Louis CK originally scheduled 5 NYC shows for his upcoming tour. It's up to 14 now! Seven nights, two per night. October 23rd is the latest to go on sale, and good tix are available. He also started with 3 Boston shows, and that's now up to 6. Those are January, though, so maybe more will be added.

You may remember I told you that Louie is selling all the tickets for this tour through his own site (via etix), for a flat rate of $45, all seats, all shows, no fees, no bullshit. His site even says you can't sell your tix for above face value, and that they reserve the right to cancel any tix that were sold for above face value. Well, I went over to ShitHub, and sure enough, the greedy ones among us have already put tickets on sale for hundreds of dollars each. There isn't a huge inventory over there, I'm happy to say, but some pricks are going for it. They aren't fans, they just buy tickets so they can sell them to fans to make a profit, which is the culture ShitHub has created.

So I e-mailed the Hub. I asked them, as long as they're going against Louie's wishes and letting people sell for above face, if at the very least they will let customers know that they might not get in with the tickets they buy. They told me that they're looking into it, that they don't want to sell tix that might not work, and that they "may" remove the offending tickets "if necessary." We'll see how that turns out.

(It also KILLS me that we're at the point that some people will hear that Louie, or anybody else, is going on tour and go right to ShitHub, as many Americans have been brainwashed to think that's just where tickets come from. This is a great example of how people need to learn to start at the source before going to the secondary market.)

One other odd thing: When the tickets for the tour went on sale, Caroline's sent out an e-mail linking to Louie's site. The NYC shows are not at Caroline's, but they are "presenting" them. But the link was a Ticketmaster link! (Which redirects right to Louie's site.) I'm worried that this means TM, despite Louie specifically avoiding them for this tour, is getting a cut, mafia-style. It could just mean that Caroline's originally intended to sell the Louie tix before the current tour idea was conceived, and was all set to sell through Ticketmaster, but changed it. But in that case, why not change the link before the e-mail went out? Why would TM be involved at all when they're not even selling any tickets?

Anyway, the first Louie episode of season 3 was pretty good. We're so glad at our house that a new season has begun. (And even though a lifetime of TV-watching makes us want to know what happened with the unfinished events from the previous season, I'm happy that Louie has stuck to his theory--each episode is its own entity, and doesn't necessarily connect with the one before it. If he wants to have his brother be white in one episode and black in the next, he just does it.)

Aaron Cook was incredible tonight. A complete game shutout. Two hits. 81 pitches. As for the offense--just when I thought maybe we should try to stop hitting home runs, since nothing seemed to be carrying, we broke out with a three-dong inning, then added one more. The four homers accounted for all 5 runs in a 5-0 cruise control victory. (None were Papi's 400th.) Everybody in the division won--except the Yanks. I love it. They went down 14-7. FOOTBALL PUN.

Kim and I saw Moonrise Kingdom tonight at historic Avon Cinema. This may be a cop-out of a review, but if you like Wes Anderson, you should like this movie. I guess it's also a cop-out to steal someone else's line, but Kim put it perfectly: "He did a great job of capturing that time between childhood and adolescence." Once again, Wes creates a little world and gives you a full tour. I love the names he comes up with: "Khaki Scouts," "Center for Inclement Weather," "Bay of March 31, '75." Great performances all around, by many of his usual friends, but also some new ones--McDormand, Willis, Norton, Balaban (and another cameo which I'll keep a secret). The kids are also new, since kids grow up. Actually, now that I think about it, Murray and Schwartzman may have been the only "usuals." No Wilsons. But Mothersbaugh was involved with the score, of course. We also loved that this film was made in Rhode Island. I'm sure I could talk a lot more about MK but I'll have to see it a few more times first.

PS I always have to add this "extremely proud of myself" disclaimer: I was there from the beginning with Wes Anderson! It was 1996, and I was at Gumby's house, and we saw a thing on CNN about some of the weirder, lesser-known films of the year. Bottle Rocket was one of them. We went to Blockbuster and rented it on VHS that night, and loved it. So by the time the Rushmore previews were coming out, and I saw that Bill Murray was in it, it was already a case of double-awesomeness for me. And here we are today. I've been on board ever since, though I kind of skipped that one with the train in India or whatever. For some reason it just didn't excite me--yet part of me knows that since I've liked essentially everything else he's done, I'd probably like it.

Next time you drive on I-195 east of Providence, look to the north as you cross the river from Providence to Shelbyv-- er, East Providence, and you'll see a train bridge in the "up" position. How do I know it will be up? Here's the view looking back toward Providence from the bridge:

Unless a spectral locomotive comes through, there ain't no trains runnin' on this track.

