Double H! Buchholz was the term formerly known as "on" tonight. (Now that Southwest Airlines and some car company have stolen it from the people after a long run, I just can't use it any more.) He really set the prov. tone with that first batter with one of the all-time knee-bucklers, complete with head duck and backpedal.

It should have been a shutout, but for some reason, Tito took him out with two outs to go, and not only that, didn't choose Papelbon though he was clearly available. After Oka gave up two bullets, we finally brought in Pap to close it out.

Isn't it weird how Clay has twice this year not been able to get a win in games in which we gave him humongous leads, and tonight we kept finding new and exciting ways to strand guys yet he held tight?

Oh, and the guy who made the "catch of the game" in the crowd--Terrible job! Your hat that just said "SOX" on it is a White Sox hat! I can't even see a little kid not realizing that, let alone a guy who appears to be my age. And the guy had a Red Sox shirt so we know he wasn't just a random White Sox fan. (Note: I started noticing this mistake re-emerging a few years ago and did a post on it--and AJM confirmed people had been making the mistake 30 years ago. With the White Sox not using that logo for so long, we had a nice long mistake-proof era, but the old mistake is coming back in a big way.)

Update, 1:00 AM: Here's our boy:



Ha, while writing that, TC said, "as they say, it's on." Come on, TC, didn't I just say we're not allowed to use that anymore? Oh wait, I haven't posted this yet...but now I have.

Bonus Material: Last post from the Extra Bases person tonight:

"Pap seals Buchholz's gem (End of Game, 10:25, 3-0)
Clay Buccholz was so impressive the Fenway fans booed when Terry Francona came out to take him off the hill. Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon came in to finish off the inning and seal the Sox win."

Wait, what? What's that score again? Okajima did what now?

Yanks won 10-0 today. Wash away the evil with your own Dennis Eckersley double-sided magnet! I also made some young/old Tito ones, which I'll let you know about when I get them on Etsy. (My shop is here--feel free to link to it and/or tell your friends and neighbors about it!)

Okay, so the Jimmy Fund tele/radio-thon went on these last two days. And attention ended up getting split (rightfully) between that and the death of Ted Kennedy. Between that and the bad economy, the Jimmy Fund got less than the target amount. Can I just say something? How is it that somebody somewhere didn't tell all the people who wanted to give something on behalf of Ted Kennedy to consider sending donations not just to his education fund, but to the Jimmy Fund?

It's not like some random famous person died and I'm selfishly saying, "Hey, have everyone give to my team's charity--the timing's perfect!" It's Ted Kennedy. It actually is perfect--a charity so close to him is having their annual -thon, he dies right then, and everyone in the world knows about it...what a chance this was for the Jimmy Fund!

I mean, it's hard to bring stuff like this up when you're talking about people dying and kids with cancer--you don't want to be seen as some seedy head of a company rubbing his hands together and going, "We can parlay this into a huge score, mwahahaha!" But come on, it's for the ultimate in good causes. Someone in charge should have noticed this.

(And if they did and I missed it, or if there's some reason the Jimmy Fund and Kennedys purposely wait till after the -thon is over to bring this up because it means they'll get even more donations or something, I apologize. Just tryin' to help....)

Beckett's still giving up dongs galore but we get the win, with bonus rain delay and fun thin-crowd ending.

Key plate-blockage by Tek tonight.

74-54. Wins in 7 of our last 10. Same record as last year after 128 games. Panic! Hey, maybe I'll just steal that word from our oppressors and use it to empower us in non-panic nation. "Another comeback win...pa-NIC!"

Heavy rains tomorrow. Might not be a game...

What was up with Affleck tonight? I think of him as a jokin'-around type guy, but he didn't crack a smile and talked in that Johnny Damon verge-of-stutter voice.

The other night in the eighth inning I started a scorecard to track the GGG game I invented. I just started with the batter who was up at the time (I realize Thome doesn't bat leadoff--and then Jacoby happened to be leading off the bottom of the eighth.) and kept track of the first thing the ball hit. I realized that playing on TV is hard because you can't tell where ground balls hit. I also think strikeouts can't count as "glove" because then there'd be way too many gloves. So maybe Ks, BBs, HRs, and HBPs could be automatic gain/loss of a point or whatever. It really depends how you set the game up. Or you could have each person choose a G each inning, while the fourth person scores or loses on HRs and Ks and BBs. I still need to tweak this...

