This photo gallery is brought to you by Ted's Fa m Equip. As my story continues, I'm now in New Bedford on Sunday morning after Saturday's wedding, which followed Friday night's clinching celebration. After a diner breakfast, my mom (my parents were also there for the wedding) went with me up to Fenway, while my dad went back to CT and my girlfriend also drove back up here.

Oh, and also, while in Nu Beige, after the wedding, my girlfriend and I went to our friend Kara's (who made the Pixies quilt, as opposed to cousin Kara, who you know from comments), where Kara and I finally initiated her into the Groundhog Day club. So, now, she can say "paaastry, Larry?" and actually know why. Above is the Pru from the Fens.

After driving around Fenway for a while, Mom and I were about to just give up and park in a lot, but a woman pulled out of a metered spot at the last minute, and we were gold. Free parking on Sundays, of course. Above, Luis Tiant with a kid on crutches on Yawkey Way.

The sun was out, and it was a beautiful-looking day. But, in my T-shirt and shorts, and in the shade of grandstand 32, I was shivering. I went to four games in this final week of the season, in late September in Boston, and, amazingly, I was only cold during the one day game. My mom offered to buy me a sweatshirt, but I told her they'd cost 50 bucks. She said, Nah, this one cost 20! I informed her that the one she was wearing was bought around 1988. She went and looked around later, only to come back and tell me I was right about the 50 bucks thing. Not worth it at all. I did use the money she gave me for the ticket to get my girlfriend an AL East Champs shirt, as she'd been longing to see the stupid Yanks' streak end more than anyone. I've always loved that kind of shirt--I remember begging for a 1988 AL East champs shirt for Xmas that year, and getting one. Still have it. But this year, I think I might wait to see how far we go before buying a shirt. As I look down right now, I see I'm wearing the AL Champs shirt from '04. The ultimate shirt.

David Ortiz and Torii Hunter.

At an earlier game, I'd looked over at section 32 from afar, and estimated that our seats might be right above the walkway, which i thought would be really cool. Turns out I was right. Here's a close-up of the Sox logo on the front of the top of the walkway. So we had no one in front of us, and we could put our feet up, but we had a pole between the mound and plate. But that's something I'm used to by now.

And here's my mom in our cool spot, right above the logo.

Here are some old-school ancestors of Royal Rooters, including a Dooley. I used to occasionally sit right next to the late Lib Dooley by the Sox' on deck circle in the late-80s, when my Yankee fan friend's dad could get the seats. Front row. Sweet. But about the Rooters: So, you know this movie is coming out about Sox fans, tracing us back to the Royal Rooters from 100 years ago. This is the movie I should have made. In 2003, after having read about the Rooters in history books all my life, I decided I wanted to do a documentary on them. I went to the web, and that's when I found redsoxnation.net, aka the "Royal Rooters Message Board." Look me up (ged-maniac) and you'll see I joined in 2003, though I rarely ever posted there--because shortly after, I started this blog, and obviously, I like it this way. Anyway, after the whole "Tessie" thing, I figured, Ah well, I guess I missed my chance, everybody knows about the Rooters now. Turns out I could've just gone ahead and made my doc. But these guys beat me to it, and came up with the angle of tying them into today's fans. So, good for them. I'm not mad at anybody but myself over this one.

Lugo makes a catch.

Manny warms up with Coco. I think this may be my first photo gallery with the red uniforms.

Look at the footwear on Manny.

If you could look to the right of this photo, you'd see Coco making a nice catch at the wall. I like the shadow, anyway.

Mike Lowell. I was trying to get a shot of everyone in the red.

Tavarez started. Here he throws as the dugout looks on.

"Look, now I'm way taller than you."

Manny, batting second one last time.

Papi, Lowell.



I always have fun when I sit near Manny, watching him wave at everybody.

Jason Varitek. I was trying to get him jogging back to first on the grass, as he'd already rounded second on a foul ball, but I was a little late.

Eventually, Tek made it to second base.

&Myers goes first to second.

Manny Ramirez with Jacoby Ellsbury on his head.

Julio Lugo cleaning his sunglasses.

Dustin Pedroia on second.

Papi doing his best Rickey Henderson impression.

Papi crosses paths with his buddy at the end of an inning.

31...32... Some seats to our left eventually became available, so we had a lot of time in completely unobstructed seats.

Ellsbury in right field. You'll notice he wore a blue sleeve instead of red on this day.

Jon "Sid" Lester pitching while Tito looks on.

&Myers is out.

Manny on first, but I was really just getting a shot where you can see the trees outside.

You can barely tell, but Pedroia has just left the game. Tito took him out with one out in an inning, so he could get an ovation, but the PA dude only announced who was coming in, not who was leaving. Between that and the fact that the run from second to the dugout is short, no one really noticed.

But after the next out, they took Lowell out, and this time they said "...replacing Mike Lowell." So he got a big applause and tipped his cap.

Tek doing his usual speedy dong trot. I happened to get him right on second.

The Fenway hawk was out. I actually saw it dive at some prey beyond the park. And a few days before, in pregame, she/he seemed to come out of the bullpen, and swooped around for a while before leaving.

We knew Papelbon would pitch on this day. Note: The Sunday, family section 32 crowd doesn't know the few words to "Shipping Up To Boston" yet, whereas your Friday night, bleacher crowd will sing along to it heartily. We also got a pretty good "after the music stops" sing-along to SC.

Doug Mirabelli up with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth. But for the second time in the series, I'd see a very frustrating, one-run Red Sox loss. But, this one was very easy to take, trust me. We'd already clinched everything there was to clinch. My mom really wanted to hear "Dirty Water," though....

So, I'd earlier written about how I thought Magglio should beat out A-Rod for MVP. I said he'd probably finish with a BA of about .345, whereas A-Rod would be closer to .305. Turns out he really turned it on, finishing at .363 to A-Rod's .314. So, he beat him by about 50 points, whereas A-Rod beat Magglio by 26 dongs. Is A-Rod gonna get the MVP based solely on home runs? His "astronomical" numbers are really just one inflated number. And his home run total is the same as Papi's last year, and nobody acted like that was a huge deal, except for us since he broke our team's record. Again, as long as the Yanks are knocked out, I don't care who gets it. I'm just saying, I hope the voters take a look at the numbers, instead of thinking, Well, everyone's talking about A-Rod's "earth-shattering, planet-saving year," so of course I'll vote for him. I think people are against him enough so that they'll look for a way to give it to someone else. I hope they notice Magglio's numbers.

Oh my lord, did you ever hear about how back in '83, after Atari made way too many of that god-awful E.T. game, they ended up dumping a lot of cartridges in a landfill? Well, this dude did a whole story on it. I love the part about "why this is interesting."

Happy birthday, Chan! 10-4, good buddy.