I have this fantasy of seeing a game at Fenway and one at yankee Stadium on the same day. The key to this plan, of course, is Patriot's Day.

With the 11:05 AM start (although it says "TBD" on the schedule right now, but I'm sure it will be 11:05 as per tradition), it would be possible to see the entire game, then drive to The Bronx in time for a 7:05 start there.

If the first game ends at 2:00, factor in a half hour of exiting traffic, which could be more due to the marathon (Boston people--I take it parking's bad that day? Oh my god, I can't believe I actually had to ask...), so make it an hour, plus 3 1/2 to get to New York, plus a half hour of parking and getting through the crowds to get into yankee Stadium, and you're in your seat right at first pitch. Or you could use airplanes, which I'm not prepared to do.

Foiling my plan this year is the fact the yanks are off that day, with a road game on either side, so even a schedule change keeps them on the road.

I could do Fenway and Shea on that day, as the Mets are playing the Braves at 7:05 PM. (The following night is 7:10! Come on, Mets, go with 7:10 for the whole series--you're costing "Fenway/Shea in one day" people a potentially crucial five minutes!)

But that wouldn't be quite as exciting. It still would make a nice little travel essay, though.



Above are three Rich Gedman baseball cards, an '86 Fleer Mini, an autographed '86 Fleer (which features my 10-game plan seats, just to the left of Rich's right eye, on the right edge of the bleachers), and an unwieldy '86 Donruss Baseball Stars.

Just to show a fourth size of baseball card, I've placed them on my keyboard where my tiny sticker of 2008 Hall of Fame inductee Jim Rice lives.

The current Gedman cards I now have are:

All Topps, Fleer, and Donhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifruss regular cards, from 82-90. Plus: An '84 Nestle, an '84 Topps Tiffany, an '85 O-Pee-Chee, an '85 Topps Tiffany, an '86 Fleer w/Rich and Crlton Fisk, an '86 Sportflics, the '86 Fleer Mini, an '86 Topps Tiffany, an '87 Topps "Red Sox Leaders" card featuring a mound visit with John McNamara, Calvin Schiraldi, and Rich (this fits into the psychopaths-only "all cards that Gedman appears on even if they're not specifically 'his' card" category), an '88 Topps Big card (which isn't nearly as big as the huge card above), an '88 Score, an '89 Bowman, an '89 Bowman Tiffany, an '89 Score, a '90 Score, and a '90 Upper Deck.

Five of those are autographed by Rich.

Coming soon, an '82 Coca-Cola, and an '87 Topps that was mistakenly printed without anything on the back. Sweet.

The Red Sox got psycho-in-a-different-way-than-collecting-every-Gedman-card-ever-made pitcher Julian Tavarez.

Here's what I wrote about him after Game One of the 2004 World Series, a series which was won by the Boston Red Sox. (Feel free to read that sentence one thousand times. I just did.) I'd prefer to not have the guy on my team, but maybe he'll keep his crazy head on his shoulders. I really, really hope so.