Thursday, September 06, 2007

Toronto At Red Sox, 9/5/2007

Mike Lowell about to make the last out in Wednesday night's game. A bunch of people left when the Jays went up two in the ninth. TJ by them, but it was late. And a school night. A lot of people stayed, as you can see, but I was able to move up to this spot at the end. Click these for large-esse.

No batting practice pics this time. I got to the game in the first inning. Terrible Joba by me, but I knew this would be the case going in. Anyway, I did the back of RF grandstand thing at first and ate my four-dollar cheese slice. Here's Jacoby & Myers Ellsbury in left.

Drinkwater and Kapstein from 500 feet away, with Pesky's Pole in foreground.

Schilling on the hilling. I purposely left in the roof in the top of the shot.

Looking out beyond the right field grandstand into the edge of the Big Concourse and out beyond the park. Fenway High School is across the street. I like how when you enter Gate B, you're not really entering a building, just going through a hole in a brick wall. I get the feeling like when someone goes from room to room on TV but walks in front of the set.

Have you ever seen a cat lie on his back like this? I never have. But our cats do it for some reason. Oh right, the game....

Varitek on second.

Tavarez: "Gagne, you keep shitting the bed and I'll punch you with this here fist."

Another picture of the Papi shift.

Papi is out trying to stretch a single into a double.

Love the Fenway beachballs.

A shorn Gagne.

I walked all the way around the park and found a great spot behind section 22. Here's Schilling from the better, but equally-priced angle. You can get great views in this park, cheaply and easily. You know, I was on craigslist yesterday, and saw someone ask for a single ticket for the A's series. I actually e-mailed him and said, "Go to redsox.com right now and buy one. I just did." People are so brainwashed at this point that "you can't get tickets," that they don't even think to go to the place the tickets come from! Oh, and on my way to the park, I heard some FM deejay saying the same, how you have to wait for a season ticket-holder to die to get into Fenway. Uh, I go to, like, 15 games there a year, all tickets bought for face value. Easy. Granted, I don't have kids to take care of. But it's still pretty easy to sit there in your home on the internet while your kids are playing Par-effin'-chesi, or on the internet themselves, getting seduced by internet predators or buying shorts that have a clever word on the ass or making their 12,426th myspace friend who they've never met in real life or whatever it is kids do today.

Also note the crap on the screen, including a water bottle that's somehow vertical, right by Varitek's head.

My view of &Myers in left. That Yankee score was 2-1 Seattle for a long time. They would end up walking in runs on close pitches and giving up cheap hits to lose big.

Paula Zaun, crazy catching-robot.

The wide shot of the field, including the rarely-seen underside of the roof in that area. It's the Billie Jean disco floor format instead of the rafters further out along the baselines.

Lugo makes contact. So, normally I don't go behind the screen. I always think, It'll get in the way of my pictures. Last night it hit me: 1. Who the F cares? 2. It's not like the pics won't get published if they're not good enough. 3. I'd rather be where I want to be, and not worry about what the pics will look like. 4. Shots with the screen in the way can be pretty cool.

&Myers up with the bases loaded.

Youk takes a strike. I didn't notice the water bottle all night. I only discovered it looking at the pics later.

Youk was hit by a pitch as usual. Overbay seemed really concerned about the whole thing for some reason.

I visualized Tek homering down the line, as I had a great view of it. And he did. Here he does his patented home run sprint. Before this homer, Tek hit a foul ball that the home plate ump almost got on a bounce, but missed it. He was clearly making motions to indicate: "Crap, I almost had that. That woulda been sweet!" Tek stepped out and started taking practice swings, as the ball rolled to a spot right behind his feet. Tek didn't know the ball was anywhere near him. The ballboy came out, and he and the ump were trying to figure out who should get the ball. But neither wanted to get decked by the clueless Varitek's rod of lumber. The ump ended up doing a little dance. It was really funny. I caught the replay on NESN later, and they totally missed this, going right to their Dunkin' Dugout thing after the ball was fouled off. Then Jason hit his mighty dong.

Tek on the mound waiting for the new pitcher. I really thought we'd hang on to win this game. But when Drew couldn't get the run home from third with the bases loaded, I was pissed. As was the rest of the crowd, who booed the hell out of him. Also note that Pedroia wasn't playing. Why? Well, when a guy's that hot, you want to take him out to cool him down..... What the crap???

Corey on the hill. Or, as trendy people continue to call it, the bump.

I love how this guy ran across my shot behind Vernon Wells.

Maine's Stair Mattster, Matt Stairs.

Frank Thomas imitating Costanza jumping over the puddle.

Papi gives Jacoby some advice.

Papi & Myers, with Drinkwater at bottom left in blue.

Stairs has just finished a chat with the man in the Wall.

Lowell up.

Lowell avoids the inside pitch with men on base.

Close-up of Ellsbury.

Now &Myers avoids the inside pitch.

Now for the bottom of the ninth, I've moved closer. Down two, we had the right people coming up. Ellsbury had a long at bat, but couldn't reach base.

Then Papi made the second out, before Lowell quickly ended it.

I had to park at the Common Garage, so I did the long, lonely walk through the Back Bay. Here are Juliet & Juliet in the dark. (At least last I heard they were both female. That could've changed by now.)

Comments:
Have you ever run into Zack Hample while you were meandering around the park? He's the guy that's made a hobby out of snagging baseballs before and during games. I heard him on the radio and he seemed pretty cool in a slightly obsessive kind of way.
 
I had no idea about this dude. 3,000 balls, shit. And to think, I was gonna do a little series about the FOUR balls I've gotten. (All BP.)

I don't think I've seen him live, but I'll go back through and see if he was at any games I was at and look through my pics. Maybe.
 
About Hample. I've been reading all about him. Cool that he's anti-Yankee, likes video games, Scrabble, rubber band balls, and of course, getting baseballs. I take it he was one of those rich kids?

Anyway, he's been to 3 games at Fenway, 17 balls, no game balls. I could probably give him some tips about getting Fenway BP balls....
 
I love Greg Zaun for inexplicable reasons. I'll bet he hates being called "Z-Man".

Great photos as usual.
 
Thanks! I played Little League with a Z-named kid, and he LOVED being called "Z."
 
Eleven years later, I'll say his name: Brian Zeyer. As for the whole Zack Hample thing, it's weird because now we're real-life friends! (I said to nobody..... or did I? Comment if you're reading this!)
 

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