The 96-mile trip down to Philly only took me 4 1/2 hours. And that was with the two-hour delay on the George Washington Bridge going the opposite way. The people who didn't walk across the bridge just stood outside their cars and talked. But going my way, it was just general traffic. Also, 95 gets confusing down near Philly. I got off it to get on 480 North (?), only to get back on 95 North(?). How I got south of Philly without seeing it, I can't tell you. I guess it's like when you go through the Panama Canal from Atlantic to Pacific, you're actually going east, so the sun sets behind you. Something like that. I learned that from some announcers on an old baseball blooper video.

I ended up getting there AFTER the gates opened, which is a huge rarity for me. Got some good video of BP, especially Bronson, who didn't ascend to heaven this time, but signed autographs right near me for a good while.

The park is pretty cool looking, but I give Jacobs Field the advantage. The lower deck extended so far back, that unless you're in a certain spot, you're pretty far from the action, compared to the Jake. Of course, most people just sit in their actual seat, but I tend to stand in the back of the lower deck. Like all parks except Fenway, they guard the entire lower deck like Fort Knox, which is kind of dumb. Also, the pizza wasn't nearly as good as the Jake. (I don't eat meat, so my ballpark choices are limited to fries or pizza, usually. Although the Jake had a burrito, but I didn't try it.) They also had some scoreboard crap like "Make Noise," but not as bad as the Jake. And the PA guy saying "Your Philadelphiaaaaaaaaa...Phillies!" Terrible. There's a big Liberty Bell that swings and chimes in the outfield. It's neon. And since the Phils didn't score, it didn't do crap. Which was fine with me. The lines for food were ridiculous. Some didn't move at all. Overall, I give this nu-cookiecutter a B. No, a C. I'll take Fenway over all these places. Just don't sit in the right field grandstand, or be fat, and you're fine.

Plenty of Sox fans, of course. Even some security people were saying how amazed they were at the amount of us, which will only go up tomorrow and Sunday.

I saw three Red Sox games in person this week. In those games, I saw three homers each from Manny and Papi. And three wins. A perfect vacation.

Pics to come, tomorrow at the crack o' noon.

Now about those hateable chokers, the New York yankees, and their adventures with their cross-city non-rivals: The Mets listened to me! I got exactly what I wanted: One team making mistakes, leading to a loss in a game they could have won--but with the correct team winning! Thank you, Pedro. Thank you, Mets.

In my car driving home, I listened to the yankees' "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda" report, aka the postgame. It was great to hear the recap of how A-Rod made a bad play in the field, Pedro beat the yanks at the Stadium, Beltran, who the yanks could have gotten, hit a homer and made a great catch, and another yankee starter failed.

I heard Cashman interviewed by Mike & the Mad Dog on the way down, and they ripped into him when he said Pavano pitched well the day before. Pretty good stuff.

Francesa, in the yanks defense, does bring up the fact that pitchers coming from the NL are having real difficulty in the AL, to the point where you can't ignore it. You're right, Mike. Exactly right. 100 %. It's a real epidemic. Nobody, NO-body, from the NL, does as well when they come over to the AL. You can't blame Cashman for that. Not at all. Good pitchers from NL=Not so good pitchers in AL. Nobody can make that adjustment....Oh wait, I just thought of six: THE ENTIRE RED SOX ROTATION. Terrible job, Mike. Maybe the real truth is that Theo knows which guys will be able to make the transition, while Cash-brenner is throwing darts. (And when I say six, that's Schilling, Clement, Miller, Arroyo, even though he didn't have much time as a Pirate, Wells, since he was in SD last year, and Wake, even though he came over ten years ago. But even if you want to only include those first three, it still blows Mike's theory out of the water.)

The ride home, on which, at 10:04 PM, I heard the Orioles lose, putting us in first place, only took 2 1/2 hours, thanks to the closing of the lower level of the GWB. Terrible job, traffic, for, like, existing.

Philly pix tomorrow.