Click to enlarge. Went to this hill you can see Boston from.

Boston again.

On the way out of that hilly area, we saw this baby blue jay that seemed unafraid of humans.

So, like I said, I've been working on a post about the Red Sox 80s road uniforms. Fortunately, I have it almost finished, and I'll get it up before Monday morning. But what are the odds the team actually wears the uniforms right as I'm about to post this thing? I wanted it to be this big expose, out of nowhere. Now everybody's talking about them. On UniWatch, they do "open thread" on the weekends. I had a feeling the game last night would be the topic today, though I hoped it wouldn't be. Sure enough, the topic is the Padres' 80s uniforms. The guy who writes the quickie weekend column didn't seem to notice the Sox wearing our '82 unis. Well, good, I thought, keep the attention off of it. Nope--that just made the commenters start yapping about our unis. Now they're over there talking about BOS/TON, BO/STON, etc. I'm afraid the whole article I'm writing is gonna come out, essentially, through those comments. This is killing me. What are the odds we end up playing a team having an 80s retro night, causing us to actually wear the unis I was gonna write the definitive story on? I guess I should look at it this way--people may actually be searching the topic, giving me more hits. We'll see. I just feel like I'm latching on to a topic, when what I'm really doing is writing what was supposed to be a completely random piece on uniforms I thought we'd never see again.

I suppose next the Sox will change their name to the Billings Parents, right after I've drawn up these logos. Enjoy:

Here's video I shot of Dave Roberts' first at bat on Sunday. The sound on this doesn't do it justice. Also, keep in mind this was his third day back...

Majestic did a nice job getting the BOS, space, TON, just like we had from '79-'83. No stirrups, though, and not the old white numbers on the helmets.

I'm noticing that the lettering seems thinner. Look at the "O"s in BOSTON. Way too thin. I'm looking at old pics right now of Jim Rice, and the Os were thicker, with much less of a hole in the middle than what I'm seeing on my screen. I could be wrong, though. The number font seems off to me, too. A tiny bit. Again, I may be just seeing things. Of course, we knew going in they were gonna be the current baggy style, which just makes the whole thing look different. And the red sleeves are wrong, too. Add in the pics on the scoreboard of the Sox with nose rings and mohawks and stuff, and this is one weird night. Also, Khalil Green has somehow found a way to look even more like Jeff Spicoli....

In the meantime, two RBI singles, and we lead 2-1.

What's with Maddux? That pitch may have been a strike in his magic strike zone, but it was surely off the plate....

Note: September 24th, 1989. The last time a black number 10 was worn on a Red Sox uniform. (Not including any other retro or future games...then again, why count this one? To mention Gedman.) Rich Gedman wore it in Detroit and went 0-4 with four strikeouts. The following season the Sox switched to the road uniform they wear today. Well, not literally today. You know what I mean. Just weird to see Geddy's old 10 out there on Coco. Probably the same size jersey, too....

....Bonds up, bases loaded, down four vs. Yanks, and he walks in a run. Note: ball 3 was shown as being almost directly in the middle of the zone on Gameday...

How is Wily Mo Pena in the major leagues? This absolutely has to be a bribery situation. Have I brought this up before? Has it happened to come up? Strip that guy for parts already. It's not even funny anymore. And as I say that, David Murphy replaces Wily. Meanwhile, the Yanks took out No Dice Kei, but they got out of that inning, and lead 5-2 after 5.

This Kouzmanoff guy--wears number 5, has a long name on his back, and look at that stance. It's like Nomar's playing beer league softball for the yellow and brown team. "Padres Plumbing."

Wow, just saw a shot of Dustin--he's got the blue sleeves underneath, and the crowd behind him, something about it just gave me bad '86 World Series memories. We're still up 2-1 at stretch time. Nice job by Dice after a shaky start. And MDC with Marty Barrett's number, and the blue underneath. So weird. And now he's pitching to a guy named Barrett.

