On Sunday afternoon, the Boston Red Sox were a half-game out of first place and the best record in all of baseball. In the seventh inning that day, they were on the verge of sweeping the Orioles, down just 2-0 at Fenway Park.

At that moment, a New York Yankee icon, one of the very symbols of their pomposity, fake-ass grandeur, and transparent patriotism, and one who they let go after his anti-semitic remarks, emerged onto our field, invited, no less, to sing his long-winded version of God Bless America.

And after they wheeled that porker Ronan Tynan back to the filthy pen from whence he came, the Orioles pulled away for the win. The Red Sox didn't just lose that day, but every day since. While the two teams they're battling in the east have each won all their games since.

Anybody got a DeLorean?

These are games we win easily in August when we're back to half a team.

It's only 104 degrees outside--down from 107. I was out there--it did kind of feel like walking on the sun...yet I still think I could play Wiffle in this....

Doubront vs. Tamp. tonight. Don't you think Doubront sounds like some kind of diner that has weed on the menu? Doob-aurant?

Talk amongst yourselves, I certainly have no interest in talking about it.

Old friends. My full description of the night here. Click each pic to lengthen/heighten.

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Lugo really making Papi laugh...

Can anybody tell me what uniform Wally was wearing?

Was trying to get a shot of Cash and got an injured Tek lounging, too.

Lester on the mound.

That tall dude.

Moved to good seats in the 8th. Patterson up, Papi on deck.

Youk on deck.

Papi up, Wieters catching.

Samuel was pissed.

The 9 on the scoreboard wasn't even all the way in yet...

Niuman Romero's Sox debut.

Robert Manuel's Sox debut.

And from the next night...

4th of July sunset with blazing sky and cock.

Earlier today, I referred to Ronan Tynan as "legless." I meant to say "dickless."

I really thought we'd win today but that dude came up huge for them. And we saw more patented Lackey: give up a bunch of hits, then say "god damn" when your fielder screws up on a play that wouldn't even be happening if he'd just gotten some outs. And NESN did that thing they like to do where they cut to a full set of commercials right in the middle of the inning. Terrible.

Bad job, Red Sox! Anti-semitic, Dumbo-eared, legless, shit-voiced bum Ronan Tynan is singing God Bless America at Fenway Park. I wish so much I was there today to boo that SOB. Don and Jerry just announced it, and now, the inning has ended, and he's singing--on the announcement over the PA, I did hear a slight groan but mainly polite clapping.

FUCK TYNAN. Get him outta here. No more. One and done, Dumbo.

As long as we're honoring Yankee legends, why not have a Joe DiMaggio Day? Bucky Dent Day! The Red Sox could wear pinstripes and the scoreboard could tell us when to clap!

Sox/O's, Soon p.m. Hopefully it's the day we gain independence from King George and take over first place for good.

Here's a quick "memories of ex-players who aren't Dennis Eckersley are always wrong" story for ya: I saw an interview on MLBN in which fireman Rollie Fingers said he only started once after 1971--a game against Gaylord Perry that he lost 1-0 in 1974. After that he said he'd never start again. Turns out after '71 he had 2 starts and they were both in '73. The game he must have meant was one of the 2 '73 starts--he lost 1-0 to Perry's Indians, but Dick Tidrow was the opposing starter. So, close, but no handlebar. Eck was in the interview, too, how funny would it have been if he butted in with all the correct info, complete with game time temps.... ...but then Rollie could have come back with, Who are you again? Oh, right, you're from that "one-inning per game" closer era....

(While looking this stuff up, I found this 20-inning 1-0 game--Fingers threw 7 shutout innings, starting in the 12th! Let's see the "great" Mariano do that!)

[Pics now up.]

Yanks won earlier so I knew I wouldn't be seeing us move into first place (in the AL East and all of baseball). But we kept pace.

Parking: Huntington Ave., $1.25. All kinds of meters available with everybody "down" the Cape or wherever. My new thing is to get there at the end of the RSN Monster time. No line, and I can get to where I want to go right before the open the gates to the public. Was going for BP balls today. Had two shots, go nothing. The first one was a ball that went into the camera well. I was in the middle of hopping the railing to get to it when some kid came in from the side over a chain and got it. No cameramen were in there so we just went for it. That CF usher guy later gave a nebulous warning not to go in there again. But when you see a ball, you have to go for it or someone else will get it. It's not like they're gonna confiscate the ball from the other person to make you feel better. Another homer came to the 17-ish year old kid a few feet to my right. He tried to make a bare-handed catch and it slammed off his hand and went to the ground between us. Since he risked life/limb, I decided it was rightly his, and I didn't even go for it. He picked it up for the W. So my count this year remains at 0 after a great '09.

Went to the standing room by third base and had a good crowd around me. Nondescript, non-loud young couple to left, older dude who for the most part knew baseball and who I was able to talk with about plays every once in a while on my right.

When I heard the organist play the Woody Woodpecker theme, I wondered if they were doing Orioles-related tunes. I thought back to BP and remembered how odd it was to hear "Tarzan Boy" on the organ. Okay, no Orioles...but wait! "Tarzan Boy" is by Baltimora! So there you have it.

After Lester's rough first, where he was helped by a DP ball hit by a guy who swung at the first pitch after a 4-pitch walk (this is why the O's are in last place), we came right back with 4 in the bottom, and that was pretty much your ballgame. 9-3 was the final. Still .5 games back.

Saw two Red Sox debuts, Niuman Romero and Robert Manuel, both of whom made their MLB debut in 2009.

