Former Tiger and Pirate Red Oldham held what distinction from August 19th, 1914 to September 18th, 1932? (The player who took over this distinction still holds it today.)

Update, 3:50: Sox win 9-4, take Mayor's Cup.

Papi, Rocco, Bay all with dongs. Penny didn't do too bad. 7-4 us in the 5th.

Game's on NESN today at 1:00. And then we're down to the final week of exhibition games! Then it's on to the final season of the '00s, as we shoot for Team of the Decade-status. Aka ToD-Squad.

Ah, fourth grade. I should be pretty easy to find. But can you find....the kid who wore a blue suit on the first day of middle school? the kid who used to throw hamburgers against the cafeteria wall to see if they bounce? the girl who wanted to be a movie critic when she grew up? the new girl from Belgium? the kid who got pissed when we ruined his birthday party by making fun of his Dungeons & Dragons game and calling another friend of his "Fat Jack"? the kid whose house I saw Tron and played Lock & Chase at? the kid who mistakenly said during his current events report that after Pete Rose broke the all-time hit record, the game was stopped for seven seconds? the girl who I saw at the theater when I went to see Splash?

Labels: class pics

4:30: We tie it in the ninth, and Chip Ambres hits a three-run homer to win it in the 10th for the Red Sox, 11-8.

4:04: Felix Rodriguez enters in the ninth for the Sox to close out the 7-4 win...and gives up four runs. Now we're down to our last three outs.

Update, 2:58: Beckett gave up four in six innings, three of those in the sixth on a series of singles. Saito in for us. Varitek has homered, and we have 14 hits and lead 7-4 in the seventh. And the knuckle-balling woman has made her professional debut in Japan. Woohoo!

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Sox vs. Cards, 1:05.

You've probably heard this story by now, but if you haven't, I'll give you a summary: Cops in Texas are racist, power-hungry bastards. That article has the video of the event, in which a cop causes a man to not be there when his relative dies, just so he could be a jerk.

This coming just a few months after this similar story which I told you about before, where more Texas cops didn't like the idea of black people minding their own business in their own vehicle at their own house.

I just wrote a piece for Baseball Digest about the history of the Red Sox on my birthday, September 8th. You may remember when this blog was about a week old, in March of 2004, I wrote a piece on how the Sox had been doing on my birthday since 1991. Consider this a much nerdier, comprehensive update.

Back when I wrote that March '04 piece, the Sox hadn't won on my birthday since 1991. Six months later, they'd end the 13 year drought, breaking the "Curse of the Brumbino," (Mike Brumley, whose last days with the Sox came in May 1992--I'm just making this up now) by beating Oakland on 9/8/04, and going on to win the World Series. Some note that since it was a west coast game that ended after midnight in the east, the curse was still alive. And after birthday losses in 2006 (a game I went to which the Sox blew to KC in the ninth in a game which saw a Royals player hit a ball off the ladder) and 2007, it was not only alive but well. Last year we truly broke it, though, on the day of the 456th consecutive sell-out.

If you do consider '04 to be a September 9th win, then the September 8th road losing streak is still in tact, the last win coming on 9/8/1986 in Baltimore. Then again, that game lasted nearly four hours. Don't tell me Orioles' games started at 8:05 PM or later back then...

Here's what we're gonna do. Every two days or so, I'll show you one of my class pictures. I'll start with 5th grade and go all the way down to three-year old nursery school. So the younger I get, the closer we'll be to baseball season. We begin with 5th grade:

Can you pick me out? Can you find...the British import? the kid whose name had been "Gay" but changed it, citing a re-marriage by his mom? the new girl who I had a crush on? the kid I made a massive papier mache shark with in art class? the thumbsucker? the kid who terribly didn't like the Dire Straits "Walk of Life" video with all the sports bloopers, despite being a teammate of mine on the Rotary Little League team? the kid who nicknamed one of the urinals "Power Pisser"?

Labels: class pics

3:38: Sox win thanks to ninth inning, 2-run double by Aaron "RZA" Reza, who then tags out runner trying to steal second to end game. 2-1 final.

Buchholz has given up a hit and no walks through four against the Reds. Nice.

Anyway, when that Columbine thing happened, I went on AOL and searched "trench coat mafia" and came up with the member profiles of several of Eric and Dylan's buddies. I recently found the print-outs I made, and I forgot that I actually had found Harris himself:

The date on that page is 4/21/99, the day after the massacre. I just did an Internet search for similar things, and I found a few that are slightly different that this one, but you can tell it was written by the same person. So...there you have it. Isn't that scary?

It's at the point where you can do a daily check of ProJo and always find a new instance of Kottaras spelled "Kotteras." In their article from tonight's game, they spell it two different ways in the same sentence.

Hopefully they learn how to spell the guy's name by the time the season starts, considering he's going to be on the team.

Come on ProJo, you're my hometown newspaper now! They're all gonna laugh at us! I know you cut a hundred more jobs, but maybe next time cut the hundred dumbest workers instead of the hundred smartest.