"You got the 1310, your 1490, and the 1550!" That kid is awesome. You know that kid? With a head like a potato? Usually child-star types annoy the hell out of me. Like the Jerry MacGuire kid, or, oh man, I shudder to think of him--the "I see dead people" kid. But this potato boy cracks me up every time. You should see his truck... It's almost like they didn't think about it, they just chose the first kid that could say the lines. In fact, he was barely in the first commercial at all, then it's like the second one, they gave him more lines after the public demanded more of potato-boy.

Meanwhile, Oak is in, and he's out of the eighth. We go to the ninth, up 2-1. Bonds just homered off the assman. Had to do it with the damn bases empty... Yanks now up 6-3. More '86 memories, as I see Murphy's "BOSTON" with just crowd behind it. Probably the most footage I've seen of these unis since we stopped wearing them is from that World Series. Gimme some good Dave Henderson memories, brain! Lugo 0-4, down to an astonishing .198. We go bottom nine. Pap.

Assman gives up another hit, and I see two "pickoff attempt"s, and I know what they're doing, stalling for Mo, with five outs to go. Sure enough, they do it. You're so predictable, Torre. And Pap gets the first guy, looking fine. Gets the second out. Tying run coming up in Yanks game in eighth. Sox Nation going nuts in San D... Yanks out of it, go to ninth up three. I'm up now, with two strikes... Crap, Pap thinkin' macho instead of makin' the guy chase, and Murphy may have had a chance to catch that. Two strikes, and I'm up again... Hell yeah!!! Pap! After Remy claims gift on an earlier strike right on the corner, he then Ks the guy. (Didn't hear Remy making fun of Maddux for getting totally pissed about a pitch eight inches off the plate earlier. We're 10.5 up, as the Yanks hold on. Gold. 6 out of our last 7, and almost done with interleague.

Tonight is '80s retro night in San Diego. According to Quinn's site, the Red Sox and Padres will be wearing their 1982 uniforms. (I can't find any documentation anywhere else giving the exact year, but I'm sure Quinn has his sources.)

If it is the '82 uniforms, let's keep an eye on them. Not the Padres ones--of course theirs will be the main focus compared to the bland Red Sox ones. I'm talking about, of course, the positioning of the letters on the chests of the Sox. It should have the BOS to the left of the buttons and the TON to the right, with a space along the button zone. It was '84 when we (most players) switched to the style with BO on the left, then the S on the button line to the right of the flap, followed by TON.

What I better not see is these modern-day replicas (inexplicably referred to as "official") which have the S cut in half, to perfectly center BOSTON. (Actually, after seeing some of these up close, there are really one and a half S's. One full S below the flap which is half covered. And another half S on the flap, covering half of the lower S.

Also, the letters shouldn't be sewn on and raised, like they are on the modern retro jerseys (which also, TERRIBLY, have the player names on the back). They should be cheesy iron-on style.

I have written about this extensively, and actually have been planning another article about it, which, thanks to this development of the team actually wearing the old uniforms tonight, will be up here at some point before Monday morning.

Oh, and keep an eye out for stirrups!

It went down to the wire, but Southwest Connecticut's AJM correctly answered the 24th and final quiz, picking up 4.6 points and giving him his second straight championship. He joins DannyDeej as the only two quiz champions in history. (Click here for the all-time results.)

My cousin Kara out in San Diego came in second place.

Here are the final standings:

1. AJM: 29.45
2. Kara C.: 21.82
3. savethejellyfish: 18.23
4. mattysox: 12.9
5. Amy: 10.8
6. JS: 9.6
7. bsmemorial: 7.9
8. Mel in NH: 4.6
9. (ryan) m: 1.7
10. redsock: 1.5
11. mighty quinn: 1.1
12. sanfransoxfan: 0.1
12. Witch City Sox Girl: 0.1
12. Lance: 0.1
12. Jere's Mom: 0.1
12. Future: 0.1
12. Michael Leggett: 0.1
12. Dan: 0.1
12. Novella: 0.1
12. pweezil: 0.1
21. Everyone else in the whole world except Nick Smith: 0.0
6,602,224,175. Nick Smith: (-1.0)

Thanks for playing, everyone! Watch for the '07-'08 Quiz season to start after the baseball season ends. (With a possible Quiz pre-season during October....)

