Manny wins it for us, walk-off style!

Earlier, the moment I've been waiting for for a long time. Joba now 0 for 1 when it counts. But it was the bugs! The bugs, I tells ya! Man, I will never forget that image of seeing Terrible Joba covered in bugs, like a beached whale, on that scoreboard, and again going nuts as the YANKEES CHOKE. Hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahaha. More pics tomorrow.

Also, A-Rod! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....

This sounds absolutely bizarre. Some kind of live sit-com with a raw bar and jazz music featuring Red Sox players at the casino. They don't tell you the price, but I checked, and it's only five dollars per ticket. By "five," I mean "five hundred." But it's a six-ticket limit, so grab that $3,000 you have in your couch cushions and support Youk's new charity. Hey, I guess if it all goes to the poor kids, that's cool. I just hope they give you a goodie bag with some fun-size Milky Ways at the very least.

In cheaper, but no less outrageous, ticket news, we're going to some Celtics games this season. *gasps from the crowd* "You must be very rich, or very special. Celtics tickets simply can't be obtained." Wrong! Wrong! People hear this stuff and they believe it. "All tickets sold out." Sure, they sold all their season ticket packages. But they capped those off at a certain point to ensure there were some individual game tickets left. So I went to the team site a few weeks back, and I saw a thing that said "sign up for this free newsletter, and be allowed to buy tickets a few days before the general public on-sale date." So I did, and that day, I went online and got the game we wanted, pretty good seats, too. Then yesterday, they sent an email saying more tickets would be released at noon today. I didn't think of it until 1:30, but I still got some really cheap (NBA cheap, I should say) seats to an early-season game. So, take it from your pal who's going to tonight's Red Sox playoff game for face value, me, tickets are available for everything, you just have to pay the slightest bit of attention. But your first step should always be to go right to the source of the tickets.

Oh, and no, I'm not jumping on the yet-to-really-exist because-they-haven't done-anything-yet Celtics bandwagon. I've just never been to a game at the Boston Garden, and every year my girlfriend and I say we're gonna go, but this is the first year we've both lived in the Boston area, so it's much easier than in the past, when we could really only go to Saturday games, which seem to be pretty rare.

P.S. No one will truly get the title of this post. When the movie Celtic Pride came out on video, the video store in my town had a little sign for it that read, "Celtic Price." So I've always referred to it as such. So, unless you're Jason Lageman or Dan Kish or whoever, you can just keep thinkin' I was referring to the "price" of "Celtic" tickets. Which I was anyway.

So we're up 1-0 and they're down 1-0, just as we planned it.

I love that Cy Wang had nothing tonight. 12-3. Very fun at our house tonight. Tomorrow they face Carmona, who better be on. I'll listen to their 5:00 game on my 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics portable radio while I watch batting practice at Fenway before our game.

We've got Dice against Escobar. Escobar had a four-game stretch in which his ERA was right around 10, before throwing a nice game in his last start. I hope Dice's "one bad inning" isn't too bad. We should be okay.

I forgot to mention the Nellie McKay show we saw on Tuesday at the Paradise. The opening band started really late, and during their set, they told us that Nellie wasn't there yet. So after they finished, we all waited at least a half an hour, probably more. She finally gets there, and her first few songs were just kind of tired. But then she started getting all self-deprecating, and it was really funny. That made her more comfortable, and she started playing better. And even when she did mess up, she just made a joke out of it. During one song, she broke into some kind of "Sylvia Plath comedy hour." It was bizzarre. I don't know if she does that on the album.... She also broke out a ukelele for a few tunes, and finished with her "Halloween single," which I believe was released in the summertime.

But she was quite pissed at herself for being lost and late, saying she wished her plane had crashed, followed by telling us possible things that her epitaph might read. This self-deprecation worked, which is good, because it seems like about five years ago, self-dep became trendy--just another way to try and show how cool you are. "I'm so horrible, terrible job by me--isn't this funny? Aren't I great for being so bad? God, I rule for being so self-deprecating. Everyone loves me. I love me. I'm so brilliant to have thought of this chick-scoring technique." Am I right? Back in the day, people who were self-deprecating really hated themselves! At least they were being honest. Anyway, whatever Nellie was doing worked for me. Self-dep is back, baby!

I also wondered what it would be like to see her outside of New York. It seemed to me like her audience was your posh, Upper East Side, "50 is the new 30," "we read the New York Times and it says we should go see Nellie McKay, only we are classy enough to understand her"-types. Then I realized: that's because every time I've seen her, it was in some high-end place, as opposed to a "rock club" like the Paradise. The moment I realized that was when she came out onto the Paradise stage and her hair hadn't been professionally done, Grammy-night-style. I'd only seen her at that Lincoln Center jazz place, and two other fancy-schmancy places in NYC whose names I can't think of right now. But the Boston "rock club" crowd dug her, and showed their support. And Nellie, overall, kicked butt as usual.

Speaking of people named McKay or MacKaye, did you hear that some newspaper reported that Ian Mackaye was hit by a car and died? But that he totally never got hit or anything, and is totally fine? I'm glad I didn't hear about this until after the truth came out. I would have been pissed. One time I heard Tom Hanks died, and I was kind of freaking out. And I only liked Hanks in a couple of films, and in his SNL hosting stints. Imagine how I would've felt if I'd thought one of my true idols had died? Terrible job, whoever came up with those hoaxes.