First half of game: really fast, nobody scores off Wake or Burnett.

Second half: a bunch of crappy stuff happens, mainly to us, and we lose 7-1. The good news is we got to the flustered side of both Burnett and Marte. And we got Rocky Cherry, a nice rival for Yanks pitcher Phil Coke.

Check out old Yankee Stadium without its grass.

My roommate in college was from South Dakota. One night, we were talking about Mt. Rushmore. I guess to kids from South Dakota, learning that Mt. Rushmore is in your state is like learning your ABCs. He figured everyone knew where it was, but I told him that there are probably a lot of people on the coasts who don't. He was shocked. I set out to prove it through a survey, using a technique I used a lot back then: Calling strangers on the phone.

I called six numbers at random in New York City, one in Hawaii, and 21 in Los Angeles. Here were their responses, transcribed exactly from my original scoresheet, which I obviously just found:

NY
1. Don't know/Virginia
2. Never heard of it
3. One of the Dakotas (then said North)
4. Don't know
5. Georgia
6. Never heard of it

Hawaii
1. Dakota (guess North)

LA
1. Never heard of it
2. "Your mama's ass"
3. South Dakota (took 5 minutes to get it out of him)
4. Doesn't know, never heard of it
5. Never heard of it
6. Ask someone else, she said
7. Doesn't know
8. Doesn't know, her brother said N. or S. Dakota, he guessed South
9. Didn't know, said New York
10. Doesn't speak English
11. Doesn't know
12. Montana
13. Arizona
14. Didn't know
15. "Don't understand nothing"
16. "It's a little late for a survey"
17. Montana, Nebraska
18. Washington
19. Been there, S. Dakota
20. Don't know, never heard of it
21. Don't know (little late for survey)

So three out of 27 people from NYC or LA (or Hawaii for some reason) who understood the question knew or could guess what state Mt. Rushmore was in. That's one in nine, or 11.1 repeating percent. But that was 1994. Try your own survey today! (I bet even less people know.)

Just now, before reading this list to someone I know, I asked them where they thought Mt. Rushmore was. "Virginia?" "No." "Did anyone else say Virginia?" "Let's see....yes, the first person."

Red Sox v. Yankees, 7:15. NESN.

Got the $10 seats at the Garden--which are in the locker room! Actually, this is a shot of the scoreboard, showing Garnett coming to the floor after being out for a month.

Here's the real view, from way up in the upper deck. Here, my boy Mikki Moore laughs with Infante Grande.

A Clipper doing something.

Ray Allen and the Red Auerbach signature.

Did you know the Clippers have a logo on their butts?

Mikki again.

Someone else's flash went off right as I took this, helping my shot immensely. Mikki wasn't so hot on this night. He had five fouls. And way fewer points than five. I predicted the Celts would win by 17--they won by 13.

Kim's favorite, Eddie House, flanked by Marbury and the amazing Rondo. By the way, the three people in front of us wore Laker garb and rooted for the Clippers.

Another scoreboard shot of some guy in the crowd.

Highlights of the night: A guy named Jerry Smith sung the anthem! I wish I'd been taping, because it was cool to hear "ladies and gentlemen, Jere Smith!" over the PA. At halftime, they had a game between two Special Olympics teams. This one kid came right out and shot an NBA three, and nailed it. He came back down the next time, and repeated the feat, as the crowd went nuts. The third time, the ball bounced around...and in! At this point I was thinking I might hear about this on the news. He missed his fourth try, but he still electrified the crowd.

Lowlight: I got a "tub of fries," and after taking one bite, I almost barfed. Disgusting fries. Fries have to be pretty bad for me to buy four dollars and fifty cents worth and literally throw them all in the garbage. But wait, there's more: After eating that only fry, I looked down at them and saw a [I'll leave out adjectives that might provide you with a mental picture of its length or curliness] HAIR. So any chance I had of maybe nibbling on them or dousing them in ketchup to disguise the rotten taste went right out the window.

As you may remember, my original plan was to try to go to one each of the exhibition games at the new Yankee and new Mets' stadiums. With the key one being the Mets since they're playing the Sox. The Mets, I took care of. Today at 10, Yanks tix went on sale.

Ticketmaster is not my friend. I've mastered the Red Sox' system, but the Yanks go through TM, so I never know if I'm gonna get anything at all from them. But today, I went in right at 10, waited it out, and by 10:03, I was buying tickets. This is the game they decided to charge 1923 prices for--so I got four tix for a dollar and a dime each! Woohoo!

What really stanks about TM is if you want another game, you have to go back in and wait again. Which is what I'm doing now.... but seriously, three minutes? Terrible job, Yankee fans! You definitely should be beating out Red Sox fans for tix!

So now I'll go to one game at each stadium, for a total face value of $7.10.

Ooh, wait time down to one minute again....

