There's a new slogan on the board, and it comes from the Oakland Athletics:

Green Collar Baseball

I like! Creative without being moronic. And they put the logo on a mock uniform tag, as you can see in their banner.

Update, 3:55: Red Sox turn triple play to end the game! Line out to short, flip to second for two, and then a throw to first--as the runner dives in, the throw gets away. Catcher backs up the play and easily throws to second to get the guy trying to advance. 6-4-2-4 (or 6-4-3-2-4 if the first baseman got a glove on it) triple play to win the game! And Don and Rem are afraid to say the words "triple play"! Finally during the Tito interview they get word that yes, three outs on one play is called a triple play. Even Pete Abe on XB calls it "a sort of triple play"! Helloooo? It's a triple play! That was pretty sweet. Good thing NESN wasn't having their little difficulties at that point--most of this game had no video. Catch the replay tonight on MLBN.

Update, 3:00: I just watched as the picture flipped on! We're seeing baseball... it's all sunny and the Sox are in their home whites instead of shitty ST-unis. (Which all teams wear in spring training--this is a criticism of the entire concept, not just the Red Sox. By the way, how come Yankee fans never admit that they DO wear alternate unis in spring training when they're talking about how their team would never do such a thing?)

The game is on NESN right now, but technical difficulties is preventing us from seeing the all-important video portion of the broadcast. Don't worry, the commercials are coming through crystal clear. 0-0 in the 6th-ish...

I kind of lost track of the progress of the demolition of Yankee Stadium, but I'm back on board, baby! This site is giving regular updates, with pics and video of that hell hole crumbling to the earth. Wild stuff, man. Thanks to Quinn for the reminder.

Speaking of deterioration, I just went through my Red Sox blogroll and put about 20 of 'em into the "Blurgatory" category. I blame the shitty "I'm on there because everyone else is" social shitshovelin' sites. For the people who can keep up both, nice job. To the ones who have eschewed having a place of their own to do actual writing for doing mini-updates that nobody could possibly about, terrible job. The good news is I get to laugh at everybody when each socialbarf site ends, but the bad news is there'll always be a new one to hate.

Even though I once dreamed of being up on the right field roof when it was just a roof (and a Jimmy Fund sign), I don't really see the appeal to sitting up there. Probably because I don't drink. Unless you want to be at a bar the whole game or be in seats that cost a fortune that are really far away, I don't see a reason to buy seats there. (You also get that "food credit," but all I need at a game is a slice of pizza if I didn't eat dinner and a few sips of water that I can get at the water fountain because I don't wanna pay $4 for a bottle.) Even the standing room makes no sense--they cost $30, but you can be on the same level by first or third base for $25.

I am glad they did something with that area and it was cool to make my dream a reality by hanging around up there before games, but as of now, I never watch games from there. That's just me.

But if YOU want to sit there, call "the number" tomorrow at 2. I've gotten through the last two Saturdays for Yanks and Monsters. Prepare to redial....

That is so crappy. I did a video of myself opening my 10-game plan ticket envelope. The sound is all echoey and cool. I watch the thing, and it turns out the sound didn't come out at all...and the video cuts off just as I'm taking the tickets out. Terrible job. The awkward, silent, cut-off video is here, but I recommend watching old episodes of Clarissa Explains it All instead, as you'd probably get more out of that.

The point is, my tickets came! I have to say though, it's not as exciting these days--but only because by the time the 10-gamer arrives, I've already bought at least ten other games--the games of my choice as opposed to the pre-selected games in the plan. So I've already had the excitement of getting the key games I want and receiving those in the little gray envelopes.

But it's good to have the Tenski for the 2 guaranteed Yanks games and a playoff game. (Then again, getting those isn't usually a problem, but it's good to have the guarantee.)

If you're new, I got my 10-game plan when they first debuted, before the 2004 season. They announced it, and I got on the phone, and was fortunate enough to get 2 bleacher seats in a really cool spot, then for $18 a pop, now up to $28. And I've renewed every year. It's the price of 10 tix times 2, plus a $20 fee. One dollar per ticket in fees total, and no extra for shipping is a great deal. (Despite what some Globe writer said about season ticket holders having to pay $40 for shipping or something. They certainly don't charge me that, just 20 bucks total tacked on.)

The guys on the 10-game plan tix: Beltre, Scutaro, Jacoby, Cameron, Drew, Beckett, Letser, Lackey, Pedroia, Dice-K. The four new guys are pictured at their press conferences.

Video of Kim on The Rhode Show yesterday. Pretty cool that that site lets you embed video. If the above doesn't work, click here.


Red Sox on MLB Network for you unemployed/night-workers today at 1 against the Metros.

Ellsbury homered twice, and our pitching gave up no earned runs. Except for Adam Mills, who gave up 7. So we lost 8-6 to Tampa.

