Beckett strained shoulder. Out till next Friday.

We'll either have a black president or a female vice president for the first time ever. Too bad it's taken this long.

If the Twins win and we beat Chicago tonight, we can then start rooting for the Twins to have a chance to directly gain in the wild card race, since we'll be playing Chicago. I may not have explained that very well. Just look at the standings.... The key is that we just win.

I mentioned during the Jimmy Fund telethon that Bill Cosby did something really embarrassing. People did what was probably the smart thing, and just acted like it never happened. But here's what it was: Bill was on with TC during the Red Sox pre-game. He was cracking TC up and doing his usual Cosby thing, as I'd just coincidentally heard him do on the radio a few minutes earlier. But then he starts talking about the "Jimmy" of the Jimmy Fund. But he had the wrong Jimmy! He though the Jimmy Fund was the Jimmy V Foundation, which was set up when basketball coach Jim Valvano died. I wanted to crawl under a rock--and I'm sure TC did, too. But I have to say, TC did a great job just moving on. But it's not like he just mentioned it as an aside--he was going on and on about Valvano and his wife! And his coaching career. You'd think Tom Werner (friend of Coz and Cosby Show co-creator), who brought him up to Fenway, would've prepped the man on exactly what charity he was there for.

Okay, for real now, this is my last post from Somerville. We couldn't fit all our remaining crap in the borrowed van last night, so we're up here for the last of it. (It worked out in that we left Kim's computer plugged in on the floor here, so we could check mail, etc., each day. From tomorrow until next Thursday, it'll be a strict diet of coffee house blogging for us... If any of you Ryans or JSs out there know of a good place with wifi in the Providence area, lemme know. Thanks.) Also, I-93 is shitty. Don't drive on it. At any time. You probably knew that already.

Back in Boston to grab the rest of our crap. I just put a gash in my leg with a piece of glass. Nice. You know how usually wounds bleed a lot, but don't hurt that much? This is the opposite. It's just a big painful hole in my leg that only let out a little blood. The other way's much cooler.

So we got a win and a loss in the last two games at the Toilet. We're 4 back with the Rays playing tonight. Beckett is scratched for tomorrow and will visit Dr. Andrews.

A woman named Christine Auclair has written a book called Living in New York as a Red Sox Fan. I have not read it myself, but how can you go wrong with a title like that? I know all too well what it's like. On that page, you'll also see the children's book she wrote, we seems like a cool idea, too.

So...the movers are on their way. We're off to Providence, officially! I won't have internet at the house for a little while, but I should be posting as much usual or close to it. But, just so you know, if the Red Sox beat the Yankees by 30 runs or something and I don't post right away, that's the only reason.

The Twins lost last night, so we're 2.5 up in the wild card, 3.5 back in the division. Hopefully in another couple of days, we won't even be saying the words "wild card" any more.

Terrible job by the Mets last night, blowing a huge lead and bumping A-Rod off the back page of the Post. But the News went with A-Rod, and gave us this little totally original piece as well:

Red Sox win, Yanks complain. They make me so sick with that crap. There were no horrible calls, in fact, most were correct, but they feel they have the right to have everything go their way. Which is why it's all the more sweeter when they lose. (I heard even the Yes Network guys were saying Girardi had no beef.)

A-Rod hitting into two double plays and getting booed was awesome. They even booed him when he cleanly fielded a grounder. Then they went home.

Yes, those same morons who chanted "overrated" at a guy who'd gotten the last out of the previous year's World Series headed for home ealry tonight. Apparently Papelbon is "rated" enough so that the powerful Yankee bats had absolutely no chance of giving up a four run lead. Or maybe they are smart--maybe they know only the Red Sox can make an amazing comeback.

Or maybe they just leave because they feel if they don't witness the last out, they didn't actually lose. Maybe that's why the team plays Sinatra's version of New York, New York even when they lose these days. There's no rationalizing with Yankee fans (and now the team itself, since their owner acts just like one of their dumb-ass fans), because in their minds, they always win. Even when they lose.

Imagine leaving a game early not only when your team still has a chance to win, but when it's your last time at your own stadium, which it was for many of those fans tonight. It's gonna be so fun watching the ninth inning of that Orioles-Yanks game on September 21st, as 4,000 Yankee fans file out and put on their (whichever winter team is winning) jerseys. (At Fenway when the Yanks were in town, I saw a lot of Giants clothing, but surprisingly little Knicks gear. Hmmmmm....must've been just an incredible coincidence.)

That two-run infield single tonight was great. Grounder down the line that would've been a two-run double. But A-Rod gets a lucky hop off the base right to him. But his throw to first is late, and two runs score! Our century, this one.

Rays lost to the seemingly best team in the universe, the Jays, so we're 3.5 back. Yanks just two up on the Jays.