As stated previously, AJM, as the winner, will receive:

1. A Rich Gedman 1982 Topps (rookie) baseball card.

2. A Rich Gedman 1982 Fleer (rookie) baseball card.

3. His choice of an autographed baseball card of one of the following Red Sox players: Marc Sullivan, Dave Stapleton, or Bruce Hurst. (Remember the "warning": "You know, I gotta admit, the Hurst autograph looks pretty fake, like some kid did it.") AJM has earlier expressed interest in the Stapleton upon hearing the prize list initially, but he'll have to let me know his final choice.

4. A DVD featuring one or more of my movies, as yet to be decided.

5. A special first place badge.

6. The original ransom-note style collage I made, which is known to you as the banner atop this blog (minus the surrounding Gedman cards), autographed by the artist aka me.

As the runner-up, Kara will receive:

1. A 1982 Rich Gedman Topps (rookie) baseball card.

2. A DVD containing one or more of my movies.

3. A "not quite good enough" badge.

4. Another piece of yet-to-be-determined artwork that appears somewhere on this blog, autographed by the artist aka me.

These people can also e-mail me to give (or re-give) me their mailing addresses, or to talk about a meetup.

My mom had also agreed earlier to give out a copy of her latest book as a special prize. Winner(s) of the book will be determined soon.

And remember, Quiz season, as always, is brought to you by Coke Blak:

Yesterday was the first day of summer. WEEI has now talked about basketball, hockey, and football since the last time I heard them talk about baseball.

Say it with me, folks: Terrible job.

Only 159 players in the majors currently have a slugging percentage higher than Johnny Damon's.

If you think Coco's doing badly, or if you've still got Yankee fans inexplicably, desperately telling you things like, "tell Theo thanks for Damon," as if they're a winner and you're a loser, despite that Damon only has a ring with the Red Sox, note that Coco's stats this year are almost identical to Damon's. (Only Coco plays defense and is six years younger--and is hitting almost a hundred points higher than Damon this month.)

Yankee fan: "But Damon's injured."

Red Sox fan: "We know."

[Update, 6:14 PM: Yanks lose. Swept. 10.5 game lead! Toronto can get really close to the Yanks tonight, and we've got a night off. See comments section below for ninth inning action...]

There's something fishy about Girardi turning down the Orioles managing job. Maybe not fishy, but definitely brine-smelling in some way. Does this mean Torre's out soon and Girardi's been promised the job? What about Mattingly?

It's not Torreabla, it's Torrealba, Ken Singleton. I tell ya, that Singleton's a triple short of a cycle if you know what I mean. (Edit, 6/22/07, 4:31 PM: Tom Caron on EEI just said "Toreabla," too. I can only imagine what Mad Dog calls this guy...)

A Jeter baserunning blunder just possibly cost the Yanks a run. So it's still 4-2. Jorge Julio actually came in and got Matsui to end the sixth. Remember how he used to do against the Yanks as an Oriole? Oy. But apparently he's staying in, because they just let him hit...and he walks! But no runs for the Rox. Still 4-2 anti-bad guys after six.

Clemens just singled for the Yanks. But Damon lined into a double play to end the inning. 2-2 in the fifth right now.

You know what I hate? How almost every time I flip on the Yanks on mlb.tv, it's the Yes coverage, as opposed to the other team's.

And I'll take ya one further. Whenever EEI/RKO plays a Yankee highlight, it will also be the Yankee radio call. Fine if we get to hear Sterling call the other team homering, but NO Red Sox fan, especially when trying to enjoy a Red Sox game, wants to hear Sterling drooling all over a Yankee homer. Seems like NESN does the same thing, always showing the YES coverage. Why is this? If I were in charge, I'd choose the other team's coverage every time--unless it's some horrible, heartbreaking play that goes against the Yanks, at which time I'd grab a Sterling or Kay call.