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.

That game went just like I hoped and thought it would. How often can you say that?

I thought we'd get a few more runs against Lackey, but all we needed was one tonight. Beckett was awesome. If Dice-K can have a second Sox year next season that's anything like Josh's has been this year, we'll be unstoppable in 2008.

So now we get to put our full concentration on a Dunbar loss tomorrow. Then I go to Fenway Friday night.

TBS wasn't too horrible, but they did make that fundamental mistake of missing parts of the game. First at bats of innings were tough for them. I don't know how this could ever happen, but it does. Stone and Robinson were fine for the most part.

Just flipped on the Cubs, and it's Dick Stockton, always a voice that brings back memories. Sounds like Ron Darling is the color guy.

Tomorrow I'll give you pics from Sunday, which was the last regular season game. They came out pretty good--day games produce clearer pics.

I asked some fellow bloggers to predict the outcomes of each ALDS. Some gave me in-detail predictions, which I'll look back at afterwards, but here are their basic answers, in the order I received them:

Evan (MVN/Firebrand of the American League): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 5.

Kelly (Sitting Still): Red Sox in 4, Yankees in 5.

Reb (Reb Sox): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 5.

Joanna (Empyreal Environs): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 5.

Laura (We Move To Canada): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 5.

John (The Mighty Quinn Media Machine): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 4.

Allan (The Joy of Sox): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 5.

Andrew (12-Eight): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 5.

Kim (Gibberish from the 02145): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 3.

Jennifer (San Francisco Red Sox Fan): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 5.

Michael (Random Fandom): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 4.

Cyn (Red Sox Chick): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 5.

Peter (Peter's Red Sox Forever): Red Sox in 4, Indians in 4.

We'll see if I get any more in by 6:30. And feel free to add your predictions in the comments. I like how, in classic Red Sox blogger fashion, the female-male ratio is about 1 to 1.

The common thought seems to be Sox in 4, Indians in 5. Only one Sox person so far has picked the Yanks to win their series.

I'd also like to point out that the team that hasn't won in the longest time for each league is still alive (Indians and Cubs.)

And I never mentioned here the Mets' collapse. Amazin'. Think of it this way: while many Yankee fans were happy about it, those "I just root for New York"* ass holes were saddened. And my little prediction about the Rockies looks good now. It's so weird, I just thought they were really awesome in the summer, then didn't think about them for months, and then from the moment I checked how they were doing, they went on that incredible streak and made the playoffs. They lead the Phils, 3-2 in the seventh of their Game One right now, with Orsillo on the mic.

It's high-60s and overcast in Boston today. Should be mid- to high-60s during the game tonight. Friday we'll reach 80, so that should be another comfortable game, although it does start late. I shouldn't need my scarf for that one, as I'll be looking for my first-ever live playoff win.

Of course, I wondered if the Yanks would dominate prime time once again, and looking at the times, it appears that they've somehow found a way to invent a newer, better prime time, and they've put every Yankee game in that spot. That whole series starts between 5 and 6:30. That's right, Yankee fans, you won't have to miss any of the games because you're at work, and as a special bonus, you'll never have to stay up late! As my girlfriend repeatedly says about the Yanks, though, "let the babies have their bottles." They'll be out of the playoffs in a few days.

Update: Within minutes of me proclaiming this an overcast day, the sun comes out, as if to say, "remember, the Yanks are 6-0 against Cleveland this year...." Man, I hate it when the sun opens its mouth.

You know what I just realized? That the line in King Missile's 1990 song "Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die" about the Rolling Stones having been around for 45 years is no longer funny, as they have been around for exactly 45 years now.

(Their lines about Def Leppard and Guns 'n' Roses, however, are still funny, and will be no matter how many years go by.)

Friday night. After this game, the Red Sox would celebrate with us. Here are Hansack and a bunch of other Sox and Twins before the game.

I took one walk around the park before the game, not worrying too much about pictures, as I knew I'd need to save them, and my battery, for the celebration, if there was to be one. So here's my one shot from over on that side. I liked the way the sun was reflecting of that R2-D2 building, with the purple clouds behind it. This was another totally comfortable, late-September night.

Back in the area of my seat, I sat with Joanna for a little while in her posh front row spot and we took pictures of Lugo acting as hitter for Dice's warm-ups.

Jacoby & Myers.

Dice on the mound. This was a pretty cool angle. I did have to listen to Mario and his buddy have a game-long conversation with the Twins fan from Minnesota behind me. But at least it was an interesting one. You know, the Twins fans really represented in this series. I was there for three of the four games, and between Twins fans and "Sox fans who also seem to like the Twins and wear their apparel to Fenway when the team's in town," I'd say they're one of the more popular teams. Some visiting teams get almost zero representation. But the California teams and, of course, the other northeast teams, and the Braves will sneak some folks in.

Jacoby and/or Drew had just made a nice play near the triangle.

The moon in that slot below the scoreboard.

Youk atthe plate.

Torii Hunter in center.

Manny and Lugo.

Papelbon is in for the save, and Dustin's looking at me. We'd get the win, and then it was on to watching the O's/Yanks on the board, followed by the mega-bration. My story continues here, if you missed it.

One last gallery to catch up on--the regular-season finale, with the Sox in their red jerseys. Look for that soon.