The media's been talking about the worrying about and booing of David Ortiz for a while now. Neither of these things existed. But it's so shitty that it got to the point where I heard some prick Yankee fan call up a radio station and say "look at all the guy's done for that town, and look at how he's treated." Yet, in reality, no one was worried. And no one booed him. I hate how the media can invent things by just repeatedly bringing them up.

Anyway, Papi hit a grand dong tonight and got another hit, too. Lowrie looks fine. Casey continues to use the whole field. Dice again pitched well enough, though he had plenty of help tonight.

Yanks lose to the second place Orioles.

Do you know what happens when to type curse words into the search bar at Baseball Reference? Try it.

Update: Here's the full picture. It was David Aardsma.



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Moving this Kwiz season right along, who's the man in red? Photo taken by me, April 2008.

Also, if you're in Danbury, CT tomorrow between noon and 5 PM, go to the Punk Rock Flea Market at the Heirloom Arts Theatre. 5 bucks, and Stella Marie Soap will be there along with a performance by the World's Funnyman, Neil Hammmmm-burgerrrrrr.

And another thing: The other night, possibly for the first time ever at Fenway, Ned's Atomic Dustbin was played! Of course, it was their one mainstream hit, Grey Cell Green. But it's not like they just played it for a few seconds at a random time, they actually used it as the "wait for the Sox to take the field music," as it was an ESPN game and there was that little wait. They played a lot of the song, one of my favorites of all-time. Though that's a pretty long list. But still! Check out the video here.

Tonight, after the aging Moose was rocked by the champs, including two dongs from Manny, Kyle Farnsworth threw a ball behind Manny's head, causing the umpire to warn both benches. Just so you know, Farnsworth claims there was no intention there.

Just so you know.

Bonus ticket update: Okay, you can go to the ticket agencies and pay a minimum of double face value for up to four seats together to this upcoming homestand at Fenway. Or you can get up to EIGHT tickets together for FACE VALUE from the Red Sox online ticket office right now. Your choice. It's perfect--we can drive these places out of business AND get the far-better deal on tickets at the same time. Do it!

Manny with two mega-dongs in our win over the Yanks tonight, and he's sittin' on 495. In our contest, Mike Leggett's date is up next, 4/20, followed by Dori's 4/26.

We are in first place again, and at the very least, tied for the best record in the AL after tonight. [Correction: The White Sox are 12 percentage points ahead of us. Myyyy mistake.]

Tomorrow, Texas comes in for four. The fourth game will be the 11:05 AM Pats' Day game. Then the Angels come in for three, and I will be at one of those games.

Kim and I are doing spring softball. Tonight as a warm up for the regular season, we had a scrimmage. It's funny, some of the stuff I rip major leaguers for, I did myself. In my one at bat, my first real swing of the year, I got under the ball and my swing was a little slower than I thought it was gonna be, so I hit an opposite field popup that dunked in for a single. A Yankee hit. And then in the field, I pulled a Lugo at short by missing a very easy grounder, and then ole-ing another. But as is my tradition, I always seem to come up with a great play, as I snagged a wicked one-hopper to my right and threw to Carla at second for the force. The real season starts next week. I really wanna get video of my at bats, and Kim's, to post here.

At the 3 hour, 10 minute mark of last night's broadcast is your Neverending Story talk.

UPDATE, 3:20 PM: Two people got it. This one went much faster than Quintana. The chin must've given him away....

That's right, it's Jorge Posada.

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Continuing in the Kara-style kwiz tradition, who is this a picture of? (Taken by me in the last two weeks.)

Four and a half hours of non-stop talking for me.

The Yanks used an arsenal of cheap doubles to win this incredibly weird game. The World Champs play again at the soon-to-be dust Stadium tomorrow. I had bought tix to that game but it turns out I couldn't make it so they went to Reb. I'm sure she'll give us a wrap-up of her experience at the shit shack.

I'm on right now. Direct link here. Fun!

Sox winning, 9-7. Make it 9-8.

Just did an episode of RSFPTFFWCR on YouCastr. Listen to it here.

While you're over there, click over to the Sox-Yanks game which will be broadcast by me, GedMan, for your listening pleasure.

1. Joe Thurston, the guy I rooted for the most this spring training, has gotten the call. He'll be with the big club tonight, as Cora has gone on the DL.

2. Jeff Natale has moved up to Pawtucket. But I'd be telling this story about the guy regardless: He's from my state, See Tee. The town of Hamden, where my aunt, one of her daughters (that'd be my cousin), and that cousin's kids, live. Jeff played prep ball there, before moving on to Trinity College in Hartford. Another daughter of said aunt (that'd be another one of my cousins) has three kids, one of whom graduated from Trinity around the same time as Natale. Jeff somehow knew my Hamden cousin (meaning the daughter of my cousin) AND my Trinity cousin (meaning the son of my other cousin), if I've got the story straight. So it's good to see a friend of the family moving toward Fenway.

