If you want to see a game with someone, or even a few people, and you don't mind standing room, go now to the site and pick your April/May game. But wait! Don't pay $20 per ticket when you can pay 12. Just select one upper bleacher ticket, then "add another game," go to the same game, select one upper bleacher again, and so on. You'll end up with as many $12 upper bleacher seats as you want, and instead of sitting in those seats, go to the standing room--the exact same areas you can go to if you have a 20-dollar "standing room only" ticket. But do it quick, before all the 12-dollar seats are gone. (If you want to go upstairs to the pavilion standing room, you have to pay the $25. If you've never done it, I recommend it.)

I just capped off the day with some single seats--I got a front row, center field bleacher seat for one game, and for another, I got a really cool seat. Last section in bleachers toward right field, last row, last seat on the edge of the alley between bleachers and grandstand. So if you look at the bleachers, it's literally the seat at the top right corner. I don't know about you, but if you're gonna be in the last few rows of the bleachers, it may as well be THE last row, so no one's behind you, and you can stand up whenever, look out over the fence behind you at the city between innings, stand on your seat, etc.

I accomplished what I set out to do, considering this was an NYC weekend for Kim and I. I got my Sox Pax, we had a great day in the city, saw two shooting stars and a crazy big, yellow, low moon on the drive back to the Connecticut halfway point, and then I got the rest of my single seats at the end of the night. If you got your tix today, give yourself a pat on the ass, too, because some people have no idea when they go on sale, or just don't think about it until April, and some people assume you "can't get tickets" and just wait till the season starts and pay 60 dollars for the same seats you and I just bought for 12 bucks.

A cool thing* about placing an order at 11 AM and another at midnight is looking at your order numbers to see how many orders have been placed over that span of time. In that 13 hour stretch on day one, approximately 60,000 internet orders went through.


*if you're easily amused and obsessed with tickets

Okay, I got the Sox Pax (singular) I wanted. Took a long time, though.

It's funny how every year there's a chance you make some new mistake. This year, I noticed one of my windows' url changed from "Virtual Waiting Room" to something else starting with "http....". I clicked on it, but it was still a VWR screen. So I clicked away and kept waiting. Fifteen minutes later I checked that window again, and it was the ticketing screen. What probably happened was that when I clicked on it, I was already in, but it was stuck for a second or two on the old screen--had I waited a few seconds, I probably could have gotten in sooner, but, oh well, at least I got the pack I wanted.

They finally gave the 11:00 update, and said no packs or games are sold out. I can't explain that one. Also, I saw where they offered standing room in the "new" right field roof boxes. Looks like those will be 30 dollar seats.

Last season, they put September games on sale later in the day--watch for that today.

I just got a great comment, which I didn't post. It said "Your a jack off". Again, proving my theory about these people. They just can't figure out that the contraction of "you are" is "you're." It's really amazing how consistent they are about it. I mean, this is standard English. I got horrible grades in English class, but I learned the basic contractions in first grade.

Tomorrow is one of the two high holy days on the ticket-buying nerd's calendar. (It appears from my pre-TiXmas under-the-tree snooping that January 31st will be the other day.) I'll probably wake up several times in the night worried that I've overslept and missed tickets going on sale.

Advice? Try the phone--everyone always forgets that option. If not, get your windows open and pray. Also, go in with the attitude that you will get in right away. It can't hurt. Oh, and login to your MLB account beforehand, so you don't have to waste valuable time logging in once you've gotten through. (And if you're having two people buy from the same computer, remember to LOG OUT and log back in after the first person reaches the 8-ticket limit. Even if you both use different names, addresses, and credit cards, they WILL cancel the second order if both are done with the same mlb.com login info. I learned this the hard way last year.) And when you do get through, if you get an error message, like the high transaction volume one, don't give up or start again--just keep selecting your seats and hitting "continue."