After a short walk from the bridge through the woods, you'll get to this blocked-off tunnel. Along the top of this picture is Gano Street on the East Side of Providence, by the Dunkin' Donuts.

A closer look at the bottom-left. That's where you can go through. (I wonder if this tunnel connects with that "East Side Transit Tunnel" that only buses are allowed in. Ryan?) Kim and I did not venture that far. We took a left here and climbed the hill back up to Gano and walked all the way back to where we parked the car, at the soccer fields by the bridge.

It's a quick, fun, (legal?) urban adventure, complete with optional danger at both ends: The tunnel on the woods side, and the opportunity to walk out onto the bridge on the water side. (Look very closely in the top pic and you can see a guy with a Wu-Tang tattoo sitting out on the bridge. You won't see the tattoo but you'll see the guy.) The bridge walk is pretty safe, but you could go one step further and climb up the "up" part--I have read that it has been done. There's also a graffiti fun-zone out at the upthing, which you can see online if you do the proper web searching at ask jeeves or lycos or what have you.

Every other team in the division lost, and we lost 1-0 against one of the best pitchers in the game. Not that hard to move on from this one, although it woulda been nice if Salty had held on...or if AG's ball had just a little more juice in it. Oh well. This series can still be won.

A game where we score 0 is a good time to bring up the following: A lot of people act like the loss of Ellsbury/Crawford is meaningless, because our offense hasn't been a problem this year. Did these people ever think that with those guys, we would have not only won the games we've already won, but won a few more on top of it? Ellsbury was practically the MVP last year. When you lose a guy like that, you can never say for certain that your results would have been the same, even if the replacement is having an MVP year of his own. Because the injured guy could have been even better than that. Maybe in some of the games where we've been shut down, Ellsbury would have produced 2 runs and turned a loss into a win. We don't know what he would have done all this time he's been out, but to say he wouldn't have made a difference makes no sense to me.

You know how we love it when extreme right-wingers do things like ask to see Obama's birth certificate (and then when they see it, ask for the real birth certificate instead of admitting they were wrong), because it lets the rest of the world know how bat-shit they are? Well the Boston sports media is officially at that point, if they weren't already. Just Google "Buchholz" right now and you'll see what I mean.

I love how for once the "story" is actually "can you believe the media is slamming X for Y?" instead of the actual misguided accusation. I think people are starting to come around to my way of thinking! Finally....

I keep threatening to do some sort of anti-media thing at Fenway. Well, I'm finally gonna get something going. Watch for a "major announcement" (major in my mind, anyway) here soon! We're gonna have some fun with this....

The Red Sox have released tickets to the July 8th Sunday night game vs. the Yanks. It's all singles, except for a few $170 seats--BUT, they've got Coke/Bud Deck standing room up for sale too. Get the $25 Coke Deck SROs and you can go to any SRO areas, including all along that highest level there. Do it. Great views from up there, especially on the third base side of home plate. They're definitely getting more for those on the secondary market. (Even the regular SROs are going for more than 30--and you can't get upstairs with those. Unless you do some sneaky, well, I'll say no more.)

Above, a video I shot walking under the stands, out into the crowd, out onto Yawkey Way, and back inside. I kind of thought it would be cool if a good play happened at the end once I was back in a seat--and an amazing one did! So either watch until the end or skip to the final seconds. Too bad I don't have a zoom on that cam. Now on to the pics:

Lester started vs. their ace (who would be very un-ace-like). Oh, I should continue my tradition of telling you about parking and weather. I parked at my current secret free street and walked my 1.5 miles. Temps in high 70s, nice breeze, mostly cloudy. Missed batting practice, if they had it at all.

Fans watching Shoppach and Lester from the Bleacher Bar.

Sean Casey greeting a cop.

Tubes and bags inside that garage door in LF.

Daniel Nava, Will Middlebrooks.

Darnell McDonald.

Papi on the field with a Jay. Know where I took this from?

Jon Lester on the mound. He wouldn't even need his best stuff today....

As you can tell I took a good seat early.

Rasmus on deck, Lester on hill.

Lawrie up.

A beautiful view on a beautiful day.

Close-up of Bautista.

Soon I started walking all around. Got this shot of lots o' sixes on the board. We sent ten men to the plate in the first.

And now some sevens.