Oh and for the symbols: Grass is blades of grass, Glove is that old Brewers logo, or however you draw a glove, and Ground is a diamond, because in every successful game, there's always something that only vaguely makes sense, but is accepted as the way it is.

So let's see...we had ten batters, and there were two Gloves, and two either Grass or Grounds. And a bunch of Ks and a homer. I'll have to do a full game to get a better sense of how often each thing occurs.

This is the 4,000th published post on this blog. Can you believe it? Sorry, I have nothing special to celebrate this....and it really doesn't mean much outside the base-10 system, ha.

Nick Green was great tonight. On the mound. It's really too bad NESN opted not to show replays of either of his rocket throws to first or either ovation he got coming off the mound. Commercials are always the most important thing. It's a shame. Also too bad our little comeback attempt to get Nick a W fell short.

But we did get Clarke/Leary in the booth which is always funny. And Drew is catching fire at the right time. And the Yanks lost. My not-so-bold prediction at the beginning of the year that Posada would have issues with one of the new pitchers seems to be coming true. Speaking of Yankee pitchers, how funny is this teaser/blurb on the Daily News site today:

"Bondy: Joba Chamberlain says his rhythm is off and he doesn't know anymore how to coax a ground ball when it is required."

The article in question is here. (And check out Jobber's first quote in the article. Genius!)

Yesterday morning I was listening to the horrible sports show hosts I'd heard so much about but never was up early enough for anyway, and they were getting mad at Youk for apparently saying that the fans were up and down and up and down, happy when the team wins and ready to kill guys when the team loses one game. Something like that. And I thought, Gee, Mr. Media Ass holes, where would he get the impression that's how "we" feel? This is why we talk about the media "running guys out of town." These guys do turn on the radio. And they hear all this crap that I make fun of. Like the word "panic" every two weeks in a playoff-caliber season. I just hope that the players, as long as they're checking the radio/TV/internet, check out what real, sane, logical fans have to say. And those guys that call talk radio don't count. In life, people rarely go out of their way to point out a positive. It's much rarer than pointing out a negative, anyway. So the radio ends up with all the complaining idiots, and the people brainwashed by the very stations that take their calls.

And yes, I've heard the new 98.5 FM sports station, and, yes, I have noticed they've got a radical new concept: talking about sports! It's already better than EEI simply by being, you know, not EEI, but I'll see after a few weeks if it's worth listening to. Very glad to have the competition either way.

Oh, so while talking about that, either D or C (I'm not trying to be condescending, I just so rarely hear them that I don't know which voice goes with which name) then said that the Red Sox have won the World Series as a wild card twice. You're battin' .500 there, guy!

I also heard the other guy use the phrase "as thick as the Manhattan phone book." I have heard this phrase before, and I'd just like to point out that Manhattan isn't even the most populous borough in its city. It's not even number two! Terrible job by whoever coined that phrase.

What a weird night. I'll never forget sitting in the living room with the game on mute as Kim, my mom (staying over on her way to go see Teddy Kennedy), and Kara (staying over to help Kim sell soap tomorrow morning), looked up at the screen to see number 22 on the mound. Soon, in a 9-2 game, we were yelling at the screen like it was the World Series.

The White Sox scored nine runs tonight! You know what this means? The Red Sox are officially the only team left in all of baseball who haven't scored exactly nine runs in a game. Hard to believe we haven't nailed it lately, with all the runs we've been putting up. Will we make it all the way to September without a 9?

Kelly O'Connor was on NESN tonight. In the ninth, in the crowd, taking pics as usual. Just off edge of my screen, so probably clearly visible on widescreen. So she gets a mention on my blog two posts in a row. You can always check out her amazing Sox photos here. [Update: I checked the archived game on mlb.tv. She was totally on, as was Cyn, aka Toeing the Rubber! Makes me realize how much I'm missing without a widescreen TV--it seems like all I could see were those two guys in the middle! Kelly's at left with red hair taking pics, and Cyn's at right, in black, about to grab the camera hanging around her neck. Green's one strike away here...]



