Snow rulz!!!! I can't imagine living in a place where it never snowed. A giant snowstorm in the forecast is like a Perdo start. There's a buzz going already. I'm psyched for tonight's blizzard of oz. Oh, and if I die of a heart attack shoveling snow tomorrow--make sure you let the snow know that it wasn't its fault. Nothing personal. Or precipitational.

So there's gonna be this Legends game on the ice at Fenway featuring a bunch of hockey dudes I don't know (and Cheshire, CT's own Brian Leetch), and a bunch of celebs. Two of them are Tim Robbins and Kiefer Sutherland.

On this blog, there are a few movies I talk about a lot. Ya gotcher Jaws. Ya gotcher Ghostbusters/Groundhog Day. Ya gotcher Wes Anderson movies. But then you have Shawshank and Lost Boys. Starring Robbins and Sutherland, respectively. Did I get tickets to that game? Ya think? Andy and David on one rink! Inside Fenway Park! I'm being obtuse! And eating maggots!

I've lived in four states in my life. They are all very sad. Connecticut came in 50th on the list of happiness. New York came in 51st! RI and Mass are also in the bottom ten, and if you include Nebraska where I lived in college, all five of my states are in the second division.

(Then again, we're talking about a survey that lists Louisiana as the happiest state.)

Also, Matty has informed me that Yawkey Way Store is selling a lot of Ellsbury merch at half-price. In-teresting. [Update: Section 36 reminded me right away that Jacoby switched to number 2. So that explains the discounted 46 jerseys...but how come I didn't see any 2 jerseys there? Also check out Section 36's scavenger hunt, I've been meaning to tell you that...]

Spring is just around the right field corner, because I just got my 10-Game Plan info in the escargot mail. (Yes, on the same day I complained about it not being here yet.)

Every year I tell you how we 10th Male Human Plan holders used to get our tix at the discounted price and get cool gifts and stuff, but lately we don't. This year, we are getting a couple of little things. We're allowed to pay by credit card. This is key because I got suckered into getting that Red Sox credit card a while back, so putting a big purchase on there would get me a lot of points toward Red Sox stuff.* So you'd think that this card that the team pushes would be their preferred choice of season ticket payment. Now it is. The other thing is that if we use that card to pay, we get an autographed Papi Sports Illustrated. While supplies last. So they could be gone already. Come on, just give us free junk, no strings!

*Unfortunately, the "stuff" is things like a Dennis Eckersley signed mini-helmet for 8 million points. So I'm just gonna wait 50 years and finally cash in, hopefully for something good.

Shut him down!

(I'd like to see this exchange with Public Enemy's "Shut 'Em Down" playing over it.)

Since opening day moved up to Sunday night, game two will now be Tuesday, and three will be Wednesday. I'm wondering how this affects season ticket-type plans. For uh-zample, my 10-Game Plan includes Wednesday games, and I usually get the first Wednesday of the season in my package. So will I now have a Tuesday game? And if so, wouldn't that piss me off if I specifically got that plan because I have fight club on Tuesday nights or something and absolutely couldn't go? (Also, aren't I pissed that while they have offered me the chance to renew my plan already, they have yet to tell which games I have? Yes.) Eh, we'll get it straightened out.

Oh and I like how the linked press release mentions the whole "NESN = New England except Fairfield County" thing. Any time that fact goes out to the public, there's a chance somebody in charge (of something) sees it and says, "Whatwhatwhat? Let's get this fixed now, for the best Sox fans in New England."

Really good speech by our ol' pal Jimmy Carter. It basically talks about how religions have fallen behind the rest of the world when it comes to treating women like equals. (Not that the rest of the world is anywhere near where it should be....)

I saw this excerpted on a NYT blog. They showed just the last five paragraphs. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, read those last five.

It's so funny to hear the media talk about how all of us Red Sox fans were totally panicked and now we're totally happy or whatever. It's all made up. Not one (real) person looked at the Red Sox in early December and said "they haven't made any moves. Last place!" It was just the media inventing an entire world for themselves to then report on. That's why I try not to get caught up in all these rumors and stuff. I follow it all minute-ly like everybody else but there's no sense assuming something that hasn't happened will. I mean, do people think the team is gonna trade its third baseman and then hibernate until Opening Day, and then put eight guys out in the field?

You know how I found out recently that Pete Nice was in that battle over the 1912 World Series trophy? Well I had no idea he had become a memorabilia collector, or that he ever had this trophy. Or so I thought. Turns out I saw him with that trophy, took a picture of it, and posted it to this blog. See this post. Myyyyyy mistake.