Wow, Kaz Matsui is finally good. From what I've seen of him against the Sox and Yanks, I'd estimate his average is 1.000 and he has 1,000 stolen bases this season. If you followed his Mets career (or just listen to the FAN a lot), you know why Kaz being any good at all seems completely impossible.

Ooh, single by Holliday scores Kaz, and the Purple Rox lead 3-2.

And they pull Roger! Ha. 4 and a third for him, 3 runs, 7 hits, and responsible for the guy on base. He continues his spectacularly average season. That guy is weak. 90 pitches and he's done, with one out in the fourth. I am loving this.

Oh, wait, I guess I must be totally wrong, as Singleton is acting like Clemens just pitched a stellar game and that "the altitude got to him." Sure. So they're bringing in Myers to face Helton--in the fifth! What are you gonna do when he comes up in the eighth, Torre? And boom, it's a single for Helton, and the runner gets third on Damon's arm. (Kay: "He was playing so deep...." It never ends with these guys...) And out comes Myers. He "did his job" as usual.

The Assman's in, and a sac fly makes it 4-2 us. So it's about a run per inning for the fizzling rocket. ERA almost up to five now.

I was doing some random research on the Green Monster's ladder and read about some inside-the-park homers that were caused by it.

From this excerpt of Shaughnessy's book about Fenway:

...in 1963 when the Sox stonefinger slugger Dick Stuart—a man with all the speed of an ox—hit an inside-the-park home run in Fenway. His towering fly to left center hit the ladder, then bounced off the head of the Cleveland center fielder, Vic Davalillo, and rolled to the left field corner. By the time Davalillo ran down the ball, Stuart had chugged around the bases.

I'm trying to figure out what the deal with this play was. I checked retrosheet, and the only time Stuart hit any homers at Fenway, against Cleveland, with Davalillo in center, in 1963 was August 19th, and Stuart actually homered twice. But retrosheet simply says "Stuart homered" both times. It's not like they ignore I-T-P HRs, as you can see in the second inning play-by-play of this awesome game. (Yes, I checked every other season when Stuart was on the Sox while Davalillo was on the Tribe, and there was one other homer, in 1964, but, again, retrosheet doesn't call it an I-T-P homer.)

A fan mentions the play in this Remy Q & A, but claims the ball

...hit part of the scoreboard and glanced off of the shoulder of the left fielder and rolled out toward center field - hugging the wall. He slid safely under the tag at home plate as I recall.

Considering the ball hit the center fielder (either on the head or shoulder), it would make more sense that the ball went toward center field. (Wait, we've got one report of it hitting the left fielder and going toward center, and one of it hitting the center fielder and going toward left, now I'm really confused.) That would also give much more time for Stuart to get all the way around. And wait a minute, Dan, if it did go toward left, wouldn't the left fielder have chased after it? (Same question to the fan, only replace the "left"s with "center"s.)

So, does anyone know what the real story is with this? It has to be from that August 19th date. But if it were that famous, I'd think retrosheet would know about it and make mention of it. This sounds to me like one of those plays that's such a legend, its story just keeps changing as one generation tells it to the next.

I-T-P homers don't have their own special list on retrosheet, which is also odd to me. These seem like they'd also warrant the boldface type "notes" they sometimes give in their play-by-plays. Like Nixon's--they should tell us how in the world he hit an inside-the-parker. (Thanks, Melky.) That would be better than their note after Bucky F. Dent's bloop homer that says "the HR that broke New England's back." As you know, that's my one criticism of the great retrosheet.

Okay, there's one way for a starting pitcher to get the JPotG award--when the hitting is the star. Tavarez wins it for pitching seven scoreless when he could've given up 10 runs and still won. I think that's Julian "Dick Weber" Tavarez' second award. Timlin pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, that should build his confidence. I don't think he's done at all.

