Good day for the Red Sox' starters today against New York (NL). Three shutout innings apiece for Wake Island and Pap I'll Land (That Closer's Role Again if Jere Has Any Say in it). Pap's only hit was a bloop double that dropped in between two players, according to some random person on a message board. All the regular-types either got a hit or knocked in a run, except for Dice in the Mir' (Mirabelli, not Dice-K). Currently it's 5-0 Sox in the sixth.

EXHIBITION GAME OVERREACTION UPDATE: It was a guarantee--not because I jinxed it, but because our bullpen is pretty shitty. I saw Donnelly's name, and I had no doubt runs would score. Sure enough, he walks the first two, then two singles, then Okajima comes in a boom, 3-run homer. 5 for the Mets in the seventh to tie. How about putting Pap back in the pen, even if it's for no other reason than so we'll have one solid pitcher out there?

GAND SLAM WALK-OFF BY ED ROGERS UPDATE: Yeah, that. Nice job, Ed. What a way to make a livin'.

I've been noticing on message boards lately that people will put an "@" before someone's name to imply they're referring specifically to that peron's previous comment.

For example:

Sh1tSt0rm said: I think Britney it hott with no hair. Also, I'm a total tool.

N0w0rryz84 said: @Shitstorm: She needs help. I'm a tool, too.

Now, while I agree with Britney's decision to shave her head (wicked hardcore, Britney!--to quote what my friend Bruce said to me when I showed up to work in 1998 with a shaved head after having had long hair for a decade), I can't stand by and watch people use this ridiculous "@" system. First of all, I've had enough of "@" in general. Second, and more importantly, AJM invented the correct way of speaking directly to someone in a comments section or message board, albeit accidentally--"jf." Meaning "just for."

Example:

bsmemorial: Terrible job by me for not commenting on Jere's blog anymore. I am missed.

michael leggett: jfbsmemorial: It is, indeed, a "TJ" by you. You haven't gone over to, Big Stein's, "dark side," have you? Or have the Fox Sports, gestapo, aka McCarver and co, abducted you?

peter n: jfEveryone: I love you all!

The red numbers on the blue jersey have the Sox moving into...the 90s. Of course, I've only seen photos so far. This weekend I'll be in NESN country for a while, and I hope to at least see some live highlights, since apparently they aren't showing many games this spring--none this weekend. We play the Mets today, but SNY is only showing Mets home games in ST. I think the first game I'll see is the Dunbar game on YES next Monday. I'll be sure to report on whether or not Kay describes these beautiful new hats and uniforms to the blind audience. Maybe he should keep it a secret from them: "The Yankees are decked out in their traditional road grays, no half-moon gussets or underarm color stripes to speak of here. Go to sleep little babies..."

'zaka threw three innings today--no runs. Hansen was the latest to show us what we had in Papelbon as he blew a three-run lead in the ninth, but the Sox came back with either 8 or 9 (the mlb scoreboard has been horrible with simple math so far this exhibition season--but, hey, addition is a "high level mental activity") in the tenth for a blowout win.

The Sox will be wearing these crazy new pedometers this year. You know, it's not just steps that count, it's the quality of the steps. Did you know Dustin Pedroia's value Over Replacement Steps is 4.5 repeating? And David Ortiz had 45 Calorie Shares last season? Those old pedometers are bullshit, I tell you. 'Number of steps' alone? Come on.

You've probably heard Nirvana's "Breed" (formerly "Immodium") in the new MLB video game commercials. Instead of giving you the usual "oh my god that blows my mind," well, I think I've reached the point now where the surprise is gone. The Buzzcocks are in every other commercial anyway. Henry Rollins is the narrator for any ad that needs a narrator. I've heard "Blister in the Sun" about twenty times in the last week. Devo is in a beer commercial. It's time for me to realize that all the ad agency people all know all the bands that were once unknown, and they're gonna choose those bands' songs sometimes. And now it's at the point where they've made it up to 1991--the point when I realized there was more to music than Skid Row.

So, unless I see Ian MacKaye pictured lounging around at a barbecue in one of those "Carlton is Lowest" print ads, I'm just never gonna be shocked by this stuff again.

Did you know there's beef fat in Ho Hos? Terrible job, Ho Hos.

Speakin' of ho hos, the Yanks are in dead last, which is a good sign. (You know my theory, wins=losses in spring training. Unless, of course, your team wins, in which case you can at least say "they're getting used to winning, which is good.")

Good to know Lester was back on the hill today.

The latest quote atop my blog is from this article. The language barrier is gonna lead to some hilarious quotes this season.

Another light-jacket day in the city, shown here through the bus window from New Jersey. Use mouse to control arrow- or Mickey Mouse hand-thing, putting it on top of each picture, to make that picture appear larger and alone.

Paul Pierce is the most recognizable Celt, to me, so I got a bunch of shots of him.

The Cs before the game.

This almost has to sound tongue-in-cheek, but, seriously, if you like a whole lot of bells and whistles--and explosions--with your sports, the NBA is for you. It definitely gets tiresome--music playing literally on every possession, and party during every time out, with cheerleaders and dancers and t-shirt tosses and fire and confetti--but at least they're trying, and I'm sure a lot of people, especially kids who have no clue what's going on, eat it up. If you only go to baseball games (at somewhere other than whatever Comiskey Park's called now), see an NBA game once.