This ice storm should help us--I hear much of Western Mass has no power until Monday. That should thin out the field. (Don't worry, they can't see this.) Hey, it's brother against brother when the ticket war is on. No, seriously--think of it this way: A lot of people are just on there, clogging the system up with one intention, to buy so they can resell. I hope a huge amount of those ass heads don't have power right now.

Big news: the 15-dollar RSN membership now comes with access to the Monster Seats during batting practice for any game you have a ticket to. If you're trying to get baseballs, this is a must.

So the Yanks got Burnett. They're doing what they need to do--and should've done last off-season--which is get some solid starters. The good news for us is that AJ and CC only replace their two best starters from '08, Pettitte and Moose. Granted, these guys are better than those guys, but how many more wins will they give the team? And will AJ stay healthy? Will Wang stay healthy? Will CC eat AJ? Will Joba eat healthy wang? Speaking of Terrible Joba, a word of advice if you're planning on going to a Sox-Yanks game in '09: Go ahead and yell whatever you want at Joba--the guy falls for it like he's a minor leaguer. You can get into his head--if not just distract the hell out of him. I've seen it done. Just yell one insult at him when he's in the pen and he'll immediately lose focus and start talking back. I think he needs to see A-Rod's shrink.

Hey, wanna buy the fakest Red Sox team-autographed ball of all-time? Click here. Yeah, like Yaz would radically alter his signature after decades of doing it with the huge loop--and he'd make it look like a photo copy. I'll tell you what this looks like. It looks like someone's dad gave his kid a team autographed ball--writing all the autographs himself. At least with that the ball would really be signed, instead of stamped.

My friend Bruce sent me this: BetaMaXmas.

Now that I've had some time to think about it, let's have a little talk. First of all, I'm wondering why a change was needed for the "World Series" are road uniform. Like them or not (and while they weren't completely loved, they certainly weren't hated by the masses), those were the jerseys we had on when we won the 2004 ALCS. The ones we had on when the 86-year drought ended. The ones we had on when we became the only team to win two World Series title this millennium. And at the very least, we'd become used to them. It's always been the more common purchase--the authentic or replica road jersey as opposed to the home. I kind of feel bad that Kim got me a Pedroia jersey last Christmas, and now it's "the old uniform." Lots of people are in that boat. The team has done some adding lately, but not much subtracting. It's a bigger deal when you instantly make a nearly 20-year old look go obsolete. And in the case of the circular logo, they're taking away a thirty-year old logo. Granted, there's nothing radically new.* That kind of makes the whole thing palatable.

So, let's move on to the new look. The grays: First of all, I'm glad they didn't go with the "sliced S" look that permeates the '80s retro road uniforms. The team never used that look, and I'm glad they're not now. You may remember I wrote a pretty detailed history of the road uniform, and now I have to add to it that the current one puts the T in the middle (on "button alley"), meaning the BOS is slightly more bunched up than the ON, naturally. Just like they had with the recent road uni, but did in different ways before that. But note that the Dressed to the Nines people are still just ignoring the buttons, centering "BOSTON," creating the divider to cut through the S. Wrong! Just like they showed with the '08 uni. Why don't they just look at it and get it right?

And the names. I don't need a name on the back. They had the chance to remove them, but didn't. However, it appears they've taken away the panel that the names had been sitting on, going with the individually placed letters. That's definitely a step in the right direction.

But the names on the back of the alternate blue road jerseys look ridiculous. Instead of thinking of this jersey as "another road jersey which therefore must have the name," maybe they should've made it consistent with the red alternate home jerseys, and kept the names off. It should also be noted that the blues will be worn with white pants. Rare to have any white on the road. I wonder if those white pants will be identical to the home white pants. Wow, I'm sitting up at 2 AM wondering about pants.

Anyway, I kind of like the red socks on the sleeve of the grays--the 3/4 sleeve Ortiz shirt I'm wearing right now has that effect, too.


