Yanks go to Balty. Chisox have four against the Natives. Minny has the Mote Sit Kits in the H-cubed dome for four. We get to play the Royals. I think we can gain here. On somebody. Anybody. Come on, Red Sox, be pretty! Be pretty! I'll be there Friday night and I expect nothing less than a 10-0 win over KC.

Empy pointed out to me that today marks the day of Rich Gedman's Major League debut. 9/7/80. You'd think I would've known, since it says it on the back of his baseball cards, of which I have many. More than anyone in the world, I'd guess. I even have a Rich Gedman card that came inside the Orioles 1994 Yearbook. An update on my Gedman cardquest will be posted soon.

I've never done this before, but I'm finally going to give you a funny keyword search that led to my blog. It's like getting a tattoo--I was just waiting for the ultimate one to come up before deciding to take that next step. Ready?

"red sox pitching what went wrong"

Funny thing is, this blog doesn't even come up on the first three pages of sites if you type those words into Google. Whoever this person is, they're on a serious quest for answers. Good luck!


"From time to time, we'll go to beach and my son will leave and I'll say, 'Where are you going?' He says, 'I'm going to watch the Red Sox.' So I'll go with him." --Rich Gedman, January, 2003

But they don't know what it means and we say Ahhhhhh!Above: Anibal Sanchez pitching in the Hall of Fame Game, May, 2005. (I also have video of him pitching to Carlos Pena that day.) Tonight, Anibal pitched a no-hitter. Unfortunately, he wasn't the Red Sox pitcher. Ours was Snyder. And Corey. And DiNardo. And Hansen. And Breslow. And Burns. They combined on a 14-hitter. And 8-runner. (I shouldn't make fun of Breslow. He's the CT kid born on 8/8/80 who had a key strikeout the other day that I forgot to mention.)

Anyway, Hanley Ramirez made a nice play in the field, and he also threw Kookie Kookie Lend Me Your Comb out at first to end the game.

In our game, it looked really, really good for the first half inning plus. Three quick outs by KySny, then our first two guys reach for Papi and Manny. And that was it. The next eight plus innings stunk. At least Randy's no-hit bid fell short. That would've capped off my evening like a pee-laced beverage of some sort.

Lowe, tonight: IP-8.0 H-3 ER-0 (W)
Sanchez, tonight: IP-9.0 H-0 ER-0 (W)
Arroyo, last night: IP-9.0 H-3 ER-0 (W)
Suppan, last night: IP-7.2 H-5 ER-0 (W)
Meredith, last night: IP-2.0 H-1 ER-0 (W) (all year: IP-34 H-19 ER-3)

Over the last two nights, these five former Red Sox are 5-0 with an 0.00 ERA, giving up 12 hits over 35.2 innings. Hell, even Sonny Kim only gave up 2 runs in 5 innings tonight.

I said god damn.

Full set of pics from a happier night below.

Monday, September 4th, 2006. Labor Day. Night game. Terrible. But as long as Big Stein keeps crankin' that money machine, the rest of us will be forced to play as many night games as possible in an attempt to keep pace, revenue-wise. Waiting for gates to open on Yawkey Way, Empy nudged me to point out the wacky doll in the arms of the woman on the other side of me. I looked over to discover it was Cyn, aka Red Sox Chick, who was there with Triumphant Sox Fan. Weird. She told me they were in the pavilion. I later spotted her from my seat in the bleachers with the zoom on my video camera.The Monster had this mystery cover on it. More on that later. I'd also like to mention this game would be my fourth walk-off win at Fenway--this season!

Ladies Love Cool 'Chino. Here, LL introduces some kid to Trot Nixon.

Trot started gesturing at someone. Me? Empy?

Empy starts saying, "I got a picture of Trot making a funny face." "At us, I think," said I. It was really getting weird. I finally figured out it was someone ahead and to the left of us, but these still look pretty cool, like he's making faces for the camera.

I said to Empy, "That guy looks familiar." "Duke Castiglione," she told me. What a moron I was on that one. Jesus to Joe's God, right in front of me, and I didn't recognize him.

