At one point tonight I was having trouble distinguishing between Tampa dongs and replays of Tampa dongs. Guess that's all I need to say about that game.

I love how Bill Lee has gotten so much attention from his recent performance pitching for the Brockton Rox. I am glad I was able to be there--I'd met Lee but it was another thing to actually watch him play ball. I'll have to catch him at one of his non-pro games in the future.

But my recent Lee-centric episode of Randomonium was made possible by two bloggers I've been reading for years.

Josh Wilker of Cardboard Gods was doing a book signing at Fenway Park in May with the Spaceman as a special guest. I got Bill to do the spot for the show, not having a clue at the time what the rest of the content for that episode would be. But I was just happy to have Bill on there.

Then Allan Wood of The Joy of Sox mentioned a few weeks ago that Bill would be pitching for Brockton. After the initial excitement wore off, and after I'd secured tickets, it hit me: there's a show, that's a show.

Thanks, guys. It was a match made on Earth.

Red Sox vs. Devils, Baseball Heaven, 10 after 7.

If you're looking for my Bill Lee/Brockton stuff, the video appears in my new episode of Randomonium here. The pics are in this post.

Gained on both teams today for a change. Of course, there's another team ahead of us thanks to that weekend shit-fest so I should be including them. 12-5 win. All we gotta do is win every night. That's all.

Terrible job by that umpire. Gets a beach ball and commits the cardinal sin of beach ball transportation--throwing it through the air and assuming it will go right where you want it to. I think we all knew that thing was gonna blow back toward the field--that's why it was there in the first place. He then compounds his mistake thinking a little kick will magically send the ball right under the camera well railing. Of course, rattles around and stays on the field. Now he knows there's no more screwin' around. All eyes are already on him. Even Remy lets out a pissed command to get rid of the thing already. So he tosses it over, starts to turn away, and it hits something and bounces back on the field again! Finally he gets it over and makes sure it stays on the fourth attempt and comes back with a huge smile on his face. Classic stuff. Check it out on mlb.tv or something. But, uh, I couldn't tell you what inning it was. Good luck.

1. Don and Jerry were doing some "hey, look, Manny showed effort there, haha" bullcrap over the weekend. So they have to point out when he "tries," when meanwhile we have guys on our team who never run out ground balls but get a pass because they don't have weird hair.

2. Don brought up the question of whether the Sox thought about picking up Manny last week when he was on waivers. Remy was quick to say No and Don agreed that the team, especially Tito, was "done" with Manny. Now flash back to when the team claimed Johnny Damon a few weeks ago. Larry Lucchino was on the pre-game saying how the they strictly do things to improve the ballclub, not based on emotions or anything else. So are Don and Remy trying to tell us that our team, with so much money and in need of offense, didn't even think about trying to acquire one of the great hitters when we went on waivers? And if that's true, are they proud of it?

3. I hope the realization set in to some of the people who booed Manny (WEEI employees and their families being a big chunk of those) that when we had Manny, we would, ya know, win the World Series and stuff. I mean, when 2010 ends, are these people gonna go to bed with a satisfied smile on their faces and say, Well at least we don't have to "put up with" that awesome hitter anymore....?

Red Sox vs. Tampa, 7:10 p.m.

The team finally went ahead and put that October Yankee series on sale on the web. I'd been checking periodically throughout the summer, and hadn't checked before today in maybe a week. So they've gone on sale fairly recently. Looks like single tickets as of now....

When I found out Bill Lee would be pitching for the Brockton Rox of the Can-Am League, I immediately got tickets for me and Kim. Bonus: The Rox would be playing the Worcester Tornadoes--Rich Gedman's team! Above, The Spaceman chats with fans from the bullpen before the game.

I got that shot from the left field warning track, because they allowed us to play catch before the game in the outfield. (Kim and I had a hard ball but used the tennis ball they gave us, with the mysterious letters "ET" on it.) I guess Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler are from Brockton.

On the field at Brockton on a sunburny day.

Now at our $9.50 seats, watching Bill stretch in the outfield.

Rich Gedman in the vistors' dugout.

Geddy exchanges lineup cards with the Rox dude. Oh, and as I was entering the field earlier, Rich himself was entering from behind me (coming from that same spot in the stands for some reason), and he practically knocked me out of the way as I stood there waiting for the Slow Family in front of me to go so I could get my tennis ball! It was pretty funny....

This club has a 7-woman cheerleading squad, and the players actually take the field one-by-one as they're introduced, running through them. Bill Lee was brought out via automobile.

Another Gedman shot. I see he's still coaching third for this team he manages--just like when Pat, Brian, Chan and I saw them at Waconah Park around 2003.

Lee on the field.

First pitch of the game, Bill throws the Leephus. Guy whacks it into left for a single.

What's this "22" pin on Geddy's hat?

The "Rox" like you to make noise, which they call "thunder," and seem to have a "kangaroo" as a mascot. Anybody have any clue here?

Spaceman on the hill. He gave up a solo homer, but that was it until the fifth, when he gave up the game-tying run with two outs. The Rox then got the lead back in bottom 5, but Bill wasn't done, pitching into the 6th.

He also batted! Here he is after making an out. He made contact three times but was thrown out at first each time.

Bill got the WIN, and even made some Tornadoes look foolish up there. And the crowd loved him. You can tell he has a little trouble running--but no way in hell is that gonna stop him from playing ball.

