So much craziness happened in that A's-Yanks game. But after the A's scored 4 in the 13th, it looked like the day was perfect. Sox finally grace us with the loss we wanted them to get after making us nervous and sending it to extras, Nebraska destroys poor Idaho State 73-7, and it looks like the Yanks are done and will fall back into a tie with Baltimore.

But no. A's give back the lead in about the time it takes to say "Did you guys hear Nick Swisher's facial reconstructive surgery after that horrible hyena incident didn't take?" But they get out of the inning and it goes to the 14th. And just as they were about to get out of yet another jam with a grounder to first that would end the inning, Brandon Moss boots the ball like some kind of imbecile. Yanks win. I still can't believe that fucking game.

So it's still a one-game lead for NY in the east. The Red Sox need to come through with one more loss tomorrow and we have to hope the A's can pull just one fucking game out of their fucking series. They had no trouble getting up for today's game (despite what ended up happening) after a walk-off loss the game before, so hopefully they can be in position to win tomorrow.

What a race this has turned out to be, with the Shits and Gaggle staying so close for so many days in a row.

6:30: Was getting ready to write my "perfect day" post when the Yanks scored 4 in bottom of the 13th to tie it. Fucking A's.

4:33: Effing Red Sox go and tie the game, so that's in extras, while the Yanks and A's are tied in the 9th. At least I know one game's guaranteed to go my way--Nebraska put up 35 in the first quarter on Idaho State!

Update, 3:00: A's have tied it at 4 (5th), and the O's went up 5-3 in the 6th. Nice job, Red Sox!]

************

Lots of early runs today, O's lead us 2-1, Yanks lead A's 3-2. Go O's, go A's.

So it was true: the Lib Dooley Fan Award was finally presented. And I should have known--the winner was that woman with the Fenway hat! Lynn Smith. Cool. I'm glad it wasn't some texting douche.

I'm still pissed that they only did two throwback games after promising four. Actually, I would have been fine with two, but the fact that they said one thing and did another is what stinks.

Shit, Yanks add a run, now 4-2. Stupid A's had a 2-0 lead, but before I knew it they were walking in the go-ahead run on four pitches.

The Red Sox got the job done tonight, losing to the O's. But the A's lost in extras to the Yanks, so Balty stays 1 back in the east.

[Edited to add: Classic Don tonight. Early in the game, Nava hits one to the right field corner that goes all the way around, hockey-boards style. Just as the RF is about to pick it up, a fan reaches over and grabs the ball. (It had been fair for a really long time at that point, I don't know how the guy didn't know--funny moment when he finally realized it and tried to flip it to the fielder.) However, Don Orsillo didn't notice. He must have glanced down to see where the runner was or something, because after we at home see a close-up of the fan picking up the ball, Don starts wondering what's going on. His call was something like "and there's a delay..." Then he gets all excited as Nava heads for third--while the audience has known for several seconds that the play is over. Then he starts saying how he didn't think Nava would have made it to third because he had made a move to stop at second, and...just watch the play, it's a mess.]

[Also, an anonymous commenter wrote in saying that the elusive and potentially mythical Lib Dooley Fan Award will be awarded at Saturday night's game. I'll believe it when I see it!]

[Also, typo corrected in title. I'd written O's instead of A's, which would make no sense.]

Yanks sweep series vs. Jays, go to a full game up on Balty. Red Sox led Rays by 3 going into the 9th; lost by 3. Now Baltimore comes to Fenway. Red Sox, you ruined last September by collapsing horribly. Please don't ruin this September by preventing a Yankee collapse. Let's rest some players (wink, wink) this weekend! In the 5th, your ass goes down. Say it! Now on to the pics from Thursday's PawSox ceremony....

A crowd of dozens gathers at Pawtucket City Hall. The Paws are beloved in the community, it's a shame they had to do this on a weekday afternoon. But nice job by the fans who did show up, and the players who chose to stick around to be a part of this.

The players waiting for the event to start.

There were a bunch of news stations covering this. From what I've seen, though, most just gave this story a few paragraphs and one or two photos. I win.

THE CUP. (Background: Announcer Steve Hyder, Nelson Figueroa, and, I think, Reynaldo Rodriguez.)

Paws and Sox.

