Look, I'm down with giving a guy a rest occasionally. I know it's a long season. I know the backups need to play. And I know that with all the resting Tito did last year, we still won the World Series.

But Kevin Youkilis just like four months off. He's your first baseman. He hasn't made an error in a year and a half. Play him! There are built-in off days during the year. That's when these guys should be resting. Not during game 6 of the season. If Youk needs a rest right around now--how about Monday? We're not playing that day. We've also got Lugo leading off today with Jacoby on the bench. I don't know how much that has to do with Ellsbury hitting the fence last night.

We trail 4-2, Yanks trail 5-1. Pettitte knocked around today after one third of Tri-en Taylor did last night. (The Yanks have the three young *assumed* Cy Young winners, but rather than calling them Tri Young, I call them Tri-en Taylor, after Brien Taylor, a guy who was supposed to be the next Ron Guidry for the Yanks but never made it to the majors.

Gotta go.

Crappy game. They should have used my "never take Wake out" theory. The one offensive highlight was Drew with the "Carbo '75." A really horrible swing, followed by a perfect one, for a three run, game-tying homer. Fairweather Blue Jays fans were out in full force for Opening Day. We'll get 'em tomorrow. Yanks lost 13-4 to the DEVIL Rays.

[Direct link here]

Okay, here's what we're doin'. Red Sox at Toronto, tonight, 7:07 PM. I will be announcing. Click here to listen live. I'm "GedMan" over there, remember. Then afterwards I will take your calls. Skype me at Gedman10 or AIM me audio-wise at Two2067. I'll also be following the Joy of Sox game thread, so that's your best way to make a comment directly to me during the broadcast. Jere Troup will be in the house tonight, as will ColorWoman on occasion.

Don't know when my next broadcast will be after that. I'm not gonna do any this weekend, and I'll be at Opening Day and the less cool Seconding Day at Fenway. Maybe I'll do Thursday night, or one of the Yankee games next weekend. I'll keep you posted.

The Jays were up 2-0 early on the Yanks, but thanks to a wild pitch and an error, the Yanks win 3-2. I'm sure the empty blue seats were clapping their grimy armrests together like crazy.

I followed some of this game, and the winning hit was a single to center on which Damon didn't advance from second to third. I can only imagine what went on on that play....

You know that hawk at Fenway I'm always yapping about and taking pictures of? It attacked some Connecticut girl on a Fenway tour!

And here are some pics from the just-completed section up in left field.

That center field restaurant is going to be called the Bleacher Bar, and supposedly will open in May. I can't wait for that. You'll be able to look into the park straight through the ol' wagon gate in center field. And it'll be open year-round, so that will be a nice way to look into Fenway Park in the off-season and when the team is away.

You know how when it's cold enough, the umps will allow the pitchers to blow on their hand while on the mound? I mean, that is pretty common knowledge, right? I'd say I learned that not even from playing baseball throughout my youth, but just from watching on TV and listening on the radio. So I don't feel like I'm in some special club for knowing this.

If you didn't know, fine, you learned something new today. But you're not a paid sports radio host. This morning on one of the morning shows (not the "main" station in Boston, a different one), one of the two hosts had just learned this fact and read it to the other guy like it was one of those obscure laws about walking your alligator on Sundays. I figured he had to be joking, but if he wasn't, the other guy would surely say, Yeah, I've known that all my life. But no. The other guy had never heard of this either. So of course they start joking about it--"what, do the umpires have some kind of temperature test they do...hahahaha, that's crazy!" I was so embarrassed for these dudes. This is who they hire for these shows.

And the more I think about it--even if you rarely watch baseball, what's the most common month you'd watch it in? October. And what's one of the coldest months of the baseball season? October. I can't fathom that every single instance in which an announcer in a playoff baseball game has mentioned "pitchers are allowed to go to the mouth tonight..." has slipped past both of these hosts without them ever picking up on it. That is just a terrible job. That was wacky fact one out of five for them. I can't remember the other four, but I'm pretty sure they were all things I assumed everyone, especially "professionals," knew, but that they didn't. Actually, maybe they should just avoid "here's some stuff I don't know" lists in the first place....

