I posted a clip from this classic video here before, but here are all the highlights. Again, this is my friend Mike and I, in his basement in late '92 or early '93. His little brother Mark filmed with my clunky old camera, and announced as well. He's now in his 20s, which is hard to believe.

In the older post, you can see the layout of the "field," and the full description of my incredible home run. I've also realized this happened later than I originally thought. I didn't get that hat until summer '92. This was originally on a VHS tape which contained some '92 post-season baseball action, and was recorded over that stuff. So it had to be at least November '92. But I'm wearing shorts, which makes me think it must be the following spring. Mike's got a sweatshirt and jeans, though. So, let's call it March '93, making us 17 years old.

I'm not buying the "I wouldn't blame him" talk about Mike Lowell IF he takes more money/years to play elsewhere. I would blame him. If a player chooses money over what he's got here in Boston--which includes playing for a winner, which seems to be what all these players act like is the most important thing--then of course I'd blame him. Money is not the most important thing in life. In fact, winning the World Series, the admiration of others, being able to be in a position I'm comfortable with, being allowed to grow any kind of facial hair I want, loyalty--all these things rank above money on my list. But that's just me. So, from my perspective, if a person chooses money over that stuff, well, that's their choice, but if bad things happen to them afterward, that's no one's fault but their own.

Instead of talking about blaming or not blaming Mike Lowell IF he signs elsewhere, let's talk about how proud we'll be of him WHEN he signs with us. I don't want to pre-emptively concede that he'll just go to where the most money is. (He can't think the Yanks think he's special--what were they gonna do, make him a lower offer than ours?) I want to think of Mike Lowell as another guy who said, "Yeah, other teams offered me more, but THIS IS WHERE I WANT TO BE." I want him to be there at Fenway as our starting third baseman when he is presented with his World Series ring. And I want him to want that. How could he not?

I just saw him on the news say something about making a decision and everyone being happy. I like to think he's talking about us.

In Fenway pictures from the 70s and before, you can see the old "Buck Printing Co." sign in center field. My whole life I thought the sign was in the park, atop the bleachers. But now I'm thinking it was across the street because:

1. I read that the company itself was on Lansdowne, down past Axis and Avalon, close to where that billiards bar, Lucky Strike or Jillian's or whatever it is now.

2. The sign appears to move depending on the angle of the picture you're looking at. Sometimes it's right where the center field scoreboard is now. Other times it looks like it's well to the right.

So I think the sign was either across the street, or on the same side, but further down, where you now can peek in and see all the huge satellite trucks in that huge lot. But I'm almost positive it didn't protrude up from the back wall of the bleachers, like I always used to think.

The reason I've been looking at old pics is that I've just uploaded some old family films we have of Fenway. Of course, I've been trying to figure out the exact game. It's mid- to late-50s, and features Ted Williams. I'll post it here eventually.

Reader Peter sez Jeter's a cheater. Wouldn't surprise some of us....

We've got an unanswered kwiz, too.

Here are the new Fenway additions for '08. Looks like that restaurant in center field will open at the start of the season.

You may or may not know (or weren't sure) that the baseball off-season is not only Kwiz Seezin here at RSFPT aka ARSFFPT, but also the time when I break out videos from my endless collection. Today I give you a classic from 1991. [Update: I didn't have a license until November '91--this must be summer of '92. Unless they let me take the Sundance for a short trip, knowing I could drive anyway by that point.] It's me and an old friend of mine who I haven't seen since Labor Day 1995. He's filming, while I shoot a basketball around. More details below. Click the box to watch.



I was known for my flowing black locks back then, amazingly sixteen years ago. Also, check out my gray New York/New Jersey Knights hat with black brim--love that hat--and my over-the-top Red Sox shirt. My friend was doing his patented "muttering announcer" style. It's almost like he wanted it to only be heard later when I went back and watched it. Well, now lots of people get to hear it, assuming you all click. "Dunking" was huge when we were that age (I was 15 that summer). We'd go around looking for low hoops that we might have a chance to dunk on. But it hurt. So we'd go through boxes of Band-Aids. Eventually, as you see in the vid, I started wearing batting gloves. And after that first dunk, you see me grabbing at my hands, like they're hurting anyway. Oh, the "church" joke: We found a hoop in the parking lot of a church (map below--green golfer is roughly where the hoop was), and nobody ever stopped us from playing there. And it had an adjustable hoop, so we'd just make it really low, jam all day, and then go to a baseball card show at the Hilton


View Larger Map

Finally, the '08 schedule is up at the official site. I guess the final mystery (besides the O's schedule differing from ours on that June series) was: what color will the Japan games be? Answer: Gold.

