Sometimes people try to make things look all 70s-ified, and they usually fail. You can't just put on striped socks and call it the 70s. Aside from the hair and clothes, people just looked different then. Something about the lankiness of everybody, which could be caused by the fact that a "large" shirt is the size of the "small" of today.

I've told you before how when I saw Dazed and Confused in the theater, I thought, This is a movie about 90s kids, gimme Over the Edge for the real thing.

Anyway, I was sent this video, called Wiffleball '79. And I have to say, while you can never truly recreate my favorite era (the unnamed decade of '75-'85-ish), these people come as close as possible.

Red Sox at Tigers, 7:05. The Pist in Providence at Club Hell, 6:05!

Mostly pressure-free win (8th) tonight. Papi with two big dongs, ClayHH was pretty gold. To be 5.5 out of first and two over .500 right now is fine with me considering the season-starting slump.

The Texas Rangers were up by 6 runs earlier, and now are down by 6. I wonder what's the most amount of runs a team has been both up and down by in the same game. I can't imagine a team has ever been up and down 10 in one game. But 6 has been done tonight. So what do you think? 7? 8? I'm goin' with 8.

The Field of Dreams house is for sale. $5.4 million. They say 65,000 people visit it annually. So let's say that estimate is high, and that you can get it for $5 million. 50,000 people, 5 million bucks. If they each pay you a hundred bucks, your purchase is paid off in a year. But we're not assholes. Let's say $10 a pop, then you're paid off in 10 years. But still, as it is now, no one is charged any money to see the field. So we have to give 'em something. For their ten-spot, they get to park, go on a tour, and have a picnic on the field. Stay all day if they want. On certain days, we'll have games--teams will pay us to use the field for a few hours. Weddings would cost extra. Or maybe we could just have a donation system or something. We'll figure it out without being pricks.

Now we need the dough. Billionaires: here's my offer: Give me 5 million bucks, and I'll give it back to you in 10 years, AND, you get to come to the field whenever you want. Okay, and I'll buy you a soda. Deal?

(When I tried to get readers to pitch in to buy a share of the Red Sox, I'm pretty sure only me and Michael Leggett threw in. And maybe one other person. So I'm going straight to the top here.)

You know how we from Connecticut say "scratch-offs" while you rotary-lovers from Mass call them "scratchies"? Well check out this article from California. "Scratchers"! I wonder how many other regional versions there are. Oh wait, it's 2010, I never have to "wonder" again. Stupid technology!

Red Sox @ Baghdad USA, 7:05. Where it will be light really late. Because they're so far west in the eastern time zone. So unfair.

How sweet is it to see Yank LeBron go down like that? Now I hope the Knick-fan manifest destiny just doesn't happen as he stays in Cleveland or goes somewhere else or something. If they do get him, well, that loser'll probably just bring his loser-ish ways to MSG. I like using that word with LeBron, as he likes to refer to himself as a "winner" even immediately after losing.

[Note: This is coming from an anti-LeBron angle, not a pro-Celts one. I have nothing against the Celts and they are fun to root for, but my favorite NBA team is: No Team (early 2000s - present); New Jersey Nets (beginning of time - early 2000s). But always anti-Knicks, so LeBron going there would be nice in terms of consolidating my hatred into one place.]

Are you familiar with the "Cliff Walk" in Newport? It's a trail that goes around behind the famous Newport mansions, along a cliff. Well I guess some guy fell off the cliff and became a quadriplegic. And he has sued because no one told him the "Cliff Walk" was "dangerous."

In other nooz, I'm suing the following tourist attractions, which failed to inform me of the danger they had me walking into unexpectedly:

Lion Lane
Hot Lava Lounge
Scorpion Path
Acid Alley
Bear Trap Court
Landmine Fields
Crocodile Promenade
Tsunami Bay
The Bottomless Pit House
Third Rail Plaza
Nuke Waste Swimmin' Hole
Old Yankee Stadium Bleachers Section 37
Jurassic Park
Gathering of the Juggalos

I can understand not realizing beforehand that you're entering a potentially dangerous situation--maybe this guy just thought it was a path named after Cliff Clavin or Cliff Huxtable or something. But there has to be a point while walking along the edge of a cliff when you tell yourself not to make any sudden left turns.