There was another Masquerade Ball tonight at Yankee Stadium. Once again, the most popular costume to show up in was an empty blue stadium seat. As I told you on Sunday, the Yanks knew nobody was coming to this series (other than the opening day game), which is why I got an email from them offering 48-dollar seats for 5 bucks each. (See that offer here among their other discounts, keeping in mind Fenway doesn't even discount obstructed view seats anymore.)

It was a cold night, sure, but if you buy tickets for a night game on April 2nd, you should be happy to get 44 degrees, which was the game-time temp. Granted, it was a little windy... But, hey, when you only pay $5 for a seat, you're gonna be more likely to go home early. Which is exactly what all the people who bothered to show up did.

During the game, seeing the nearly completely empty upper deck, I jokingly said, "you know they'll still announce the attendance as like 49,000 or something." I was close. 48,500. It's that's what 48 thousand people looks like, I should start a baseball team, 'cuz I'm 9 guys myself.

Anyway, the Dunbar faithful were sound asleep, dreaming of the past, which is when the Yanks' championships take place, and the future, where every Yankee young pitcher is scheduled to be a Hall of Famer simply because the Yankees say so, the team lost 5-2 to the Blue Jays. Giambi almost tied it in the ninth, but his three-run dong attempt fell just short. The only thing better than a Yankee loss is a Yankee loss where they almost win and the fans think it is pre-destined that they'll have some mystical America-protecting rally, but they still lose. (Oh, and the way they got the tying runs on was a TYR, typical Yankee rally. Jeter with a fisted ball to the second baseman who messes up the play, then Abreu gets a broken bat bloop. Had either of these "hits" involved the hitter retreating to the dugout, they surely would've been asked to do a curtain call, as Yankee fans have reached the point of thinking of anything good as, like, the best thing you could possibly ask for. Can I once again tell you how much I love the world we live in? Oh, but the "rivalry is stagnating," that's right, I almost thought I cared and got excited about the thought of the Yanks having every bad thing I could possibly imagine happening to them. Myyyyy mistake.)

Standings look like this: Us, 3-1, the other four teams, 1-1.

So, getting back to the empty seats thing. If fans don't wanna go to the game, fine. I just wish we didn't have to hear about how Yankee fans are the best in the world, and all these attendance records (and especially that Red Sox fans are somehow "the same" as Yankee fans.) Why don't the Yanks just do this: Give all the tickets away for free. See how many people show up. Add that number to the number of empty seats remaining for the total "attendance." Tell everyone that every game was played to a full house of paying fans. That's pretty close to what they already do....

[Update: We win, 5-0. 3-1 to start the year. Very nice. Next we go to Toronto, Fri-Sat-Sun.]

[Update: Varitek gets the dong that was rightfully his last night. 5-0 us after 8.5.]

[Update: Poor Lenny. Dinardo gives up like a hundred hits in a row, and the Sox now lead 4-0 going to the bottom of the eighth.]

[Update: Seventh inning stretch. In the top of the seventh, Youk doubles, and Papi slams a dong! Of of Captain Cheese. 2-0 Red Sox. Wicked out to start the bottom of the seventh.]

First of all, YouCastr fixed their issues, so last night's broadcast by me is up here. With no game tonight, you can listen to last night's game! It's cool how you can instantly go to any spot in the game with no long loading delay. So, like, if you wanted to hear one key moment, you could go right to it. Although you'd have to some estimating, of course.

So we're halfway through this game. We've had men on in every inning, but have yet to score off Harden. The A's have also yet to score off of Wicked Lester. More updates to folow.

Coco in the lineup instead of Jacoby. It is okay to use your 3(b)rd outfielder as a starter sometimes since he would be a starter for any other team. As a bonus, you get to use your 3(a)rd outfielder late in the game as a pinch-runner who stays in the game and gives you just as good defense as the other guy. But when Jacoby does start, please, Tito, don't bat him anywhere but leadoff.

Orsillo does the clubhouse insider report with Edes/Benjamin/whoever now. Formerly Cervasio's role.

The video that pops up on redsox.com right now shows last night's controversial near-dong by Varitek from the perspective of the Oakland announcers. They didn't think it was anything other than a dong.

Remember my original Dunbar theory from when Damon went over to the Yanks?