The cops brought out the jackboots for this. There was a guy on one side of the stage holding the American flag, and a guy on the other with the Rhode Island flag, acting like those guys in England or whatever who aren't allowed to crack a smile. This was their footwear.

So basically the announcers spoke about the team, introduced the governor and the mayor, you know, stuff like that. Then they intro'd the players. I figured I'd get a shot of each one as they stood up and waved. Of course, looking at the pics now and going to the roster, I can't figure out half of them. I should have been paying better attention all year to PawSox Heavy and Sitting Still! Anyway, here are some of the ones I know. Above, Josh Fields.

Ryan Dent. (Right?)

Che-Hsuan Lin.

Nate Spears was the most charismatic guy, taking full advantage of his waving opportunity.

Tony Thomas.

Manager Arnie Beyeler.

Merch! L to R: Team president Mike Tamburro, Rhode Island governor Linc Chafee, extremely excited Pawtucket mayor Don Grebien, and Arnie.

So the ceremony ended and I went up close to the trophy to get a shot of it. The players all started leaving the stage area, but suddenly....

They gathered to look at this street art which had been unveiled during the ceremony.

Tony Thomas taking a shot of the art.

Then they all started posing for a team picture around the thing. Which was pretty cool because I happened to be right there, so suddenly it was as if I was one of the cameras they were posing for. I'd love if one of you Paw-ficianados could comment with the names of everybody here.

Repko's kids hustle to get into one of the shots.

Your 2012 champs, soakin' it in.

Tried for a low shot, especially to get the painting in without it being washed out.

Governor/mayor in with the team. They said the Paws used 69 players this year.

Arnie in the street.

Ben Mondor's wife Madeleine. Ben was an important guy around here....

One for the road (Rodriguez and Bermudez, I believe)....


And a vid....

Just got back from the neighboring city of Pawtucket where they had a ceremony for the 2012 International League champs, the Pawtucket Red Sox. Here's a shot I got of the team....
More later.

Our last update was August 14th. The Red Sox would go on a 23-4-1 stretch, turning a 9.5 game lead into a 15.5 one on September 13th. On the 19th, 100 years ago yesterday, the following appeared in the Providence Evening News:So after the A's lost, the Red Sox invoked their right to not have to make up a postponed game against a team they'd finished their road season series with, in order to clinch. Of course, they were going to clinch anyway, but I guess they figured why not rest. Then again, they could have probably "rested" right in the field and still beat the Yankees, who were 48 games off the pace. (A fact Yankee fans conveniently forgot before 2004 when they'd talk about how they never ever ever lost to the Red Sox "when it counted." I guess that whole season didn't count. It's like Kramer saying the bet (that he won't convert his apartment into levels) is off because he's not gonna do it after all: "In seasons where it's close enough to warrant some type of playoff, we always win! Just don't even consider the seasons where we finish 55 games behind!")

So the pennant officially became Boston's. Now it was time to talk about the World Series. Already there were workers at Fenway Park adding 10,000 seats in preparation. The team also "adopted an elaborate system against the securing of tickets by speculators." Man, even back when fans were gambling in the stands and players were throwing games, teams cared about not having tickets resold above face value--now the league just joins up with the crooks and splits the profits. Stupid crooked MLB....

Labels: 1912 Red Sox

11:52: Yanks won both their games. Orioles need to win to stay a half-game out. They're facing King Felix and the Mariners, tied 1-1 in the top of the 8th, Felix still in.

11:54: One out, little nubber, M's third baseman picks it up while it's still on the line! O's have go-ahead run on...

11:56: Two outs, Adam Jones up.

11:57: Jones fuckin' pops out. We go bottom 8, tied at 1.

Midnight: They're saying Felix is done for the night. O's gotta get out of the 8th unscathed, then make some Magic. Also, I heard two people bring up the East standings, Eckersley and that twirpy Yankee-loving host on MLBN. Both of them said, "If the Orioles lose, they're one and a half back. Neither mentioned the possibility of them winning. One out, bottom 8.

12:02: Grounder up middle, no play. Man on first, one out for Seattle.

12:05: Easy fly. Two outs.

12:08: Inning over! Going to the 9th, and the O's get to face a new pitcher. Orioles Magic, right now please!!!!!

