This is the moment! Right now! The exact fifth anniversary of the first post I ever wrote on this blog. 11:42 PM, February 28th, 2004 is when it started. You're reading the 3,560th post right here. I'll have to draw up a sleeve patch.

Last reminder: signing and reading of Dirty Water Sunday at 2:00 at Yale Bookstore. Looks like the weather won't be as bad as we thought. By the way, we're a best-seller now! (Granted, only in a designated area on the South Shore of Mass., but that still counts!)

Good job by most of our pitchers tonight against the Reds, including Double-H, in the second game of a day-night split-squad Double-H. 16-5 over Cincinnati, and 14-0 over Northeastern University earlier. 30 runs in 14 offensive innings. I was surprised they had Castiglione doing both games of a day-nighter in February. But I'm not complaining...

Check out this awesome blog: Joyosity. And now read my awesome story about it:

For reasons I won't get into, I was looking for a specific picture of something. I found a few, but nothing was exactly what I needed. I saw another that seemed like it wasn't gonna work either, but I clicked it anyway. It took me to this really cool blog telling me how to make my pictures look like miniatures. Then it told me how to make a cool calendar out out my own Fenway pics. The posts were pretty spaced out, time-wise, but each post seemed to be really cool. Then I saw the person's post about the Yard Sale at Fenway. Their experience seemed so similar to mine. Finally I got to her line about meeting Kelly aka Sitting Still. And I thought, Wow, I also was there on the Monday, was also roughly 75 people from the front of the line when it started, and ran into Kelly there, too! That's when I read the rest of the line:

"and meeting Miss O'Connor of sittingstill.net fame and Jerry from A Red Sox fan from Pinstripe Territory. Hee, blog fan-girling indeed."

It was the girl I met there that day! She had recognized Kelly (you can never miss Kelly's red hair) while Kelly and I were talking, and Kelly then introduced her to me by blog-name. (I had also remembered this girl from right near me on the line outside.) And she even commented on my blog after that, which was cool. I didn't realize she had a blog, though.

So, going through the rest of her site, I noticed that she was basically at all the same games I went to, and did all the stuff I did. In '08, she was at the same exact three playoff games as me, went to Opening Day like me, saw the sellout record tied and broken like me--and even went around to each gate to see the different players greeting fans on the record-breaking day...like me. In fact, she was the person who had the video of Papelbon teaching craps in Detroit, which I read about on Joy of Sox.

Now I'm scrolling back to 2007, and of course, she was at the AL East clinching night, like me, and stayed for the Yankee loss, like me. (You can see me in this pregame pic. Start at the guy closest to you, and start going right from the face emerging from his chest, and you'll see me (right at the meshing of two photos in this panoramic view) in my traditional home run catching spot, standing in the bleacher aisle, leaving room to go left, right, up, or down from my spot.)

Oh, and the best part: The picture I was looking for which led me to her post? She was using that picture to do the same thing I was attempting to do and needed the picture for! It's a secret for now, I'll tell ya later.

Red Sox destroying Northeastern right now. I'll see you all tomorrow at Yale Bookstore at 2 PM.

Oh, and here's a better pic of AmLar in the cupboard. I think it's funnier this way:

1. The Mets-Sox April series at Shea-New: I've been checking every day, and every day I see the same message, that tickets will go on sale "in the weeks ahead." Today I see that they'll be having an even earlier game at Citi Field, a college game on March 29th. In that article, they mention that the sale date will be announced "shortly." So it could be getting close....maybe.

2. Your thoughts on videos: Thanks for answering. A bunch of people said what I thought, which is that you can't get video at work, and you don't go back and watch later. I usually try to post the things I really want people to say during work hours, but maybe I'll stick to putting videos up on weekends, or at least have them on top of the page after 5 PM on a weeknight. See, usually I leave any truly "important" stuff out of the weekends, since less people are reading then. Maybe now I'll consider weekends to be video days. And if you are able to watch videos at work, well, just remember to scroll back through the weekend on Monday mornings to see any you may have missed.

