No, it's not the dilemma I would've faced had my ex-girlfriend been smothering me, it's what the Red Sox have been lately. For more games in a row than any team before. Ever. Sweet. I'd glady trade it for a win last night, though.

Alex Gonzalez, I'm your biggest fan, but the next time someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES! (Where "someone asks you if you're a god" = "you're up with Ortiz as the tying run on deck and you have a 2-0 count" and "say YES!" = "take some pitches and if you do swing, don't try to hit the ball out, we need David to do that, not you!")

After being able to root against the Mets, I'm right back to the frustrating task of rooting for them against the Yanks. And we all know what happens when they play the Yanks: The Mets team disappears and is replaced by a group of randomly selected retarded children. The only thing they've got going for them at this point is that the odds of getting swept twice in a row are fairly high. Or low. You know what I mean.

Today's band name of the day: Copyright Crackdown. (Origin: from a comment I posted at Joy of Sox.)

Okay, so, back to winning tonight. The pitching was actually great yesterday after the first two innngs. We're good.

What I hate about the Exrta Innings package is how it's not NESN every time. It's NESN, like, half the time. Tonight I've got FSN Florida. These guys aren't the worst I've ever heard, but your call of a called third strike to the opposing team shouldn't be "Yeah!"

That's horse scat.

Hi. You know that picture of the little kid in the Red Sox jacket angrily giving the middle finger? It's been used everywhere, including on some blog about how Yankee and Red Sox fans are one and the same, a notion I'm firmly against, as I feel anyone who says that just isn't paying attention. I will gladly debate, and win, this point with anyone. So I was sickened when they used that picture, along with one of a bunch of animal Yankee fans, to attempt to prove their point.

I've always felt that picture was doctored. I used to stare at the arm, the hand, looking for a telltale sign of Photoshopping. My contention is that no Red Sox fan, and hopefully no one else, outside white trash, would teach their four-year old to use the middle finger, even if A-Rod or whoever was standing right in front of him. I knew that photo had to be bullshit, I just couldn't prove it.

That's about to change, people. Out of the clear blue sky I got a hit from a webpage written in Spanish by someone in Chile. I'm sure it was from the random "next blog" feature of Blogger. I clicked onto the site, and that kid's face popped up at me, then quickly disappeared, as the internet manically started loading pics of women with painted bodies. I scrolled around and found the kid again, thinking maybe the site had written something about the Red Sox and linked me. I didn't find that, but I did notice something about the kid: (Here's the post in question, called Un Poco de Humor, which translates to "a little bit of the ol' ha-ha funnies.")


No Red Sox jacket! Here's the doctored version we all know:



I knew it! The original photo has the kid with a "Feyenoord" jacket. A quick check of wikipedia taught me this:

"The supporters of Feyenoord are said to be one of the most loyal supporter groups, and are nicknamed Het Legioen, Dutch for The Legion. Their archrivals are Ajax from Amsterdam; in the past there have been many clashes between the supporters of both clubs, of which the Beverwijk clash in 1997 is the most infamous, with one Ajax fan killed and several injured. Although Ajax have fought with PSV for the championship in recent years, their main rivalry remains with Feyenoord, culminating every year in the "Klassieker" ("The Classic"). It is a match between the two largest cities of the Netherlands, one of which identifies with artists and creativity (Amsterdam) and one with hard work and guts (Rotterdam)."

Funny thing is, when I read that, I remembered that my friend Drew, who seems to go to Amsterdam a lot, told me all about these teams and how Sox-Yanks doesn't even compare to their rivalry, what with the killing of people and all.

Remember a few days ago when I mentioned how Yankee studio host and former favorite player of my ex-neighbor, Trevor, Dave Justice told fans to lay off A-Rod? Well, apparently, the next night he suddenly changed his tune, with a little help (read: electrodes) from the higher-ups.

The always-Yankee-broadcast-criticizin' Bob Raissman explains here.