12:15: First 2 O's go down in 9th, Manny up.

12:17: We go bottom 9, tied at 2. If the O's are gonna stay a half back, it's gonna be with another extra-inning win.

12:21: Really nice diving play by Manny, one out, bottom 9.

12:24: Endy makes a catch completely off camera in the RF corner at the wall, in foul territory. Nice play. (Of course defensively is the only place I trust that guy.) Two outs. Now a base hit, winning run on first.

12:26: Extra innings again. We go to the 10th.

12:28: One quick out.

12:30: Both M's announcers saying unashamedly that they don't want another long game. Sorry you have to do your job! Which is to fucking watch baseball games! Dear ROOT sports, consider this my application to be the Mariners announcer. (Can work remotely.) Two more quick outs. We go to the bottom of the 10th, tied at 1.

12:36: Strop walks the first goddamn man in the 10th.

12:39: Would you believe the Mariners popped out on another sacrifice bunt attempt? After those two last night. Sweet. One down.

12:44: Stolen base, then another walk. I see it's not just the Yanks that arse hole Strop likes to give games to. First and second, one out for Seattle. New pitcher coming in.

12:48: Strikeout! Two down.

12:50: Another walk. O's pitchers have walked the bases loaded. Another new pitcher called for by Buck.

1:00: Count went to 2-2, but they get the guy on a pop out. M's leave 'em loaded. We go to the 11th.

1:06: One on, one out for Balty. Jones up.

1:10: Adam Jones DONG!!!!!! 3-1 O's!

1:11: It's great watching on the Mariners feed, because you can celebrate Orioles Magic without having to hear that fart Gary Thorne! Two outs, top 11, O's up by 2......

1:16: We go bottom 11. Orioles 3, Mariners 1.

1:20: M's get leadoff man on, infield single.

1:21: Shit, solid single. Tying runs on base, nobody out.

1:22: First pitch to next guy, 3-6-1 double play!!!! Huge! As good as it is to not hear Thorne, it's so embarrassing to hear Dave Sims calling plays with "oh brother." I don't know why these guys enjoy sounding like high school football announcers.

1:23: Now he walks the next guy. So two outs, tying runs on base for Jaso.

1:24: Ha! Another "oh brother" as the idiot Mariners try to steal and get caught to END THE GAME! Goddamn I wish the Yanks could have lost just one of those fucking games today. We'll have to settle for the O's being a half-game back as they sweep the M's. Yanks play Thursday night vs. Toronto while the O's are idle before heading to Boston.

Jays get their asses swept. Two close games. Now the O's need to win to stay .5 back.

First, check out the latest installment of The Producers, your home for Egregious Jeter ShotsTM. Jeter-Cam strikes again!



Again, he hadn't done anything, wasn't being talked about, and every other shot made sense that inning--but the temptation to show that pretty face is just too great. This was from Sunday's TBS game. It's funny how I can come up with so many of these without even having YES Network. But that just shows you how often this has been happening since the first tween girl shrieked for Jeter in late 1995.

Today at 1, the Yanks play game one against Toronto, then at 7, game 2. Then the O's late from Seattle. I'm giving myself a 2:30 a.m. cutoff! It's tied going in, so one team could gain 1.5 games today. If not, it'll be a half-game lead for somebody. Remember, the O's still have not ended a day alone in first since ColNYlapse '12 began. Please let this be the day....

Also, I just had one of those "I've been duped" moments. A good thing about the new playoff format is how it makes winning the division more important. I've admitted that. But it just hit me: Know what else makes winning the division important? Not having a wild card at all! Scumbag Bud devalued it in 1995, and 17 years later, he looks like a hero for valuing it again. And I fell for it! Of course, there's no way they were gonna be removing playoff teams so we'll all have to settle for this. Until fucked-up shit happens at the end of this season and they tweak the format. And then again next year, and the year after that, etc. So stupid.

12:31 a.m.: With the Yanks rained out, the O's went into their late game tonight knowing a win would tie them for first. Erasmo Ramirez shut them down for 8 innings, but gave up hits to the first two batters of the ninth before getting pulled. So the O's have the tying runs on, down 2-0.

12:32: Sac bunt, tying runs on second and third!

12:33: They did it!!! 2-run single, we're tied!!!!