Minor league ball is supposed to be cheesy, with the wacky races, hipster doofus emcees, and family-friendly carnival atmosphere. I know that going in. But I wish for once they'd just can it with that shit and let the real entertainer hold court. Yes, they announced Bill Lee's name with fanfare a thousand times--they knew who the crowd was there for (they even had to start the game 15 minutes late to accommodate the extra fans)--but how cool would it have been to at least get to hear Bill's banter as he walked off the field before starting the blaring dance music? George Carlin used to say how people wore headphones all the time because they're afraid of their own thoughts. Why can't the sounds of a baseball game be enough? I'm referring to all parks, major, minor, and independent leagues. Ask a hundred baseball fans what they'd rather hear between innings, that "Everybody Dance Now" song for the millionth time, or the sound of ball hitting glove as the pitcher warms up. I guarantee that of the 10 who didn't miss your question because they were too busy texting meaningless garbage to nobody, at least 7 would choose against C&C Music Factory. Though I still feel bad for that Martha Wash.

As for the Red Sox ticket I couldn't use because of this event? Sweet Geddy Lee did I make the right choice....

[Thanks to Joy of Sox for making me aware of Lee pitching for Brockton.]

Got out of the independent league game (more on that later!) we went to a little after 4, and heard Castig describing a horrible inning where Chicago took the lead on infield hits, stolen bases, and two errors by two Boston pitchers.

But then Victor donged and we led again.

Then we got all the way to a restaurant near our house, an hour away, and had a two-run lead, one out, top 9. Went in to get take-out. Got back to the car, and O'Brien was describing a crazy play where nobody covered second and a run scored to cut it to one, with two outs.

Finally got home to actually see the end of the game, which consisted of us walking in several more runs, and going down quietly in the bottom of the ninth.

Loss. Swept. The other two lost today. We play three against Tampa now. Better sweep that one....

Here's some video and pics from Friday afternoon. It was tropical-warm out, a little spitty, mist covering the shoreline--we did NOT wanna go back to work. The waves slowly rolled in and the surfers--the only people in the water--couldn't do much with them. Like trying to surf a tsunami. Enjoy.










Hurricane Earl was the perfect storm, for me. Great waves, no damage. It didn't even rain that much, aside from a few downpours.

Well, we only lost a half game today. To one of the teams. Yoisch.

Got this from mlb:


"In regards to your concern, as of the moment, the only In-Market teams
subscription that we offer are listed below:

•Yankees on Yes Subscription (New York Yankees)
•Padres.TV Subscription (San Diego Padres)"


In case anyone was wondering (since that article from 2009 about in-market mlb.tv acted like most teams would have this by now).

Sox/Sox, Game 2, now.

I think our best chance was in the 5th, when Danks started losing his control, but Drew and Beltre came out hackin' and the rally ended. Shitty game. Meanwhile, the Yanks haven't lost since my little update on how we were playing better than them, or since I theorized that they were the "team to catch." I'm goin' to the beach.

Article by the guy who wrote the Happy Days where Fonzie jumped the shark, defending his episode.

Isn't it funny how that moment was the one the originators of the term chose, when on the same series, later in the same season, you had Fonzie and the crew meeting Mork from Ork? So what I'm saying is, I think Happy Days "Mork-met" when they met Mork....

Game 1, 1:05. Stay alive, gentlemen.

Just watched a bunch of surfers shooting the Earl at 'gansett. Fun stuff... May post pix later.

Battle de los Sox tonight, I assume they won't play but I could be wrong.

[It's officially hurricaned out--day-nighter tomorrow, 1:05/7:10]

Perfect spot outside the Mexican place. Perfect weather. Sweet outdoor movie (The Usual Suspects). We got in the car and literally heard just the final pitch, "and this one's over."

By the way, this was only my second time seeing Usual Suspects all the way through, and I couldn't help notice three references to Splash:

At beginning of US, it says "last night" on the screen to tell you when it's taking place. S did something similar, showing "this morning."

Then you had the mention of Cape Cod inside a NYC taxi in both movies.

Then toward the end of US, Nick Tortelli says there's a system to the clutter on his desk, just as Tom Hanks does in Splash.

We're also talking about two movies in which (spoiler alert) a mythical character turns out to be real. And both have boats. And all the letters in the word Splash can be found in The Usual Suspects! I'm convinced something's going on here...I have to solve the mystery!

Just read an article about alcohol, and it had this line:

"...nondrinkers show greater signs of depression than those who allow themselves to join the party."

Apparently by not drinking, I'm "not allowing myself to join the party."

Maybe the asshead was drunk when they wrote it.

Sox against the team once managed by Hurricane Earl, 7:05.

The sign Lester was having a bad night was not that a pitch slipped out of his hand and went to the backstop with a man on third, but that he didn't even cover the plate at first. But he settled down and kept us in it! And just when it looked like he'd take the L, a six-run 7th inning for us. And if you had any doubt that our guys are still trying, I hope you saw the scene in our dugout. These guys wanna win. So we got that going for us.

Yanks and Rays won. So we stay [big number] games out.

The stretching woman at Camden is pretty amusing. She's no "umpire guys," but she seems to have great passion for her schtick.

New England f0rd dealers, still the official car of the Boston Red Sox. Still using the old logo. Now in September. Of the new logo's second year. Let's see if they make it all the way to 2011!

All of this seems a little less important what with Jennifer Jason Leigh holding the Cash Cab hostage or whatever, but...

Friday (9/3): Sam Horn
Sat (9/4): Joe Hesketh
Sun (9/5): Oil Can Boyd (how you like my ticket now?? still available if anyone wants it)
Mon (9/6): Billy C.
Tues (9/7): Dick Berardino (plus photos with a current player at NESN pre-game stage)
Wed (9/8): Skip Lockwood

If this guy can live, the Red Sox can live.

Sox at Orange Birds, 7:0five