I made some alternate logos for our friends, the Orioles. The "Shit Birds" one is in honor of Pat, who calls them that consistently.

The good news from tonight is that my "month of stuff happening the way it should" continues for the yanks, with Leiter getting tagged for 6 runs in the first, an inning he didn't make it out of. It's now 12-0 Athletics in the 8th. Payton and Hatteburg have been super-dope homeboys from the Oaktown, and they're known as such, and their homers have been a beat, uhh, the yanks can't touch tonight.

Bellhorn now has the double-flap helmet for the yanks. And he looks like a damn fool. The Red Sox double-flap looked normal on him somehow. Maybe it's just that arachnid, the one that guards the gates of Hades, on the front that makes it look so wrong. And his hair may be shorter in back. Maybe he's doing an installment plan. "Make me a robot in three short weeks" or something. 0-6 with 0 walks as a yank.

Funny, I thought I wouldn't have to see old pal Eric Byrnes this weekend, since he's no longer with Oakland. Little did I know he got traded again, and is now on the Orioles. So not only do I get to see him (on NESN instead of Yes), but instead of being done with him for the year, I'll see him all month long, since the Sox and yanks will be playing Balty numerous times. In fact, I just checked it. I'll see Byrnes's face literally eleven days in a row in late September. Newman! At least he's out of the playoffs.

In our game, well, I guess you can't expect a win when you've got a guy making his first ever start. Overall, he didn't do too bad. Gave us some innings. And at 6-3, it seemed like Stankonia just tried to get everybody work, disguised as "playing the percentages." Even Foulke got in for the first time in almost two months. I liked how Harville, despite walking the first guy he faced, threw the guy out at second on the sacrifice attempt. He said, "I'm not letting a guy get to second fuckin' base. Not on my watch!" Kind of. I liked that.

I was kind of pissed at Edgar in the ninth. Just take a few pitches there. Let the crowd get into it. Make Ryan think about how Ortiz will be the tying run if he puts you on. It would've been fun to see that match-up. Instead, Edgar swung at the first pitch, blooping out weakly to end the game. In the bizzarro NL, that may get you into the Hall, but here in the real world, we do what we can to get Papi up there. I still wanna love the guy, but, I don't know, it seems his numbers when I'm watching are about .050 with 1 HR, and when he's in the field, there have been numerous balls up the middle that he's nowhere near because he's playing in some National League position I don't know about. Like, in foul territory or something. I even made a little plastic gumball-machine into a temple that I planned to pray to when Edgar's up. And when I tried it for it the first time, I looked back at the screen, and I'd forgotten that Johnny was out that day, and someone else was at bat. That just fit so perfectly. Like, even when I'm trying to help him out, he's standing harmlessly in the on-deck circle. He did work a walk to start off the next inning, and I've kept the temple in its special spot, but have slacked on praying to it. Maybe I'll start that again soon.

TJ by RemDawg tonight, calling a fan in the stands a "yankee fan," when the guy was clearly wearing a yankee hater hat. I figured by now, everyone, especially people who go to every game at Fenway, double-checks when they see what appears to be a yankee hat.

Tek looked like Willie "Mays" Hayes on the "whoops" double. I thought that meant that everything would go our way tonight, but it wan't to be.

And Nixon popped out on the 100th pitch. A swing! And contact!

Finally, I was reading on somebody's blog about how popular and larger-than-life Remy now is. And with Piniella in town last weekend, and Remy talking about the '78 playoff game tonight, well, it all just ties in to something I've said before, but will say again:

As most slightly older Sox fans know, in that one-game playoff, 27 years ago, with the Red Sox down a run in the bottom of the ninth and a man on first, Jerry Remy hit a fly ball to right field. Lou Piniella lost the ball in the sun. It bounced in front of him, and was about to go past him to the wall, when that sloppy beyotch used his 20th-century yankee magical powers (read: blind-ass luck) to reach out at the last second, barely grasping the ball with his glove. Had the ball gotten by him, at the very least, the tying run would have scored. In that case, Rice and Yaz would have each had a shot at delivering the winning run. Remy himself might very well have circled the bases and scored on the play, though, winning the game and sending the Sox into the ALCS.

As one reporter, and I can't think of who it was, said, Had the ball gotten by Piniella, not only would history have been altered, but Jerry Remy would've become the third-most popular player in Red Sox history, after Williams and Yaz. While Bucky Dent would've been so forgotten that he might not even exist right now. "Erased...from existence!" --Doc Brown

I think it's really interesting how, all these years later, Remy's really climbed that popularity ladder, the one he should have rightfully been near the top of anyway.

This story is why whenever Looooooou is whining and complaining when we're beating his Rays, even when he's right, I just smile real wide and say "Them's the breaks, ass-wipe."

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad. (Sorry to bring up the Piniella play on your special day.)