To add (another) insult to injury, his wife later left him because her religion mandated that she have lots of kids, which he could no longer provide. Ever heard of a sperm donor? Adoption? I think she was just sick of having a quadriplegic husband. Guess her religion doesn't mandate loyalty and compassion....

Yanks get shut out in 2:15.

We were getting shut out through eight in 2:00. Our near comeback made it close, and lengthened the game a little more, but, LOSS. G-dammit.

Why can't there be a summer outdoor movie fest with Groundhog Day, Rushmore, Blues Brothers, Kill Bill, Airplane!, Shaun of the Dead, The Warriors, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles?

What? There is? And it's in my city?? Sweeeeet. (Also Rocky II, but I didn't want to say that one specifically in the fake question above, as it might tip it off...)

Of course, for me, it's all about the atmosphere, and you can't beat being in the middle of Manhattan with literally thousands for an outdoor movie, but the lineup alone has me excited for our little local deal. Even though it's on concrete. It is kind of eerie just how Jere-fied that schedule is. Thanks to Kim and Amber for separately informing me of this, coincidentally within a half-hour, and in one case, coincidentally on the same day I found out the Bryant Park sked.

Red Sox play at 1:35 today. Yanks also play in the day, then in the night. Would be nice to gain a game and a half. But I'm mainly thinkin' about us just continuing to get back on prov. track for now. Then we get to the top. Then we pull away.

Dice-K looking gold tonight. Seven strong. We've got the tools; we've got the talent. It's all starting to come together. Just a nice, easy win. That's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, etc.

I did wonder why nobody was cheering for Dice when he was one strike from finishing the fifth. He was breezin'! You'd think the fans would have been on their feet for him based on time of game alone. Oh well, he got the cheers he deserved in the end.

Loved the Remy/Don tie conversation. Gotta move the mic to open up "the alley," and showing the tie. Remy had the telestrator out for that!

We're 7-4 in May, but 7-2 in our last nine.

Hey did anybody see how the Twins ripped us off at their new park? The big vertical flags on the side of the building, white for division titles, blue for league championships, and red for World Series wins.

I just went to their page, and I see the movie list is up! I knew Goldfinger was first, and I'm not a Bond person, so whatever, so here we go with the rest of the list, as I scroll down slowwwly...come on, The Shining!

Okay, June 28th... Carousel. Meh. Moving on...

July 5th: The French Connection. That's another one I know I'd like but have yet to watch in its entirety. Nice choice.

July 12th... My Man Godfrey. What? Next..

July 19th... The China Syndrome. Another supposed classic I've never seen.

July 26th... Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I'm sure that's huge news for some of you, but, uhhh, yeah, despite that I do respect those guys and find them funny when I come across stuff they're in...I'm not one of those MP fanatics at all.

August 2nd... Wooooooooooo! Rosemary's Babyyyyy! Could see making the trip for that one. Again, though, this could require TWO days off meaning I can probably only go once, so we'll see...

August 9th... The Goodbye Girl. Let's look it up--A Neil Simon with Dreyfuss set in my fave NYC era, the late-70s/early-80s, in this case '77. Could be good, and that is a Rhode Island holiday...moving on...

August 16th....12 Angry Men. A classic. Good choice by them, but not quite a summer fun-fest.

Okay, it's time for the finale. Again, I am banking on Shining, though I will accept Caddyshack and some others. Remember, the movies they show are at least 30 years old, making 1980 the latest possible year for a film. See you on the other side, Ray...

Scrolling...

Wait. I have to stop for a second. I should reiterate that I'm a huge Rosemary's Baby fan and if this finale isn't something I like, I won't be mad, knowing I can see a classic NYC movie that I know by heart, in August, in NYC, outside, at night. So, I'm considering it a win already. Okay.. here we go for real now...

August 23rd...

Bonnie & Clyde. Okay. Well... I never had much interest in that one. I'm thinking I gotta go to Ro. We'll see. And, you know, to other outdoor movies that aren't 3 hours away...

Red Sox vs. Yanks. We speet on you!

Took my mom to the Mother's Night game at Fenway. Papelbon was all wrapped up in the cold.

Pink ribbon on The Wall.