Ticket-mania! In the last few days I've gotten:

Celtics tix so I can take Kim to see her team again this year. (It will be mind-blowing to see a ticket with a 2010 date on it.)

Steven Wright tickets! First I meet him and then I find out he's doing some shows. I've tried to see him in the past, but it's always too much money. I can't miss him now.

I thought there was more than that. Oh well. I think we're gonna try to get Pixies tixies. They're touring and playing the Doolitle album. Another can't-miss-type event.

Okay, for anyone who says the home team can "walk off with a win," I made a handy diagram to help you see the light. Click to enlarge:



A walk-off win means the losers were forced to walk off the field, since this is the only type of game where the losers are on the field when it ends. That's what happens on the final play, as clearly shown in the diagram above.

Eckersley, or whoever came up with the term, looked at this scene, saw what was happening, and named it: walk-off. A walk-off win. The winners don't walk off with a win, as nearly all MLB.com writers and Don Orsillo describe it, they win in walk-off fashion. You can't go off a field if you're not on it, and you're not walking if you're running. The home team is doing the opposite of walking off. They're running on.

At the end of the celebration, sure, the winners then walk off the field. But the winners walk off the field after any game! After they shake hands, etc. I still say part of the confusion comes from mixing up "walk-off" with the figurative term "walking away with a win." My first step is getting Kelly O'Connor on my side. Once I've got her, I figure our side then makes a strong push at Don and all the writers, and wins the argument in a walk-off. Meaning THEY walk off the debate floor while we celebrate on the tables.

--------------
The only things I will concede in this non-argument:

1. Sometimes a losing player is seen doing a slow trot as opposed to a walk. But most guys are walking, heads down.

2. People could be just taking the term and making it work with what they want to say. Like if I say, "Scott Brosius was snoring too loud so I croaked him," it's the other guy who's croaking, not me, but I'm using it from the opposite perspective and it somehow works. In fact, Eck himself will take the term "punch out," meaning to strike a hitter out, and use it from the batter's perspective: "Pedroia punched out again." I still say it sounds bad, though, to say something in the exact opposite way it should be said.

A walk-off win on a Papi homer. Tonight we party like it's a comically recent year. We've now won seven of nine, and we go for a four-game sweep of the Blowtown Honky Hose tomorrow.

I don't know if there was anyone who didn't believe Alex Gonzalez was the best fielding shortstop we've had for many years, but if there was, or if you're a person who didn't follow the team when we had him before, I hope you're realizing what we've been talking about. As a bonus, he's hitting the ball, including a home run tonight.

And Wake was golden in his return.

*******

As I watched Victor Martinez and David Ortiz doing wacky hi-fives/jinks in the dugout after Papi's first dong tonight, I thought of how maybe some of David's older teammates might be jealous. As in, Hey, I've known him longer than you, New Guy! And it made me think back to Little League, when Fran Bogle came to town. His family moved to Ridgefield, and was placed on my team, and rumor had it he was good. But not only that, he was a lefty like me (though I throw right), and he pitched and played first, like me. So of course I had feelings of possible spotlight-stealing and/or on-field up-showing. (Something Papelbon recently hinted at, or didn't or whatever.) That got me looking up Fran Bogle. I didn't turn up much, but thinking about Ridgefield in general made me go to a site I go to frequently--the Ridgefield Press obituary page. And at the to of the page: James Fransen! Why the exclamation point? Because Mr. Fransen came to our town when I was in Little League to take over the whole operation (possibly in the Fran Bogle role to whoever ran it before?). He'd come from Norwalk Little League, where he had a team that went to, or got close to going to, Williamsport. Or something like that. Suddenly we Ridgefield Little League All-Stars felt like we weren't just gonna lose our two games to teams from Stamford and go home. With Fransen at the helm, we were going to Williamsport.

We never came close--but hey, at least we got long summer vacations. Fransen gave us hope, though, that there could be baseball beyond Fitzgerald Field. In fact, under his reign, "Fitz" (my "home field"--walking distance from my house) became an All-Star tournament caliber field, when only Aldrich had been that before. So, rest in peace, Mr. Fransen. One day Ridgefield will make it to Williamsport and win it all for you, Billy Zeyer, Ray Altier, Tom Jones, and that old umpire who'd say "watch it, son" on inside pitches.