As in, we're bulldozin' through the NL, the Mets sleepwalked through this series, and our winning streak is a customer's dozen.

During that weekday afternoon game recently, I was on rsn.net commenting along with the game thread. And there seemed to be some serious anti-Coco sentiment. Terrible job. The guy's still getting settled into his Red Sox shoes, but he's hitting .293, and he's playing great D. Including the play of the month tonight, in an absolutely large spot.

Usually homers to center at Fenway are to the first couple of rows of seats. The people in the front row usually at least get to reach up for the ball. Tonight, Papi hit one where the front row, while the ball was still in the air, turned around and started clapping.

Stupid National Leaguers, man. They get caught stealing, they get picked off, they get picked off again... Julio Franco got picked off second, but hey, give the guy a break. He's only 47 years old.

Great inning for the Sox when they brought in the go ahead run. Ortiz is no slouch, speed-wise, just like Manny isn't, fielding-wise. But nobody will ever believe those things. Oh well, they'll be our little secrets that we'll take to the Octobric promised land. I love all these guys. Except Tavarez.

As I thought, and said yesterday, a bunch of bloggers did go the Spinal Tap route. With 90% of precincts reporting, here are the ones that did it:

Keep Your Sox On, Basegirl, Baseball Desert, Boston Blogger, and Sox Therapy.

Had the eleventh win not coincided with the Pedro game, the list would've been much longer. And I'd like to point out that only Iain (Baseball Desert) and I used a line other than the actual "eleven" line. The other ones, come on, y'all know better!

Just throwin' up random Pedro pics for the hell of it at this point. This is from video I shot in April '02 at Camden Yards. Terrible job by some reporters whose take on last night was "The party's over!" and "Boston's love affair with Pedro ended..." What? Even after seeing how we treated him, they can't help try to make it sound like he's a hated dude. And he is--by the media. That's why I love how they can't control our thinking anymore. We can make our own websites or whatever, that have more credibility than their stupid newspapers. Voice of the people. (And I can't even bear to look at BDD today. And I won't. Hey, maybe this is a good time to start my lifetime ban of it.)

In other news, great job by Kleenex on the "warning tissues." Are you familiar with this? I've got a box of white tissues here. Toward the end of the box, they turn yellow. When you reach the yellow ones, you know the box is almost empty. Genius.

In other even less-related news, I'll often hear a word or phrase in life and say, "that should be a hardcore band." One that's really stuck in my head for a while is "Gang Up." How is there not a hardcore band named "Gang Up"? Today I walked past a sign that said "Bloodwork." So...ya know.: "We're Bloodwork from East Saint Louis, Illinois! This song's called 'Char'! 1 2 3 4!..." Look for this to be a repeating segment.

In other even less-related news than either of those previous two things, I sometimes go to the pizza place next to my office for lunch and get, along with a Sicilian slice, the "five garlic knots for a dollar" deal. Every time I think, Is there a chance I'm getting six out of this deal? It's not an exact science. I figure, if I worked there, I'd eyeball it, make sure I grab at least five, and if I come up with six, oh well. Everybody's happy. Plus, if I like the customer, I'm giving six automatically. Every time it's been five for me. I've noticed that this one worker-dude has taken a liking to me, predicting my order, making jokes, you know, that kinda thing. So I'd been hoping to reach the six plateau with him at the helm.

Today, not only did I finally crack the stubborn five mark, but I possibly set the all-time record, with seven (7) garlic knots. That's $1.40 worth for a mere dollar. I've got two left, in fact, as I write this. So I'll let you people go now, as I've got a date with two bonus knots.

Another butt-kickin' of the NL. Nice. The Pedro thing. Yup. Nice. And he was nice enough to give us lots of runs. Pat called me and talked about how weird it was to be rooting against the man. Your eyes see his body and tell your brain to root for strikes. I compared it to finding yourself suddenly controlling the ghosts in Pac-Man. But I assure you, we both got over it.

With these Lastings gaffes, it's funny to think he's the guy they were talking about trading us for Manny. He's still young, though.