*Except for the fact that we'll actually be wearing a hat without a B on it for the first time in over 75 years. I love that sock logo--again, the "newer Woody" that started in '79 as opposed to the ones before that--and I do like it on a blue background, but the new hat looks kind of weird. When I saw a (lighter, and to me, better) blue hat with the socks on it a few years ago, I decided to make it my next Sox hat. It was close enough to the regular hat, with a logo I liked. But I never said I wanted the team to wear it! Actually, maybe if the blue was lighter like mine, I'd like it more.

The one on the right. Check it out.


Compared to the old:



It's funny, I was just thinking of that logo, and how much I've always liked it. It's like a bowl of strawberry ice cream. I saw recently that it debuted in '79. When I was three. I'm glad that they at least kept the socks the exact same, despite changing the lettering. I much prefer them to the older socks. It's kind of like the older, scarier Woody Woodpecker compared to the newer, more friendly one. Ah well, it had a good three-decade run. The 2009 edition looks a little like the old Pawtucket logo, the way the letters are a little thinner and all red. The best part: The "TM" is smaller!

Older, crazier, cackling, unpredictable Woody:


Newer, friendlier Woody:

Okay, all jokes aside, here is the official alternate Red Sox road jersey for 2009:



It's available to buy here. The alternate logo hat is here, and you've seen it before, as it's been going around for days.

Hat tip to myself for simply typing "alternate Red Sox 2009 jersey" into Google.

Of course, there may be more revealed today at 6:00. But this is my final answer.

Update, 4:37 PM: Here's (see below for pic) a gray version of the above uniform. So maybe this will be the regular road, and the above will be an alternate road?



Note: That's the Cool Base version. Here's the non-CB. So, yeah, I think that's the deal: the gray above is the new road uni, and the blue above that is the new alt road. And the hat is the blue one with the Sox and the red button on top.

Update, 6:03 PM: So we enter the "two socks featured prominently" era. The team site has the Sox in the background and in the top banner, with an ad to purchase the new uniforms, which are indeed what I posted above. This done before NESN.com even shows the press conference. Once again, it's Truman-Show-ish: I recently switched from a B hat to a "two Sox" hat, and now a version if that is the actual (alternate) hat. (Granted, they're the ones who made the hat I bought anyway, it's not like I made the hat myself--but, still, it's the look I chose to buy, having had the regular B hat for so long.) The team site's top story talks about the new "retro roadies." I guess because the gray looks like the old gray ones, but the font is obviously different. More like a combo of the old drab ones and the as-of-2008 ones.

Just kidding about that vest. Here's the real deal: Hat tip to Sox on Call for the leaked pic!

Wow, man, the Red Sox are gonna look horrible in these. At least they're warm! Except for in the arm area.

What do you people think about a big RSF/PT event in '09 where you'd come to Providence, play in a big Wiffle Ball game, and then head next door to Pawtucket to see a PawSox game? Once I chose a date, it would be easy to get tix--they're all 10 bucks and we could pick a section and everyone could buy their own. Let me know.

It's been a while since I mentioned Kim's soap store, so, just in time for your December holiday of choice, check out Stella Marie Soaps. It all smells amazing while doing its primary job of removing dirt from your body.....or something. And it's made in my house.

Remember when the Yankees' future was thick with visions of Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera monuments? When was that? Last year? Now we've got Cano on the block, and there are reports of Melky being traded for the old, .240-hitting Mike Cameron. (Another report says the deal isn't done and may not happen.)

I love how quick these guys have gone from legends to lint.

80. Sorry, I didn't wanna get the camera out and do all that uploading, so I just shot these with the built-in camera in my laptop.

Does this Handi-Sweep logo remind you of anything? Actually, NBC still had the 12-feathered peacock in '80, so maybe they took a page out of Handi-Sweep's book....

I have no recollection of "StarCase." By the way, this is a Providence local edition of TVGuide that I got here in Providence a few weeks ago. Not a Connecticut one from my childhood. Then again, I wouldn't have one of those, since our family just used the tv listings from the New York Times. Hey, at least I'm giving you something--the Boston newspaper sports sections just tell you over and over how "nothing's going on." I'd rather look at old TVGuides.

