First the bad:

Wakefield was doing okay, why take him out and put in RoyAlan With Cheese? And after Cheese put us in a hole, why go with Halama to make that hole deeper? I guess it wasn't really their respective faults, as all the Buc runs came on bloops, wall-scrapers, and broken bats. [Edit: Oh yeah, except for Cheese immediately hitting that batter.] But still, Tito needs to learn my "Never take Wake out" theory. So many squanders at the plate, especially by Millar, who ended three different innings, each time with at least one runner on. (I know that thanks to Pat's scorekeeping at the game.) And too bad about Manny having to come out. I hope he's all right. And Tito, no Trot for Bellhorn in the ninth? What the H? A really frustrating game to attend. It seemed like a guaranteed win the whole time, but we just couldn't get a run across, even when it seemed inevitable.

Now the random:

The Johnny Kickstand Crew was there as they always are on 10-Game Plan days, but they were short two, so we had empty seats next to us, which is always good. A Pirate fan, one of many, sat right behind us, saying rude things about the Sox and singing "...root, root, root for the yankees..." during "Take Me Out To the Ballgame," while none of us said anything bad about any Pirate player. TJ.

One of the Pirates (Sid Bream? Jose Lind?) wore shorts during batting practice. And Dwight Evans was there. Dewey rules.

We anxiously awaited the Pittsburgh-themed song. My only thought as to what it might be was "Maniac" from Flashdance, since it starts "Just a steel town girl on a Saturday night." The chosen song started playing, and we sat trying to figure out what it was. It mentioned Cincinnati, but not Pittsburgh. No idea. Finally Pat says, "This is 'Cheeseburger In Paradise'." So we had a good laugh, since they obviously scrapped the idea and just played a random song that had nothing to do with Pittsburgh or pirates. Still, I thought there had to be a connection. Jimmy Buffett, let's see...Parrotheads? Parrots. Pirates? No. Kind of. But wait, the Pirates have that parrot mascot! Bingo. A stretch, but I'm sure that's what they were going for.

I would've gone the Flashdance route, as that movie is what Pittsburgh's known for. Right? I'll have to compile a master list of these songs some time. (You think I won't?)

Witch City Sox Girl was at the game separately, and came over to our seats in the four-three, showering me with gifts. All right, a gift. But you can still shower ONE gift on someone, right? A one-drop shower. It can happen. So, thanks, W.C. (Hey, maybe I'll start calling her "Fields". Whoa, I really should call her that, since her first name combined with "Fields" makes the name of the actress who played Tootie Ramsey on TV's "The Facts of Life." If you followed that, you know how amazing this is. Holy crap.) Anyway, check out Fields' touching post about her father at the link above.

I was so pissed at people trying to start the wave during incredibly important moments. And I don't mean they tried to start it, turned around to watch the pitch, and then continued. I mean completely ignoring the game, facing away from the field. Even in the bottom of the ninth, while everyone was standing anyway, these idiots were missing pitches, facing us, trying to get us to do the wave. I blame these people on tonight's loss. I believe that if you're watching a game, your focus must be on the game, or you will not get the desired result. And the fact that they're not paying attention and I'm seeing that and getting mad about it, which shifts my energy slightly away from Johnny Damon's bat and brain, makes it even worse. How much could these people really care about the Red Sox if, they're at Fenway Park, the tying run is at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, the yanks have already won, we need to win to keep pace with Baltimore and stay three up on New York, and they decide at that moment to do anything else in the world besides watch the pitch? This is serious stuff, people. Your old baseball coach said it and I'll say it again: In baseball and in life, "Get your head in the game!" I was ready to strangle these people, honestly. And thinking about how much I care and sweat and punish myself by obsessing about this stuff makes me mad about that CardNilly thing, where he claimed I didn't care about a Sox loss a while ago. I wish he could've taken a bigger sample of all the blogs he looked at. Oh well, we're almost done with the publicity stunt/cash cow that is interleague f'n play. Hey, take this poll from Fox and MLB! Do you find interleague play A. Awesome to the extreme! or B. Totally Cool! See, everyone loves interleague play...