Wow, I actually sat redialing two phones for two whole hours. I lost the Green Monster lottery, so I was stuck with the phone route at 2:00 today. I used one phone in my hand and then had the free phone that GMail gives you going on the laptop. I was rooting for the real phone to win, as it's less likely to cut out or end the call or have the Wifi signal drop for one little second therefore losing everything. Well, the GMail phone won, and I'm happy to say, I was able to place my order with the nice fellow at the Red Sox ticket office and get what I wanted. (You know my deal--standing room only, then see if you can slide into a seat, for just $35, instead of guaranteeing a seat for a hundred-fifty bucks or whatever.)

The bad news: I was also trying hard to get some Yanks 100th anniversary Monster tix for a reader who desperately wanted them. By the time I got through, though, at 3:57, I was told all Yankee games, including SRO, were sold out. (The ticket office guy let me know that I could of course still get them from "a scalper or S---H-- or something, but we're the ones who sell them and we are sold out." Isn't that weird that he'd mention scalpers?)

Anyway, I grabbed a screen shot of my little GMail phone, so you can see the "rating" I gave my call...

Tim Wakefield throws out the ceremonial first ball on Opening Day at Fenway Park. And if Tek retires, he could catch it! Then later in the year they should each get their own day.

Also, Dr. Charles is back with the Red Sox. So cue up a lot of sarcastic comments about how he's gonna bring back his evil, evil Red Sox-promoting, special event-planning, Fenway Park-saving, World Series-winning ways.

Was watching NESN Daily earlier. As Nick Cafardo rambled on from Fort Myers, I noticed the cover of Zeppelin II behind him. Where the hell is this guy that this would be the wall art? Let me know if you figure this one out.

So Wakefield is supposedly retiring. Press conference tonight. I'm sure I'll be doing some kind of tribute here. In the meantime, if you're a blogger and you're doing a post about Wake, instead of grabbing the first image to pop up on Google, why not look for a pic taken by a fellow blogger, or any non-media person for that matter? I've been taking this guy's picture for years, check the sidebar and find one. Or, better yet, check out Sitting Still's (better and easier to navigate) collection of Timmy shots. Just make sure you give credit where it's proverbially due. Thanks.

[Just read that Okajima failed his physical, so it doesn't look like we'll have to see him in pinstripes.]

In my previous post I told you about the Yankees calling their ballpark "Yankees Stadium" in the big, bold headline of a press release. I put a link to that post on reddit, and here's a response I got:

"I don't see the issue here? Am I missing something? That's what it's called. Yankee stadium. Yankees stadium. No difference man, c'mon."

Don't worry, Intern Boy, you'll do fine with the press releases. Just don't spell "Yankee Stadium" wrong, you'll be all right, heh heh.


Oh shit!

I made the mistake of listening to a few minutes of that terrible Boston sports station today. (Hey, always good to check in on what you're boycotting, right? Or does that technically end the boycott? Anyway....) Guy calls in and says that he can't believe the Red Sox gave Papi so much money. Starts criticizing him. Then takes it to the next level, saying Papi isn't a "good citizen." At this point the hosts were a little confused--"well what do you mean by not a good citizen?" Guy starts talking about how "you never see Papi doing any charity work." Uh...ok then. Hosts of course start defending Ortiz by saying that he does plenty of stuff like that. And that's when the guy says...

"Not for the WHITE communities he doesn't!"

Then he goes on to say Papi is "100% Dominican" (as if that were a synonym for...I don't know, any negative word). And that the Red Sox are fourth in his mind among the Boston teams, who all presumably cater to his kind more often.

At this point one would think the hosts would cut the guy off, or at the very least come right out castigating him for being shamelessly racist. But they just went on talking to him. I'm not saying they agreed with him, but you have to do something there, you can't just continue on acting like he's a normal person making rational points.

Oddly, they did cut the guy off later, but only when he started claiming that Johnny Pesky has been in assisted living in Danvers. Such horrible information is grounds for dismissal, but saying that David Ortiz is a bad citizen because he only helps Dominicans in need and neglects the poor, oppressed, middle-aged white guys of the North Shore is just normal banter. These hosts have to wake up. (Of course I know they're busy going through lists of hilarious texts from random no-names so it's hard to concentrate on the person who's actually talking to them.)

Then they went on with their usual brainwashing of the casual fan about complete lies from deep inside the Red Sox clubhouse.

Anyway, even if Papi really did help only Dominicans, that would still be totally fine, but here's a site that shows the different causes he's attached to. The guy won the Clemente Award last year. That's for the player who contributes the most "on and off the field"--not just among his teammates but everybody in the league. And yes, you might even see the faces of while kids at his charity's web site. (And you'll also notice plenty of non-Dominican celebs play in his charity golf tourney every year.)

I doubt that caller will actually see this, but if you know any racist motherfuckers like him, please let them know that David Ortiz is one of the most charitable athletes out there, and he's not actually removing the diseases from Dominican kids and putting them into white kids. In fact, that asshole caller has inspired me to donate to the David Ortiz Children's Fund. I hope you will do the same.

Start at 1:55. Watch Bob Zupcic's amazing catch from 1992. I didn't think I'd ever see video of this play.* (In fact, last year, Bob himself claimed he'd never seen it. Hopefully he finally does before the Em Ell Beasts take it down.) Too bad the main camera missed his route to the ball, but they show it from several angles. [Quiz: Without looking, which of the Red Sox players to appear in this game later played a key role in the 2004 ALCS?]