I learned about Thurston and Natale's promotions from your favorite PawSox blog and mine. And to continue the coincidences, while at Fenway the other day, I started thinking about how surprising it is that more people don't fall out of upper decks and other high places at ballparks. That little shelf in front of the Monster Seats is a little low. Anybody could reach out over it and fall 37 feet. Anyway, I forgot to blog about this, but you'll see at the link above, that blogger mentions a man who fell to his death at Shea Stadium. Crazy. Less metal detecting, more fences, I say.

[3. (added several days later). Schafer! Natalie Schafer! Whoops...]

Stuck with Yankee announcers tonight? Don't care to endure Dale Arnold on Red Sox radio? Want an alternative to Rem and Don for a few innings? Like question marks? Listen to me announce the game tonight at 7 on YouCastr here? Thanks?

Another late-inning win. Nice touch. We sweep the season series in Cleveland, 2-0. Jed Lowrie's first major league hit gave us the lead. And Varitek's pinch dong gives us the win in the ninth.

Sox alone in first place!

Tomorrow night, I'll be announcing as the Sox hit The Bronx. Double H vs. Wang. (And it's a weeknight, not late, so I expect some of you to tune in! Fake Trupe awaits you!)

You may, may not, or may kinda remember I said I got a 1981 Topps Sticker Album for my dad for his birthday. I also got one for myself, and four boxes of packs of stickers. It was fun trying to recognize the old players, if the stick'em wasn't as strong as it was 27 years ago the first time we did this.

I noticed something odd on Gary Matthews' sticker. He seemed to have a rather large object in his back pocket. This ain't no batting glove:
It almost looks like a hat. The Braves' hat was blue with a white front panel, so it could be. Also, he's clearly not wearing his hat under his helmet.

I started looking around for more evidence of this phenomenon. And sure enough, I found this shot of him on the Phillies:

There it is again. Hat in pocket. I did find where someone in a UniWatch comment thread mentioned how Sarge used to knock his own helmet off basically as soon as he hit the ball and started running to first. So obviously this guy didn't like wearing a hat. But that doesn't really explain why he'd want it on him at all times--if only at his hip.

Bonus: While searching this stuff, I came across this '74 Topps card of Matthews:

What a great shot. The horizontal cards were always extra fun. What the hell is McNamara doing? Does he ever know what to do at Shea Stadium? My retrosheet research tells me this play happened in the fifth inning of the Giants-Mets game on Saturday, August 25th, 1973. Tito Fuentes has just singled to left, and a hustling Matthews scoots into third, losing his headgear as per tradition. Wayne Garrett is the Mets' third baseman. Barry Bonds' dad would fly out, stranding Gary Matthews, Jr.'s dad at third. The Giants still won, 1-0, beating Tom Seaver, and keeping the Mets in last place. What a crazy September that was in the NL East. As late as September 1st, all six teams were within six games of each other. Imagine being dead last in a six-team division in late August, and then winning that division? The Mets did it in 1973.

Two band names I've come up with in the past that never amounted to anything:

1. Red Lobster Cult
2. Neuron Firing Squad

A Google search turns up five results for RLC and two for NFS. So.....

If you're looking for bullshit stock answers, don't go to the great Manny Ramirez. Click here for his latest awesome post-game interview. (It should be on top, or toward the top, or, if you're reading this two hundred years from now, nowhere near the top.)

The laid back sounds of Snoop and Dre are the perfect soundtrack to this interview, right down to the "just chill til the next episode" line at the 12 second mark. (Listen closely just before that and you can tell it's the censored version.) Manny may as well have just played that line as answer each question. I love it.

In other Manny news, I think I was standing next to one his relatives at Fenway the other night. I was at the back of the grandstand behind home plate in the standing room section, and a guy right next to me had the same face as Manny. And then he started speaking Spanish to his buddy. The players' families section is just a little ways down from there, and it was so cold, lots of people were up in the standing room area. Maybe it was his cousin. Maybe it was some guy who happened to look just like Manny. Either way, it reminded me of a game I went to with my dad in '95. The two guys next to us were related to John Valentin. I mean, they had to be. They both had his face. Ess-actly. And were in box seats by the dugout that my uncle had gotten for us. My dad finally asked them if they were related, and they just kind of shrugged him off. But we were convinced.

Sox wrap up the road Cleveland portion of our schedule. The oddity of playing a fellow AL team just twice in one of the teams' parks was brought up here in a Kwiz back in November.

Papi was back in the lineup and the Red Sox had a nice, ninth inning, road comeback to beat the Cleveland Dragons. Lugo getting to second on his leadoff hit in the ninth was key. Because then all we needed was a sac bunt and a sac fly. And that's exactly what we got, and the game was tied. But as a bonus, Papi singled and Manny hit his 493rd homer. Pap got the save, and we win 6-4.