I went into this game hoping Papi would hit a dong so I'd have a shot to see him hit #400 for his career. As I lined up this shot of the Jays' super-deep shift, Papi launched one, which is why Lawrie is turned around.

I quickly moved my cam to the right to catch the outfielders going back, but it was way gone.

And Papi touches the plate on #399. The rout was on. Later, when Papi came up again to start the bottom of the 8th, I went out under the bleachers and prepared to catch the historic ball. But he struck out. (At that point, I started walking around and filming, as you see in the video. Okay, I'll give away the ending--it was the Darnell McDonald robbing-of-a-dong!)

And as you know if you watched the video, I ended up in a good seat on the third base side for the ninth. Got this not-so-focused shot of Dustin catching a pop-up.

McDonald and Kalish celebrate the 10-4 win. We're tied for third now! And 1.5 out of second. We go to Seattle and Oakland now. Late night games the next three days, and five of the next seven. Stay up!

Gold-card reader MattySox alerted me to the DeWayne Wise play last night. I'm sure you've seen it by now since it's 2012. Terrible job by that ump. You have to ask the fielder to show you the ball! At the very least! Imagine that--the ball rolled SO FAR away from the play that the ump didn't even see the fan who picked up the ball and held it aloft. My first thought after reading about it was "I hope I get to hear the Michael Kay call...." And I did. You know you've gotten away with one when even Michael Kay can't come up with an excuse for you.

Two other things.

1. DeWayne Wise is on the Yankees??

2. The random article that came up first when I went to find this story said that Wise dove into the crowd "Derek Jeter style." AND I DON'T THINK HE WAS BEING SARCASTIC. Don't tell me there are people who still think Jeter did something impressive on that play. Wise went tumbling into the crowd WHILE going after a ball. This takes skill and fearlessness. Derek Jeter caught a ball, then, after making himself a sandwich and getting his car Simonized, jumped over a fence. Say it with me people:

DeWayne Wise jumped into the crowd POKEY REESE STYLE. (Of course, Pokey actually made the catch.)

The Red Sox were down 1-0 for what felt like....about an hour or two. In the 6th, we had the tying run gunned down at the plate, and people think the past determines the future were surely uttering phrases like "one of those nights." But in the 7th, with two outs, Salty hit a Monster dong to tie it at one. In the same inning, a separately rally was capped off with a 2-run single by Pedroia. It was 3-1, and we'd add 2 in the 8th for a 5-1 win. Dice had another weird first inning, but only one run scored, and he and the pen threw shutout ball for the rest of the game.

Speaking of awesome things, I scored Louis C.K. tix today, for both NYC and Boston. Louie continues to impress, selling all the tix at his own site with no BS fees and making it so people aren't allowed to resell for above face value. In other words, what I've always dreamed of. He pretty quickly sold out all 5 NYC dates, then they added a second show for all five of those nights. Looks like the Sunday late show was added recently, as good seats are available for it right now. But I'm sure they'll be gone by the time the sun comes up. Anyway, this is the guy who also sold his last concert video for $5 through his own site, allowing people to do whatever they want with it once they buy it. I love how artists are realizing they no longer need middle-men. It's a bonus that a guy I really like is leading the charge. I'm also psyched for season 3 of his TV show, which starts Thursday.

Did boston.com release a pdf from the Red Sox that wasn't meant to go public?

Before the season, I saw this "schedule of events" and noticed two things...which never seemed to have happened.

The first one was the Lib Dooley Fan Award, which I blogged about here. It was supposed to be awarded June 19th. From what I can tell, this never happened. Nothing on the team site or on NESN, and nothing in the news about it. And people I know who went to the game that night say they don't remember any such presentation. (This may have been replaced by the honoring of 100-year-old fans, which we've seen throughout this season.)

The other thing was this, in the Launch of “Fenway Park – A Living Museum" section:

The ballpark tours will be revamped to provide a more rich and
rewarding experience for every fan who visits.

Tours will be more interactive and historical enabling fans to
enjoy a more complete Fenway Park experience.

I'd told my friend Richard about the "revamped" tours, and we took one, only to find it wasn't revamped at all, and it completely ignored the "living museum" aspect. We know the plaques and the memorabilia have gone up, but the tour improvements obviously didn't happen. I was so confused, until I realized that the info I'd gotten came from the same pdf that talked about the mythical Dooley Award, and existed nowhere else.

So now I'm starting to think boston.com released a rough draft or something. The Fenway 100 site has a "schedule of events," (which I've been checking every single day for months waiting to see if they'll add the previously promised additional throwback dates) and it leaves out both the tour talk and the Dooley Award--another sign they may not ever have been official.