The beginning of the video is Bob's first homer, a game-winning grand dong. It also brings back incredible memories hearing Ned Martin's voice. And while typing that sentence I thought to see if any videos are up with Ken Coleman's voice. His will always be #1 for me, as he was "the voice of the Red Sox" on radio when I was growing up, and that's how I got most of the games. I found one--a special he hosted on the 1967 season. The guy at 1:14--that's Ken. (I also like how at the beginning they call us "the sun-drenched, wind-burned, soar-throated fraternity, the baseball fans of New England.")

Oddly, they show the Yaz catch, which was one of Ken's most famous calls ("...and makes a tremendous** catch!"), with the TV call instead of Ken's.

Great commercial at 3:05, hyping up the convenience-doubling power of a second phone for your house!

Wow, this post strayed very far from Bob Zupcic. But that's how we roll here at A Red Sox Fan From Etc. Etc.


*I have no memory of it at the time, but have read much about it, with people saying how it was the best catch they'd ever seen. September '92? I was starting my senior year in high school and my first job, bagging groceries at Stop & Shop. So between having a lot on my mind and plate and the cellar-dwelling Red Sox not being on TV much, it makes sense that I would have missed that game. And without the Internet and only having access to New York papers, the extent of my Red Sox coverage was pretty much the score on CNN Headline Sports at :19 and :49, or waiting for the highlights (if any) on SportsCenter or CNN Sports Tonight. Look, quit grillin' me under these hot lights, I missed the damn game, okay?!

**I remember seeing the transcript of this call on Wikipedia, and someone had written "prodigious" or something instead of "tremendous," and I totally corrected their ass.

In the coming months, you (and also I) will get to vote for the All-Fenway Team. Each position has a handful of guys for fans to choose from.

Gotta get Pedro in there over Roger. And hopefully Lowell and Mueller will both beat Boggs at third. The top 5 second-placers get awarded with the 10th Man prize. And all the winners will be honored throughout the second half of the season in pre-game ceremonies. I don't wanna see Clemens or Boggs on that field. Or Damon! So we gotta get Lynn and the Lil' Professor into those top two spots at CF. (Sorry Tris Speaker, something tells me the guys from way back are gonna get hosed on this, unless their name is Ted Williams.)

Oooh, nice job getting Dave Roberts involved by having a "bench" category. He and Bernie Carbo should take the top two in this field: Jerry Adair, Bernie Carbo, Alex Cora, Billy Goodman, Dalton Jones, John Kennedy, Ted Lepcio, Rick Miller, Dave Roberts and Dave Stapleton.

And Papelbon has a real shot at winning the "bullpen" category. I would love to see that. What a hand he would get, especially if at that point we're using the "one lucky fan as tonight's closer" theory after having let the best closer in Red Sox history go for no reason.

Will be nice to see Tito honored, too, as he's a lock for manager.

When I lived in Manahttan, I could see a plaque from my window, across the street on the side of a building. It marked the birthplace of Lou Gehrig. Ninety-fourth Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues.

Recently, I was looking up something related to Gehrig, and I noticed that his Wikipedia page says he was born on 2nd Avenue, near 103rd Street. The source was a New York Times article, from May of 2005 (which happens to be the month I moved to NYC).

A fake Gehrig birthplace! Or was it? I don't care if it's Lou Gehrig or Rey Quinones--a major leaguer was born across from my old apartment, and I'm not about to let them take that away!

I tried to find a better picture of this *new* plaque, but I couldn't find one. (My plaque, placed there in 1990, can be found on several sites--try this page, which despite being from 2008, still notes it as the one and only birthplace.) I wanted to know exactly what it said, so I asked my friend Chan to take a walk up 2nd Avenue and check it out. I figured maybe they just meant his family lived there (103rd) when he was born (94th). Kind of like how Carlton Fisk and I were both born in a different town from where we lived, since neither of our towns had a hospital.

Chan got back to me saying that the second plaque isn't even there anymore. Before he could even take the walk to the spot, he found another article which said that when the garden center that had been at that spot left, the plaque disappeared too.

So did somebody make a terrible error? And then when they had their chance, they slinked away with the incorrect plaque in the night like the Baltimore Colts? In the Hardball Times article linked above, they specifically talk about how Gehrig was born in Yorkville (94th, where I lived), as opposed to the New York Times article which speaks of the pride East Harlem has for Lou. So I really think the original plaque wins. Let me know if you hear anything and I'll do the same.

On NECN's* Truck Day coverage, Cyn** (Toeing the Rubber) made it into the background of one shot (below, left), and Kelly (Sitting Still) was interviewed (below, right) outside Fenway Park.

Seven degrees on Mt. Washington? Spring really is here!


*For people who are familiar with NESN but don't live in New England: NECN is a different network (unlike NESN, it is available in Fairfield County--I remember getting it in my Danbury apartment where I lived from '02 to '04), with news all day long when they're not showing paid programming, and a low-key, public broadcasting-esque style, much like New York's NY1 channel. New England Cable News.

**Really should have used a "Cyn of Spring" reference in this post, right?

[Edit, Sunday morning: Below I've added the full shot Cyn was in. The person shown with the camera is Kristen, who, like Cyn and Kelly, runs an amazing site: Red Sox Diehard. I bet those NECN people didn't even realize all the famous people they captured in this story!]

Does this cover everybody?? If you were in this story too, let me know....