And I liked the huge ovation for Josh when he left. Don't be jealous, Josh. You're our guy now.

Another great job by SNY tonight. Remy was hilarious. See below.

Remy on SNY.

I taped that in my room with a video camera. So the sound didn't come out great. Turn your volume way up. And note how half the screen is dark, which happens when you film your TV. Old school.

Okay, my prediction for blogs that will play up the "Sox Go To Eleven" angle. Well, there's me, but I did it subtly, so it's okay. Then I'm gonna go Surviving Grady. Definitely BDD. Uhhh...I'll go out on a limb and say Empy. And then....hmmm. I'll also say one of those ladies that's in that SG crew that has a blog. And Ian. And Daryl Sng. And BSM would also do it subtly but he's done. You know what? Let me just guess who won't do it. Uh...I'll go with Michael Leggett.

Photo by Jere, 6/9/2004. One day I'll actually scan this pic instead of filming it on the living room floor and taking a screen shot of it. [Edit: That day is today. That's now a scanned pic.]

First Bullshit Memorial Stadium, now Sleater-Kinney. TJ, fate. Glad I got to see both at their respective primes.

Just saw that I got linked (randomly, through the "next blog" feature) from some girl's blog called christinasshoebox. I stared at that for a while, too. Christin Ass Hoe Box? I clicked over there. "Christina's Shoebox." Poor thing.

Walking home from work I heard a shriek from a parked car, coinciding with one of Earth's worst sounds--that of John Sterling's voice calling a Yankee home run. The scream actually frightened me, but my brain quickly realized it was only baseball-related. Immediately following that came the louder voice of the other person in the car, saying "I hate the fuckin' Yankees!"

I knew then the game must've just been won by the Yanks, and I was unlucky enough to have passed that car right at the climactic moment. As I walked into my apartment, I imagined who might have hit the probable walk-off homer. Funny, A-Rod never entered my mind. I got inside and turned on the TV to hear his name mentioned right away. Then I saw an image that I'll be thinking of on August 19th when I'm at Fenway and A-Rod is a few feet away from me before the game. He hit the game-winning homer, but that wasn't good enough for him. Dickwad, and you'll see this on the news, tosses his helmet up in the air before he crosses home. Unacceptable. I can't wait til that fucking douchebag comes to Fenway again. I want to see him choke in person and walk off the field crying. That guy is the worst human being there is. A perfect fit for the most despicable franchise in history.

I don't know if his toss was a sign of relief or mocking Ortiz (granted, they're friends off the field, but this is on-field action) or just his doing it because it's becoming the trend. But nothing justifies it.

First of all, if the MVP acts like he finally won the World Series because he won a game in June, you know he's in trouble, as is his shitty team.

Second of all, if he thinks he's in any position to mock us or our player, the guy who wins games with his hands behind his back, he's sorely mistaken, and he's gonna pay for it. That's probably what he was doing, imitating the Red Sox, since that is the new Yankee way. They have to imitate us. I mean, they want to be winners, right?

Finally, if he's doing it because it's just what you do now, well, A-Rod, here's a tip: It's not "wheee, me tossy hat in air!" Only the frilliest of brides uses two hands to toss the bouquet. Hey, maybe he's just showing us how the bridesmaid would do it. Can that guy make a bigger ass of himself?

The good news is, he's satisfied. He came through in the clutch, so now he figures he can hide for at least a month. Look for the boos to start up again soon.

Pedro vs. the Red Sox tonight. That's a weird sentence to write. Here are some of my past rantings on the man. If you really want more, just check the archives. It's endless. Especially from late 2004, between the World Series and his departing.

From April 2004, about BDD and Pedro.

From last Friday, about why we'll cheer Pedro.

From yesterday morning, reiterating why we definitely won't boo Pedro.

Another quick thing about BDD. Why does he get mad at people who leave for more money when he himself sold his independent soul, I mean site, to The Boston Globe? Talk about "bolting for New York" (Times).