I've been a huge Nomar Garciaparra fan from his earliest days as a Red Socker until the current minute. The #5 T-shirt I wore in a video from 1999 (It's all cued up to be the next in that me/Chan vacation video series!) is the same one I wore to Fenway when he came back last season. I, like a majority of Red Sox fans, am happy that A. he wants to retire as a member of our team and that B. the team is embracing the idea.

But here's what's gonna happen. People (90% being Yankee fans disguised behind their digital persona as a "neutral fan who hates the Red Sox and Yankees," 5% being members of the Boston media who love when bad things happen to the Sox and when the Yanks do well because it's a "better story," and 5% being those old, crusty, negative Red Sox fans who complain about literally anything the team does) will flood the e- and airwaves with talk of how "the Red Sox are stealing your money! Look at how bad and stupid they are! They'll probably charge you $10 to watch the press conference and FORCE you all to buy a commemorative bla bla bla." It's all cut-and-pasted from a template with (if they have half a brain) the relevant words and names plugged in. (A great example came yesterday when someone on a messageboard accused the Red Sox of suckering people in to spending money on a spring training game only for fans to see the stars for a few innings only, as if the fact that the stars playing only a few innings in early exhibition games doesn't happen with EVERY team. As a bonus, the guy said this about a ROAD GAME. Whoops! See, you can't just throw your template out there at any time when you have no idea what you're talking about. He also reeked of Yankee fan but as usual didn't admit it to make it appear that his opinion was shared by the masses.)

At that point, most of your co-workers will buy into the hype, and spew back to you what they heard on the radio/internet as if they thought of it (See Manny Ramirez). Some newer under-20 Yankee fans will also make fun of the "one-day contract" concept, as they will have never heard of it before because it's never happened in their fantasy league.

By then, it will appear as if "everyone" hates this whole idea, and that it's really dumb and un-awesome. And the sports radio hosts will laugh at us geeks who care about this stuff, when in reality their job exists because of it. Just remember, though, the bulk of fans (over 99%) don't post on the web or call radio shows. It was proven when Nomar returned to Fenway last year that Red Sox fans love the guy. So if you are a Nomar fan, and people are saying stupid shit to you, take a deep breath, and think about the situation: It's very simple, no one's trying to take your guns or money away from you, we're just letting a guy we love retire in a Red Sox uniform. The world will be the same tomorrow, except that Corey Haim won't be there. So when someone blindly says to you, "You hear about this Nomar thing, pretty shitty and stupid, huh? Lolcatz facebook tweet", you don't have to give 'em the giggle and nod, just say, "No. Totally fine. No problem. A nice gesture. Fine." (If they listen to sports radio, feel free to add that that's the "bottom line.")

My own brother.

A goddamn.

Shitsucking.

Vampire.


You wait till mom finds out.

8:35 And it's over! Kim gave an awesome performance and was beautiful as always:) Get her soaps now before she totally sells out of it thanks to this sweet TV performance....Stellamariesoap.com

8:34 Kim mentions Joan Jett. Doesn't seem nervous at all! Not like that cook guy from earlier.

8:32 She's on now! foxprovidence.com

Pete Abraham is pissing me the eff off. He had alluded to this earlier on Extra Bases, but now he's written a whole article about how no Red Sox player ever leaves the team on good terms:

"Who's the last significant player to leave Boston with a smile? It might be Yaz or Dewey Evans. We're a tough bunch."

We're a tough bunch? Excuse me, but wasn't this guy covering the New York Yankees less than six months ago? And now he has the nerve to refer to the Red Sox and/or Red Sox fans as "we"? He also talks about how these guys are "painted" after they leave--gee, I wonder who's responsible for that, media boy?

But back to the point--he is claiming no "significant" Red Sox player since Dwight Evans has left on good terms. It makes sense that Pete would have missed all the Red Sox who have left the team on good terms over the last few years because hewascoveringthefuckingYankees!

We (I can say "we" because when the Yankees offer this Red Sox fan money to blog for their side I say "fuck off") batted Trot Nixon leadoff in his last game. He then left and said the words "no hard feelings." From the Globe at the time Indians' GM Mark Shapiro signed Trot: The Sox, Shapiro said, handled Nixon's situation with great sensitivity. "The organization still has strong ties to Trot and didn't want to break them off," Shapiro said. "They certainly didn't burn any bridges. The relationship with the Red Sox should endure long after his career is over." Then he returned in a Cleveland uniform and was given a long, loud standing ovation or nine. I was there for his last game with the Sox, and his first game back with the Tribe--while Pete Abe was hanging around the Yankee locker room.

Hall of Famer Curt Schilling recently retired from baseball. He ended his career with the Boston Red Sox after leading US to two word championships. The team and the fans remain fans of Curt's, and there was no problem when he officially left.