David Murphy. I took pics of this dude the previous week on the same field, only he had a PawSox uni on.

I had hoped Papi would return that night, but it would be the next night.

He did take BP, though. And, like Trot, he looked right at me. And by "me" I mean someone near me.

Pesky tosses a ball to a fan. He's probably still mourning the loss of Charlie Wagner. While I'm talking about that, I should mention that TC's father recently died as well, as did 32-year old NESN videographer Jason Gagne. Sad. Back to non-dying news, have you seen Remy and Don talking about that kid who modeled the brown NESN T-shirt? That's some funny stuff.

Carlos Pena is shown here, barely visible, getting interviewed before the game. "Will you hit a walkoff homer tonight, hometown hero Carlos Pena?" "Yes. Yes I will."

Kyle Snyder, aka Newbronson. He just gave up a homer to Thome, as I wrote that.


I headed out to the bleachers, while Empy stayed by the dugout, so we could attempt one of my lifelong dreams: To take a picture of someone I know from really far away. She attempted to take mine using her new camera's zoom. Can you find her? Clue: She's neither the girl in the green shirt nor the guy in the white hat.

It was an okay night weather-wise, but the breeze had me shivering by the late innings. But Fenway looked beautiful at twilight as usual.

You've seen it on every Sox blog including mine. The shot of Jason heading out to the 'pen. But on this night, the night of his return, he raised his mask and shin guards at the applauding fans.

I scanned the pavilion, and found Cyn. Her three friends must've been getting beer or something. She's the one person in this shot who's by herself. You can even see the green doll. So I got to live out one of my L.L.D.'s twice in one hour.

I missed the unveiling of the mystery banner. I was waiting for the fried dough to come out. I did get this shot of it, though. Turns out it was in honor of Schilling reaching the 3,000 K mark. Congratulations, Schill, you're at the bottom of this particular list!

Manny is introduced for the first time in a while at Fenway. (When he took the field, he came out last, instead of the usual ten seconds before the rest of the team.) He was cheered wildly, as could be expected, unless you're the moron I heard on EEI on my way to the game, who suggested there'd be a smattering of boos, from the people who thought that Manny faked an injury for like two weeks. In fact, I heard McAdam say that if there was a gun to his head, he'd say Manny faked his injury initially. I'd like to see Manny take that guy down in some sort of cage match and then accuse him of faking his broken neck. Hey, man, sources close to the situation who I absolutely refuse to name say you're fakin', buddy. [Note to children: Cage matches don't happen in real life. Do not assault your local newspaper reporter.]

Manny must've faked this double in his first at bat. Here, he gives the "I clearly faked this double" gesture, as a small Mark Loretta balances on his head.

Trot also got a great ovation after his long absense. In his first at bat, he got hit by a pitch. (You can click to N-large, but they're almost better at this size. But you be the judge.)

And Tek made the third retirn of the night, getting the loudest ovation.

Here, two White Sox do some kind of dance.

Okay, now I'll add yesterday's post to this one. Ignore the lines about pics not being able to load. They're all here now. Everything below this paragraph was originally posted on September 5th at 9:50 PM. The original post with its comments (including some good stuff about fans going on fields) will stick around, two posts below this one

I can't take it anymore. Waiting for my pics to upload to Blogger. So I'm going to just give you the few that worked for now. Fortunately for you, I started at the end. So besides this picture of Dennis Eckersley...



...everything you see will be related to the walkoff homer by Carlos Pena.

Here he heads for home. This is where I started filming (these are stills, click to enlarge and make more pixelated). I let myself enjoy the moment before reaching for the camera, which is a good thing to do.

Manny mistook the initial jump as the main jump, costing him a chance at celebrating mid-pile.



A few more celebration shots. I don't know if NESN said anything about this, but some kid came onto the field and tried to celebrate with the team, I guess. See the below shot:

Just to the left of the pile (which features Wally, sneaking his furry face into the frame, at far right), you'll see the security guy in white shirt and tan pants. He's in the act of tackling/pushing this hooligan toward the side wall. He essentially checked the guy into the boards, while nearly, it appears, losing his pants.