12:34: Holy crap, I barely start the live blog and the Magic actually happens. Since it's tied, now I could be up all night...

12:36: And they're out of it, left go-ahead run on 2nd. So we go to the bottom of the 9th, tied at 2.

12:41: First two M's go down in bot 9.

12:47: O's change pitchers after 2-out walk.

12:49: We go extras in Seattle! So...the Red Sox won earlier, a normal-seeming game that still took more than 4 hours. The Rays had an odd line: 5 runs, 5 hits, 3 errors. TC's intro to the post-game, of course, gave no credit to the Red Sox for winning their 4th in 5 games, he just noted how the Rays are "folding before our eyes."

12:53: O's batting in 10th, 2 outs, nobody on. They've won 13 straight extra innings games.

12:56: Damn, Endy Chavez came up, so I knew that inning was about to endy. 2-2, mid 10th.

1:00: First Mariner gets on in bottom 10th, next one tries to sac but pops out!

1:01: Next guy singles. M's have winning run on 2nd, 1 out.

1:05: Huge strikeout by the new pitcher O'Day, who I saw pitch at the first ever game at Citi Field. 2 out.

1:09: Another K! O's get out of it! Magic!!! Yankees shitting their pants! We go to the 11th!

1:15: First O of the 11th singles, next guy bunts him over.

1:25: Jones up, 2 on, 2 out, looking to avoid the Golden Sombrero. And he's hit by a pitch. Loaded for Balty, Wieters up, 2 outs, tied.

1:28: Wieters goddamn fucking strikes out, swings and misses on all 3 pitches he sees. We go bottom 11, tied at 2.

1:35: Once again, the M's get the first guy on, then pop out on the bunt attempt! Now 2 outs in bottom 11th, still a man on first. It's usually around this point I start forgetting what inning it is.

1:41: We go to the 12th. What did I say before about being up all night?

1:50: And then my power went out! Whole street is dark. We've been getting crazy wind. Now on Kim's iPhone. Two outs for O's in 12th.

1:55: This is so weird. The wind died down and the rain stopped. So I sit in dark silence. Bottom 12, still tied.

2:04: Holy crap. Seattle had first batter double to the wall. After an out they walk a guy intentionally. Then Strop strikes the next two out! This Orioles team is insane. We go to the 13th. Still no power at my house. But this phone had a lot of life left...

2:15: O's get lead off man on, can't score. Mid 13th now.

2:21: Lights on, appliances buzzing, fans whirring. Power back on in Providence! Mariners went down in the 13th. We go to the 14th tied at 2.

2:25: The stupid Baltimore Sun guy talking about how being forced to endure this game is "karma" for missing an earlier long one. What an ass. I'm loving this. He covers the Orioles and they're trying to win this incredible game to tie for first place, in mid-September. And it's 3 hours earlier where he is. And he's complaining! 2 outs for Balty in 14th... got it back on mlb.tv now so don't need to read that Sun guy's updates.

2:27: 14th inning stretch. 2-2. Dear Baltimore Sun, I'll gladly take the job from your guy who doesn't want to do it.

2:32: First 2 M's go down in 14th against Johnson (not the closer).

2:34: Time-wise, this game JUST passed the Red Sox game from earlier. That game went 9 innings, this one is in the 14th--make it the 15th! Tied at 2....

2:40: One down, top 15th. Oh no, Endy Chavez...

2:41: My suspicion--that Endy Chavez shouldn't be playing MLB and therefore will make an easy out--was correct. He pops out on a fat 2-0 pitch. I have come to trust the O's this year, except for him. Now the next guy grounds out. We go tot he bottom of the 15th.

2:46: Two outs for Seattle. How is it that the few games I love-blog are always completely insane? I mean I usually start these in games that are close and late, but they all could end at any moment in extras. Yet they all go on and on and on and on.... Man on first for the Ms now, bottom 15, 2 outs.

2:51: Next two Ms get on. 2 on 2 out. Bottom 15.

2:54: O's get out of another jam! We go to the 16th.

3:06: O's have a man on first with one out, and now a balk moves him to second!

3:07: Ground out. Man on 3rd for Balt, 2 down.

3:10: Damn, Jones grounds to short, guy takes his time and almost doesn't get him. But does. 2-2, mid 16th.