Lugo's almost there! .201! On the other side of shitty, Manny reached .300 tonight. A dong for him tonight, too. Papi, Coco, Drew, and Hinske also went deep.

Way to take another series. It's so late-90s Yankees to say "just win each series." But it is a good theory. We're 9.5 up at the moment. 5 out of 6 and 21 games over. Gold.

Update: The Rockies score four in the seventh, and beat the Yanks 6-1. Sweet. 10 games up, and it's another round of "is this the end of the Yanks" for the media. I don't see much of the NL, but that Rockies club is freakin' awesome! After whipping up on us, I expected a rollover against Dunbar, but they've come through in the first two games. I guess this weekend I can compare them to the St. Jimmy Pops.

I guess they figured if Curt was gonna miss a start anyway, may as well throw him on the 15-day DL and give him a little more rest. We should be fine. We'll see if this brings Lester up a little sooner or if Gabbo will pitch when needed. It won't matter for a while with tomorrow's day off. Beckett pitches in Curt's place, on regular rest, on Sunday in sunny, sandy San Diego.

Nice Weird Al reference in the latest Teen Girl Squad.

Looks like they had some special guests at Thom's last night... I wonder if Quinn told Werner about my idea for a Cheers reunion centered around the 2004 playoffs. Eh, probably not.

Player A, who has a 2004 World Series ring, struck out for the first time in his career against Player B.

The first person Player B struck out in his career was the relative of someone who also has a 2004 World Series ring.

Player A's middle name and Player B's first name are the same names as the two main characters of a famous TV sit-com.

Name Player A, Player B, and the sit-com.

[Update, 6/21/07, 12:12 AM: To avoid controversy, instead of "has a 2004 World Series ring," let's just say, "was on the field in a Red Sox uniform at the ring ceremony at Fenway in April 2005." You'll understand why, uh, when you're older. You may or may not get a clue from this. Okay, fine, here's the clue you should get from that: Remember, not only players on the 2004 team got "the" rings. Supposedly the non- and ex-players got a lesser-valued ring.]

Great job by Josh a Beckett tonight. At the plate, too. Great catch by Coco. Great job by all the relievers. Terrible job by Edgar for being Edgar. As you may know, as much as I hated him on the field that year, I always felt bad for him as a man. But after seeing him do so well again, I'm just mad at him. Talking about this with my girlfriend tonight, she pointed out that Boston "just wasn't the right fit" for Edgar. Which is true, and I said that myself that year, but tonight, I responded to that with "for all that money, he should've made it fit." Funny how he made that one play--the double play where Remy noted they may not have actually gotten either out--just like he would've made it in Boston. Throwing too early to get the out at second and still not getting the guy at first. Yet in the NL, that's considered, like, the best you can do. I'd guess his average is so high because they're crediting him with two hits for every one he gets.

For his coming into the game after the rain delay, and getting us quickly out of the seventh, bridging the gap to the sub-2.00 duo, Kyle Snyder is my player of the game.

I'm just willing this Yankee game to go the right way. Rox just got out of a bases loaded jam and hold a two run lead going to the bottom of the eighth. I want a nine game lead. I'll erase the question mark from the title of this post when Colorado seals the win. Update: As the clock strikes midnight, Damon strikes out to end it. Good night.

I looked at my little pile of leftover vids that I'd transferred to my laptop before leaving NYC (I still have to hook up my TV-capturin' device here in my new home) and found this one. I'd grabbed it just because it shows a young Wakefield, but now I see it's got Bonds at the beginning. It kind of fits now since I saw one face the other two days ago, almost 15 years after the above took place. So I uploaded it to GooTube. Enjoy. [If you work at em el bee, please, let this slide, eh? It's six seconds long. Is it really harming anyone? Don't make me lose my GooTube account again. Thanks.]