3. X-Nets: The Celtics have added two more ex-Nets, so Mikki Moore and Marbury join PJ Brown, Scalabrine, Cassell, and House as dudes who played for the Nets and later the Celts. I was still a full-on Nets fan when they had Marbury--I remember what I called "the Marbury offense" (remember that one, Chan? Eh, he's not reading...) in which the other four nameless Nets would stand aside and Marbury would have the ball at the top of the key, and then...do everything himself. He never did take 'em to the promised land. And Mikki Moore! I've bragged about my son--er, this guy before, as I knew him from when I was at school in Nebraska. I was a freshman, and he was a freshman. He was a fan favorite, and despite that he was a 7-footer, it wasn't exactly a basketball school, so if he wasn't that good for us, well, the last thing I ever thought was that he'd ever be in the NBA. I just assumed he be a systems analyst or whatever and tell his grandchildren how he once played Division I hoops as a backup. Then two years ago, Chan and I go to a Nets game, and there's Mikki, covered in tats with giant dreadlocks, looking like my old drummer, only black. Not as an assistant coach, as a player. And now he's on the Celts. Kim and I have tickets to a game soon, so I can't wait to see my boy Mikki again.

4. Cat in the cupboard: So Amazing Larry discovered a new place to jump into in the two seconds the door was open. The cupboard. One of the eye eye-level ones, not the ground ones. He's got that look on his face like he knows he's probably not supposed to be there. The pleading ignorance look. He's right, we never told him not to go in there. I'm just glad I happened to put that old gas station Red Sox glass in that cupboard a few weeks ago, as it adds to the awesomeness of the shot.

4:03: Rays get first win. Sox still looking for theirs. 12-4.

3:57: Canadian Steve Green, wearing #97, gets the Rays 1-2-3 in the 8th. We're down to our last three outs. 12-4.

3:39: 12-4 them after 7.

3:16: Ellsbury, Bay, Lowrie, and Nick Green have the RBIs for us today. Dusty Brown has a double.

3:11: Sox fielding all backups now. Zink pitched an inning. Same score, going to 7th.

2:56: 10-4 Devil Rays after 5. Hansack has thrown two scoreless innings.

2:42: Sox have CTLIH, 10-5 now. More importantly than the score, Hansack (who the Rays announcer refers to as "Devren") pitched a nice inning. Okay, now the guy says 10-4, yet I thought it was 10-3, even though he said 10-5 earlier. He's busy talking to some dude, not really telling us what's going on...

2:06: Rays 10, Sox 0, still in the third.

2:00: Rays announcer: "Red Sox fans tried a chant, but were quickly drowned out by Rays fans. So it's Rays Republic 1, Red Sox Nation nothing so far..." Yes, he really said that. For all the people who hate the term Red Sox Nation, they're awfully quick to come up with their own version of it. Also an interesting thing how they're often drawn to alliteration, which ours doesn't have. Now 8-0 Rays in the third.

1:41: Bowden did his part in our collective attempt at fooling the Rays into thinking they're gonna win again in '09--giving up three runs. And this second, Ev-Rod hits a two-run dong off of the new pitcher, Gonzalez, making it 5-0 Tampa. (Okay, new people, I'm not comparing Longoria to A-Rod as a player, but as a smug, vain dude with serious self-esteem issues. (Though he may be as good or better than A-Rod in the end--I'm just saying, my comparison has nothing to do with their skills.))

*************

It's nice and warm here--too bad they're predicting cold and snow for two days from now. But if you live in CT and it's not that bad out on Sunday, come see me and my mom at the Yale Bookstore at 2 PM. Get a book signed, hear us talk, and bring your sled.

Sox game at 1 today, on Gameday Audio.

Hey, can I ask you something about videos? Whenever I post a video, the number of views on the first day is usually very low, according to GooTube. Yet I know there are a lot more of you who read my blog that day. So, is it mainly that you're at work and can't watch video? Do you just think they're stupid? Would you prefer weekends to be the days of choice for videos? If you see that one is up while you're at work, do you ever remember to go back and check it when you get home? I mean, right now, are you thinking, "Cool! Exclusive video of my favorite Red Sox players from '02 is RIGHT HERE and I can't wait to watch when I get home"? Or is it more like, "Oh, more of the same crap, I'll move on"? Or have you stopped reading this post ten minutes ago and already had twelve Twitter conversations since and have no interest in wasting any of your time on anything that might make you sit still for more than 30 seconds? I wanna know!