I guess I never officially unveiled the cover of our book, probably because I thought this wasn't the final version. But it is. So here it is. The bad news is that the pub date has been pushed back. Technical stuff...it'll be out in October, not September. Of course, you can still pre-order from BN or Amazon, but we suggest getting it at your local bookstore once it comes out.

Red Sox-Yanks, at the Stadium, final series of all-time, we hope, starting tonight. Mighty Quinn has a great top ten moments at the Toilet list.

Tix available now for almost every home game. You'll have to get up pretty early in the morning....and hope they're still there. Remember, September 8th is the day we break the all-time consecutive sell-out record.

I'm not a big fan of changing the rules mid-stream. So I don't like instituting replay for the playoffs. But as long as they're going to do it (it will be for home run calls only), don't you think they're skipping a step? Shouldn't their top priority be going around to all the parks, look at all the areas of outfield fence that could cause controversy, and do something about them?

A fresh coat of paint on areas just beyond the wall, or even some powdery substance would help. Netting also does wonders these days. Make it so it's close to impossible that you can't tell if a ball went over a wall or not.

And why only home runs? Why are they more important than a close play at first, which replay could easily provide a definitive call on?

I think I know the answer to that, actually. And I haven't heard anyone bring this up. Maybe the balls way out at the wall deserve an extra set of eyes because that's the one place an umpire can't get to quickly. For all other plays, MLB is saying, "an umpire should be right on it--and we're still trusting them." In the playoffs you've got extra umps down the lines, so you've got the fair-foul calls even more closely covered. But there's still no ump out by the outfield walls between the power alleys. Of course, they could always add one....

Hey, why not a centerfield cameraman combined with an ump! She or he could film the game from out there, and specifically zoom in wherever they want. Then run the film back, and make the right call! In fact, between innings, grab a broom!

Why is the Ellsbury wall-crashing injury so confusing for everyone? First of all, as soon as it happened, you could see him tending to his eye. Any NESN viewer clearly knew right away his glasses had slammed into his eye when he hit the wall. Yet Remy's sitting there saying, "I don't know if it's the shoulder or the hand or the buttock or...." Okay, maybe not buttock, but he made no mention of the eye until he saw the replay of Jacoby putting his hand to his eye to check for blood--which was the same angle we saw the first time.

Then, in two different places since, I've heard people talk about the long "injury delay," completely ignoring the fact that a good portion of the delay was just them trying to get his contact lens back in. This was shown in close-up with Remy and Don talking about it. Jacoby finally took a shot at it himself and got it in right away. (Kim asked me why he didn't try that sooner, and as a contact-wearer from 1990-1999, I told her it was because you don't want to be doing that with dirty baseball-y hands. I also suggested he tilt his head back further while the trainer was trying to get it in. But that's beside the point.) Yet, people just talk about how the training staff was out there "tending to Ellsbury." Terrible job.

I also liked how Chris Smith got some serious face time since it happened by the bullpen, and how that bullpen catcher dude found the lens. And why didn't NESN talk about the fence? He hit the see-through part which I thought was a heavy screen. But close-ups showed what appeared to be a chain-linked fence. Why didn't they tell us? Or did I miss that?

This is my fifth baseball season as a blogger, and for the first time in that era, the Pawtucket Red Sox have made the playoffs. They had a nice comeback win tonight, and still have a shot at the division title, but will most likely be the wild card. Congratulations, future Bostons, we'll all be rooting for you against those screwheads from Scranton and/or Wilkes and/or Barre. I'll have to catch one of their P.O.G.s ("Remember ALF??") since I basically live in Rhode Island already...and then next year, I'll start in on my new life of going to PawSox games slightly more often.

Really key 11-inning win today. Lowrie with the game-winner. MDC shut the door after two nice Pap innings. Bay with a great catch. Ellsbury with a better one.

Right at the end of our game, the Rays were in the same situation as we were: Bottom of the ninth, up one, tying run on base, two outs. We got the final strike, and at the same time, the Rays gave up the tying hit. Then they lost in the 10th. So we're 4.5 out of first.

The White Sox win and a Twins loss means Chicago leads the central, so our wild card lead lengthens to one game over Minny.

We go to New York to play the Yanks, who are 9.5 out in the east, 5 back in the Fields.

[Note: Both TC and a dude on NECN said with a dumb smile, "Sox fans not sure who to root for in that White Sox-Rays game..." Answer: The White Sox. Their win put us closer to the east lead AND made our wild card lead go up by a half-game, since the Twins lost. So if you thought there was a decision to make and you chose Rays, you were incorrect.]

That's the Fenway schedule. Earlier today, I thought to myself, I bet Diamond plays Sweet Caroline twice at his Fenway concert tonight. I just saw on the news that he played it three times....

Twins lose, but are still in central lead, so we keep a half-game lead on Chicago for the WC. Five up on the Yanks. 5.5 back of Tampa.

Beckett's next start delayed again. Will not face Yanks this week.