The dude landed in the crowd after going head over heels over the wall, and after they pulled him out of there, they carted him away.

I'll try again to add the rest of my pics to this post tomorrow. In the meantime, we're steadily gaining on the White Sox if no one else. Another win tonight, and we are in good shape again. Considering. And by "good shape" I mean "kinda okay shape." But I am still hoping. I think these guys can do it.

Went to this game with Empy--check out her review of the game.

During that last Jimmy Fund pledge drive, I heard that Jason Giambi made a donation from the Yankee clubhouse during a game at Fenway. Today, I heard Giambi shaved his moustache (hooray for us!) in the clubhouse between at bats on Monday night. And it got me thinking about designated hitters and all the time they have to just screw around. You could get your at bat in, then go to the clubhouse, take a shower, get into your bathrobe and pipe ensemble, and work on your novel for literally an hour. And if the other team's got a superstar on the mound and your team is throwing Jason Johnson, you could get an entire night's sleep in bewtween at bats.

That's enough of that lame topic. Now, on to Guns 'n' Roses. I found this video of them on Headbanger's Ball, during the pre-Rachtman era. It's from '87, but I taped in in '93. The host tells the five stoned band members, on the count of four, to join him in saying... well, just watch. This cracks me up every single time. Click below.

I can't take it anymore. Waiting for my pics to upload to Blogger. So I'm going to just give you the few that worked for now. Fortunately for you, I started at the end. So besides this picture of Dennis Eckersley...



...everything you see will be related to the walkoff homer by Carlos Pena.

Here he heads for home. This is where I started filming (these are stills, click to enlarge and make more pixelated). I let myself enjoy the moment before reaching for the camera, which is a good thing to do.

Manny mistook the initial jump as the main jump, costing him a chance at celebrating mid-pile.



A few more celebration shots. I don't know if NESN said anything about this, but some kid came onto the field and tried to celebrate with the team, I guess. See the below shot:

Just to the left of the pile (which features Wally, sneaking his furry face into the frame, at far right), you'll see the security guy in white shirt and tan pants. He's in the act of tackling/pushing this hooligan toward the side wall. He essentially checked the guy into the boards, while nearly, it appears, losing his pants.

The dude landed in the crowd after going head over heels over the wall, and after they pulled him out of there, they carted him away.

I'll try again to add the rest of my pics to this post tomorrow. In the meantime, we're steadily gaining on the White Sox if no one else. Another win tonight, and we are in good shape again. Considering. And by "good shape" I mean "kinda okay shape." But I am still hoping. I think these guys can do it.

Went to this game with Empy--check out her review of the game.

Update, 9/6/06 8:08 PM: Click here for the rest of the pics.

Pena walkoff was cool. I was in bleachers with Empy. Pics to come. Tek, Manny, Trot return. Would've liked to have seen David's return. Oh well.

On the field, I've gone from numb to psyched for the final month of baseball. We're in this race. Great job by Snyder tonight.

Off the field, it's just one thing after another. Terry looked like he'd been crying when I saw him at the press conference. Papelbon is now hurt. He says he may just need a few days. Hopefully nothing serious. Schilling will now be missing a start, after stiffening up after his last one--so tomorrow we start Kevin Jarvis, pitching for his tenth team.

But the worst news is Jon Lester. As Royal Tenenbaum said, he's "got a pretty bad case of cancer." They try to make it seem like good news that it's "treatable." But the truth is there's no cure for what he's got. Such a young guy. So sad. He will have to undergo chemo most likely, and even if it goes away, it could come back at any time in his life.

Did I ever tell you I thought Lester looks like Sid Vicious? I mean, if you put Sid in a baseball uniform and cleaned him up a little, of course. Sid's real name was Jon, too, actually. Here's hoping our Jon's got a little Sid in him to fight off this disease. You know, sneer and spit at the thing.