That channel 6 logo's pretty out of control. And, again, I like seeing "1980."

You Boston people with your candlepins. So it really is true... Actually, Kim has told me about this show before. Petrocelli. Awesome.

Seventeen bucks for a blank VHS tape!

I thought I'd avoid the ubiquitous cigarette ads this time, but look at this guy--he's mesmerized! Longer...yet lighter!

I actually watched this channel tonight. It still is the one.

Red Sox-Yankees action. This game's on 3, 6, 11, and 38! When I saw the 11, that's when I figured out that Providence was getting stations everywhere from New York to Boston. So you've got 11 out of NY, 38 out of Boston, and then 6 was the Providence (actually New Bedford) CBS station, and 3 is the Hartford CBS station which I vaguely remember carrying some Sox games when I was really little.

What a difference John Davidson makes? Man, even your dreams are square.... My friend Brian, noted Davidson-hater, is gonna love this one.

Ad for Fridays. Note Michael Richards hanging off the Y.

Sears once again with their crazy jersey-shirts. Can't blame me on this one---the ad itself was blurry. Back cover shot. So those are the highlights. Kim and I also have had countless minutes of fun looking at all the shows and their descriptions.

Yesterday I guessed maybe the NY media's fat jokes were keeping CC Sabathia away from the Yanks. But today, he's signed with them. The good news? Now WE get to makes fat jokes about that money-grubbing (money-eating?), family-hating lard-tub.

Congratulations, CC, you've just dropped to third place. But your grandchildren will never have to work a day in their lives. More time for them to EAT JUNK FOOD. (zing!)

Here's something no one else will mention: CC DeVille came from New York City, and sold out for the Hollywood glitz and glamour. CC Sabathia has now done it in reverse, leaving his west coast home to take the cash in NYC. CoinCidenCe???

[Oh, and casual baseball fan brainwashed-types, I know what you're gonna say: "Red Sox, Yanks, money, it's all the same, my co-worker told me, heard it from "the internet."" Take a look at the numbers, and realize just how far ahead of all the other teams the Yanks are payroll-wise. (And then laugh even harder at their third place finish.) The fact that I had a very smart person tell me the Red Sox were "second only to the Yanks" (when the Tigers and Mets both had a bigger payroll than the Red Sox in 2008) means the DUMB people definitely don't know the truth.]

First of all, TJ by me for forgetting to do the seventh Kwiz and skipping to the eighth. So this one is the eighth one of the season out of 20. Dan's in the lead, but it's still anyone's game. Standings here.

Okay, this is a good one. I hold on my lap a TV Guide from the week I turned five years old. At the moment I turned five, nine shows were running on TV in Rhode Island's viewing area. Name any of those shows. I won't tell you the time of day or the year, though I have said what year I was born before. Oh, and you can't say "movie" or "football" or "sports." It has to be the specific show, movie, or game. The channels were the usual network ones, some independents, including some Boston stations, plus ESPN, and HBO. Good luck.

Update: I found the station key--Providence actually got a bunch of CT stations, too, and and 9 and 11 out of NYC, though those two are listed as "Cable-TV Stations."

Here it is:




I like using a sock for the D, as well as the shout-out to the old B in "club." Very high-end. This will replace the B on the hats, and be on the front of both home and road uniforms.

Maybe one of the reasons CC Sabathia is hesitant to play in New York is their media. The guy goes in for talks with the Yanks, and next day's back cover of the Daily News contains three fat jokes alone! Four if you count the fact that the picture of him is a side view. The headline is "Back For Seconds," and the sub-headline is "Hungry for more talks, CC sits down with Yanks again." I don't get it, are they trying to keep him out? Who do they think they are, the Boston media?

It sure is an odd way of wooing someone: "Hey, come over here with us! Oh, you're fat? We got LOTS of food here! You'll love it! That is what FAT people like to do right? Eat a lot? Come take a BITE--you know what I'm talkin' about, wink wink--of the BIG apple. Most people don't know it's chocolate covered. We've also got BIG Ring Dings and BIG tubs of pudding, which we know you'd love to swim in--it's okay, we can refill them when you eat your way to the bottom...."