3:13: Tommy Hunter in, walks first guy. This is another guy I don't trust too much. Despite what I said earlier.

3:14: Finally a successful sac bunt for Seattle. Man on second, one out. I feel like Wieters could have thrown the guy out at second, didn't try. Now man on 3rd, 2 outs.

3:16: Hunter strands the winning run at third on easy flyout! We go to the 17th!

3:20: Wieters Ks to lead off 17th. He's 0 for 7. Reynolds hit by pitch--go-ahead run on 1st for Balty, 1 out.

3:22: Manny single, 1st and 3rd, 1 out! Score now please!!!!

3:25: Line SHOT, caught by SS. Shit! Two outs.

3:27: Goddamn. Another lineout ends the inning. O's strand 2. Is this real life?

3:30: One-hopper that Reynolds can't handle, goes down the line for a double. Fortunately, the next guy pops out! So M's have winning run on second, 1 out.

3:34: Big K for Hunter. Two down. Figgins up.

3:36: Grounder, stabbed by Hunter. Looked like it was headed up the middle, which would have won the game. Instead, the O's are out of it. We go to the 18th.

3:42: ORIOLES SCORE! Nobody out, a run in and 2 men on.

3:43: Bases loaded, 1 out. 3-2 Orioles. It was Teagarden whose bloop single brought in the go-ahead run with men on 1st and 3rd.

3:46: Weird play on a grounder to left side. M's get an out at 3rd, but run scores. 4-2 O's.

3:48: We go to the bottom of the 18th inning in Seattle, Washington. Orioles 4, Mariners 2.

3:51: Closer Johnson in. Pop out to short to start the bottom of the 18th.

3:53: K. 2 down!

3:55: Orioles WIN! Tied for first again!

3:57: Okay, finally I can say this. The O's are back in a tie for first with the Yanks. After the rainout in NY tonight, the Yanks will play a doubleheader tomorrow, meaning today. Then the O's play another late game. This could be a huge day. Gotta get a split out of that DH, then the O's will know they can move into first alone with a win. But they're facing King Felix, so let's just get a sweep, eh? Then an Orioles win would put the lead at 1.5. So let's get that too. See you tomorrow.

The 2012 excitement continues, as the O's blow out the M's in game one. So they close to within a half game of the idle Yanks. So for the next two nights, we'll have the Yanks early and the O's late. Pressure will be on the Yanks, then if they win, it goes to the O's, and on and on. I'd love more than anything to be seeing Balty take over sole pazesh of first about 24 hours from now.

Sox beat faltering Rays tonight, I should report for consistency's sake.

Here are a couple of videos I shot at Fenway last Thursday night. These were after the Red Sox finished batting practice, and the Yanks weren't quite ready to hit yet. Pretty much silence, and as you can see in video #2, me and the cameramen had the center field bleachers pretty much to ourselves, which led to me getting 3 balls once the Yanks started hitting.

Once again the Rays went down by a bunch, teased us by making it close, but lost. So the O's had to win in Oakland to stay a game back, which they did. No quit in those feathered friends. Balty goes to Seattle this week (they face Felix in game 3 Wednesday) and the Yanks get Toronto at home.

In other news, the Red Sox were in a scoreless game for 7 innings until Lester finally gave up a few. 5-0 loss to the Jays, and now we go to Tampa for four. The Rays are 5 out in the east. The Red Sox, in case you were wondering, officially will not be in the playoffs in 2012. But there's obviously a lot left to root for this baseball season.

A few things:

A two-bounce ground rule double! Today Ryan Lavarnway hit a high fly to shallow right. The right fielder lost the ball in the sun. It landed pretty far from where he stood, bounced once on the AstroTurf, and then bounced again before going over the low wall in foul territory for a ground-rule double. I don't remember ever seeing a batted ball go into the crowd on more than one bounce before. I was at the JoS board, and Allan also said he's never seen this. So you'd think the announcers, one of whom is a former player, would note that the audience has just witnessed an extremely rare occurrence. Nope. Of course not. Anyway, you really do need a perfect storm for this to happen. You have to have a low wall and probably artificial turf to start. Then you need a high fly ball that for some reason lands harmlessly and bounces twice before a fielder can get to it. We saw that today. But the casual fan watching NESN had no idea anything out of the ordinary happened.

