Me vs. Chan. One on one. Wiffle Ball. Central Park. (If you don't like reading about other people's Wiffle games, well, you probably stopped reading before this sentence, which is a warning to stop reading.)

What a beautiful day. The park was incredibly crowded. A lot of the lawns and fields are still closed, making it very hard to find a place to play. One dude even brought his two parrots, and let them fly around. It's cool to see parrots. It's not cool to see show-offs in action, though.

We started the game toward the end of daylight, when a space opened up. It was shaping up to be a classic, with Team Chan and Team Me notching six runs apiece through the first three innings of a seven-inning affair. Chan took a 9-6 lead in the fourth, but in the bottom half, I had scratched across three of my own before batting with two outs and the bases loaded. Chan served up a key grand-gopher ball--after missing a grounder that would have been the third out--giving me a four-run lead as I capped off a seven-run fourth. After finally holding Chan in check in the top of the fifth, despite a wicked line single off my chest, I tacked on four more in the bottom half, effectively putting the game out of reach, at 17-9. He wouldn't score again, thanks in part to a quick seventh inning where darkness had completely set in. Had he made contact, I would have been in trouble, as all I could see were the lights of Fifth Avenue behind him. Final: Jere 21, Chan 9. Soccer balls from other people in the park delaying the game: 2.

We will probably play tomorrow, so, if you don't care, stay away from this blog until Monday.

Here's something I find comical, which went right over Chan's head when I said it to him: The three people I ate dinner with last night at El Sombrero: Pat, Chan and Robin.

Speaking of Michael Keaton, check out BSM's adventures interviewing cast and crew of Game 6. He got to do a Q&A with Batman! And Beetlejuice! And Mr. Mom! All at the same time! I couldn't make it due to the fact that they had the thing on a weekday morning. I also wanted to point something out from the movie that I forgot about until just now: Keaton's character's "other" play, the one he's known for, is called "Yes Siree, Bob." Is this supposed to be sort of an opposite title of "No, No, Nanette"? Would make sense. (If you need that explained, do some quick internet research on the history of the Red Sox.)

While you're over at BSM, you'll notice he talks about Dirtdog being pissed about the new version of the "Red Sox Nation" card. I have to mention this as well. (I know, I've talked way, way, way too much about this whole thing.)

The deal is, there's a new version of the "ID card" in which you pay 60 bucks, and you get two right field grandstand or bleacher seats to a game (value: around 50 to 60 bucks, including fees), a Fenway tour for two (value: 16 bucks), Gameday Audio for the season plus a month of mlb.tv (value: 30 bucks), chances to buy tickets before everyone else, and a bunch of other perks like access to "members-only" areas of redsox.com. (Note: Dirtdog conveniently comes far from mentioning all these things in his complaint.)

As you can see, there's no reason to be mad about something like this. But, he's still whining over the fact that the team is using the (cheesy) marketing gimmick of telling you to buy the card so you can "make your citizenship in the nation official." I still say no one is getting this card for that reason. "Sure, the perks may be nice, but I've always wanted to be an official Red Sox fan, and this makes that possible." Come on. Seriously. If anyone can tell me that they've actually met someone like this, please do. I would like to meet them.

Oh, speaking of weird fans: In Central Park today, I swear to the Splendid Splinter, a dude wearing a gray Derek Jeter T-shirt and...a brand new, white Red Sox hat. Must've had a brain injury.