Click each to big-ize.
I parked over by the MFA. Free meters on Sunday. If you pay for parking for a Sunday game, you're a lost cause. Here's a nice shot I got of the Pru, the 'cock, and the R2-D2 building. Aka the three off-to-the-side Boston skyscarpers, i.e. the area that we people not from Boston thought was the entire city until, like, a few years ago.

Manny spitting.

Manny chats with Jon Miller. Miller had a crazy tie on which I forgot to get a picture of.

Posada laughing. I assume he was asked if he could throw to second. That'd be my reaction to that question. Also, return of Durham Bulls hat guy!

Theo talking to Gammons.

Manny making a weird face.

It was really cold. Coldest game of the year. Worse than being under the roof on Opening Day. I thought I was getting frostbite on my hands in the second inning.

More Theo/Gammo action.

Can Bobby Abreu look more like a dunce in this shot?

Manny chats with A-Rod.

Tony Pena framing Youk, who can't quite reach a BP grounder.

The Pru, etc., again.

Mariano tosses, laughs about Posada's arm.

Wang teaches other Yankees how to take a dump.

Another Fenway scene or whatever.

Alex Rod. Took a lot of heat in warmups. He missed several fungo grounders--always met with a great reaction. At one point he got a giggle out of a "You suck, A-Rod" coming from a very, very young boy.

Joe Morgan has a laugh with A-Rod and wishes it could last forever as Alex walks away.

The D2, with sun hitting just one of it's many sides.

Looking down from the top of section 1 into the big concourse.

Better get used to those bars, Phil Hughes.

The bundled-up bullpen.

A Yankee-hater, as Joba enters the pen behind him.

Coco started in center, and Jaboby was in left, with Manny at DH and Papi resting. First inning, first warm-up toss, and Coco throws it over Jacoby's head....

...and jacoby has to retrieve, as fans mistakenly think he'll just skip warmups and give THEM the ball.

Jacoby on third. Too bad he didn't start Friday night, or we could've swept.

Abreu in right with his silver glove. Friday and Sunday night, I sat behind Bobby. He took constant heat through each game. It was awesome. Last night's hecklers ("Watch Manny carefully, Bobby! Free lesson faw ya!") were much more creative than Friday's guys ("Go back to Philly!"), as hecklers go.

Our boy Bobby after going into the corner after a ground-rule double.

The view from the second row of the bleachers. I did have a very large man on my right and a very large woman on my left for a little body heat, but still, I thought several times about packing it in early. But you know me--I never do it. However, I came close when it was 10:00 in the fourth inning! Oh, and what I haven't told you about the new bleacher seats is that the seat-part automatically goes to the upright position--doesn't stay down like the other seats and like the old bleacher seats. Makes it easier to walk down an empty row, if nothing else.

Sox take a big lead. So great to knock around one of their many assumed-to-be-Cys. Hughes had thrown, I believe, five thousand pitches through two innings.

"Sports fan irony" is getting *very* mainstream. Surprisingly, they showed this sign on the scoreboard. I had the perfect view of the sign with it up on the board behind it, but I couldn't get the camera out in time.

Two Yankee fan girls are ejected, a cop in front and a cop behind to prevent an escape. On this night, it would be the classic steady stream of ejections in the bleachers and RF grandstand.

Papelbon in the big coat.

Okay, so after 6, I went up to the standing room area. Stayed there for an inning, starting to scout for a good seat. The game was getting closer, but it had been well over three hours, it was a school night, and everyone was chilled to the Terry Bohner, so people did leave. Got this spot in the loge. Here's HGHiambi at the plate.

Timlin pitches to the sea-creature, just before he'd hit another dong off of Mike. Fortunately Lopez saved the night, despite Yankee fan arrogance reaching pre-'04 levels in the crowd. They've just got nothin'. It's so fun. Yup, keep thinkin' the Red Sox will always choke and the Yanks will always prevail with the help of whatever magic ghosts and hexes, while we keep rackin' up titles, and the Yanks continue to not.

Ellsbury coming up.

Lugo at the plate. The best part of this game was when Posada came in, and the Red Sox, knowing he has a dead arm, just stole second every time. He didn't even attempt a throw. Awesome.

Coco goes from second to third on a flyout.


Jacoby up.

For these national games, sometimes Kapstein has to get up to let a camera roll by.


The Red Sox make a pitching change at 11:59.

And here was the scene at midnight.

A-Rod struck out in the ninth, to the delight of me.

Final: Red Sox 8, Yanks less than 8.

Papi in his big coat and oven mitt.

I got home and was bringing my cord that connects cam era to laptop from one room to the next, and Amazing Larry started attacking. So I kept swinging it, trying to get a shot with the other hand, all while timing the flash. Got a pretty good one.

So we take two out of three from the Yanks, who move into last place. Dice-K did well enough, though he threw a lot of pitches and took a REALLY LONG time in the FREEZING COLD. Hughes stunk. Damon hitting into the DP was key. AS is Sean Casey hitting for us.

Sox at Indians, in a half hour.