A picture that does not capture how cold and windy it was that night.

Everybody had pink stuff on, of course. Here's Rivera.

Yes, it's Mother's Day, in case you've forgotten.

We spent the time between BP and game in the Yawkey Way Store. As I already told you, cult-fave and background of the banner atop this blog Rich Gedman was in Autograph Alley, which moved over to the store last year.

Back in the park, we noticed there's now a plaque by those two old tanks at the 3rd Base Deck (now named after a shady memorabilia dealer) which first appeared in April '07. They've also cleaned up the tanks since then. But right next to those, in the stairway, were these giant old wooden doors on the wall (shown above). What's the deal with these?

There's also a crazy new catwalk! It leads from Gate A where the old Autograph Alley was, to a point above Gate D, and then up to the back of the grandstand behind home plate. Above, you're looking from third toward home. More pics of it below.

Looking back toward third. On the right is the Brookline Ave. Grille. In front of you is that ramp you're forced to go down when you enter Gate A and turn right. (There's also another new staircase that brings you straight down in front of you when entering there, so you don't need to go down the ramp.)

Now looking up toward first from that same spot. You can see that high-class beer area. If you turn a little to the right....

...you see the ramp gong over that area. So this is over Gate D, which you can see if you look off the right side of this catwalk. At the end of the walk, you go up stairs, pass the new bathrooms, and end up just to the first base side of the big new food area atop the grandstand behind home plate. I think you really have to see this in person.

This is at that food area, facing Yawkey Way. You'll notice the back of big "FP" curtains over the openings in that side of the park.

These guys were pulling them down since it was so cold. I'm sure this must affect the flight of batted balls!

Here's the foward-facing side of the FP curtains.

Okay, we're back in our 9th row bleacher seats for first pitch. The wind is blowing right in our face.

Everybody's bundled up.

Another shot of the Monster and the sky, which also got the "wear pink" memo.

Even Wally brought his mom to the game.

If you can't read it, her mom's a Yankee fan so she left her at home.

Dustin went to high socks starting with this game. At least I don't think he had them the day before...

Kicking butt early.

Girardi tossed. Shortly after he gave up on the cold (as did some Yankee fan morons who got themselves ejected in the second inning), so did we, as we headed for the area behind third base where it was warm. The plan was to stay in that SRO area and scout out better seats, since we knew people would leave early--school night + late game + freezing + blowout = awesome seats for us.

So here we are over there--and check it out, TVs on the poles over there, which are even more helpful for people sitting behind poles.

Was the ump mic'd up for ESPN? I don't know what else this guy could be doing to him.

Wally and Momma Monster in the front row.

Finally, we're in the good seats. Here's Victor with pink.

Bill Hall with lots o' pink.

Youk with pink bat.

Wake on the mound in relief. He doesn't wanna be a pi-rate! Don't worry Wake, you're a key piece of the '10 puzzle. The Exec behind him with pinkness.

We won, 9-3. I was hoping someone would flip my mom a ball for Mother's Day, and the red-haired 40-year old bat boy gave a lot out, but none went to her.

We stayed till the very end this time, despite the chill.

On the way out, a new area being made. This is if you come in Gate B and go left. That is a pretty nothin' area. We'll see what it becomes. Good night.

Wow, an hour and 13 minutes have passed, and we're only through two. I will update below, every two innings-ish.

First of all, I am pissed at Don and Remy on that double off the top of the wall. I admit, my first thought was "ball bounces up, it HAD to have hit ledge." But the side replay showed that all that happened was that the ball hit the very top edge of the wall, and bounced up and back to the field. Great call by the ump, and great job confirming it. However, Don and Rem were for some reason convinced that their eyes were lying to them after seeing the definitive side angle. I was getting really mad that maybe the umps were watching NESN's replays and being influenced in them saying "clearly a home run" when it was clearly not a home run. So why, on the straight-on angle, did it appear the ball did the little bump-bump which implies (had we not seen the side angle) that it hit top of wall, then ledge? Well, that's a tin piece up there and I'd say as the ball hit it, it didn't just bounce back like it would have off concrete. The tin gave a little as the ball first made contact, then as the impact was fully made off tin plus the wall underneath, the ball changed direction ever-so slightly. Here's a pic I took in '08 showing you the front and top of the Monster.