It's also official that we'll be definitely rooting for A-Rod to fail for the next decade. I guess the new Steinbrenners are as committed to not winning when it matters as the old one was.

Dalton Jones broke what 23-years long Red Sox streak in 1966?

Nobody entered my Celtics contest. Nobody thought it was worth sending an email for a chance to win free tickets. Literally, not one person. I'd do a poll to find out why people weren't interested, but if nobody bothered to send one with a chance to win something, nobody would send one to answer a question. I do know that most of my "regulars" don't live in this area, so I understand why you wouldn't have bothered to enter. But the rest of you: Was it the fact that you'd only get 1/12th the chance of people who bought the DVD? Did you think the game was on Thanksgiving? Did you just read the first part of the post and not get to the part that said just sending an email gets you in the contest? Just no interest in this basketball team that supposedly everyone loves all of a sudden? Regardless, why not just take a shot, and if you win, sell the tickets? The Yankees (who own the ticket, according to the back--yes, they've made that mistake on all three pairs of Celts tix I've bought, all separately) wouldn't have minded. I can't figure you people out.

One person did buy the DVD, but he lives far away. Leggett also bought one before the contest was announced, and said he was fine with being in the contest even though he lives in New York, but, sorry Mike, I'm takin' my girlfriend to the game. She's gonna be very happy to hear the news. Contest winner: Me. And her.

What a tool. Can he possibly make people like him even less? Yes. After his big opt-out announcement that interrupted the Wold Series, it looks like he'll stay with the Yanks anyway. This after Hank Steinbrenner ripped him and said, "I don't want anybody on my team that doesn't want to be a Yankee."

And now, supposedly, the Yanks want to get Lowell to play first for them. For Lowell to accept their offer, he'd be saying, "I care about money more than I do about winning AND I'd change positions and play for my rival if enough dough is thrown at me." That's not the Mike Lowell I know.

Also, with Lowell at first, the age of their first basemen for the next four years would be: 34, 35, 36/38, 37/39, with those last two being a Lowell/Posada platoon. You see why this isn't happening?

Saw on channel 7 news that four teams have offered Lowell four-year deals, and that he's waiting for the Sox to offer four. Surely, they can figure this one out....

Sitting Still finally releases her Rolling Rally pics.

The '08 schedule is finally out (Globe version here). We will start in Japan against Oakland on March 25th and 26th. (The only discrepancy between their schedule and mine is that I show us playing Baltimore on June 9-11, based on the O's schedule, whereas they, and my rival amateur-schedule maker, say that series is June 10-12.)

Ticket prices have gone up for '08, and this time, the common fan takes the biggest hit. Terrible job, Red Sox. My 10-game plan seats are bleacher seats. ("Lower" bleachers, which makes up almost all of the bleachers, as the "upper" bleacher section is tiny.) Last year, I paid 23 dollars per ticket. This year, it goes up to 26. That's the biggest percent-increase of anywhere in the park. What also stinks is that we paid the season ticket price the first year of the plan (2004), but since then, we've had to pay the full ticket price. So, back in '04, these seats were 20 bucks, but we paid 18. Then they went up to 23 for the last three seasons, while the season ticket price went to 21. But we paid 23, not 21. And now we'll pay 26. Still worth it for the two Yankee games, the interleague game, and the chance to buy playoff tickets. But, still, even going up 2 bucks to 25 and tacking on to the rich people's hundred-dollar seats would've been a better move. [Update, 11/15: Today I saw that field boxes went up from $100 to $125--a bigger percent increase than bleacher seats. So they did get the really rich people. Nice. But field boxes became "premium" seats a few years ago anyway, so bleachers are still the steepest percent-increase of all "normal" seats.]

For less than half the price of a bleacher seat, you can get a DVD of the 2004 and 2007 rallies, each shot from an angle no one else has seen, and be entered into a contest to win free Celtics tickets, which you can also enter without buying anything. Details here.