It seems the great writer Josh of Cardboard Gods has used a similar analogy to describe his feeling when Luis Tiant became a Yankee. Only his analogy involved the robbing of material things, while was more about the robbing of innocence. So, see, I'm not crazy.

Look, you can pay some person whose sole purpose is to snatch up all the tick3ts before you can and then take advantage of you by charging you ten times face value.

Or you can go to red sox dot com right now and get the tick3ts for what they actually cost. The Tampa and Baltimore series in early June and early September have pavilion standing room available. Great view from up there, and you get a little ledge to lean on. (And don't forget, September 3rd, a Wednesday afternoon, is the day we break the consecutive sell-out streak, which no one except me seems to be talking about.)

You can also get seats--actual sit-down seats--to the first two home games after opening day against the Tigers. Go root down the big-market team and cheer for the underdog Red Sox. (Yes, the Tigers' payroll is higher than ours.)

(Okay, I just checked the comments on the last post after I wrote this and I see some of you took my advice and already got some tix. Nice job! I also noticed a new thing on there when you purchase. "Warning--make sure you use your own login info on the registration screen." That's what screwed me a few months ago. I take it they got my letter.... More on this later.)

[Update: Here's the direct link (Although their site is a little buggy right now.) So if you've got three hours burnin' a hole in your time-space continuum, check it out.]

Had fun announcing the game tonight. Didn't even have time for the birthdays. (Otto Von Bismarck turned 193...) Archived game should be here eventually. I think.

What a game! Dice is so amazing when he's on. If he can be on, let's say, at least 80 percent of the time, we will be in the World Series again. Let's hope.

And Papelbon looked like a man on a mission. It felt like October in April.

Tomorrow at 3:35 we finally finish this week-long, four game series with Oakland.

Wow, they just had a whole mess o' tickets on sale at the team site. I was sitting there looking at 8 seats together in the bleachers, row 7, for the opening Tigers series. They also had lots of standing room. While trying to figure out what to do (I already have tix to two games in that Tigers series), the clock struck 2 AM and the message "the ticket office is currently out of service" came up, making my decision for me. I suggest you check the site in the AM, though.... Never pay more than face value, people! Keep your eyes open!

[Update: 10:40 PM: I'm going on live for top 3...]

[Update: I'll give one more update here right before I go live...]

[Update: The game will be here. I'm GedMan, click on me to hear my broadcast. If you want to call in and talk to me live on the air* between innings, Skype me at "Gedman10" or AIM audio me, if that's a verb, at "Two2067." These things are free downloads and free to use, by the way. I still don't know what time I'll jump in to start announcing, but once I'm in, I'll stay til the end.

Reminder! If I should suddenly go off the air for any reason, know that I'll be working to fix the problem (most likely "turn AirPort off...turn AirPort on") and will get right back on.]

Sox at A's. 10:05 PM. I'll be announcing the game. Maybe not from the start, but probably around 11, and going til the end. I'll put the link up here later.

*Or through the wire. Or wireless wire. Or through space. Or however this works.

Okay, here it is, my interVersation with Allan Wood of The Joy of Sox. (Here's the full list of my episodes.) We squeezed it in to about 77 minutes! Hear Allan's thoughts on the Sox, Seinfeld, Canada, blogging, etc.......

The "live interview" format worked well, with only a very minor technical glitch or two. Enjoy.

My InterVersation with Allan Wood of Joy of Sox will be going live at about 3:25! A little earlier than planned, but it will be immediately archived when it's over, so you can listen anytime. The show will appear on this page.

[Update: Yanks home opener rained out. Edgar knocks in Tigers' first run of season.]

I'm well-aware that by the time a new phrase reaches the mainstream, it has to be several years old. So I can understand when one of these phrases is used in advertising, provided it's, at the very least, still new to your average Joe or Josephine. But once that time has passed, you have to let it go.

Example: In the early '00s, everyone was saying "get your _____ on." And that was fine. Not a bad phrase. I used it quite a bit. By, I don't know, '03, it was finally drfiting out of the vernacular. (This may vary depending on where you live. Like I said, I'm aware that the first time I hear something, it has probably already become stale to the people who started it. And I keep my ear to the street. (Read: keep up with Snoop Dogg.))