The fact that it's hard to take pics when you're in the dark aiming at a very well-lit area makes for some cool blurriness sometimes. Uh, I mean, I meant to do this. The Nets do these weird jumps into each other doing intros. This is Mikki Moore and another dude.

My boy Mikki! (Gains "my boy" status because I went to college with the dude 13 years ago, and now he appears to be an NBA star, and also incredibly looks like my old drummer, who also used to wear tank tops, was tall and lanky, and tied back his dreads sometimes.)

My boy Mikki at the line. (It's pronounced like Mikey, by the way.)

Pierce in action.

The slam-dunk contest champ, Gerald Green, at the line. I love the new (?) black on the Celts' road unis. I told my girlfriend this on the night of the dunk contest. She asked if this made me any closer to becoming a Cs fan. Maybe, sweetie. May...be.

Doc doesn't seem to sure of this shot by Pierce. Paul missed a million shots in a row, and had 0 points close to halftime. But he eventually sunk some, and it didn't look so bad for him at the end.

As part of kids' day, they had kid cheerleaders. Doesn't it look like she's being used as the ball? I should draw in some players trying to pull her down off the glass. For an offensive she-bound. Sorry.

The looks on their faces sum up the Celts' season. Fe-bound? Okay, I'll stop. With a little over a minute left, the Nets were up by nine. I pulled out the camera, and thought it would be a good time to test the video function, thinking there might be some alley-oops in this blowout. As people were gathering their things and leaving, and me watching the game through my little camera screen, the Celts get a hoop and Chan says, "they always have to make it interesting..." I look at the scoreboard, shocked to see it was down to a three-point lead. But only seconds remained, and the Nets had the ball. They made two free throws, but the Celts quickly scored again on a three. They fouled again, and this time the Nets only made one, leaving the Celts with a chance for a game-tying three, which they got from Delonte West. It was captured by me below:



The Celts went on to win in OT. Wacko.

After the game, we took the bus back to the Port Authority, and decided to hang out in Times Square until we got hungry enough for dinner. Chan suggested we go into the Crowne Plaza to use their wicked pissers, so I in turn suggested we take the elevator to the top. (Hotels continue to rule with their "come in and do whatever you want and we'll assume you're a guest" policy. Terrorists: pretend you didn't hear that.) So we went to floor 46, and I took some shots out the window. Chan appears in the reflection of this shot. You can see Jersey off in the distance. In fact, that pointy building is visible in the first shot of this post, left of center.

46 stories above Times Square. Then we went to Mary-Ann's on 79th and 2nd, in AJM's wife's former territory. Rumor has it they might be closing. The one closer to Chan and I already closed. TJ. It's pretty good Mexican food. Enjoy.

I imagine something like this would be the holy grail for an eBay seller:

"Dear PantLoad45--

I saw your listing for the brown size 8 women's snowpants today. Honestly, I have no interest in winter sports, nor am I a woman. I couldn't even tell you how I found the item. But when I saw that you wrote the word "awesome" in capital letters with three asterisks on either side, I clicked the "Buy It Now" button.

I don't know what I'll do with the pants, nor how I'll explain the missing money from my wife's and my joint bank account. (We've got three young children--one handicapped--and we're almost out of Chardonnay!) But if they're as awesome as you say they are, I'm sure everything will work out fine.

Keep up the good selling! (I work at an advertising agency and can talk to my HR person if you're looking for a job.)

TTYL,

3KidzOneCapped"

But I keep getting free tix, so here you go, the game-tying shot by Delonte West in today's high school-quality matchup between the Nets and Celts:

Pics to come tomorrow.

Here's a poor folk's video-podcast I just made. Part 1:


Part 2, Havana Nights:


Oh crap. "ogspot.com." Oh well. I'm not gonna redo it at this point. Hey, March 3rd. Happy birthday to the "JA--Junior Adult" dude.

Is SNY (the Mets' network) a sister station of NESN or something? On their nightly highlight show--after earlier showing almost every batter of Die Skay's outing tonight--they threw it out to Tina Cervasio, reporting on Dicey with NESN shirt and microphone. At the end she said, "reporting for SportsNite New York, this is Tina Cervasio." Maybe they just commandeered her to get a direct report on Deem At.

I got more free Nets tickets for tomorrow's game. They play the Celts. If any of you Cs fans out there in laptopland have any favorites, let me know, and I can snap some shots of him or her.

Shaughnessy's son, that is. I turned on the radio in time to hear Tavarez strike him out. He took a good cut, according to Castiglione, in his first at bat as a member of Boston College, who we're playing right now.

I went back and checked the message board to see that Dice-inator gave up a double but nothing else in two innings. His line is a permanent fixture at the bottom of ESPNews right now. In fact, when I put that on, they were interviewing Papelbon. It seemed live.

This year's gonna be fun.

What would you call a documentary about scaffolding?

"Menace in the Sky"

or

"The People's Umbrella"?

Big number 92 Scott White has hit two homers for the Sox against Northeastern today. After being no-hit for three innings by the college kids, we exploded for either six or eleven runs.

The other half of the Sox is trailing the Jays 4-1 late, as Hansack and Gabbo, Gabbo, GABBO have given up runs, I believe.

Damon and Giambi have gone deep for Dunbar against the Twin Cities.

Okay, mlb.com's scoreboard just updated. They'd left out another 5-run inning in that Northeasern game. Final: Sox 11, whatever Northeastern is called 0. Bulldogs, right? Update: Huskies. Whoops.