Here's the pdf in question. It opens in Google Docs. If you can't view it, just search Lib Dooley Fan Award, you'll see it.

By the time Jeopardy started, the Red Sox hadn't even batted once. Never a good sign. (If you're confused--some areas have Wheel at 7, Jep at 7:30. Where I grew up it was the opposite, but here in Prov., it's Jep second. If you're confused as to why I'm watching something other than the game in the first place, well, what Kim and I do is watch the game from 7:10 to 7:29, then, while DVR'ing the game, we play our nightly Jeopardy match, then catch up to the game.)

Doubront didn't have it tonight. After we spotted the Jays the huge lead, we did tie it at 5...only to have them score 4 more, before a two-hour rain delay. When we returned, Papi hit his second dong of the night, giving him 398 for his career, but it wasn't enough. 9-6 post-midnight loss, and we drop back into a tie with Toronto for last.

During the delay, Don and Jerry fielded questions sent in from fans, and it produced some stuff that will probably make their year-end best-of special. Did you know one of Don's old dreams was to work at Blockbuster Video, so he could have a "Don's Picks" section?

Also, when I was a kid, WPIX would show Twilight Zone episodes during Yankee rain delays. Well, Me-TV shows a Zone every night at 11:00 (which is a Zoner's dream--thank you, Me-TV!!!!!), and after watching the end of Shawshank for the 398th time (see what I proverbially did there?), I watched some of tonight's TZ. I think that's the first time I've watched a Zone during a rain delay in more than 20 years. Awesome. I think I owe a lot of my Twi-love to WPIX.

P.S. I know there's an exclamation point after "Jeopardy" and I usually use it, but I have to take a stand and say no to that exclamation point. I can't see it not being confusing for the reader.

After the 2004 season, the Red Sox brought the trophy to every town in Mass., along with lots of other stops in New England and around the world. Pat and I went to the New Haven stop and I filmed the whole thing. Above, Kevin Youkilis talks to the crowd. Youk was the only player from the team at this event.

I've never posted any of this video, except for the opening and closing shots of my 2004 Rolling Rally video, which also come from this event. I figured now would be a good time to show the Youk portion. We heart you, Youk!

But not before the Mets let the Yanks come in to their stadium cold and leave hot. At least we're done with shitty ILP until next year. I still can't even believe I'm saying "interleague play" at all. How did we let this happen? Why is it still going on? I hope more and more people in the game come out admitting that it's fucking ridiculous so we can end the bullshit.

Now back to your regularly scheduled season. (In which we should be 3.5 out of first instead of 5.5 all because the Yanks get to play their little brothers 6 times a year all because of money, even though basically everyone involved in New York sports has said they should cut it down to 3 games.)

Red Sox fans said goodbye to Youk today, and he tripled in his final at bat in a Boston uniform helping us to our 9th win in 11 games. Just now I read he's officially a White Sock now. So weird. He gave us a lot, that guy, I'm glad he got to see once more how much we cared about him today.

No Buck/McCarver today which is always good. And national TV = classic CF cam at Fenway. I could have done without the artsy shots on live plays though. It'd be like showing an awesome close-up of a basketball player shooting--it may be beautiful, but the one and only thing we want to see is where the ball is going. Save the art for the replays, please.

Anyway, we won 8-4. Middlebrooks remains hot, hot, hotter than hell. Single, double, homer. (Though Fox credited the dong on-screen to Cody Ross.) Morales did fine work in another Beckett-injury-replacement start. Buchholz will miss his start tomorrow afternoon, so Aaron Cook fills in.

The Mets blew a 3-0 lead and lost to the Yanks, on two homers right down the lines. So we stay 5.5 out of first, but move up to 1.5 out of the last playoff spot.

Classic moment on Fox tonight. After the Yanks took the lead, the score bar at the bottom of the screen gave the score, then put up some player stats. They stuck with the Mets guy who'd hit their homer, then went to Ibanez, who'd hit the game-tying 3-run dong, and then for the third guy, you'd think it would be the person who knocked in the go-ahead run. It was a home run, too, so that makes the decision even easier. Fox instead ignored that player (Chavez) and went with Jeter, noting he was 1-3 with a stolen base. (His hit didn't knock in a run, wasn't part of a rally, and didn't lead to a run. The stolen base came in the same non-run-scoring inning. But if the guy so much as claps for a homer, we just have to know about it. And that, as we know, is no exaggeration.)