His latest thing is claiming that Sox fans will boo Pedro tonight and will cheer Johnny next time he's in town. Too late, Dog, the people have already spoken. The fact that he actually expects Red Sox fans to willingly chant "Who's Your Daddy?" makes him lose any credibility he had left.

One thing I am thinking about is the possibility of Pedro coming up and in on one of our hitters, you know, accidentally. The crowd won't boo, but will instead kind of be like, "Ho! Heyyyy!!!" And Pedro will start cracking up, first covering his mouth with his glove, and then everyone will laugh, and he'll throw his arms up playfully. Should be a funny scene, I think.

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:

Justice and Lorenz on the Yankee postgame, talking about how the Yanks and Sox have been inconsistent this year:

Justice: "But now Boston's starting to play well..."

Lorenz: "They always play well in interleague."

Yes, he really said that. Perfect time for me to point out how happy I am that we're performing the rare feat of making the most of crappy "made for New York only" interleague play.

Just a little taste of tomorrow, as Pedro was just given a standing O, and he tipped his cap. Sweet.

Being forced to watch on SNY, I'm seeing lots of '86 stuff. More on that later. I'll also get Remy for an inning at some point, as they're doing a little switcheroo.

You know what's cool? All of New York and all of Boston are paying attention to this series. No one's paying attention to the Yankees. Execpt for a few moments to do a nice ballpark-wide "Yankees Suck" chant.

3-1 us. Lookin' good.

"I know that Johnny in his heart feels a lot for the Red Sox. He was part of a championship team, but he went to the wrong uniform to come back to Boston. Thank God I didn't have to make the same mistake."--Pedro Martinez

The offending article in question by Mike "Should Have To Watch Own Family Die Slowly In Front Of Him If They Haven't Abondoned Him Already" Celizic here.

This is the same guy who said, during 2004, that the Red Sox will lose to the Yankees simply because it says "Boston" on their chests. (Yet strangely wasn't fired after the ALCS...)

Now he's not saying what he feels we should do, but that we've got to boo Pedro. Just another person who doesn't get it. Either that or he's just looking for attention.

I'm so confused as to the uncertainty here. Do you know anyone, (not including media members, who always hated Pedro and drove him out of boston in the first place), who wants to boo Pedro? Have you ever seen people selling anti-Pedro shirts outside Fenway?

Can it be possible that people just aren't figuring out that we booed Johnny Damon because he went to the Yankees? I'm sure a lot of Yankee fans are confused, as they've never come to grips with the fact that everyone besides them hates their team with a passion. So, I'm telling you, that was the reason. Johnny came to Fenway Park dressed in pinstripes. Dead to us. Most of us, anyway.

Pedro? Well, like every other player we've ever loved coming back to town, we'll cheer him. No debate. No drama. No uncertainty.

I knew they'd make an issue about this. I knew I'd have to write this completely obvious stuff over and over and over. I knew the media would confuse even people who should know what's what. I heard an EEI host over the weekend saying, "I thought they'd cheer Pedro, but after I saw what they did to Johnny, I'm not so sure." What? Hellooooo McFly! I almost drove to the station to just beat some sense into the guy.

That'd be like if your best friend said to you, "I thought I'd be greeted warmly at your house, but after I saw what you did to that Nazi when he showed up at your door, I'm not so sure I want to come over."

Are people really this stupid? Or, more likely, just looking for a story when there isn't one?

As people who write things on the internet would say, "Ho. Ly. Shit."

Once the Seanez era began in this game, we knew the bullpen would kinda be screwed going into the Mets series. So we absolutely needed to salvage this win.

For the eleventh, I finally gave up on the Gameday, and called my girlfriend, and she gave me the play-by-play. The inning ended, and I decided it was time to sprint home from work, since it was well after five. I got home to see a "7" in the Phillies spot on the scoreboard. (Fortunately, the game was on the Extra Innings package, despite it being a makeup game. NESN, too.) I was out of breath, and all I had to show for it was a now-probable loss. But Cokes doubled, and I had hope. Kinda wished Tek had bunted. Oh well. At that point, the last thing I was thinking of was a second Papi walkoff win (!) in as many games.