I didn't get to see the first half of the game, but when I heard Coco had hit two homers, I thought, Wow, I wouldn't have guessed he'd do that if you gave me nine guesses. So I tested my theory on the next person I saw, who's name I won't mention. I said, "Guess who hit two homers for us tonight? I'll give you seven guesses." She got it right--on her tenth guess.

Hadn't listened to EEI in a while. Tried it today several times, and despite the fact that Tom Caron was filling in for someone, I never heard them talk about anything but hockey. In June. Terrible job.

Edes said on Extra Bases that Coco had homered twice in a game on 7/22/06. Then he corrected himself, saying that the media guide dude said he'd been incorrect in saying Coco had had two-homer games four times before, and that this was actually his first. I checked that date, and found someone who homered twice: Julio Lugo. I checked his career to see he'd had--of course--four two-homer games before that. How does a mistake like that get made? Terrible job again.

Left: Me. Right: My dad. Us: On Fenway field! The deal was that you were allowed to have a catch with your dad on the field after the game. My cousin Amy was at the game, too (and took the above pic), and brought her dad, the infamous Uncle Bubs, older bro of my dad. The last time we'd been at Fenway Park with Bubs was in 1995. Tim Wakefield started that day, and he started on this day. Two Wakefield wins, almost twelve years apart. Click here for the '95 boxscore. Three other players from that day were on the field on Sunday. (Click each pic to enlarge.)

Two of the greatest numbers in the arabic numeral system. (This is a closeup of Fenway's manual (person-ual?) scoreboard on the Green Monster.)

The ladder (in play!) on the Green Monster. One of my favorite parts of Fenway.

Everyone seemed to want to point up at us in first place as they posed for pics.

Looking right up the Monster.

The left field corner. Yes, I realize you can see all this stuff on the Fenway tour. They herded us around the warning track first, before handing out little balls for us to play catch with. We're almost on the field, don't worry....

The urinal at the end of the visitors' dugout.

In center field. Hey, I never said infield. Of course they're not gonna let us mess that up. But we were free to roam anywhere on the outfield. (Bottom right: Does that guy look like Josh Beckett or what?)

My feet on the Fenway field.

You can see how crowded and chaotic things were. I originally took this picture to show these kids lying in the grass. Look closely and you can see one. And yes, Amy and I were the oldest "kids" on the field--both of us older than many of the dads out there.

What Randy Kutcher's view looked like. (Except for the mass of humanity on the field, of course.)

Prudential building over the bleachers.

This ground-level shot came out great, I think.

Looking through the gate in the center field wall, right through to Lansdowne Street. This was where we entered and exited the field. Supposedly there's going to be a new restaurant out here where you can out onto the field....

...and the view would look something like this.

Bonus section! Amy took lots of great pics on Sunday, too. She sent me some (thanks, Amy!):

If this guy can be governor of New Hampshire, then...uh...Dustin Pedroia can start for the Red Sox. Or something. (Amy is a lifelong New Hampshire type.)

She got a shot of my dad and I in the bleachers from her seat in section 15. See the guy at the top looking through binoculars? That's my dad, and to his left is me. You can see the Giants fans directly in front, behind, and to the left of me.

Really nice shot of Bonds' cheet swing. Did I spell sweet with a "ch"? Whoops.

The classic "Papi up with Manny on deck" shot. Amy's clearly an expert on these action shots.

Manny.

If you missed it, my pics from Sunday's game are below, or click here.

Dad's Day '07. Note: The pics from when we went on the field after the game will be a separate post tomorrow. Click these to enlarge.
Dustin Pedroia in BP. The Pedroia/Hinske/Cora group closed out BP instead of the Papi/Manny/Lowell group (formerly Papi/Manny/Millar), so that's all we saw of the Red Sox portion of BP.

Then we spotted my cousin and uncle up in their sweet seats, and I took a few shots from there, including this one of Papelbon. Note the blue on the players throughout, done for prostate cancer awareness.

Here's our beloved Dave Roberts.

Barry Bonds hung out in the shortstop zone for a while in BP.

Here he is looking back at the Monster, and how he's totally gonna ignore it and just try to pull balls to right.

