Where were we? Oh right, Manny and Lugo had just done a special handshake performance, and now they pick up their stuff and hit their positions as the game begins. Click all to enlargemarge.

As you can see, I'm still in the seat I grabbed in the front row of the Monster Seats, the furthest one over, next to the foul pole. My real ticket was a $30 standing room--the seat I took costs well over a hundred bucks. And guess what? Nobody came! I sat here the whole game. Above, and below, Manny reacts to fans, players, etc., etc.





Josh Beckett delivers the first pitch of the game. He'd give up three in the first, but we'd show Renaldo our toolbox in a big way, baby.

Josh in the windup.

I actually got shade up there--from the foul pole itself. Here's the bottom of the screen part of the pole. Notice it doesn't come all the way down to the top of The Wall. Yes, I had to reach my camera out over the fence to get shots like this.

Looking down at the same spot.

Notice the left side of the pole is a pipe. So, to the right of the pipe you have the screen, then the solid part of the pole.

Lugo makes a tag.

The Minnesota Twins.

Moss fields a ball by the other foul pole.

The pirate flag was flying, as opposed to being on the inside of that window.

Denard Span in center.

The Sox about to hit in the first. Dustin and Jacoby.

Ellsbury swings.

Lowell about to wail away.

Jason, is this really necessary?

Again, it was really hot. I had the shade of the pole and even some breezes, but being on the field must've been tough. Here, some Twins have wet towels on their heads.

Doesn't this picture look like a Little Leaguer getting some stuff for his coach?

Manny on second.

This ball appears to be about to hit Jacoby in the head, but it's actually going to the first baseman.

Another shot of the solid part of the bottom of the pole.

Controversial play number one. A dude reaches out over the Monster and touches a ball hit by Manny. It was way down the other end from where I was sitting, so we didn't know what happened at the time. But when the ump conferred with a security guy, I figured there was fan interference, as opposed to a left/right of the yellow line deal.

Looking over toward the area where the controversy happened. It's cool how the Wall actually curves in places--or at least the top of it does.

Manny leaves his glove, hat, and glasses in the grass as he heads for the Monster during a pitching change. We were wearing those ridiculous stars 'n' stripes hats.

I notice all the fans along the side wall laughing and snapping pics at Manny, out of my view, inside The Wall. I later found out he was making a phone call.

And he runs back out, barely in time for the next pitch.

Now Manny, after doing his usual, making motions toward the other team, daring them to run on him, has just thrown a guy out at third. I love it. Every time he does something great in the field, I think of the talk show callers who literally say things like, "it's an insult to call him a baseball player. He's a hitter, but nothing more." Those people aren't watching, or if they are, are racist.

The moon is top-center in this pic if you look closely.

I loved this view of the shadows of the fans along the side wall. Had I realized the rest of the shadows were there (the Twins' standing along their dugout at top right), I would've gotten those in the shot, too. I had some really good people sitting around me. First, there was this dude who brought his Minnesotan friend with him. The guy was quizzing his buddy on the all-time home run leader for each letter of the alphabet. By the time he got to "J," I started chiming in. I got a lot of them. You know how I love trivia. Then he went back to his original seat, and sent some teenage girl down to the seat next to me. I helped her navigate her boyfriend to a parking spot via her cell phone. Finally, at the very end, two older dudes sat next to me. One said he'd never come back to Fenway, but when they put seats on the Monster, he said he'd go back if he could sit there. Those guys were fun to talk to. In the eighth, we rooted for the Red Sox to reach 20 runs. We settled for 20+ hits, in the 18-5 rout.

The other controversial play was when Span dove and clearly trapped a ball in center field. The ump made the out call. They threw the ball in and had an easy triple play. Fortunately, the umps gathered, and changed the call to the correct one. The Twins' manager, Ron Goldenshower, who played in "my day," got pissed. Here's the exact moment of ejection. After that, we blew the game wide open.

Old friend and CT native Craig Breslow pitches for the Twins.

Jeff Bailey came in for Manny late in the game.

Kevin Cash came in for 'tek, and hit a dong. Besides Cash and Bailey, no other starters came out, despite a 13-run lead.

Youk adds a dong, and as you can see on the scoreboard, it's now 18-5. I love runs. When we score them. We're two back, soon to be five up.