It's crazy how you can go from agony to ecstasy in two seconds, as we did on Vik-E Mart's DP ball that Hill did errin' on. Who'd he hit in the dugout, by the way? Farrell? Thanks in part to that play, we are now up 6-4 after 2.

And Beltre with his usual basepath-psychopath routine, not sliding into second on an inning-ending force. It's like he doesn't wanna slide. Likes to hustle, yet doesn't wanna get dirty. Weird. The time it took me to write that --whoa, another botched, would have been end of inning DP by the Jays! So we're still alive in bottom 3. So I'll keep it right here... and my pics from Ma's Day at Fen Way will come late tonight...Pedroia base hit and it's 7-4! Sweeeet. I will update after 3, 6, and 9. ... Victor pops out....it's up to Youk...and he Ks. 7-4 us after 3 innings and 1 hour 30 minutes.


9:30: Well Peter Brady did great in those three innings--except when he was giving up 2-run dongs. 7-6 us after 6, Oki coming in.

We're getting Connecticut ads instead of Maine tonight! Maybe southern NE is officially getting southern NE ads now.

NESN falling for flies to left, showing ball-in-sky on routine flyouts. Bad sign.

Why did Scutaro take three extra steps before throwing to first? Good thing that E didn't cost us.

Funny when Wake stole RamRam's hand warmer. In the background you could see the "Poop Deck" sign.

Youk didn't run at first on a grounder to third down the line. Absolutely would have cost him had the thrown not gone over the first baseman's head. Yet the scorer gave him the least deserved base hit in history.

Oki puts the side down in order. Stretch time at Fenway, 7-6 us.

10:18: We win. 7-6. The first two innings took over an hour. The final 6.5 took two. Yes-Holds Barred and a Pap save.

Two very nice catches by JVE tonight, the second one easily topping Jeter's "famous" catch. Why easily? Because Jeter's wasn't very good. It is impressive when you catch a ball running blindly toward a wall and then you immediately hit that wall and fall over it. It's not impressive to catch a ball, then run toward a wall and decide to dive over it when you had several other options. What Remy/Don ignored on that play was how Pedroia was right there holding up his glove trying to get JVE to give him the ball so he could get it in if the runner tried tagging and moving up. It was not needed as JVE got up quickly (without taking time to smear those ketchup packets on his face first.) Hey, if Joe Torre can say our blood is fake, I'll say whatever the hell I want. Actually, I will anyway. Stupid Jeter.

Saw an article by William C. Rhoden called "Red Sox out of race in early May, Yankees therefore need new rival." Or something like that. Don't even try to find it. Six out with 130 to play--yeah, we're done, William. It's amazing how even newspaper reporters these days are doing the "I only know what I've in the last few days or in some cases minutes" thing that's usually reserved for fans. These people should be fired immediately. I didn't see him writing an article called "Mark Teixeira with Historic Drop-Off, Hitting Under .200 in 2010." I checked his archives to see that classic template article every Yankee-loving newspaper idiot had planned for 86 years called, what was it, oh yeah, "Red Sox finally win and it's the worst thing for them." Yeah, we're such fuckin' losers with this "winning" we do. I also saw the other classic about the Red Sox "becoming the Yankees." In other words, "things Yankee fans say to attempt to make the Red Sox feel bad when they LOSE to us." Here's a secret: sports fan WANT their team to win. I want the Red Sox to beat the Yankees over and over and over until they die. Are we clear? Okay.

I will now break my silence! On the A-Rod vs. Mr. Nobody Who's Thrown More Perfect Games Than A-Rod controv.!

Guess which side I'm on. Correct. You don't walk in front of a golfer even if she's still putting the tee in the ground. You don't take a shot in a shoot-around until the other guy misses. And as Vincent Vega could tell you, you don't fuck with another man's vehicle. It's just against the rules.

People say, Oh come on, did you know you "weren't supposed to cross over the mound"? I'd say the only reason I wouldn't have included it in the list of unwritten rules is because I'd never think of doing it in the first place. It's too obvious to make the list. The only person who would do that is...A-Rod. The man has "issues," and it doesn't take a centaur-painter to notice it. Everything he does is contrived. Watch him in warm-ups, you'll see what I mean.

