, but I don't want to put on a radio station to hear three dudes laughing at each other's private jokes, using stupid catch phrases that only they understand.

The Dan Patrick show is like a Simpsons parody of an FM radio station.

Anyway, maybe I'll get you some Kay lies tonight on the yankee game.

Meanwhile, I've actually been able to see four of the last six Red Sox games on TV, between ESPN2 and going to my folks' house, in NESN country. Man, I wish I lived in New England--oh wait, I have, all my life.

But I have noticed that channel 78 has color bars on it, which has gotten my hopes up. I figure it's gotta be "on hold" for NESN, right? Maybe. I'd give it a .001 per cent chance.

The magic number going into June is 113. Too bad we're percentage points behind, but that will change as the Sox go for their first win west of the Mississippi tonight.

"The Mighty Mississip'. The Ole Miss. The Ole Man. Deep Riverrrrr..."-Clark Griswold

My friend Chan was saying to me the other day, "You're really into baseball this year." And I said, "Yeah, just like every year." And he said, "But this year specifically, you're really into it."

So, I've been thinking back on past years, and just to show him what he's missed, or in some cases, forgotten, here's some highlights:

1979, age 3: memorized every player's name on the Red Sox and yankees. (I have this on audio tape.) After my dad went through the list of Red Sox first names, with me filling in the last names, I said, "Dad, you forgot one. Jimmy Wright." And I meant Jim Wright, too, we'd already covered Jim Rice.

1987, age 11: kept track of Sox wins and losses all season. Not that big a deal, except when you consider I wrote out the entire schedule on a piece of paper, and then marked "W" or "L," istead of using a pre-printed schedule.

also 1987: kept a game log in a spiral notebook, pasting in every boxscore and article about the Red Sox.

1989, age 13: Spent at least 100 bucks total (of my parents' money) on baseball stickers, just so I could be the first to fill my Panini sticker book. (As I'd been doing with the Topps Sticker Book since it's innaugural year of 1981.)

1993, age 18: arrived at college in Lincoln, Nebraska, and a week later dragged two friends, one a yankee fan, the other a non-baseball fan, to Kansas City, to see the Sox play the Royals, making the yankee fan drive, since I had no car. (Saw Jose Lind spray Tony Pena with a hose.)

1998, age 22: Went to Detroit and Pittsburgh, just to see baseball games at stadiums I'd never been to--with Chan.

2000, age 24: Went to Blatimore to see the Sox--with Chan again.

2002-2004: Went to see the Sox in Baltimore, Philly, Pittsburgh, New York (just like almost every year), and Toronto.

So c'mon Chan, I've always been into this. I guess now that I'm in cyber---oh god, I can't even say cheesy buzz words like that. The point is, you're just noticing it more, Chan.