Thursday, April 10, 2008

Tigers At Red Sox, 4/9/2008

Red Sox win 12-6. So...just pretend these pics are from tonight, as the timing is off... These are actually from Wednesday night, another chilly one for home game two. Click to enlarge.

It actually wasn't as bas as Opening Day, weather-wise, as the wind didn't kick up as much. Above, a close-up of Francis Beltran's tattoo.

Coco and Youk. I was there for gates opening, so there are quite a few BP shots.

Manny was busy greeting Tigers left and right, of course.

I love this shot of Lowell, if for no other reason than the fact that that old Denver Broncos logo is in it. Edit: A minute after posting this and clicking on the pics to make sure they were working, I saw the hat is actually a Durham Bulls hat. I think. But definitely not Broncos.

Jacoby heading back to the dugout.

David Ortiz.

Papi chats with Chris Berman.

Theo did an interview with Don Orsillo.

The gray hairs that Renteria gave Theo Epstein.

The usual hawk shot.

Okay, this dude is all right with me. He was hitting fungoes, and took a shot at the ladder on the Monster. On his first try, he nailed the right edge and the ball caromed out to center. Then he tried again and I got to see one of my many, many lifelong dreams come true. That's right, he hit a ball that went between two ladder rungs, bounced back off a rung, back off the wall, etc., like a pinball game. Then he stopped. That guy is amazing. Don't know who he is.

No wind at all at this point. In other carom news, during the game, somebody hit a foul ball off to the right. It caromed off the pavilion facade and headed back out toward the field. Now, this happens a lot, but this one had extra-cool results. It went out over the Red Sox dugout roof, hit the top step, and bounced up to the dugout ceiling and then to the back wall, almost nailing some poor coach who never thought there was a chance in hell the ball could possibly end up anywhere near him.

I quickly went out to the bleachers to check out the new seats, which I talked about in my last post. Here are some seats and the gray fake-concrete ground.

Looking out onto the field from the top of the bleachers.

The newest seating section.

Now I'm over in the right field boxes. I thought I was gonna sit here, but then went for standing room much closer. Nice job by the 2007 flag here.

Wicked Lester preparing to...make us wait five minutes between every pitch.

Okay, the new Coke sign is effing with me camera's head. I would look through my viewfinder, and some of the letters would seem brighter than others. Then I'd look at the sign with my eyes, and all the letters looked the same. I checked this several times, just to make sure the lights weren't changing right at the moment I'd switch my gaze from sign to viewfinder. When I got home and looked at the pic, as you can see the letters ca-Co are in a different color lights than the first and last two letters. But I swear, when you look at the sign in real life, all lights are the same color. It's very weird. Subliminal advertising. Ca-Co! All hail ca-Co!

The new 3-D retired numbers.

Now I'm over in my SRO spot along the third base line. Lugo in the dugout.

Manny in the outfield.

Manny greets I-Rod as Magglio looks on.

A car on the warning track.

Papi in his stance.

Pedroia won some award which Youk presented him. Slowest baserunner award?

A building with a dome on it beyond section 39. (Not the Old State House, not the capitol building. I give up.)

It was Dominican day at Fenway, so they had Dominican dancers on the dugout roofs in pre-game, and in the concourses doing their routines. I also thought it was cool they had someone sing the Dominican anthem.

Jacoby out in center.

It's Enrico Palazzo! And Ivan Rodriguez.

Lester on the mound.

Lester delivers.

Love seeing Sheffield in this "I just swung for the fences but popped up" pose.

Magglio Ordonez.

DeMarlo Hale with his helmet.

Youkilis at the plate.

Papi in the box.

Youk got nailed by a grounder. Then Lowell left the game. In the crowd, I just thought maybe Youk got hit so hard that Lowell felt it across the infield. But it turned out Lowell hurt his finger fielding an earlier grounder, and is now on the 15-day DL. He needs a break--he was looking like a different guy at the plate so far this year.

Tek at the plate.

Jacoby at the plate.

Ellsbury swings and, if I recall correctly, misses.

Kind of a messed up shot, but I like it--Miggy in focus, with a blurry Manny saying something to him.

Okay, the 380 marker has moved. Here's a shot I took of it a few weeks ago on a Fenway tour. Now it's right on the bullpen door. I think they had to move it because there's one extra sign on the right field fence--for that ticket scalping agency. I hate how that one's not even vandalizable, since the bullpens are between it and the crowd.

You know that weird thing about me--I like seeing somebody out of their normal routine--a batter giving the catcher his mask back, a bat boy out on the field retrieving a broken bat, or in this case, the catcher giving the bat back to the hitter.

Speaking of bat boys, the Tigers actually sew on individual letters for the bat boy uniforms.

As it got colder and later, people started leaving. Then the Tigers went up 7-2 and I was practically on the field. Here was a view I had for a little while.

Manny at the plate.

View of the field from the good seats.

Carlos Guillen up...

...and he hits a dong.

Manny out in left.

Tek ready to hit.

Jacoby on deck.

Tek at the plate.

Jacoby at the plate.

Papi on deck. Had Youk gotten on base, Papi would've come up as the tying run. But he popped out, and we lost 7-2. At one point in this game, Lugo hit into a near triple play. Grounder to third, guy steps on bag, throws to second for two, and almost gets Lugo at first. Lugo, not satisfied with making but two outs, gets caught stealing to end the inning. TJ.

A note on Francis Beltran, from the top picture. I looked him up. Not only was he involved in the Nomar trade, but he also answers a question I had in my head: When do these stat sites officially give the date of someone's "last game"? Apparently, by the third or fourth year of not having played, they slap that tag on you. Now, on that page, it shows his last game (2004) but also shows that he's played a few games in 2008. So now the question is, How long til they notice that 2004 game was clearly not his last game, and take it down?

Comments:
great pics - thanks for posting them.
 
Thanks. No problem. I added a bouns picture since your comment. The Pudge/Polanco one.
 
I like the Ortiz/Berman picture. It looks like David is giving Chris some serious advice.

And why wasn't I notified about Dominican Day? That's something that would have gotten me to the park.
 
And tonight was Native American day. Seriously, why was there no promotion for this? Or did I miss something?
 

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