"You do steroids!" That was from the ninth inning.

But now back to the beginning.

A soggy, not-so-warm night in the northeast. I went on the Monster for BP, but got nothing except some pictures.

Here's one of Jacoby and Jed.

Well, in this first year of letting RSN members on the Monster for BP, they've gone from "not guarding the bleacher stairs at all" to "guarding the bleacher stairs only at first" to "guarding the bleacher stairs until general gates-opening time. So I stood with the guard waiting till 5:10 to get to the bleachers--above is the anti-beach ball sign. At right you can see the field through the CF gate.

And here's a shot of the concourse behind the bullpens.

At 5:10, I went up. The FanFoto woman was all over me. When I declined her offer for a picture, she said, "can I just take your picture anyway? You don't have to buy it." Fine. I'm trying to get balls here, lady, and Papi's up. After the pic, Papi hits a high fly ball pretty much right at me in center, but short. I know a ball can bounce high enough to grab on top of the 17/18-foot fence, if it hits the track. It did. I was ready. But not ready enough, as I didn't quite reach down far enough, getting both hands on it, but letting it fall to the field. Dice-K was right there. He picked it up. Me and the FanFoto woman called his name. He looked up and around, finally spotting me right over his head, with no one else around. He tossed me the ball. I gave him the thumb's up. Above is my 11th ball.

Below is my 12th!

After getting that first one, another ball bounced at almost the same spot, but FanFoto-ey McGee had been taking my picture with the ball. I reacted in time to almost tell a kid who appeared there to grab it, but it was too late. Had she not been taking my pic, either me or that kid could've gotten it. Anyway, a few minutes later, I'm now in row three in center as people have lined the front row. I always do this hoping that either they'll miss a ball, or a ball will go to any row above the first, and I'll be the only one there, able to fly left/right and over rows with no competition. It finally worked! The people in front of me reached up, it bounced off their hands, and landed in row 2. I reached over the seat, sacrificing my body (of course), and got it a millisecond before some other guy. The above pic is that ball, my 12th lifetime. So incredibly, after never having gotten more that one ball in a day, I got three last game and two tonight. I'm on a roll--we'll see what happens Thursday night....

Now I'm in right field, and Melky Cabrera has just nailed Tony Pena, who was pitching BP. After they checked him out, he did a fake "fall to the ground."

The blimp was there for this ESPN game.

Sox and Yanks tied. Not for long.

Now I'm down on the third base side. Here's Girardi with Gammons.

Anthony Kiedis in the cage.

J(oba) Blue. (Blew.)

Down past third base, some rows of seats are on wood planks.

Mariano Rivera and the Prudential building.

The photogs' well over past the visitors' dugout.

My ticket was a Bud Deck SRO. I've had this once before, but it was a crappy day, I just went up, got my pic taken touching the retired numbers, and headed for cover. I kind of knew at this point I'd be doing the same tonight.

Another shot from up there--those home plate table seats cost a lot...

I stayed up top and headed toward the infield. Did you know there's a boardwalk in the new Cumberland Farms section?

I don't know if I was supposed to be allowed to go to the pavilion, but I went there and no one stopped me. Can you spot this celebrity walking away? Answer below next pic...

It was Carl Beane. So I grabbed a spot looking right up the left field line, on the first base side in the Pavilion Standing area. Looking to my right, you can see field at left and outside world at right.

Looking out at the retired numbers.

Jeter just before the game.

Youk from on high.

David Ortiz.

The blimp had left, but is now coming in from the north. Did you know the Citgo sign has 39 white lines in the square and 19 red lines in each section of the triangle? I totally counted tonight. It's so easy to count since they flip on/off one by one.

Night has fallen on Fenway Park. It was chilly, but not even hood-up cold. If you have a spot up there on the rail, with the little shelf and foot bar to gain extra height, you're gold. If you're late, no view for you!

In the eighth, I headed down to get some warmth in the home plate SRO area. And from there, I headed down and grabbed a good seat in the loge. Youk at bat. Bay on deck.

Papelbon in for the save, with us up 6-5.

A-Rod no threat here. This is the point when I shot the video at the top of this post.

Right before the final pitch of the game.

The Red Sox win! 7-0 against the Yanks so far this year. I actually entered a contest in which my prediction for these first eight games with them was Red Sox 7, Yanks 1. I clinched victory tonight, as no one else said we'd do better than 5-3, but I'm hoping I don't get it exactly right, as I want a win Thursday to make it 8-0.

The weekday night games have less Yankee fans, obviously, and being upstairs means even less of them. So the night was great on that front, too. Not that I don't love the back-and-forth with the non-obnoxious Yankee fans. (Many of whom are usually just acting obnoxious to "play the role.") And I do love watching the real pricks getting thrown out. And seeing their faces when they almost win but still lose. Tonight was like seeing two wins. A laughable Wang-fest blowout, and a one-run squeaker. Fun stuff. And I love watching Swisher fail, as he did on that one ball that bounced into the stands. I listened to some of Steve Somers on the way home, and played the Sterling call of that play. It has become well known that John can no longer see. His call of Swisher missing the ball was "Swisher going over, and he makes a great running catch! No, he dropped the ball...and it goes into the stands...."

Below, a coupla weird shots of the Pru and that R2-D2 building. Funny how you can be with 35,000 people and then within minutes be all alone in a dark woods..