Have you seen this sweepstakes on the Red Sox Web site? It mentions the great moments in the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. You're supposed to rank them, but that doesn't seem to affect your chance of winning. I don't know what's more ridiculous: the moments they chose, or the picture they used for each one.

The first moment is the Red Sox winning all seven games at home against the Yanks in 1990. Note: This is not even "a moment." The picture? Bill Buckner. Do you know how many Red Sox-Yankees games Bill Buckner appeared in in 1990? None.

The second moment is a Red Sox win over the Yanks in May of 1998, in which they scored 11 runs in an inning. The picture is of Nomar turning a double play. They got the right game, but it's not even an offensive moment.

The third moment is again not a moment, but two blowout wins over the Yanks in 2005. And they got the picture right. However, you're probably noticing these moments are hardly the most memorable ones. Surely 2004 highlights are on the way, right?

Nope. The fourth moment: The three-game sweep in The Bronx earlier this season. The picture? Mike Lowell...in a home uniform.

The final moment is, for the fourth time in five moments, not actually a moment, but a series of games. This time it's some meaningless contests in 1984 and 1985. A seven-game win-streak, with three home wins and four road wins. The picture: But of course, a wide shot of Yankee Stadium!

Why even do this? How about "type in your name and address and we'll let you know if you won," with a Red Sox logo slapped on the page, and call it a day?

I actually finished this post yesterday but forgot to post it, but just now I was at redsox.com and I saw a different "rivalry sweepstakes" by a completely different company, and look: they do it the way I suggested! Ha.

Note: I have no connection to these companies or their contests--in fact, I wouldn't link to them at all if it weren't key to the reader getting my point. But I guess if you enter, good luck and all that.

Don! It's August! Some of us are still trying to win the division, and aren't worried about the Texas Rangers, other than rooting for them to beat the goddamn Yankees this week. NESN seems to be insulting us by completely ignoring the division race. If you needed any more proof that the wild card ruins pennant races, it's seeing the Red Sox channel rooting FOR the Yankees with a month of summer left.

Great win tonight. We almost had the exact opposite experience as last night, when the other Sox lost their shit and gave us the game. Tonight, it was a run scoring on a strikeout with two outs, and then a ball off Lowell's glove, to give up the tie and the lead. Then Okajima has a pop-up land right behind him. (Despite what Remy--and Tito afterwards--said, Youk should have taken charge and caught the ball--dumb as it is, pitchers are told to get the hell out of the way. The only thing Oka did wrong was staying near the mound instead of clearing the area, which would have made the other infielders realize they had to be the ones to catch the ball.) Now, did anyone see what Vik-E Mart did on that pop-up? He reached back for a new ball from the ump! He thought that ball went behind him. So there was one more guy who should have been in charge doing nothing. Then he throws the ball into center field. Fortunately we got out of that and then Bay got the big dong and then we pulled away. And Victor got two key hits to make up for his weird defensive play.

Oh my god. Now, on the postgame, TC is acting like we're all mad that Texas is winning. Hello??!!! August 25th, fuckers! We're closing the lead to 6! Tell me SOME of you out there still "believe" and have "faith" like all your T-shirts say! I, for one, am overjoyed that Joba shat the bed tonight. Don't worry, though, they'll come up with some stat that makes him appear to be awesome. Like, "in games in which he's given up less than three runs, he's never given up more than TWO RUNS!" It's the same with Mo. It's as if they only count his save situations. And even when he's totally shaky but gets the job done, it's just "he's the greatest," whereas when Pap is shaky but gets it done, it's "hey, remember when Pap was good?" I still fully trust Papelbon, and I can't figure out why people are so down on the guy....

After Bay's homer, Remy said there was no question about it when it left the bat. Which was funny because Don's call of the dong was "does it have enough?"

Hey person behind home plate on the strikeout which scored a run. You can stop clapping. Something BAD is happening. Please give up your 200-dollar seat to someone who knows what's going on.

After hearing Craig Carton (Rhode Island is great because I get NY and Boston sports radio in my non-satellite-radio-havin' car) sing Billy Don't Be A Hero and The Night Chicago Died this morning, I had them in my head, but they left...until I heard about Billy Wagner. Then they were gone again....until NESN played a bad version of that Chicago song after tonight's game.