The Youk hit was just awesome. The bobble took some of the pressure off, and we were tied. Then, TJ by them letting Ortiz come up. And multiply that TJ by 10 to get the TJ they did by pitching to him. Granted, Manny would've won it anyway. But David's just about a guarantee at this point.

Oh my god, after this all-day affair, it's just hitting me that we're 15 minutes away from an entire Yankee game. They might want to consider winning unless they want to fall three and a half back. (David Justice was just on the pre-game begging Yankee fans to "stop booing A-Rod on every at bat." I love life.) Oh, and we really showed those 6,800 Yankee fans today, by packing Fenway for a Monday afternoon make up game!

It's crazy how this Mets series comes right now. Both teams are thinking World Series right now. New York is really buzzing about the Mets. Which is always good, since it puts the Yanks on the back burner. They are a litttle cocky, thinking they've wrapped up the division, but, hey, it is a huge lead. And from our standpoint, the magic moments are adding up. The types of games you look back on in a championship year. Or at least the types of games that sportswriters say at the time will be the type you look back on in what will necome a championship year. You know what I mean. So the fact that the two teams, who met in the World Series exactly 20 years ago, happen to be matching up right now is kind of apra-, I say, appro-, I say...pretty fuckin' cool, Jeeves.

I knew I wouldn't be going to these weekday games, but fate couldn't stop me from buying tickets anyway. I just had to. My girlfriend reaps the benefits, and I'm proud to say she's representing the tickets for both Tuesday's '86 AL Champs clelbration AND Pedro's start on Wednesday.

Again, Mr. David Ortiz, if there's anything you need, some rare bird you want that only lives in Indochina, a brick from the pyramids in Egypt, a drink of water at 3 AM, let me know, dude. From now til eternity. Just say the word.

*Reuters photo depicting "Jump on his back, fellas."

This is killing me. 6-0 and now swe're sweating through Tavarez in the tenth. Funny, I had an image of a Gonzalez walkoff back when the game was scoreless. Who'd have thought after 6-0 there'd be a chance of that. But he's up fourth in the bottom of the tenth.

So we give five right back in the next inning. Unbe-goddamn-lievable. Stretch time, 6-5 Sox. Update: Oh my god it was only two outs. They're still up. Update: NOW it's 3 outs. I totally almost jinxed that one. Now it's Papelbon with two outs in the eighth, tying run on second...

Coax and the Doobler with key hits to break the scoreless tie... 2-0 Sox in the sixth! And Doug as I write this! 3-0 us! And now Gonzalez... 4-zip. I'm totally not posting this until the inning is over... Youks with a Lowell to score another! The last five batters have each knocked in 1 run. 5-0. Okay, I actually will post this now. Update: The streak continues with Loretta. 6-0. Six RBI hits in a row, all one run each. Amazing. Update: Not amazing, Gameday was wrong. He reached first, with second and third, but no one scored. But now Papi with a "run scoring play".... RBI grounder. I'll take it. 6-0. After 6.

"Weather: 74 degrees, overcast.
Wind: 12 mph, Out to LF.
T: 2:55.
Att: 6,809."

No, that's not from a Pirates-Royals game. That's from last night's game at Yankee Stadium. Nearly seven thousand brave souls battled the 74-degree, overcast elements to witness this summertime, weekend game.

It was the make-up date for Saturday afternoon's rainout. Fans were offered a chance to exchange their tickets for a future game, AND will be "invited" back for another game in the '07 season, whatever that means, according to yankees.com.

Okay, so roughtly 50,000 people decided they'd rather just pick a different game than go back to the Stadium the following night. A little too many, if you ask me, but, it's their choice. What I really don't get is, how come nobody filled those empty seats? If the Red Sox announced right now that there would be a bonus game at Fenway tonight, it would sell out. Where are the Yankee fans? They can't be bothered to go to a Sunday night game in the summer, when almost every seat in the house is available?