Papi should be back Monday, though. I'll be there. What a moment that'll be, when he's announced. And Tek and Trot and Gonzo won't be far behind. We've got head-to-head action with all three teams we're chasing, so we've got a shot. Just don't think about Jarvis, Gabbo, and [unknown] being our starters. It's better for your mental health, trust me.

Scarlet Fever tells us what really happened on that ball that the dude knocked over the wall. (Scroll down for video. No, past the nickname thing. No, keep going, past the Arabian Knights cartoon from 1968. There ya go.)

A note about perspective. Even if it was true that serious off-field issues "put things in perspective," how about we just don't use it because it's really, really cliched? But if you do use it, think about it: Did you really forget that people get diseases because you hadn't heard of someone close to you getting one lately? Do you normally watch baseball and think, "Wow, everything's right with the world"? I'm not saying I go around reminding people not to have too much fun because they might die and that there's too much suffering in the world to think about baseball or YouTube videos or cotton candy. But when I hear the dreaded "this really puts it all in perspective" line, it makes me think the person doesn't care about bad things as long as they don't directly affect them. Of course bad things happening to you or your loved ones hurt more than if it were a stranger. But perspective? Don't we have that already? Why do we gain perspective only to lose it again so quickly that we are forced to gain it every single time somebody has a health problem? How about this--if you're only just now getting perspective, hang on to it! Realize that bad things are happening constantly all over the world. When they happen to you, do your best to make lemonade, or better yet, squeeze that lemon til the juice runs down life's leg. And live, dammit, as a wise person once shouted. When someone else is suffering, make them laugh. And when someone dies, celebrate who they were and make someone else laugh using a joke the dead person once told you.

I think Bob COSE-tass said this better than me once. But I tried. (That link isn't to Costas taling about this. It's just a funny skit featuring Costas that me, Chan, and apparently JS have always liked.)

Click above. From Berman's Nickname Show, Xmas '93. On the Julio Cruz stolen base higlight, check out Remy, who receives the throw. He tries to fake out Cruz by pretending he's forgotten about him, then turning around real quick. Doesn't quite work. For Remy to think Cruz would've actually strayed off the base in that half-second where he turns around is ridiculous. I thought it was funny. Game is May 6th, 1983. (This explains how I inadvertently came up with theMays/Buckner/Griffey thing.) I saw that number 22 was at first, and I thought it was Buckner. Turns out he only wore 22 for the Sox in '90. It was Ed Jurak at first. A little more retrosheeting led me to only two games where Cruz ever stole second for the M's at Fenway. On May 8th, he did it, but Remy had left the game before it happened (don't know why he left after one at bat; he started the next game and played in 146 games that season)--and it was a day game. So this night highlight with Remy has to be the sixth inning of 5/6/83. Cruz would steal third after that, and then score on Jamie Allen's two-run single, giving Allen the first two ribbies of his career. He'd end up with 21. That gave the M's a 4-2 lead, but Jim Rice's three-run double in the seventh gave the Sox the win, as Remy scored the go-ahead run on the play, before Rice was thrown out at third trying to stretch. Later, Jurak knocked in Rich Gedman with an insurance run. 6-4 Sox, final. We stayed in first by .5 games over the Orioles, who kept pace with a 9-2 victory against the A's at Memorial Stadium. Daryl Strawberry would make his major league debut on this date as well.


But enough about that, click above for one of the greatest cartoons ever. Actually, this is from a Banana Splits episode (one of my favorite shows as a nursery schooler, depite not being high while watching) that I taped during a BS marathon on TBS in 1993. I watched this the other day and thought it was so funny how...succint is was. Then I realized there's an edit there right after the opening theme. But it works as a ten-second cartoon. Opening title, summary, donkey, the end. Perfect. From 1968.

Willie Mays started his career on May 25th, 1951. He later played in the same game as Bill Buckner on September 21st, 1969. Buckner later played in the same game as Ken Griffey, Jr., on May 2nd, 1990. Griffey played Wednesday. 55 years, connected by three dudes.

If anyone wants to take this further back, be my guest.

I can't even remember why I started doing this research. It wasn't to find that out. But thanks once again to retrosheet.org, for being the best thing since intersliced bread.