The first Red Sox tickets have arrived in Jere-town. Same design as last year, but with new pictures--including the shot at left of the '67 outfield. Yaz, Reggie Smith, and Tony C. The only other picture I've seen so far is a Varitek one. So they haven't gone completely retro. Another new thing is that you can get different pics on two different tix for the same game--today I recieved whatever the singular of Sox Pax is, and each game has a Yaz ticket and a Varitek ticket. I kind of thought the Sox Pax came in a box with a bow or something, as I'd never been able to score one until this season. But it just came in the gray envelope with the white one inside. (I see they haven't taken any steps in preventing last year's packaging glitch, which is the sticky part of the outer envelope sticking to the inner one.) They threw in a schedule, as per tradition, and the one I got has a picture of Wally looking ridiculous with a Santa Claus hat on. More tix to flood my mailbox in the next few days. Sweet. Love that gray envelope.

The other new phonebook of the day is J.D. Drew. Supposedly, they'll announce tomorrow that the deal is done. Did you read that last line? "Drew is not expected to come to Boston tomorrow for the announcement." Great, J.D. You wouldn't want to go out of your way or anything. I wonder if he sees the irony: The guy who everyone thinks of as the "won't go out of his way" type before they even meet him doesn't show up for the meeting.

What's with the Fox games starting at 3:55 eastern this season? I've never heard of a :55 start. I've heard of the current norm, :05, the old Yanks-on-channel-11 top of the hour-style (8:00), the Blue Jays' :07 invention, the recent Shea trend of :10 and :40 (the D-Backs are on a strict diet of :40 this season), the Devil Rays' choice, :15 (although they've gone to :10 this season), the old Fox time, :20, the old-school :30, and the Braves' :35. But I've never heard of :25, :45, :50, or :55 starts. Although some team had to have used :45 before. This year, there will also be this travesty: 7:11 starts in Chicago. And the Patriots' Day game will indeed be an hour earlier this season, at 10:05 AM.