All right, maybe since all the tickets had been sold, they couldn't resell them to new people since the original people hadn't exchanged them yet. If that's true, I go right back to not understanding why such a huge percentage of the original crowd chose not to go to this game, the day after it was originally scheduled. I'm sorry, but this shows you how committed these people are. Where were the "bleacher creatures"? Aren't they, if no one else, supposedly there through thick and thin, attending every single game?

And season ticket holders: You're there anyway for game one. Stick around! You're still back in Westchester by midnight, and the kids are out of school anyway!

My point is, if any Yankee fan tells you they go to every game, last night proved that there's only a 6,809 in 57,478 chance they're telling the truth. That's about 12 percent.

What I would've loved to hear is Jon Sterling's call of this game. He literally fawns in sheer amazement over the huge crowds on every single broadcast, as if he himself were responsible for interest in the Yankees. I don't know how he could've explained the fact that the amount of people in the entire upper deck were outnumbered by Stadium employees: "It usually doesn't snow this hard in late-June, Suzyn. You really gotta hand it to these, the best fans in baseball."

The people that were there witnessed Sox farmhand Anibal Sanchez shut down the Yanks in his debut. A very key win by Florida, preventing the Yanks from gaining a full game on us yesterday. So we're still up 2.5, and up 6 in the loss on Toronto.

Check out this article abou the '86 reunion. Gedman is clearly the star of the article! Unfortunately he won't be at the Jere-predicted reunion because he'll be with his team, the Worcester Tornadoes. Somehow I feel his players will implore him to go. And I'm still holding out hope for Buckner, who, surprisingly, didn't just say "I ain't goin' back there," but claimed to have a prior engagement. What is it, Billy, a haircut? Get your ass to Fenway!

Ten-game plan, game number... I don't know. Was the classic duo, me and Pat, in section 43. Except we never got to section 43, figuring we'd go for the closer and drier view from behind section 25. (It didn't rain until the tenth, anyway.) If you don't mind standing the whole game, it's the place to be. Not a bad view for 23 bucks.

The tradition of no one else taking the field until Manny does is so out of control that he's basically all the way to his position before the rest of the team is dressed. Above, he takes the field. Note how no one in the dugout has even thought about moving yet.

Schill on the hill in the first.

The first two Phils of the game reached. This pic shows the empties in the bleachers, which quickly filled up on this supposed-to-have-been-rainy day.

Curt threw two bad 0-2's, both of which were sent solidly into center, including this double to Bobby "Don't Call Me A-Brew" Abreu, aka Abreu the Boy Warrior On A Quest To Save The Empress. But he remembered Jere's advice to waste pitches after that and had a great game. In fact, if it weren't for a bunt and a bloop hit before this doobler, he might not have given up a run all day.

Lowell rounds third on his homer.

And touches the plate as CO2 looks on.

Carbon Dioxide at the plate.

A bunt attempt by the best fielding shortstop we've ever seen who can hit .200 and it wouldn't matter and when everyone else was trying to make a controversy out of it asking "How long should we stick with him?" Jere was saying "Don't worry about this guy" and now he's hitting awesome as a bonus but even if he was still at .200 I'd be saying we should keep starting this totally rad, comfortable-in-the-field, non-Edgar-y ballplayer.

Our view of Kapstein. (Yellow raincoat, middle.)

We're close enough to the equinox so that Pat Burrell could stand a bat on end.

Ryan Howard does that Ichiro-ish thing. By the way, I suggest putting in a vote or two for Ichiro to keep him ahead of Damon for that third outfield spot, since Trot and Coco are out of the running at this point. Also note that Ichiro obviously gets screwed in this All-Star voting since it says "I. Suzuki" on the ballot.

Curt throws to Howard.