Ellsbury--the all-time Red Sox single season stolen sase seader! Sice Sob, Sacoby.


Heidi: So what's your deal, Ernie Boch?

Ernie Boch: Go to this web site, here's the address, here it is again, and again.

Heidi: So you're taking donations through the web site?


On final thing from last night, and I don't know why I'm still thinking about this. But remember when their second baseman made a play to his left, spun, and threw to first, but the throw was off target and got by the first baseman? That was a classc case of overcompensation. On that play, all your momentum is going to your left as you're spinning that way, so when you throw, you have to aim it to the right of the target, or it will go way to the left of it. That guy did the right thing, but he overcompensated, so the throw stayed too far to the right of the first baseman, from the second baseman's perspective. Yet Remy, a former second baseman, said nothing! I really thought he should have explained that to the type of viewers who, say, clap on missed third strikes not knowing the runner can go to first as long as there are two outs or first base is open. Go out into an open field, spin to your left, and try to throw something at a target while you're spinning, and you'll see what I mean.

Note: While writing this post, it was 10-5 Rangers in the ninth. But Francisco Franco is still dead, and he's trying to give it up. 10-6, bases loaded. Oh, the TYR (typical Yankee rally) continues, as they add a soft infield single to their two walks, and it's now 10-7, still no outs. I bet the empty blue chairs with cupholders are loving this....

And now it's 10-9, still no outs. This is all happening very fast. I guess I'll update down here and post this now.

10:59: Texas finally gets an out. And NESN continues with this wild card race crap by playing a montage complete with dramatic horror-movie music. I see it now. They're going for the "hey, casual viewer, look at this really close race! Telling people we're 7 back doesn't get ratings/viewers. I guess you people will have to follow independent bloggers for real Red Sox coverage...

Oh! Double play ends it! Hahahahha. The ultimate Yanks "almost win but still lose"! Sorry to disappoint you, people accidentally rooting for Yankees!

And NESN STILL doesn't show the division race, even though we gained a game and closed it to 6 with six weeks left! Come on!

Are you like me? Did you know for certain as soon as Ken Rosenthal came out with his report that Wagner wouldn't come to the Red Sox that he would? In fact, when I heard it, I though, Crap, we're getting Wagner. He caused me so much strife that time when he blew that 4-run lead to the Yanks while with the Mets--it's burned in my memory. And overall he's always seemed like a big time choker to me. But whatever, I gotta root for him now. I hope he's better than that shitty Hall of Famer we had earlier this year.

I've never really been too offended by long Red Sox games. I wear it like a stinking badge, in fact. "We American Leaguers are up all night, while you NL fans are snug in bed nice and early, visions of double switches dancing, one base at a time, in your heads."

But tonight's game took an eternity! In fact, I'm writing this in the eighth inning, because this game just won't end. I feel like I was ready for bed in the fifth inning, only to see that it wasn't even 9:30 yet.

I swear, it's as if when this game started, Jose Contreras and Octavio Dotel were still in the league!

First there was a game in which we seemed dead, down 4-1 and going nowhere.

Then there was a game in which the White Sox imploded, and we took an insurmountable lead.

Then Buchholz was giving up meaningless home runs that weren't meaningless at all.

Then every guy in our bullpen came in the game.

Then Kim and I were playing netless badminton and it was still light out.

Then I made a Dennis Eckersley magnet and we played with Amazing Larry.

I swear, this all has happened since 7:10. Now I feel like Bard has left the game and re-entered it.

And now it's, well, STILL it's the eighth, and in fact, there are still no outs, but we do lead by five. I'm gonna go ahead and post this now and update because I can't take it anymore.

10:29: Finally we go bottom 8, 12-8 us.

10:37: Pap coming in for the save, still 12-8. Let's see if we can wrap it up in 3.5 hours. You know it feels long when this game is coming right after a Yankee series....

10:52: Win. 7 back. And stupid NESN shows the WC standings without showing the division standings. "Believe in Boston! -- But only to go so far!" Terrible job. But the key is, we finally ended and won this game. We've won 5 of our last 7.