[Update: Contest over. You lost. You can still buy the DVD, though.]
Donate 12 bucks to me (click button below), and you'll get my 2004/2007 Rolling Rallies DVD, AND 12 entries into the contest to win two Celtics vs. Knicks tickets (in Boston on November 29th). (Details on the DVD below, for anyone who didn't click over to my "store" before.) If you don't want to spend the cash for the DVD, just send an e-mail to me at gedmaniac at yahoo dot com with your first name and town included, and you'll get one entry into the contest for the tickets. (One e-mail per person--but if you buy the DVD, you don't need to send the e-mail. Also, if you buy two DVDs, you get 24 entries, etc. But once you buy four, you're getting awfully close to spending what the tickets are worth, which would be kinda dumb, but hey, you're right, it is an incredibly awesome DVD.) Good luck. Contest ends, let's say, Monday, November 19th at 2:07 PM.

2004/2007 Rolling Rallies DVD
Price: $12 donation to RSFPT through Paypal

Description: 30-minute DVD containing the following stuff:

Part I, 10/30/2004: I stood on Boylston Street, right near Fenway Park, taping (with a video camera, not a cell phone or still camera) as the Red Sox rolled by on duck boats, having won the World Series three days earlier for the first time in 86 years. As they went by, I got some nice shots of Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, Jerry Remy, Johnny Pesky, and more. You will see the complete, un-cut video of the organization going by. Remember, players were on both sides of the boats, so it was nearly impossible to capture everybody. For example, you don't see Johnny Damon, which is kind of nice now, because why would you want to look at that guy? If you have a specific player you like, and you want to know if he shows up, e-mail me at Two2067 at aol.com. But note that this DVD comes with a handy guide I made, telling you who you are seeing on each boat for both rallies.

Part II, 10/30/2007: I stood on Tremont Street, along the Common, videotaping as the Red Sox rolled by, having recently won it all again. This time, along with all the players, coaches, and front office people, there was a flat-bed truck with the Dropkick Murphys playing. I got some good shots of almost everybody, including Papi, Manny, Timlin, Papelbon--and a lot of shots of people with the trophy, as it kept getting walked from one boat to the next. (Again, some are inevitably missed, namely Schilling this time.) Again, you get the whole thing, un-cut. Oh, and for both parades, I was pretty much right up against the barricades, so you get a close-up view. Both parades will be on one DVD.

Here is a movie I made out of the footage from 2004. Note: I'd sell you this directly, but, for one, it contains a song I don't have the rights to, and also, it looks better on a small screen like this. Whereas the full video looks fine on a regular TV. So, to clarify, you're NOT getting the movie below, you're getting the original footage I used to make it. (Oh, and the beginning and end of the below movie are from the New Haven Green--a separate ceremony.)



And here are some stills from the 2007 video. The complete set can be found on my blog--Click here.





I can't offer you a refund if you don't like it. Buy at your own risk--but if the DVD breaks in the mail or doesn't work or something, I'll be happy to send you another. E-mail me at Two2067 at aol.com with problems or questions. Thanks. Oh, and shipping is free. (If you live outside the US and our sister-country, Canada, I'll have to tack on a little extra for shipping.)

Click here for a testimonial from one of my loyal customers!

Here are the tickets one of you will get (they are side-by-side):

Note: These are my own tickets I'm giving away--this is not sponsored by any ticket agency or anyone else. No ticket agency will ever be supported by, or advertised on, this blog.

Too bad Beckett didn't get the Cy, but we won the World Series, so....

I was too depressed after finding out the Mac people stole my memories to go to the Youkilis beard-shaving, so no pics.

I never did hear what happened with the World Series TV ratings. So I did a news search. It's funny--some articles say Fox "struck out" in the ratings, while others say they "hit a home run." The deal is that the second-fewest number of people watched. But more people were watching that week than any other show. So, do you go by percentage, or by total? I think it means something that it was the show of choice. And that less people are watching TV in general. Plus, nobody watched Dancing with the Stars on the internet or listened to it on the radio....