Here's a close-up of his huge earring.

Bonds seems to be calling the shot he'd hit later in the game to Dave.

And Dave's like, "Where, out there?"

It was a gorgeous day, even a little bit hot when the sun wasn't behind clouds, which came in later. Much different than three nights before, when I shivered through the whole game.

Amalie "Ice Cold 3000" Benjamin, and Kathryn Tappen. Then we went out to our real seats in the bleachers.

Bonds: "Really, Papi? Without steroids??"

Dave Roberts.

Dave Roberts running backwards.

The game has begun. Manny is back to non-high socks, while Lugo went to high socks. Manny hit another bomb (I seem to see a lot of those live), and while high-fiving the fans by the dugout afterwards, he hugged someone. I zoomed in on the spot (the Affleck seat), and saw a little girl. On the replay of the game, I didn't see the hug, but I saw that they showed those people, saying they's won those seats from Tom Werner. So that was a nice day for that family....

Tall, lanky, dark-haired dude with Pedro jersey. The Broseph? I think it was him! You can see some scattered Giants gear in this pic. There were so many Giants fans there. "Let's go Giants" and non-sarcastic "Barry" chants coming from the grandstand and everything. I remember when I saw the Dodgers here in '04 they also had a huge contingent. Must be a mix of the east coast Giant/Dodger holdovers from their New York days and people who came from out west to see their team at Fenway for the first time in their lives.

Wakefield delivers, with Bonds on second.

Dave Roberts, quick out of the box. We also got to see him steal second. Pretty cool.

Bonds finally got a hold of one on Sunday, although it looked like a pop-up. Drew kept drifting back, and it landed in the bullpen. 748. This shows you more of the Giant fans. One sign says "My Dad's a Giants Fan. Go Giants." (TJ--My best friends and family are Yankee fans, but I'm not gonna root for their team on, uh, Friends and Family Day.) There's also a "Bonds Uses Steroids" (or something) sign at left, and a few asterisks up there, too.

Millions of Dead Carmen, with his temporary, blue-ribbon neck tattoo. I was surprised we put that game in the hands of young Manny, but it all worked out.

What the hell is this? I'd say the Hennesee Messenger definitely came to this guy's house, if ya know what I'm sayin'.

Enough people had left by the eighth that we found seats down by where cousin Amy and Uncle Bubs were sitting. Here's Dave at the plate from the sweeter view.

I was just taking a picture of Tito, but just now I noticed the Dropkick Murphy's kid, so I cropped accordingly. (Note Tito's "DAD" on his wristband.)

The crazy delivery of the Mighty Oak.

Manny, and us in first place.

Barry on the dugout steps. I felt like the crowd didn't care too much about Barry, just like I didn't. There were definitely people who went all out with signs and stuff, but only a few. I think this pic shows how the reaction to him is: Take his picture, and then just forget about it. That guy leaning back, arms behind his head? That's my take on Barry. My girlfriend went Friday night, and she reported the same thing: Booing, but not crazy booing. The Giants announcer even said during an interview with Castiglione that what he was seeing at Fenway was nothing compared to what the Dodgers and Padres fans have done. And I'm really glad about this. I just feel like those are the teams who should be mad, as Bonds' cheating is beating them, while, as a Sox fan, I know my team never even sees the guy. The only time I started to change my tune, just a little, was when the Giants fans in the bleachers would really start to cheer him, as if they just don't care that he's pretty clearly a cheater. At that point, I was more like, "Let's strike this bum out!" If I were a Giant fan, I wouldn't go out of my way to cheer him. But that's just me.

People taking pics of Bonds, who was on deck when the game ended.

Nice view of "the line" coming right at us.

And here's Papi and friends doing some secret handshakes. Papi had a ground-rule double in this game that bounced twice before going over the wall!

After the game, we kids (ha) and our dads were allowed to go out on the field for a catch. Pics of us on the Fenway field to come in a separate post, so watch for that.