Bill Mueller left without a peep. The list keeps going.

Derek Lowe may not have been happy with the team when he left, but within a few months, he was missing time with his new team to go to Fenway Park to get his World Series ring, getting one of the biggest ovations of the day. I was there. Pete Abe covered that game, too, in a filthy pinstriped suit. And now he's trying tell all the ex-Red Sox that "it's okay to come back," like so many already have to huge cheers?

Like Dave Roberts? Along with Kevin Millar? O-Cab? Kapler? Mirabelli? Pedro? And all the other star players the new ownership has embraced and put in luxury boxes and onto Duck Boats? We "treat our players like they fell off the face of the earth," he says. To say that is to have fallen off the face of the earth yourself, right into a big, stinkin', bottomless Yankee pit, which is what former Red Sox fan Pete Abe did in 2005.

And even when talking about how much he likes Nomar and the team making good, he mocks it by saying they were "pretending" to like each other. (He also said that Nomar was "seemingly sentimental" at the press conference, before taking the word "seemingly" out of the article--I think the whole thing is down now but I got a screen shot.)

Okay, enough of this. Hopefully I can stop myself from reading his opinions from his "such a huge lifelong Red Sox fan that I'll gladly do a Yankee blog before coming back to the Red Sox and then pretending like it never happened" point of view and skip to the game updates and actual news. The guy is non-stop and obviously cares about this new gig, but he just keeps pissing me off.

So I put up another video from the me/Chan trip. It works as weird little tribute to Nomar since I'm wearing his shirt. It's July '99, and we've driven from Toronto to Windsor, and we're looking across the river at Detroit, where we'd soon see a Tigers vs. Pete Abe's True Favorite Team game and I'd have my legendary run-in with Roger Clemens. Also note my very horse-mane-y mohawk.

And if you missed it last year, here's my post from Nomar's return game--I was at Fenway, Pete Abe was busy sniffing Jeter's decidedly non-red socks.

MLB slogans time! There are hardly any new slogans as of today. I will update this list as teams add or change slogans. The ones with the asterisks are the new ones. Every year I look forward to the Mariners' slogan, but they've lost a little off their heater with "Believe Big." The Marlins are leading so far in 2010, creativity-wise. For last year's slogans, click here.

Angels: Tradition Since 1961 (and All-Star Game 2010 logo) 8/3: changed to "Angels Baseball"
Astros: no slogan (but 45th anniversary logo)
Athletics: no slogan 3/12: "Green Collar Baseball"
Blue Jays: no slogan
Braves: The Excitement of Turner Field 4/24: Slogan removed.
Brewers: no slogan (but 40th anniversary logo)
Cardinals: no slogan
Cubs: no slogan 4/24: "It's a way of life." The W is that WIN flag.
D'backs: no slogan
Dodgers: This is My Town
Giants: It's Magic Inside*
Indians: Are You in the Tribe?
Mariners: Believe Big*
Marlins: Serious fun. Get in on it!*
Mets: no slogan 3/12: they do have a changing banner, though, go to their site and refresh a couple times to see what I mean (presented by Verizon)
Nationals: Get Your Red On 4/10: Now back to just "NatsTown"
Orioles: This is Birdland
Padres: no slogan
Phillies: no slogan
Pirates: Pride. Passion. Pittsburgh Pirates.
Rangers: no slogan 4/10: "It's Time"
Rays: no slogan (presented by St. Petersburg Times)
Red Sox: no slogan 8/3: "The Home of Red Sox Nation"
Reds: no slogan
Rockies: no slogan (presented by Toyota)
Royals: It All Happens Here*
Tigers: Always a Tiger
Twins: no slogan (but inaugural season logo) 4/26: "This is Twins Territory" is back!
White Sox: There are Traditions. And There are White Sox Traditions. Update, 3/19: It's Black & White. Passion. Pride. Tradition.
Yankees: no slogan (presented by AT&T)

I left out the postseason notations--every 2009 playoff team has one except the Red Sox and Angels.

Sox up 9-0 going bottom 9. All five of our pitchers have given up no runs with exactly one strikeout. Can Cabrera continue the trend? The anticipation is papercutting me.

Update, like 10 seconds later: Yes! He K's the last guy for the 9-0 win, and all six pitchers end up with a 0 ER, 1 K line. (More specifically, no walks for any of 'em either.)

The "big news" at our house is that Kim's gonna be on TV tomorrow! The Rhode Show (8-9 AM and 2-3 PM on Fox Providence) is doing a segment with her about her soap company, Stella Marie Soap (stellameriesoap.com). You don't have to be in Rhode Island to watch--they broadcast the show over the 'net right on their front page. (I'm watching it right now and Molly Ringwald is on....) So tune in for that tomorrow morning--and if you miss it, check out the archived version online at some point.