A few years a go, I bought an Apple laptop. It lasted until early this year, when it finally just stopped working. (Even though for the last few months of its existence, it wouldn't work unless it was plugged in, killing the "laptop" concept.) I took it to the Apple Store in New York, and when I asked one of the "geniuses" at the "Genius Bar" what was wrong with it, he told me, and I quote, "I have no idea." So, instead of paying the 200 bucks just to have it sent somewhere to find out what the problem was, I just bought a new laptop. Fortunately, I was able to salvage everything from the old one.

My new laptop arrived in May. Immediately, it started having this wacky little problem where it turned off whenever it wanted to, with no warning. Then, it started having the same problem as the last one, where it would only work when plugged in. If the cat knocked out the power chord, it would flick off. After about five months total, it complete stopped working. I turned it on, and a question mark flashed at me. I tried what was suggested to solve this problem, but the thing just wasn't recognizing my hard drive. Today, I went to the Apple Store in Cambridge. Guy told me the hard drive was totally corrupt, and that everything was gone, and there was nothing he could do.

I asked him what happened.

"I have no idea," replied the genius. Two for two.

So, the 2,500 or so pictures I took this summer are all gone, except for the ones I posted here. Fortunately, all the stuff from my old laptop is still around, in Chan's computer, but anything I've done since May is gone. (I did upload the AL East and AL Championship celebrations into my girlfriend's computer just in case, so I've got all those.)

Next time you walk past an Apple Store, take a brick--the larger the better--and fire it through their window. Tell your friends to do the same. When the manager comes out and asks what happened, tell him, "I have no idea."

For those of you who commented on yesterday's post about the magic necklaces, you might enjoy the original post I did about them two years ago.

2:30 AM--Posada has been signed by the Yanks. Lowell is now free to see what other teams will offer him.

The Red Sox can't afford to give a guy a fourth year, when, in that fourth year, he'll be 37. The Yanks can give a guy--a catcher--four years who'll turn 37 this coming season. Still think the two teams are "the same"? If you do, how are those Macarena lessons coming along?

Click box to play video.



It's funny, my whole life, whenever I bought tickets through Ticketmaster, the order number always started with the letters "NY." I figured it was because I was always closest to New York or whatever. Then when I got some Celtics tix afer moving up to Boston, the number still led off with "NY." Who knows if that has anything to do with this....

In other news, I got an email from mlb about Dustin winning the AL Rookie of the Year. Right next to the pic of Pedroia, with crazy-person magic necklace clearly visible, is an ad for the company that makes them. (See pic below.) They sell them through MLB anyway, so maybe they just decided to put the ad there themselves, but I wouldn't be surprised if that necklace company didn't throw in a few extra bucks to get this done. (If you don't know about the necklaces in question, they contain titanium and the company claims they make you play better, get less fatigued, climb mountains while walking on your hands, master the Gyro ball, etc., etc. Lots and lots of players swear by them. I bet you'd see no difference in the testimonials if the company put the titanium in only half the necklaces.)



Finally, click here for Michael Leggett's (unsolicited--I ain't sellin' titanium here) really awesome "review" of my 2004/2007 Rolling Rallies DVD (for sale here).

Click each pic to enlarge.
I don't follow pro basketball much anymore, and never was a Celts fan. So I'm not gonna pretend to be one now, but, still, going to games is fun, and here are a few pictures:

The Boston Celtics logo in the middle of the parquet floor. This was my first trip to the Boston Garden (call it what you will). (I never got to go to the old one, either.) It seemed huge to me, compared to the site of most basketball games I've been to, the Meadowlands Arena (call it what you will, again). But it turns out its capacity is less than that of the Meadowlands. Maybe it was just because Nets games never fill up, and everyone's on one concourse. In Boston, it's two levels of concourses. And they're all nice and clean and non-bus station-smelling. (Another reason it seemed bigger was because my seats in Jersey lately have been in the lower deck, whereas Friday I was up top.)

The crazy scoreboard. It did some stuff I don't like, like telling the crowd to make NOISE!!! and stuff. But overall, the experience was less-offensive than the Nets' "music playing on literally every possession" recent tradition. It's weird that the Celts have dancers now. Hey, if girls who just like to ogle the male players are called "pink hats" by macho dudes, what do those guys call themselves when they're ogling the near-naked women dancing on the court during breaks in the action? Do you think a team would ever allow some kind of Chippendales dance team, if it was demanded by female fans? Never. So, men, don't make fun of women who, god forbid, notice athletic people of the opposite sex while they're watching the same game you are. Except for Jeter-ettes. They should be banned. And, okay, if you're a huge sports fan who happens to be female, and the girl sitting next to you knows nothing except for who has the best butt, I can see making fun of them. But you know what I'm drivin' at here. Moving on....