Anyway, it's now 2008. I was shocked when last year, or the year before, Lays came out with the slogan "get your smile on." That was already way too late. But today I got an e-mail from Amtrak (if you ever buy an Amtrak ticket you're on their list). Here's what it said:

"Celebrate National Train Day — get your Choo-Choo on."

Come on! Is this real? Is this all just a psychological experiment? Get your sense of timing on, people.

Today at 4:30 PM, click here to listen to my live interview/conversation (interVersation) with the man behind The Joy of Sox, Allan Wood.

If you miss it live, it will be available for your listening pleasure afterwards.

Joe Castiglione just said that. The Sox broke up the no-hitter, but are still getting killed, 8-0. Better to have a crappy performance in the last meaningless game, though, than an awesome one.

Update: It's over. Tuesday night, we play for real in Oakland. Tomorrow, the Yanks open up at home against Toronto. (Yanks selling 5-dollar tix for games two and three! Almost begging fans to show up....)

This post has a bunch of fan pictures from last night's game at the coliseum.

And a commenter over at Red Sox Chick went to Japan and described his experience (with pics) in five parts. Click here and then you can click each part individually.

Sox at TroDos one more time, today at 4, and then the regular season starts, parentheses, again, close parentheses, on Tuesday night.

Ellsbury buried again, batting sixth today. I've figured it out. Tito has never seen Jacoby get mad. So he's trying to see how far he can go just to get a reaction out of the kid. "Let's see, he was on base three times last night...what if I bat Varitek second and him eighth....and then pinch run Sean Casey for him..."

Oh, and we've got a good kwiz going. Take a stab at it. (That's not a clue.)

What a weird game. Weirder than the short fence, 60-foot high mesh wall, and very close backstop, was the center field camera angle. You know how when you see highlights of Righetti striking out Boggs to finish his July 4th, 1983 no-hitter, the camera is on the left side of the pitcher? Well, that's how it was at Yankee Stadium back then. Since then, I think all parks have become unified in their "right side of pitcher" camera positioning. In this game, it was Righetti-style.

But it wasn't just a little to the left, it was an extreme angle. So you couldn't tell where the ball was going off the bat. Lugo popped one that looked like it was gonna go back and out of play on the third base side. Instead, it was caught in fair territory on the left side of the infield. The only cool thing about that angle was that you could better see the knuckleball moving on its way home.

Now, that still would've been at least watchable, but since the camera was so far over, it also meant that the second base umpire was between us and home plate. On almost every pitch. This game was planned so long ago. Couldn't they have found a spot in the correct area to set up the camera? Take up a few seats if you have to, there are 120,000 of them!

We did get to see a few dongs over the tall screen. And by "see," I mean "not see," as you could never pick up the ball in flight. Then again, the camera-people hardly ever found the ball in the first place. They were often as clueless as we were. And Remy and Orsillo were nowhere near the action, and admitted that they just couldn't see the ball. Part of the problem was that the lights in the stadium weren't bright enough. Don and Jerry did have some great laughing fits tonight, too.

The crowd constantly sounded the way Fenway sounds when a wave is going around. And by the way, a wave did go around. Took about five minutes to do one revolution.

Dr. Charles is already turning the Dodgers into the West Coast Red Sox, if they weren't already, with Lowe and Nomar and friends on the team. Before the game, they played that god-awful countrified "Play Ball" song like they do at Fenway. In the middle of the eighth, they played, well, you know what. (Even though Joe Torre has said in the past that he is sick of it....) And of course the whole thing was a fundraiser for the Dodgers' new charity, modeled after the Jimmy Fund, called ThinkCure. (Dodgers' owner Frank McCourt's grandfather started the Jimmy Fund.)

My predicted score of 8-5 Red Sox was just a little off, as we won 7-4. Despite my complaints, it was fun watching shortstops play balls off the left field wall and outfielders covering bases. There was even a 9-8 putout. My birthday finally gets a play named after it!

We had a pretty good game thread over at JoyBoy. "Very unique."

"This is a pretty special night." -Tito. Wow, Tito calling something special. The day he doesn't call something special, well, that will be a special day.