As you know, I used to post video stills from a time before I could post video online, i.e. before YouTube. Slowly over the next few decades, I'll release some of those videos in actual video format. You've seen the stills from April 6th, 2002, now they come to life. Part one:

Of course, I didn't start this blog till February of 2004, so the original gallery was a retro-gallery anyway, posted in 2005. But now you get to see Nomar (Nomah! Nomah! Nomah!), Pedro (Pedro! Pedro! Pedro!), and company in motion. YT is showing HD vids now, but my Hi-8 jobs still come out pretty crappy on there--these vids look gorgeous in reality.

I was filming at first, then I handed over to a reluctant Chan, then it went back to me again. There's some pretty funny dialogue if you can decipher it. Part two:



I love the guy "singing" Cheers to Tom Werner (who really goes to town with that one kiss!). And the "Joey" kid, of course. You'll also notice the "dweeb" come to life. If you are that kid, I apologize you became known as "the dweeb," but, hey, I'm a dweeb, too. Contact me if you ever see this vid. (And I wish I had it on tape when you sang along to Devo: "Ca-rack that whip!") Also look for Katie Couric, George Will, and the two light beams coming from Ground Zero on our way home to what was then Danbury for me and Westchester County for Chan--we would later be roommates in NYC, of course.

3:55: Sox lose 3-2, after leading from the first to the ninth.

3:47: Error by Diaz, and the Pirates cap a three-run ninth to take a 3-2 lead. We go bottom 9...

3:45: While Gameday showed us Papi's face for 10 minutes, never updating, and Extra Bases twiddled their thumbs, apparently the Pirates were tying it up at 2 in the ninth....

3:29: Ooh, batter interference. Ochoa out on a bunt, and Gameday calls it BI. Papi up, 2 outs in bottom 8. [Edit, Gameday fooled me--inning ended before Papi got to hit.]

3:20: Same old, same old. 2-0. In the 8th. Seven pitchers for us, not one has given up a run.

2:34: Sox down OTT in the 5th. Lots of subs in now... still 2-0.

2:28: Wes Littleton shuts 'em down OTT (1-2-3) in the 5th.

2:19: Still 2-0 after 4.

2:06: 2-0 Sox, end third. Saito pitched the third, giving up just a single. I'm really bankin' on Saito to come through for us in '09. Former Yank Ohlendorf in for the Buccos--just struck out Papi on a called strike to start bottom 3, then got the next two guys.

1:43: Lester catches line drive and throws to first for inning-ending DP. 2-0 us after 1.5.

1:38: Bailey singles home two. He's the star of the spring so far. 2-0 us after 1.

1:15 PM: Lester gives up just a hit in top 1, getting Hinske to end the inning.

Red Sox play Pirates at 1:05. I'll give updates in this post.

People have been coming up to me left and right (in my head only) asking how I can recite all the World Series winners/losers from memory. First of all, I've known a lot of them since as long as I can remember, like all the Red Sox ones and the ones everyone talks about, and I've obviously followed the game my whole life, so anything from the 70s on has just stuck with me.

But there are some tricks you can use while you study the list. Get to know the Yankee win streaks--'36 to '39 and '49-'53. Notice identical matchups and associate them with each other--the A's beat the Giants before and after the Red Sox-Giants 1912 matchup. The Tigers beat the Cubs in '35 and '45. Look for other streaks, like the Cubs being in the series from 1906-1908, and the Tigers losing it from '07 to '09. Or the Yanks-Giants matchup three years in a row from '21 to '23, or the A's beating three different teams from '72 to '74. Then there the flip-flop years, when one team beats another one year, and loses to that same team the next, as in '42-'43, '57-'58, '55-'56, etc. Use common sense--like, if you remember a matchup involves the Cubs after 1908, you know the Cubs lost. Get to know the years that teams who rarely make it were in it, like the Senators, Twins, Mets, and Browns.

I don't know, it's a lot of numbers and mnemonic devices, maybe only a certain type of nerd can master it. But give it a try. You never know when you might need it. Check that, you always know that you'll never need it. Unless you're on a game show.

We lose the night game 5-2, and the Twins take a 1-0 lead in the race for the Ambassador's Tray. Or whatever.

