Last Wednesday I was at Shea Stadium, and a guy in the box seats in front of me was chatting with a kid in a Sox hat who'd stopped by to see him. The guy started talking about how the Sox are doing, and said "The Sox and Yanks won't be separated by more than three games all season." The Red Sox fan politely agreed, but I was ready to go tell the guy what's what. He might as well wear a sign that says "I repeat what the newspaper tells me," or, "I always assume everything will go as planned." Five days later, that guy's season forecast has been proven wrong.

Tonight we went 3.5 up on the seal-clubbers with our win over the Queensters and their loss to the Hapless Hatchets.

I had to watch the game on SportsNet New York, aka SNY, aka Snigh. As in "the end 'snigh."

I have to say, it was quite refreshing. I hear these guys sometimes, living in New York, but it's rare I watch an NL game for more than five minutes at a time. Compared to Michael Kay and whoever he's teamed up with, these guys were world class.

You knew they'd talk about '86 a lot. And they did, but it was somehow inoffensive. Nothing like Yankee announcers rubbing in '78 while blatantly rooting for the Yanks and taking subtle shots at the Sox. The team was Gary "Outta Here!" Cohen, Keith "Cocaine Is Yummy" Hernandez, and Ron "Red Sox Fan" Darling. Hernandez and Darling, having been on the '86 Mets, did a great job of giving credit to the Sox team of that year, and not being pricks about the Buckner play.

They talked at length about Fenway Park. All stuff I knew, but I'm sure it was very informative to Mets fans and neutral viewers--and Yankee fans who were totally watching because they'd rather watch the "hip" game than their own boring team. (Totally proven by all the Yankee hats in the crowd at Fenway tonight.) (Besides, they're about a week away from hitching their bandwagons to the Mets' star anyway.) They didn't talk down to the audience like McCarver does when he reiterates shit everyone knows. And they were fair. Just good stuff. They even made fun of Michael Kay.

Darling talked a lot of his childhood growing up in Mass as a Sox fan. And Hernandez admitted that he's now more famous for his Seinfeld role than for his baseball prowess. And they all had nothing but good things to say about Boston and Fenway. (Although Cohen did imply that Boston people ALL like the Sox because there's nothing else to do there, whereas New York has lots to do, so a lot of New Yorkers don't care about baseball.)

And considering all the time I spend complaining about Yes and even NESN's camera work, I'm realizing now that I never once screamed at my set tonight. Nice job, Snigh. (And tomorrow's the Remy night, tonight wasn't. Whoops.)

They showed a little of the '86 Sox celebration before the game. We got to see a bunch of the players on the field in their positions. And an interview with Rice, in which he talked about how Boston is a part of him, and how his fellow South Carolinian Tom Yawkey told him he'd have nothing to worry about as long as he's around. I'm not trying to say, "See, Yawkey loved black people!" But it was nice to hear that. It kinds of makes you think ol' Tom might have seen the error of his ways toward the end there.

The Pedro thing was absolutely heartwarming. SNY picked it up live with a shot of Pedro in the *wrong* dugout as the cheers were getting louder and louder, after the scoreboard had shown a little Petey montage. Then we watched as he came out, waved to everyone with that huge Pedro little kid smile, and put his arms around himself. How do you like that? A hug for all of us. Later in the game they showed him in the dugout doing a swimming motion with his hands(?) Tomorrow will be sweet.

Lester was a little shaky, but got out of jams. We needed to get to their kid, and we did. I can't say enough about Alex Gonzalez. Even on a day where he didn't have any spectacular plays (although he did hit one over everything in left). He's just so smooth out there. On a near double play, he turned it in such a way that he seemed to never even touch the ball. The throw from Youk reached Alex's orbit and was sent ricocheting back at twice the speed instantaneously, making the play a lot closer than it should've been. Then there was a ball he got on a great dive to his right. There was no play, but he still did the fake throw to first, attempting to decoy the runner at second. I don't know if there's some stat that shows how defenders subtly help the team win, but if there his, Gonzalez is a perfect 1.000.

Good win. Ten in a row. Over the bizzaro National League. I love this team. Nothing against the Mets or Reyes personally, but I was glad his hitting streak ended, and really just that we outplayed them in general, just because it adds to the "You may be the best team in your league, but don't think you can come in here..." legend. Who knows, they could beat us the next two, but for now, I'm riding this "beat the National League" wave to Tahiti. I suggest you hop on board with me. And after this series, it's right back to hoping the Mets take over this town from the Yanks. Imagine a world where the Mets AND Red Sox have won a championship since the last Yankees one. There may be suicides, with Steinbrenner himself mixing up and distributing the Kool-Aid. Of course, that Mets title will have to wait, since we're winning it this year. But, if for some strange reason we're not in the World Series, they can go ahead and win it. Although I have to say, they're kind of sneaking up on us as "New York's second favorite team," heh heh.

Down in Dunbar District, Mr. D lost to the Braves. Great moment when Posada said something to Farnsworth on the mound, and Farnsworth turned away. Jorge rolled his eyes and walked back to the plate just as Guidry was arriving at the mound for what he thought would be a team meeting. The look on his face when he realized "Georgie" wasn't coming back was priceless. Oh, and A-Rod struck out. Guess whether it was in the clutch or not. He was booed, as he is on every at bat.

Gammons had a little bit of an aneurysm today, but should be better soon. Pic of him by me at last year's concert at Fenway: