Wow--terrible job by the fans at my gate. Forming a line? Come on. "Mill about" is the proper way. Anyway, as they all stood pointlessly in single-file fashion, I went right up to the next garage door over (the one that opens ten seconds after the other one) and was the first one in. Okajima awaited me inside, above.

Timlin and that son of his. I always imagine Mike being brought into a closed-door meeting: "Mike, we have some complaints about your boy being on the field...." Mike slowly moves coat flap to reveal some sort of large firearm. "Okay, Timmy, catch ya later." Mike leaves the room with an "I thought so."

And there they go.

Was going for home run balls in right field. Not much action, except for the guy with the pink teddy bear who fell over the five-foot wall onto the field going for a ball.

It was the first chilly day of the year, but I found a spot in the standing room behind plate where you have a wall behind you, so I was totally comfortable the whole game.

Bird footprints in the Fenway concrete.

Now I'm in the front row between home and third for Indians' BP. I honestly didn't notice the cleats when I was taking this picture. Just thought the gloves were cool.

Jhonny Peralta tkaes btating parctice.

Gonnie Garko.

Still weird to me that Jesse Barfield's kid is in the majors. When I look at his face, my brain says he's standing with arms at sides. Then I look left and the arm with the bat up in the air appears.

Somebody actually broke a bat in batting practice. Fasano grabbed the knob and shoved it into the ground. You know how I like broken bats. This is, like, somewhat of a holy grail shot in that genre. You can also see where it says "VISITOR DUGOUT" on that bag.

It was a Sha-PIE-ro fest in pregame, as he played catch with some kid the whole time. Here he talks to Tom Werner, who has a bright light shining on him from the other side.

Franklin G.

In 2008, the "grinning savage" unfortunately lives on. I still say they should go the Dragons route.

One of the underrated features of Fenway: Petrocelli's hill.

Beckett out in right field.

The Farrelly brothers were back, filming a movie about a Cuban athlete or something. So they had Luis Tiant come out to throw the first pitch for the benefit of the filmmakers. This was before that, as Papi greets Luis.

Did you know Wally removes his hat for the national anthem?

Cameraman for that movie going through crowd. My parents were at one of the Fever Pitch-filming games, so know both them and I will be in a Fenway-shot movie. (Or at least our cheers among 35,000 others will be.)

Had a screen view of the action--this is kind of a weird, blurry shot, but I like what the pitcher's doing.

A ball rolls to Papi and he tosses it to a fan.

Pretty cool leg kick for this guy.

Check out all the twos! That Devil Ray score taunted us for a while, but finally they pulled away for a 4-2 win. Our game looked promising plenty of times. But we just couldn't break through. A key play was a ball that should've been runs, but hit the freakin' umpire instead.

School night, so some people did leave after the 7th and 8th, allowing me to get a better view. And a seat. I always talk about how Sox fans are smart and Yankee fans are dumb, etc., but I'm happy to point out the dummies that were there last night. First of all, Jacoby made a dive attempt that I could tell from pretty far away was a trap immediately. As the ump made a VERY clear "safe" call right next to him, Jacoby held up the ball in his glove--leading to a chorus of cheers. I don't know how they could've thought it was an out--unless it was the exact segment of the crowd who were exactly parallel to the ump's arms, making them see only one arm, thinking it was an out call.

Then there was a guy behind me, who yelled out three things during plays the whole game. And each thing was the exact wrong thing to say. Man on second, grounder to short. The guy excitedly yells "turn it!" Turn what, dipshit? Later, with two outs and a man on first, there's another grounder to an infielder, and out comes "turn it!" again! Know your outs, sir. The last time he opened his dumb mouth was on a fly ball down the left field line that was curving foul. The left fielder was going over to the side wall for it. Please note that the tying run was on third. If this ball is caught over there, it's a sac fly and we finally tie the game. But what does dufus say? "Get out!" In other words, what an Indians fan should be saying in that situation. He got his incorrect wish, as the ball landed in the seats.

There's also still plenty of Sweet Caroline confusion, as in when it's played. I think most people know, but it's kind of like when I worked at a bookstore from the time it opened. By the end of the second year, we still had people coming in telling us it was their first time in, and how they'd just recently found out it existed. I think with Fenway, you have plenty of new people each game, or just people who go once a year and therefore don't know things that are obvious to me. A guy next to me who clearly was into baseball--enough to be scoring the game--asked a neighbor, "they don't do Muddy Water any more, do they?" Oy.

So we got the tying run to third, and the winning run to second, after two were out in the ninth. But Lowrie struck out, and we're two and a freakin' half back. No postseason-clinching celebration on this night. But the longer the Yanks stay alive, the more painful it will be for them when they're eliminated. Above is Youk 90 feet away, with the ump who earlier couldn't get out of the way.