Too bad Remy had an infection, and was replaced for the evening by a cast of charaters, including Daubach. I wanna know what's infected!

You've probably seen the team photos by now--but don't you think Tito's especially looks like an Annie Liebovitz job?

Wanna see a scary one? Here's Terrible Joba. There are a lot of other scary Yankee shots. Sam's gonna have a field day this year.

I love the Orioles' shots! They're outside at night. Nice idea. It worked for most of their shots.

I don't like how you can see the X-mark where the Pirates were supposed to stand.

The Braves were havin' a ball, and the Mariners were leaning.

Carlton Fisk and Dwight Evans both did what in his first major league game for the Red Sox?

2:50: Red Sox win, 7-1. Watch on TV tonight as we play a major league team...

2:41: We're three outs away folks. 7-1 going to the top of the 7th.

2:36: Navarro hits a dong for us, making it 7-1.

2:31: 6-1 us going to the bottom of the sixth, in this 7-inning game. (A-Rod has donged for the Yanks today.)

2:25: Kevin DuBrow (or something) pitching for the Sox now.

2:23: I asked Kilgore about Ino, and it turns out Corsaletti pinch-ran for him 6-1 us after 5.

2:17 PM: Chris Carter, 3-run double makes it 6-1 Red Sox. No word on whether Amalie Benjamin pinch ran for Ino Guerrero.

2:13 PM: Coach Ino Guerrero bats for the Sox....and walks!

2:08 PM: Rocco has struck out twice! But Navarro has added another RBI. 3-1 Red Sox. World Series here we come! Woohoo!!!!

2:06 PM: This game is FLYING along. 1-2-3 inning for the Devil (Taz), and Angel Chavez has knocked in 2 for the Red Sox just now, giving us a 2-1 lead, bottom 5.

2:00 PM: Taz-mania! Tazawa in for Boston in the top of the fifth, still 1-0 Eagles.

1:52 PM: Kris Johnson gives up a run to BC. Eagles 1, Red Sox 0 after 3 and a half. (Globe live blog let my comment though just now, so they must only let occasional comments through.)

1:38 PM: 0-0 after 3. Nick Green has our only hit, a double. Beckett went two solid innings, and struck out Shaughnessy's kid looking. Buchholz pitched a one-two-three third.

Words we haven't heard for four months....

The game's against Boston College--no TV or radio, but tonight's game against the Twins will be on. NESN and MLB Network.

I just bought a Monster standing room ticket through the online system. I had planned to tell you to go get yours, but unfortunately, I got the last one. No, seriously--I checked a game, and noticed a GM SRO available. So I went around to every other game currently available on the schedule, and it turns out it was just that one game that had them. I got my ticket, then went back to that same game just to verify those tix were still there, but they aren't. But this just proves my "never give up" theory yet again. Keep checking back every day (at least), never believe a game is sold out, and if you're told NO, try again, and you'll get plenty of tix.

I've noticed something that disturbs me a little. It seems like there's a generational divide when it comes to MLB Network. Many people younger than me don't care about anything related to the history of baseball, only watching the "Hot Stove" show and wishing the network was all fantasy stuff. Whereas I eat up all the history stuff. But I've been into baseball history since I was a little kid. To me, it's such an integral part of the game. So maybe it's just that young people in 2009 have so much other stuff going on that if they care about baseball at all, it's pretty much limited to the past couple of seasons.

And I say "terrible job" by them. Or maybe it's the fault of their parents, who are too busy with their own stupid Facebook pages to monitor their own kids' sex messaging, let alone teach them about the Gas House Gang.

I'd rather watch a random Mariners game from '82 than a current game that doesn't affect the Red Sox.

Maybe the problem of these people is that their fantasy team has no history. If you want, I can do a nine-part documentary on my '89 rotisserie team that I did through the mail, repeatedly refusing to trade Greenwell for Mattingly. Maybe they could relate to that kind of history more.....

Anyway, I watched Inning Nine of Ken Burns's Baseball tonight. And I got a sense of pride from watching the parts about "my" era. Baseball had become colorful, and not just over the air. It was unique if nothing else, with its double-knit threads, fake grass, and designated hitter. But there were so many great stories, the ultimate being the '75 Series. They went into it in depth, showing all the key moments from Game 6, not just Fisk.