The funny thing is, I actually brought up a similar thing to what he did to Braden a few weeks earlier. Check out the last paragraph of this post I wrote after the Opening Night game.

Do you think there's a chance in hell A-Rod didn't know what he was doing? This is a guy who once (once that I saw anyway) mugged for the camera after hitting a game-winning home run. The center field camera. During the trot.

So I'd like to finally say anti-terrible job to one of our nation's newest heroes, Dallas Braden, and to his awesome grandma. Did he "take it too far?" The vast expanse of the "making fun of A-Rod plains" hath no fences, my friend.

On the mlb team sites, below the big headline section, there's a thin banner ad. Sometimes it shows an ad for an mlb toolbar with the tagline "Stay on top of the [team whose site you're on]." For the Red Sox page, it says "Stay on top of the Cubs." God, they're stupid. (Keep reloading the page until you see it.)

Cold-with-several-Ls night at Fenway, but it was a great time. Took my mom for Mother's Day and she got a win over the Yanks, aka the best present you can get in early May.

I will show you more pics tomorrow night. But the teaser has to be this one:
As a Rich Gedman fan (and knowing the team has embraced the man), you always assume he'll be the one in autograph alley--and sometimes the assumption is right. Always good to get a glimpse of Geddy.

I never knew my parents had a 1963 yearbook until I found it in a box of stuff they just gave me. So here it is....click each to enlarge.

Check out the $3 box seats, etc.

The big deal at the time was the new manager for '63, the immensely popular Johnny Pesky. (He would be let go toward the end of '64 after two sub-.500 seasons.)

Wow, in '63 they were already lamenting the loss of the stickball-in-vacant-lot era. There weren't a lot of ads in the yearbook back then. Not a lot of color, either. (In more ways than one.)

Catch the Sox on HDH, TV and radio.

Close-up of Gowdy and a young Ned Martin from above ad.

The layout of the player pages. Yaz at bottom left.

I love this shot. From Opening Day 1962. [Correction: It's from the 1961 All-Star Game (the Fenway one, anyway); see comments below. Thanks to reader RomanMejias!] It's always weird to see the way the roof used to look before they built up. It's rare to see a close-up of the old wooden benches in the upper bleachers, but you can see them at bottom right. You can also see the bare concrete on the bullpen wall.

John Kiley, who is usually heard not seen.

I think "special" means "should have retired 15 years ago."

Helen! In my review of The Ballpark from 15 years after this picture was taken, I showed a picture of her and wondered if she'd been wearing the same glasses for 35 years. Guess not! She looked more 50s in the late-70s than she did in '63! Here's the '79-ish shot:

Good to see they got Helen some nice, modern equipment....

And surely you remember Vinnie Orlando from this post.

Nun's Day '62.

They showed pics of all the state days. Maine gave the team a tobba--, a tobog--, a big sled.

Showing that the electronic part of the scoreboard which showed the lineups (which was removed before the '76 season) was there in '62.

They used to let the season ticket holders meet all the players. Here's Yaz surrounded.

Nice reaction to getting a flu shot by Pesky.

Scottsdale made a huge deal when the Sox would come to town. There's a whole section on the spring training festivities, plus pics of the players with their families.

If I drank, maybe I'd drink this Rhode Island fave. That's your back cover.


Bonus pix! Finally, a shot of me at Army Baseball Camp, along with the late Robin Roberts.


And, a classic. As you know I was every bit of a die-hard Jets fan growing up as I was a Sox fan, until I finally just gave up on non-baseball sports a few years ago. Well, this one time, my family was on vacation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and who do we spot, but the then-coach of the Jets, Joe Walton. So there I was, by chance wearing one of my Jets shirts at the time, face to face with the head coach. They took my pic with the extremely hairy Walton, who seemed pretty happy about the whole thing. (This was before the "Joe Must Go" chants started, I think.) A year or so later, my mom had the pic blown up, and it was on the wall at our old house for many years, and later decorated with little pictures of Joe Namath, Bill Parcells, and Ed Anzolone--you can see the back of the Parcells head folded up on the left. So here's a pic of the giant pic:


I'll be back after midnight or tomorrow, probably with some pictures of pink bats.