NESN is running a crawl saying the Red Sox will be getting a "makeover" and this Thursday at Game On at 6 PM, Tito, Remy, and Manny Delcarmen will be on hand to reveal the "NEW team logos and select uniforms." Yes, they capitalized "new."

Somebody had posted a mock-up of a new road jersey on one of those photo sites, but I don't know if that was based in reality or was just someone's invention. We'll find out Thursday.

Here's yet another chance for the Red Sox to wear black hats with the Raiders logo, as was Pat's suggestion in the early 90s, when that was a popular look. I always thought that would be hilarious. Not much chance of that though, eh?

I have a great fan story from this year's playoffs that I forgot to tell you. It was the ALDS, game number three, at Fenway Park. My mom and I are in the right field grandstand, way out in section 4. As I've mentioned before, the people out here, to me, are the truest fans in Fenway. So far from the action, with seats situated such that you need neck surgery the next day, yet they're the ones that start the rhythmic clap, the Let's Go Red Sox, and even the rare Here We Go Red Sox, Here We Go, sending it down the baseline toward home plate like an audio version of the wave.

So at one point, a very young child decides he's gonna start a Let's Go Red Sox. Now, the usual pace of this chant is pretty brisk, but this kid came out with it way too slow, about half speed. Usually everyone, as long as it's the right moment, claps along, then chants along as the words come up a second time, and soon everybody's doing both clap and chant, at the normal speed. But after we all responded to the boy with our first set of claps, he said his line at the same, slow pace he did the first time. People tried to join in at the regular rate, but he was so loud, his voice echoed through the grandstand forcing us all to just wait for him to complete the line.

Soon it was just the one kid, saying the words at half-speed, all by himself, followed by thousands of people clapping--at the regular speed, then waiting for his cue again. It was amazing. He had the floor. It was dead silence around him as he sang Let's Go Red Sox each time. Instead of everyone doing both chant and clap, it was the 6-year old on lyrics, and the masses on percussion.

We turned what could've been an annoying moment ("stop screwin' it up, kid!") into something incredible--more like what you hear with the ever-synchronized crowds of Europe.

I wish I had this on tape--it's just that it seemed like it would end as quick as it started, but the kid kept going and going, with us under his spell. Had I reached for the camera immediately, I would've had time to capture the end of it--but it just didn't seem possible the phenomenon would last. It did.

Where are they now: A Christmas Story.

For some reason, this movie wasn't big with my family--I don't even remember it coming out. It was only when I was in middle school (late 80s) did I even start to hear other kids saying "you'll shoot your eye out" and wonder what the hell they were talking about. Eventually I discovered it and now I'll even leave it on after it ends and then starts again on Christmas Day, on whatever channel it is that shows it back to back to back to back....anyway, some interesting stuff those people are doing now.

Wow, somebody put up my old band's demo tape online. Listen to the first eight Pac-Men songs here. (Someone else put it up, too, and included a transcript of some of the liner notes.) Beware: Those songs rule!

In the shot of us playing (playing music, not video games like in the other pic), we're in Tim's basement. I have my Toonces the Driving Cat T-shirt on and a mohawk. Also note the awesome Pac-Man drumhead, made by Tim himself out of some ribbon from the ribbon factory we both worked in at the time. And the Warrant and Poison posters and "Duck Xing" sign in the back. On that other site, you'll see my almost never-used nickname was Cruise Elroy. This was a term invented by some guys in the early 80s who basically wrote a thesis about Pac-Man. I can't find it now but I have it printed out somewhere. You will see the term referred to in certain places online, though.

Picture taken by me within the last three baseball seasons. Who is this man?

Update: pweezil got it--Clay Buchholz while at Pawtucket this past season, June '08, wearing 19:



Further proof it was him (for the non-believers) is in this shot I posted at the time.