Seeing stuff like this makes me wonder how any baseball fan could be ignorant about the game's history. I've been "waving the ball fair" for as long as I could remember. Nobody had to force the '75 World Series on me as a seven year old in 1982--I saw highlights on TV and I was hooked and wanted to know more. About that, and every other thing that happened all the way back to the beginning. I learned "03, 12, 15, 16, 18" as a kid and never forgot it. I saw "1912" on the Fenway Park sign the first time I saw a picture of the place. Some things you can't not know, but most things made me want to know more. This isn't school, it's baseball! Whenever I'm on the Fenway tour, I always want to yell out, "Is there a tour for people who knew all this stuff when they were four?"

It was a great inning, and now we look forward to the new episode. My one complaint about their showing of this documentary is how commercials kept cutting right into it. Twice, Bill Lee got cut off. That's blasphemy. A few times it cut to the ad right during really somber speeches. How do they let this happen in '09?

Oh, and Manny Ramirez was on at the beginning, on his high school team. I wonder if they specifically went to one of his games because of the hype surrounding him (there was even a close-up of a fan yelling, "Come on Manny, let's go Manny!") or if they just wanted a general example of young Dominicans playing ball in the U.S. And the one moment in this doc that has stuck with me the most since the day I saw it when it first aired--Doris KG talking about how she wouldn't watch Game 7 of the '86 series--was in tonight's episode. It was almost like I was connected to myself back when this was first on, much like the way baseball connects people from generation to generation. Ending with mine, apparently. Twitter bites! Get back to reality!

Morbid fact of the day: Did you know there have only been three guys named Aurelio in Major League Baseball? And all three died in auto accidents! If your name is Aurelio and you're any good at baseball, consider a new name. May I suggest Chan?

The first televised game of the season will be Wednesday night. If you're out of the NESN area, MLB Network is carrying NESN's feed! So check that game out, wherever you are.

The game after that will be Sunday at 1:00. New Haven-area people, watch the starters play until 1:45, then head over to the Yale bookstore at 2:00 for a reading and signing of Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery by its co-authors, Jere Smith (me) and Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (my mom).

Red Sox 7:05 games all changed to 7:10.

Hmmm...I don't know what to make of this, except that I'm glad I didn't go through with the post I started on game times of different teams, because I would've had my own team wrong.

I do kind of feel like ":05" is the "classic" time, and now we're becoming a team with a less-desirable time, like the 646 area code in Manhattan, or when they switched the high school to 90218 in a Beverly Hills 90210 sketch on SNL. "Thank you, Superintendant Collier..."

Their reasoning is that it gives more time for fans to get to their seats after a work day--but then they note that the Saturday games (which were also 7:05, now 7:10) were also changed, for consistency. How about this, play the Saturday game in the freakin' daytime again! It's the weekend! They also want more of a pre-game on TV and radio. I wonder if they're just trying to add to their ratings on the backside.

I feel like the last thing people want with these long games is to have their times pushed back. Then again, games started at 7:30 when I was little (the Yanks were 8:00), so they're still ending sooner than they used to. Well, maybe not always. I will say, you do see a lot of people milling around in the first inning.

Oh, crap, this means five less minutes in a box seat before the actual seat-holder kicks you out!


PS Did it sound natural when I said "on the backside," as if it were really a TV term? I just meant, you know, maybe they get credit for an entire half hour if the broadcast goes beyond the top or bottom of an hour, meaning a game that used to end at 10:29 now ends after 10:30, and the ratings count through 11? I don't know, I'm just looking for answers. God, Tony Mazz would be REALLY bored reading this post....

Tony Mazz is just trying to stir up shit. He writes an article talking about how Red Sox fans are sick of their team, and that the team is boring.

How can write this line ("Entering 2009, the Sox have enjoyed an increase in attendance over each of the last 12 seasons, the longest such streak in baseball"), and in the same article, write this one ("there are continuing signs that interest in the team is waning")?

Tony, if YOU are "bored" with the Red Sox because they're not making enough tabloid-style headlines, GET A DIFFERENT JOB. There are plenty of Red Sox fans--no, every single one I know of--who are excited for baseball, as it's right around the corner, and would love it if they got PAID to go to Florida to watch them right now. You wanna switch jobs?