Also, the inglorious folks over at Ticketbasterd are having a special deal on lower-level Celts tix called Steal-a-Seat. Single seats only, but at a pretty sweet price compared to the real price. (Don't worry, I'm sure the fees will getcha right back near the original face value....)

Sox @ Marlins, 1:05.

Like a chimp masturbating in a banana tree, the runs came in bunches today as the Red Sox beat St. Louis, 7-6. We scored the first two. They scored the next three. We scored the next three. They scored the next three. We scored the last two. Most of this happened late in the game vs. the shitty pitchers. But Beckett, Papelbon, Okajima, Scott Patterson, and RamRam2: The Squeakuel each gave up no runs on no hits.

Hey, does anyone know anything about this jingle, or, better yet, have audio/video of it?

take your shoes off, put your feet up, its time to meet up with the boston red sox, boston born and boston red sox, relax, relax, relax, and be a sox watcher

That's cut/pasted from what my co-worker who brought it up sent me. I only see a little bit of info on this online, which is the same as what she told me, that it was on before Sox games in the 70s. (I wouldn't have seen this since we never got 38--unless the affiliates showed it, too, but the Connecticut history of the Sox is sketchy in the pre-WVIT-30 days. I remember my dad saying that WFSB-Channel 3 had them before 30, but rarely, and I was very young anyway.

The songs I associate the Sox with from when I was a kid were the ones Channel 30 would play--and I still haven't figured out if these were on 38 or if 30 was just choosing random songs to match to their Sox coverage: Industrial Disease, Obsession, Every Little Kiss...

Did you know before this spring is done, the Red Sox will have sold out over 100 consecutive games at City of Palms Park? Cuz, like, they will have.

I've been digging up old footage for the world, aka you and like 42 other people, to see. I just found the trip Chan and I took to Toronto, Detroit, and Pittsburgh in 1999. I had him do the taping using my video camera at the time, which used the type of tape you'd insert into a larger VHS tape with a compartment in it to to watch later. Fortunately, I saved the "Playpak" and am therefore able to access the original footage.

In clip #1, I have told Chan to film me as I cross into Canada for the first time in my life. He misunderstood my instructions, getting the mid-bridge border flags instead. Then as he starts to announce how many times each of us had been to Canada, you hear Castiglione inciting some worry, telling us that the tying runs were on, at which point I interrupt Chan. (Yes, 1080 Hartford comes in crystal clear anywhere in the northern hemisphere except for the Ridgebury section of Ridgefield, Connecticut, where it's overpowered by the Orioles station. Specifically in the house I grew up in.) Anyway, I figured out the point in the game Joe was describing (the date is right on the screen so the hard part was taken care of). It's the bottom of the eighth, and D-Lowe has just hit Bubba Trammel.

Hopefully the rest of the segments you see will include some actual ballparks/sites. Also note, I really do most of this "random video" stuff to get it off of deteriorating tapes and into the digital realm, so any enjoyment you get out of it is a bonus. (You should see what I don't post!)

Red Sox vs. Cardinals, 1:05 PM. Happy birthday, Dad! (And Jim Rice! And my cousin Newy!)

Saw this at Quinn's site:

Mark Wagner with a 2-out, 9th inning dong gives the Sox the win and excites Castiglione immensely. Casey Kelly got the W. Hope you out-of-"market" people enjoyed the game on TV, as no one in the NESN market was able to see it.

So I opened my other pack of Topps and got a much older card: a 1964 Jim King. I was psyched to see the word SENATORS. I also got a Brandon Inge card which lists him as a pitcher right on the front. And a Carlton Fisk card that is for some reason one of the cards in the regular set, as if he were still on the White Sox. There's some interesting stuff in these packs.

Ortiz: 6 (Halladay)
Beltre: 5 (Livan Hernandez)
Drew: 5 (Claudio Vargas)
Lowell: 4 (Lieber, Kazmir, Greg Maddux)
Victor: 4 (Silva, Verlander, Johan Santana)
Cameron: 4 Rich Hill, Livan Hernandez)
Tek: 4 (Garrett Olson, David Wells)

I only listed the guy(s) each one had the most against. Other starters:

Pedroia: 3 (David Hernandez)
Scutaro: 3 (Jamie Moyer)
Ellsbury: 2 (Halladay)
Youk: 2 (10 dudes)

Red Sox at Orioles, 1:00 on MLB Network.

Hey, I got one of those cards in a Topps pack that gives you a random card from the past. My card: 1988 Mike Schmidt. Pretty cool I actually got a Hall of Famer, but it's a fairly worthless card. You can go on their site and trade cards, but I gotta figure even the biggest Schmidt fan knows how easy it would be to obtain a 1988 card of his, so what am I gonna get for it. I should try to pull a One Red Paperclip and keep trading until I get a Ted Williams card or whatever.