You may have heard that Brett Myers was arrested the morning before the game after punching his wife in the face and dragging her around by her hair. The Phillies decided, Yank-ily, that winning is important enough so that showing little kids that even if daddy kicks the crap out of mommy, he still can be a superstar on national TV the next day is a risk you have to take. So they threw him out there, and we booed his butt soundly every time he walked onto or off of the field. Mainly boos, with some screamed taunts every now and then. A funny one was when he walked Ortiz intentionally in the second, and some dude said something like "Sure, you'll hit your wife but you're afraid of Ortiz." Before that inning, Myers took a long time to come out of the dugout. I thought he might have said "screw this" at that point, but he eventually came out. At one point there was a hard line drive up the middle. I turned to Pat and said, "If he gets hit with a line drive there'll be a standing O. Sweet justice." I wasn't rooting for it, but I can't say I wouldn't have applauded him laying on the ground holding his face. Maybe the trainer could have dragged him off the field by his hair. Also note, Empy had the same idea!

Above is Palooka himself on the hill. You'll see above him the Sheraton where the incident happened, looking down at him like a dissapointed parent the whole game. You should be clicking these to enlarge...you'll see the Sheraton "S" to the left of the Budweiser sign. "S" for saddened. Saddened, Brett, saddened. Check out the small brain on Brett. Anyway, I'd hoped the Sox would've not played music while Myers warmed up, so we could boo the whole time. They didn't do that, but they got their shot in. Before one inning, as he threw his warm-up pitches, the Fenway PA system blared Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." (I have a video of him getting booed, but I didn't realize my dad's digital camera doesn't pick up sound when it records video. So it's kind of pointless to upload that. I gotta get my own digital camera.)

Little Manny pitches with the bases loaded.

Waiting during a pitching change.

Trot grounding into a DP. Speaking of those, how sweet was it when Lopez got that double play to end the seventh after the Phils had tied it? That was rhetorical, you can stop talking to your screen now.

And how mega-sweet was it when the Phils, knowing Ortiz would bat in the tenth, opted to go with Tom Gordon? I kept saying to Cora, "No double or triple," because I didn't want Papi to get walked. Here's that pic of him on deck. I totally started thinking Natural at this point, since the rain finally started to fall. Not the final scene where he hits in into the lights, the scene where the lightning hits the ball.

Cora came through with a single. I chose the exact moment where he disappeared behind the first baseman to snap. By the way, you should see some of the shots I don't post. (Like my blurry Papelbon shots--Pap is down to under a quarter run per nine innings. Incredible.) Then Papi came up and boom...

Everyone doing the international symbol for "Papi did it again." While jumping around like a fool, I raised the camera above my head and snapped away randomly.

Only at ARSFIPT can you see the space between Ortiz coming home and the team waiting for him!

As least I did get a shot of everyone waiting. At this point I decided to shoot rather than wait and risk missing him jumping into the pile. I like Trot and Lowell going nuts off to the right.

Papi's in there somewhere. And less blurry in person!

Did you ever wonder what poor sap has to go out and get Ortiz' helmet that he tosses away? It's Youk.

Papi came back out for the quick interview. At this point I'm standing on one of the folding chairs they have in the handicapped seating area for people who have trouble standing or whatever.

Good night and thanks, Papi. We'll raise a Cherry Coke at a rest stop on the Pike to you.

Speaking of that, I used to love getting a Burrito Grande at Fresh City at those rest stops. The ones Pat & I got yesterday, however...let's just say, half the size, same price. TJ, FC. It's like how Fenway has gone to little baby pretzels instead of the big, ballpark style. And did the price drop? Eh, NO, Peg.

After the game I took my borrowed car to the old tiptoeing grounds of Danbury, CT, and played RBI Baseball with Brian. We did a World Series which he won, 4 games to 2, with him being the Giants and me being the Angels. Those are are usual teams. California lost the first two in San Fran, before tying the series up. But the Giants took game five and then went back home and took care of business in game six.

David waits on deck in the tenth as the umbrellas start to pop up...

More pics from yesterday's sweet game soon.