And they played that "Money" song when Cash batted. Wow, I saw three Red Sox who I'd never seen play for the team before tonight. (Hadn't seen Patterson yet.) Four if you include Cash, who I obviously saw in his first stint with the team.

I will post pictures later. Had a great seat but only briefly toward the end.

Pressure's on them tomorrow to stay in first, since we're playin' the O's.

This may be sacriBradLidge to say since I'm such a Twilight Zone fan, but I never seem to see the 4th of July marathon. I'm more of a New Year's marathon man--that one I never miss. But for some reason, I just don't usually think of the show if it isn't snowing outside. This year, I went in with guns blazin'. Last night, I skipped ahead on my preview guide or whatever, and...no Zones. So I'd be pissed, except--they're showing a Greatest American Hero marathon instead! I was a huge fan of that show as a kid when it was new. I was even the GAH for Halloween. But I haven't seen it much since it was on the air. So this should be fun. I'm talking SyFy channel, by the way.

Live at Fenway. Justsaw niuman in outfield wearing 13. Nothing else to report. Soo...

This is unbelievable. Let's go back to the time leading up to that LA series. Don and Jerry sat there wondering if Manny would come up with some fake injury to avoid showing up at Fenway Park. At the time I wondered if Remy had anyone asked him if he faked that cancer he had that made him miss an entire year. Or if anyone asked Don if he was faking recently when he was IN THE PARK, but was just too sick to announce that day, or the next few.

Then the series started--and Manny played every day. While JD Drew (who seems to be exactly what the media perceives Manny as: uncaring, in his own world, always missing time due to the weakest of excuses) pulled a hammy right at the beginning of game 1, and missed not only the entire series, but many days after that, too.

I was going to write about this, in fact I still have the window up with a tab for each of Drew and Manny's stats, and talk about how many times Manny played at least 140 games in a season (9) compared to Drew (3). Stuff like that. I kept meaning to do that every day Drew was out but I never did.

But here's the unbelievable part: Last night on the post-game, Tom Caron proudly announces how JD Drew is the iron-man of the Red Sox and that he went on record when Manny was traded and was correct in his prediction that Drew would be on the field more than Manny, which he backed up with the numbers since July 31st, 2008. He boasted that since then, Drew has played in a few more games than Manny....

HEL-LO????? He completely ignored the fact that Manny was suspended for FIFTY games since then! Of course, I'm not an idiot, I know that it was Manny's own fault that he was suspended. But that's not what we're talking about and TC knows it. We're talking about injuries. So Drew just happened to have edged out Manny in games played in the last two years, with a fucking PLUS FIFTY handicap. Nice work, guy.

I don't know, I just thought it was kind of ironic, Manny being picked on as usual, and TC calling Drew an "iron man" when he just missed extended time catching a Manny fly ball when it was assumed Manny would be the one not playing due to fake injuries.

Before I finally wised up and quit Boston sports radio I did hear TC on there a few times. You can tell that whole crew has gotten to him, made him one of these media liars who tries to control the way fans (who pay their salary) think, while mocking them and calling them "fanboys" if they actually care about or root for a player.

Now, Drew-lovers, please note, I'm not even talking about the skills of Drew--I could think he's a better player than Manny and still have written this exact same article. (I happen to think he's nowhere near the player Manny is, but that's a different debate.)

This game is just an hour and 55 minutes old as we go top 9! Crazy. Papelbon in. I am updating below instead of above.

9:08: Tool's Adam Jones up...K! One away. By the way, we're up 3-2.

9:10: I went to college with a guy named Weeder. And he smoked weed. Wieters up for the O's...two strikes....

9:12: Full count to Marijuana-er...pop up...2 outs!

9:13: Josh Bell...strike one....2...we're up....

9:16: K! A win in 2 hours, 7 mins. (Note that I love long games, I'm just pointing out the nuttiness of this.) More on this game coming in seconds....

Okay, briefly: Patterson vs. Patterson! And Patterson led off the game with a fly to Patterson. But McDonald got it at the last second. But each Patterson played a carom off the Monster nicely to hold guys to singles within a few minutes.

NESN almost missed that first Drew dong. How hard it is to see where the ball's going? Nice job by Drew with those two Jax, and good to see Nava get the game-winning hit in bottom 8 with 2 outs, even if it was a bloop.

Wakefield's moving up the W ladder. Fine job by him tonight.

We are a half game out of first for the first time in a good while. I'm seeing a game this weekend and I'd like to see the Red Sox be in first place in person. So...

And finally, in token outdated logo news: The new f0rd commercials are out for July. They're still the official truck of the Red Sox, and they're still using the old logo halfway through the its second season. Stubborn bunch. Even your average Josephine Schmosephine has updated her tire cover thing on the back of her truck by now...come on!

Yanks were one out away from getting to Mo with a 1-0 lead in the eighth. Jays rallied, tied it, scored 5 in the 11th to win. We're one back going into tonight.

If you do a news search for Jason Varitek right now, you'll see a bunch of stories about how he's now the starting catcher and how he needs to step it up until Victor comes back. But you'll also see a bunch more stories about how Tek himself is now (supposedly) going on the DL. Timothy Mc Oy Veigh. We've traded for Kevin Cash so that our pitchers don't have to throw to one of those folding chairs.

MDC is also DL bound. Is there some assistant trainer we can blame for all this? Or some new stretching routine like the Yanks had that one year? "Okay guys, these are called DL thrusts, 1! 2! 3! 4! Come on, exert, exert!"

The Ys won today and the Rs just won in 10, so we're 1.5 back, and TB is 2. Here comes Balty for the holiday weekend.