The Celtics take the court, led by non-furry mascot, Lucky the Leprechaun. I definitely tried to figure out if people were there because "hey, I heard on TV the Celtics were good again," or if they were just normal fans. At first, I was getting a bad feeling, but overall, it just seemed like any other fans of a team that went from crappy to awesome overnight. Here's a question for you: How come they always used to talk about how Boston sports fans were miserable, and secretly loved losing thanks to their Puritan work ethic and long, cold, winters, when the basketball team was winning all the time--more than any other, in fact?

The Hawks doing the now-cliched, but still fun activity of bouncing off each other during intros.

The opening tip-off.

Kevin Garnett looks like a high school kid playing against a bunch of pre-schoolers. I can see why Boston is excited about having him. They won this and the next game, and are now 5-0.

You know how I like to take shots of bat boys collecting pieces of a broken bat? The basketball version is "ball boy/floor mopper fixing messed-up net."

Close-up of the futuristic scoreboard. I guess gone are the days of the two team names in individual lights, with the score looking like old alram clock numbers.

Wide shot.

KG at the line.

Chan's dude, Horford. (Went to his school, Florida.)

My dude, Lue. (Went to my school, Nebraska.)

As you know from the video I posted the other day, Terry Francona was in the house. It's funny, because I'd scanned the entire front row with my zoom for celebs, and found none. But Tito was right down in front of us, so even if the guy's head in front of me hadn't been in the way, I might not have noticed the back of Francona's head anyway. (Speaking of people in front of me--lots of leg room at the new Garden.)

So during a break, they announced Terry was there, and showed him on the board. People are really excited about the Celts. But Terry still managed to get the biggest cheer of the night.

Lucky chats with Tito. So many people came up to Terry to get his autograph, he eventually had to have the cop stop people from getting to his seat.

My girlfriend's fave, Paul Pierce.

Once I knew where Tito was sitting, I started taking shots of him with action going on in front of him.

So, as you know, Tito was on the floor for the special dunk. Before that, this kid did a dunk, and Tito gave him a pat on the head.

Then, I knew he was gonna be part of the act. Sure enough, they give him a ball and he goes and stands under the hoop. I love the facial expression here: "Yeah, I can ball."

Here he is in position....

...and here's that dunk again:



The Celts kicked butt, and the only down point was when Scalabrine got injured:
The dude is a fan favorite. I want to do a serious study of this. I remember Greg Butler was a huge fan favorite among Knicks fans back in the day, and I thought at the time it was because he was the only white guy. Obviously, fans like to see the scrub get action. But is it because he's the underdog or because he's a white dude, and most of the crowd are white dudes? I think this a form of racism, but, again, I'd have to do a more in-depth study. (Lemme guess, some of you think I'm crazy, others think I'd be crazy to ignore it. Either way, if you want to share your opinion, please be respectful and don't just call me stupid or whatever. I've given examples of the white guy specifically getting the cheers in both New York and Boston, so I'm not trying to pick on anybody, nor am I calling you a racist if you're a Scalabrine fan.)

Finally, from my dad's school, LSU, it's Big Baby!

After the game, we got on a crowded train, and right there next to us was my cousin. Incredible. And we'd already scheduled to hang out with two of my other cousins two days later, which we did today. (You know Kara and Mel from comments? It was them, and other members of their familial crew. I hadn't seen Kara in years, as she just moved back to the east coast from San Diego. Was great to see so many cousins this weekend!)

I've got two tix to the game on November 29th, Celts vs. Knicks. These will be given away to one of you, my loyal readers, and/or some schlub who never heard of my site but heard they might get free tix if they come here. It'll happen very soon, so check back here if you're interested.

Old friend BSM (who recently fell for a message-board joke saying Julio Lugo would be on Bill Maher's show--ouch!) claims in recent comments that I "make things up." For the record, I never have and never will.