This is just another one of those articles that could be written well ahead of time, and then updated and published when necessary. After we won in 2004--it might have even been the day of the parade--some radio host was saying, "let's say it's three years from now--are people still gonna care?" Well, it's been longer than that, and Tony looks around, sees we've sold out every game since, and tells the word that there are "continuing signs interest is waning."

This is why the media pisses me off. People in Iowa are reading this and thinking "Red Sox fans don't care about their team." Thanks a lot, Tony. I can't wait till all these big newspapers fold up so we can all stop having to hear their lies about us. Yeah, Tony, I really wish Pedroia would get caught doing steroids like A-Rod, that would be so un-boring.

And if it's a "they've won a lot so we don't care any more" thing--again, why am I falling into his trap, this point is moot because we DO still care--but: If he thinks "winning" is what Red Sox fans require to root for the team, we all would have given up a loooooong time ago.

If it's the fact that there aren't as many people in Florida in February--gee, could that be because we're in a depression and if people are gonna go to Florida, they're at least gonna wait till the games start? Come on, man. You're fired.

Oh, and there's a part of the article that shows he knows absolutely nothing about a certain thing: tickets. He says:

"Just last week, Sox administrators John Henry, Larry Lucchino and Tom Werner acknowledged that nine home games in April and May have yet to be sold out, a once unimaginable occurrence during the franchise's golden age under the reign of King Henry I."

WRONG. Every year, there are still single tickets and obstructed view seats left to most games at this time of year, and well beyond. Even the games that they say are "sold out" have some tickets held back that are released later, usually just before they happen. Again, there is nothing unimaginable about tickets being available. This is a classic case where all the media knows is what the team tells them--they never have to buy tickets so they would never know how this relates to previous seasons.

"...a billiards tournament could only help the Yankees..."

Only the button-down Yankees would need an excuse to go have fun and just hang out with each other. "Hey, team, I just read in this psychiatry book about a great way to communicate and bond, let's try it! Screw practice!"

They're a step away from filming themselves going through group therapy, Metallica-style.

You know that guy who makes the "sports propaganda" prints? He's making Yankee ones now! Boooooooooo!

When I saw he was doing images of non-Red Sox players, I thought my usual, Fine--I have no problem with these non-Yankee opponents.

When I started seeing his work on fucking Dunkin' Donuts posters, I said nothing.

But Yankee shit? BOOOOOOOOO!

Imagine a Red Sox fan sitting there and meticulously painting "26 rings" and "An American Icon"? That's the definition of selling out. I can't see any other reason than money that he would want to do something like that. You know, I was thinking of doing a certain Red Sox-related art project, and part of my idea was to do anti-Yankee versions of it. Because I'm a Red Sox fan.

He becomes no different than the makers of those shirts that say "I root for two teams..." and there's one for Sox fans saying "the Red Sox and whoever beats the Yankees" and one for Yankee fans that says the opposite. Boycott!

I would note that he is indeed a fine artist, but you don't get to be called an artist when you sell yourself out. You're just a corporation. Look, I'm all for someone getting paid for what they love to do. And he was doing just that. Instead of taking some kind of easy way out, he made something with his own two hands, let people know about it all by himself, and charged for it. That's a beautiful thing. That's how it should be done if at all possible. But if you see a demand for something that goes against everything you stand for, you can choose not to meet that demand. Some people like the Yankees. Some people like bin Laden, too, but I don't see any 9-11 widows painting loving portraits of the guy because they know it'll sell.

Somebody's gonna say I'm overreacting. But think of that moment in 2003, right after Boone hit the home run. (Sox fans my age an older can choose a different moment if they prefer.) And imagine you're watching with your best Red Sox fan friend, and you say, Well, I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep, and they turn to you and say, "Eh, I'm gonna stay up. I have to finish this portrait of Derek Jeter I've been working on. I think I'll make him looking all regal and shit, with The Captain at the top. And then I'm gonna get a picture of Yankee Stadium, and hype up the '26 rings' angle--oh, but I better wait, it could be 27, now that they're headed to the World Series yet again while the Red Sox aren't." Would you ever let that person back into your house again?

In this vid, you can see Papi running with his son, but also a rare shot of the home whites in March, as it's picture day in Ft. Myers....