Update: Eh, I didn't get any more. But I was trying for Sox games--I'm sure you could get a mid-week Twins game, the wait times aren't even that long. But I don't need to do something like that since the whole point of getting the Cubs game is to "see a game at the new stadium." I may try again tomorrow--that's when the phone sale starts and maybe they held some back just for that.

"Feels like" eight degrees in Providence right now. Hopefully the last real cold one of '09 until after the World Series. Kim and I went to the Celtics game tonight--parked for free by a T station, and had the coveted $10 tickets that I got the day they went on sale. And were back in our house at 11:11. At which point I used the last bit of hot chocolate dust I'd been saving just in case. Pics tomorrow.

Two things I didn't know until today:

1. They tore down the Orange Bowl! A year ago!

2. You know pom-poms? They're actually called pom-pons. With an N.

"HR: Lowell (3, 6th inning off Lyon, 0 on, 1 out), Bay (2, 6th inning off Lyon, 0 on, 1 out), Carter (5, 6th inning off Lyon, 0 on, 1 out), Ochoa (2, 6th inning off Lyon, 0 on, 1 out)."

Poor Brandon Lyon. (Whose autograph I got at the Todd Pratt game in Philly in '03. Well, either him or Chad Fox.)

Penny with a good start today, too.

You're either a Coke person or a Pepsi person. (With a few boths and neithers thrown in.) I've been Coke since day one. For a long time now, Coke has been the soda served at both Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium. This year, though, the Yanks are going the Pepsi route! I love it! The lines have been drawn, people. (Regardless, I pretty much just drink water these days....)

Here's the rest of the Yanks' new food stuff. I love Johnny Rockets' veggie burger, so hopefully they serve a full menu there. I see we're still lookin' at French's over Gulden's, too. Terrible job. A Hard Rock Cafe? Really? And I really hope the bar that serves mixed drinks is really far from those guys that sit in the bleachers.

They also mention there that gates will open three hours before games!

Curt Schilling has officially retired. Of course, you never know with these retirement announcements. So I'll save the tribute for another year or two. He announced the retirement on his blog, which would have been so cool had he kept his original, independent blog. Instead, it's just another athlete saying something through the media. I still don't know why he felt the need to join EEI (especially since he once claimed he never would so something like that). Did he need more money? Did he feel people couldn't find his blog? What other reasons would there be? It also shows us that as much as celebrities seem to be "just like us" in this electronic world, they can always just skip right out of their (insert current bullshit pre-packaged social time-wasting site here) account and just have their minions do the work for them. I envision a future with much more accessibility to "stars," as they will have grown up on the Internet with the rest us, but they'll always know they can be on that "higher" level with a click of a (insert current show-off handheld device here).

Red Sox vs. somebody, 1:05.

A-Rod dated some whore while he was married. More of the usual from this classy Yankee.

Sox playing Phils--Beckett with three scoreless innings. Lowell with a two-run dong. 2-0 us after 3.

2:34: NYT showing a guy dunking, and acting like they play counted, which it didn't. The guy was fouled well before (as you can tell by the ref making the call and the defender facing the other way), and went and dank for the hell of it. Very misleading. The same picture with another misleading caption actually made their front page. Terrible job. That would be like showing a picture of Papi swinging in batting practice and captioning it "David Ortiz connects for a home run on Sunday at Fenway Park." Beckett: no runs in 5 IP.

3:10: 2-0 Sox after 7.

3:35: Sox win 3-0. Carter added a solo HR. Oka, Delca, Ba(rd) finished off the whitewash.

Old-timey post I wrote for today's Sox game is up at Baseball Digest now. Here's your teaser:

Jupiter, Fla.–"If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly,” might have been the suggestion sent from Jupiter Pluvius to the ball-teams battling in his namesake burg to-day. The Franconamen, after a quarter-day of swamp-crossing and rain-watching, weren’t compelled to dawdle in the batter’s boxes once the contest had finally gotten underway. And the soggy cranks were rewarded with a performance of McBeth, who took the stage for the Bostons in the fourth act, unseaming three Marlin from gill to tail.

Read the rest here.

Thanks to Allan Wood for the "Jupiter Pluvius" suggestion. That is good stuff. And thanks to Empy who always inspires me to write about baseball in a more creative way. And I have to say, the Sox having a player named McBeth is totally gold.

By the way, if you were wondering, the Baseball Digest thing isn't a paid gig--if I ever get one of those, you'll be the first to know. Not you, you.

So we get a rain-shortened win in a game that was delayed almost three hours at the start. We play Philly tomorrow at 1.

A new Kwiz is up, and it's one of those "pick a number" ones, so go ahead and take a stab. But it has a deadline of 4:44 PM Sunday, so do it quick.

By the way, if you prefer "regular" game wrap-ups, by all means, read those. Just know that they don't always spell the names correctly:

The above is from a site called "mlb.com." (ProJo also loooves the "Kotteras" spelling.)