Why wasn't it "Smurves"?

Interesting take on Tiger by Zirin.

Hey: Captain James T. Kirk... James Cameron... Kirk Cameron! Weird.

It appears Peter Brady will be our #3 next year. I wish he was Halladay, but I'll gladly take him. Ga-ladly. This is what I wanted, another starter, before even worrying about the offense.

[If you're new: I've been calling John Lackey "Peter Brady" around here for years. Kim gets the credit on that one. Now you're gonna hear it even more.]

2:00: My Sunday afternoon is radically altered, as I get the "come to the Fenway Yard Sale NOW" e-mail. It was going until 7 PM and now everyone who entered was invited.

3:15: I park my car on Yawkey Way (always a surreal and awesome thing to do since it's closed to cars on game days), getting up there pretty damn fast considering I was in a rainstorm.

I worried that maybe I was supposed to have printed my e-mail, but just telling them I got it was proof enough for the guards to let me in.

This time you paid at the end, so I headed right for these boxes of jerseys labeled 2 for $75. Figuring they were not game-used at that price, I asked a worker and he said they WERE the real deal, but that "honestly," he'd never heard of any of the players who wore them. I guess that dude never heard of Bill Haselman! It was a goldmine of also-rans. I saw Coleman, Neal, Bausher, Shiell, Haselman, Haselman, Haselman.....I kept looking for a notable or favorite-type guy. Dopson road jersey circa the early 90s, nice, but not good enough. Petagine 13...interesting... and then I couldn't believe what I saw. How could no one have taken this jersey yet? Dinardo 55! Woohoo! My first definite. After more digging, I saw Easler 45! Sweet! Granted, it's his uni from when he was the hitting coach, but that's good enough for me. The letters in Easler's name are like 3 inches apart! Big man.

So then I went and selected a brick Instead of 2 for $30 like last year, it was 1 for $20 (plus all the print materials, shirts, balls, etc you can fit into a basket). I found one with a nice black& white side. From a certain angle, the brick is neapolitan. Then I got some media guides, got rung up by women who were just finding out they'd be working till 7 (and were pissed about it), and headed for the "high-end" room.

Again they had bats, seats, signs, and autographed jerseys of stars, but despite the markdowns late in day 2 of this sale, most of it was too dick for my plasma. But there were some cheaper signs made for events, and I got some of of those. Then I saw $65 game-used (you could tell) '99 All-Star Game balls at the counter. An "impulse buy"--but I'd already spent enough.

On my way out, a nice man started asking me what I got as we walked down Yawkey Way. Then he told me the jerseys he got. He was reeling off names like Lowe and Foulke, and then said he also scored some banners--1903 Champs, 1986 AL Champs, etc. These were going for hundreds of dollars inside. Then we reached my car, I told him I had to go, and he said he did too, going to his car...which we'd already passed. I thought maybe he was trying to rob me, because why would he have passed his own car? How long would he have walked with me? After I got home, though, I realized who this guy was: a memorabilia scalper! He wasn't just telling me he had a shitload of junk for his health. And now that I think about it, I wish I had figured it out so I could have asked him how much he wanted for his hot merch. Maybe I could have gotten a sweet deal! The dude probably brought that stuff out of there under his clothes... [update: I noticed a lot of jerseys from today are already up on ebay. It kills me that some people were in there just grabbing stuff away from real fans so they can make a profit. Including the guy that talked to me. Because like I said, if he is selling at a discount, it means he stole the stuff anyway]

So then I headed to SOWA to see Kim. I wish I had known ahead of time I'd be allowed to go to this Yard Sale today so I could have planned my weekend better. Instead I went to SOWA to help Kim sell soap on Saturday, and then had to do the drive again on Sunday. Oh well, at least the stuff I got made it worthwhile.

Then I passed an NFL Films truck on my way home. It must have been coming from Foxboro. I love NFL Films. They're like the Sitting Still of football. An entity that works independently from the people who show the games, but which does better work than they do. I've been enjoying their work since I was little. "Dial M For Moron"!

It was true. They did put the September games on sale today at 10 AM. As I was probably the only one sitting here waiting for 10, I got exactly what I wanted. Go now!


[Update, 10:25 AM: They just sent out the official e-mail announcing it. I love how they say the new tix have been released because of demand, when clearly it was pre-determined they'd go on sale today at 10, since it said it right on the ticketing page for each September game. Curiously, there seems to be a problem with only the September 8th game (my birthday!)--it's still not letting you buy tickets for it, showing it will be available today at 10. Lies!]