Jeremy Kapstein: former superagent, now Red Sox senior adviser, Rhode Island guy, turns out he and I had a mutual friend, so I've ended up meeting him a few times. Sits behind home plate at Fenway, as of this season wears yellow headphones.

Dennis Drinkwater: Owns Giant Glass, looks like Robert Redford and/or Jerry Springer, sits behind home plate at Fenway.

Maybe that will answer the types of questions people seem to be asking a lot, therefore landing on my blog since I often have written about these men. From a 150-search stretch on Sunday, the searches that led to this blog, with Drinkwater/Kapstein ones in bold:

Num Perc. Search Term
12 8.51% Dennis Drinkwater
8 5.67% Giant Glass + Dennis Drinkwater
6 4.26% dennis drinkwater giant glass
4 2.84% dennis drinkwater red sox
3 2.13% feyenoord kid giving the finger
3 2.13% red sox blog
3 2.13% guy who sits behind home plate at fenway
2 1.42% +fenway +kapstein +headphones
2 1.42% red sox finger kid
2 1.42% who sits behind the plate at fenway park?
2 1.42% red sox fan behind home plate
2 1.42% DANIEL BARD RED SOX
2 1.42% "Dennis Drinkwater" Red sox
2 1.42% red sox faninyankee territory
2 1.42% classic red sox bar
2 1.42% who sits behind homeplate at Fenway?
2 1.42% guy that sits behind home plate at fenway
2 1.42% red sox kid middle finger
2 1.42% headphones at Fenway Park behind home plate
2 1.42% springer look alike behind the catcher at red sox games
2 1.42% brian bruney tattoos
2 1.42% regular fan at fenway park behind home plate
2 1.42% yaz roof
2 1.42% drinkwater, fenway park
2 1.42% david cross red sox fan
1 0.71% giant glass and drinkwater
1 0.71% picture of kid shooting the bird finger
1 0.71% Red Sox
1 0.71% lmontro 99
1 0.71% Pinstripe Guild wichita
1 0.71% who is the guy that sits behind home plate at Fenway?
1 0.71% who is the guy with the yellow headphones behind the plate at red sox games?
1 0.71% who is man behind home plate fenway
1 0.71% who sits behind home plate at fenway
1 0.71% "bad news bears" "no santa claus" -thornton
1 0.71% Who sits behind home plate at red sox games
1 0.71% who sits behind home plate at fenway park
1 0.71% little boy giving middle finger
1 0.71% Who is the guy behind home plate at the Red Sox games
1 0.71% the guy sits behind the catcher at res sox games
1 0.71% how many seats does dennis drinkwater have at fenway
1 0.71% who sits behind home plate at redsox games
1 0.71% red sox blogs
1 0.71% jere smith
1 0.71% stella marie midget
1 0.71% Dennis Drinkwater's seats
1 0.71% 3rd base pavillion SRO Fenway
1 0.71% boston.com braves june 20 gallery
1 0.71% sox pax details
1 0.71% lefty and righty boston red sox
1 0.71% jeremy capstein
1 0.71% theredsoxguy
1 0.71% kapstein headphones
1 0.71% red sox fan in yankee territory
1 0.71% john candelaria photo 8-22-2009
1 0.71% "den drinkwater"
1 0.71% guy that sits behind home plate at red sox games
1 0.71% Man behind home plate at Fenway with headphones
1 0.71% little kid middle finger football
1 0.71% jonathan papelbon's tattoo
1 0.71% buck printing company
1 0.71% michael kay calling carlton fisk soft
1 0.71% yankees sponsor pepsi
1 0.71% friends don't let sox fans
1 0.71% the guy who sits behind home plate at fenway park
1 0.71% red sox fan
1 0.71% section 1 row 15 seat 1 fenway park
1 0.71% Fenway behind home plate jacket headset
1 0.71% who were the girls dancing on nesn before red sox yankees game on friday?
1 0.71% drinkwater giant glass?
1 0.71% red sox promotions
1 0.71% man who sits behind home plate at every Fenway Park game
1 0.71% tom snyder, private investigations
1 0.71% middle finger little boy
1 0.71% female crotch pics shots track world athletics championships
1 0.71% michael kay citgo sign
1 0.71% Red Sox Slogan
1 0.71% why does jeremy kapstein wear head[phones at red sox games
1 0.71% guys that sits behind home plate at red sox games
1 0.71% red sox fan from pinstripe
1 0.71% jeremy kapstein headphones
1 0.71% red sox slime time
1 0.71% Fenway fan wearing headphones behind home plate
1 0.71% jim rice is a loud mouthy asshole
1 0.71% Denny Drinkwater
1 0.71% who sits behind the home plate at the red sox games yahoo answers
1 0.71% red sox fan sits behind home plate
1 0.71% guy behind home plate at fenway
1 0.71% borat don't show your huggies
1 0.71% who is the blond hair guy behind homeplate at Fenway
1 0.71% casey mccormick baltimore

I would've been okay with two out of three. But Beckett is Bed-shit lately, and if he's hurt, he should tell someone, unlike last year.

The Damon bloop hit--Josh has got to be throwing balls out of the zone on 0-2. He deserved what he got there. Which was Felch-face lining one to right with Baldelli Drew'd by overthrowing the cutoff man and nearly the next guy. And didn't Josh watch the thing ESPN showed about how to pitch to Jeter they showed ten times before the game?

It's amazing we've done as well as we have against Mo over the years, considering his strike zone is wider than Joe Haggerty's wife's....well, pick the most Haggerty-insulting part you can think of. That guy hates the Red Sox enough to join the Boston media...oh wait... (and before you say I should leave his wife out of it, hey, she commented here. Then again, it could've been any of the Red Sox-hating, attention-loving people in his family. Either way, screw all those people).

Joe Morgan's not even trying to hide the fact that he's 100% on the Yanks' side of this rivalry, is he?

I love watching that nonchalant, smug mother pus bucket Cano eff up, which he did twice tonight. Though on the pop-up he dropped, Kiedis deserves some of the blame, as he was doing that "Little League backpedal." As soon as I saw that, I knew there was trouble.

Bay: when a ball is hit with two outs, run as fast as you can until the play is over. He almost cost us on that play. What is wrong with these guys that they can't just run balls out. At least he was trotting as opposed to just stopped, but still. We're kinda trying to make the playoffs here.

ESPN never did show us what happened on that ball into the left field corner. Whoops. They also did the classic "show ball in flight" on Lowell's double. You better be sure it's a home run if you're gonna completely avoid showing the fielders the entire time on a play.

Funny play when A-Rod was totally out of position on that other missed pop-up, yet still raised his arm, as if they could have thrown it to him, nowhere near the bag.

I'm not even gonna comment on Morgan's "most improved player" line about Jacoby.

We could have had this game. Even if Beckett was half-good Beckett. But no. So we're 7.5 back. But the Yanks, like their stadium, aren't the most impressive thing in the world, and I know we can beat them in the playoffs. If THEY make it to the ALCS, that is.

Speaking of the New Loo, how come people kept saying, about Tazawa, things like, "you can't start your career in a bigger spot than Yankee Stadium"? Uh, why not? I think they're thinking of a different stadium. This one's brand new and has no history. Maybe a bigger spot would be any of the 29 other stadiums that are as old or older than (wind) current Yankee Stadium?

Don't you hate it when jealous people use the "no milestones" case against Jim Rice being in the Hall of Fame? These people (read: Yankee fans) think they're so smart with all these stats that fit their argument--yet this milestone thing means nothing. Why? Because they only apply in a base-10 system, which is what we happen to use. Think about it, which two numbers are more similar? 499 and 500, or 401 and 499? Why should the 499 guy be lumped in with the 401 guy when he's nearly identical to the 500 guy? It's like the way we think of 1979 and 1980 as totally different eras when they were really just one year apart.

You can go ahead think of base-10 as the number system, Yankee fans, who just can't get over Rice making it in after 15 freakin' years and still thinking it's some kind of conspiracy theory, but let's take a look at Jim's career numbers in the septenary system:

In exclusive 80*-member 1000 home run club with 1054.

In exclusive 74*-member 4000 RBI club with 4142.

In exclusive 111*-member 10000 hit club with 10102.

Congratulations, Jim. The Time Lords** would be proud of you.


*number of members in each club listed in base-10 for reference

**apparently these Doctor Who characters used base-7, but I had to look that up