What's up with Remy "spoiling" Don's promos lately? Is he trying to announce his way out of Boston? Don sometimes laughs but I gotta figure he's kinda pissed about it. Even weirder than just saying "[x promo] is about to be read by Don" is the fact that he's revealing when NESN chooses to do these spots, i.e. "after the next foul ball" or "after a routine out." At one point Saturday they ended up talking about the network's definition of a "routine out," which Don said was one that didn't "require" a replay. They started joking about it, as Remy mockingly acted like the next routine grounder to the pitcher DID require a replay. But in doing this, they inadvertently illustrated why their telecasts have become so shitty. Remy did a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the replay of Buchholz fielding a grounder and flipping to first. His point was to jokingly defend even the most routine play, saying you can analyze anything. But guess what? That actually is why we're watching! And why they pay these guys. Remy's imitation of analysis was exactly what we'd like to hear out of him after every play! Fans tuning in for a baseball game, surprise, would like to know that when the pitcher comes off the mound to his left side, it makes it easier for him to field a grounder hit to that side, instead of learning for the hundredth time that legendary rock band Heart will be playing at the casino, or that if we ever need medical assistance at Fenway Park we should visit the Beth Israel Deaconess medical center located behind section 12. Yet the only time we get to hear it is when they're dismissing it as the meaningless bullshit you'd hear if they weren't forced to do 88 promos per game. (Of course, I like to think that Remy really does believe that actually talking about the game would be better than a million promos, and that's why he's been doing this routine lately....)

Finally, a team besides the Red Sox with a new logo gets the shaft. They showed a shot of Salty in the dugout today, and behind him was a notebook. The Red Sox had made it up (this year since it said 2012 on it) and used the Jays' logo--but grabbed the old one. The "JAYS" script that they canned before this season. So it's good to see we're not the only ones.

Cano pulled a Cano today, but escaped embarrassment because...the runner pulled a Cano too! Grounder to Cano, he does his nonchalant schtick, and on the transfer from glove to hand, the ball goes flying. Far away. He runs to get it, picks it up and fires to first, and still gets the guy. But we can see that the guy grabbed his hamstring after crossing first. However, the replay showed that while he did hurt himself on the swing, he still saw Cano get the ball the first time, and went into a near-crawl, only to look up again a few steps later, realize the ball was on the ground, and start speeding up again, too late. Fucking TBS announcers say nothing. Cano completely skates. (That batter did leave the game right after, too, so it was a real injury, but even with that, and even if he also had a goddamn Joba on his back, he could have easily beaten the play had he not assumed it was over. And wouldn't you think the manager would notify the entire team to run everything out especially on balls hit to Cano?)

Remember I tried to figure out all the pics in the background of redsox.com? I noticed today there have been some changes (no, not to the mysterious Yankee catcher). Kevin Youkilis had been replaced with a Johnny Pesky picture. Josh Beckett has been replaced with one of Tek and a Ted Williams shot. See the new version here, which is also a link to a story about the 2004 team and the All-Fenway team being honored in the final two home games this season.

Somehow between eating brunch (which just means breakfast + lunch for one low price, not "a meal rich people named Muffy eat"), going to a street festival in the West End (JS aka Jenks aka [her real name] of PawSox Heavy, formerly Baseball Heavy, was there to judge a facial hair contest and hand out delicious cookies--she's going to the AAA championship game down in one of those Carolinas!; also my old neighbor's band was supposed to be playing but they were nowhere to be found), trying to pack up Kim's studio as she's actually getting a brick and mortar location (which just means a store, not "a building made up of hard rectangular cuboids and pals of pestles which would probably never stay up") for her soap business, eating dinner at an Indian place on Hope Street we'd never been to before (Kim insists we went once but I had no recollection of the inside--maybe we ordered from there once and she did a solo pick-up?), and watching Casino on AMC ("freak you, you witch!") since amazingly I'd never seen it (don't tell me what happens in the end--the picture got all digitized rendering it unwatchable so I switched over to Seth MacFarlane's great monologue on the season premiere of SNL while Kim slipped into dreamland), all while blowing my nose upwards of ten thousand times (when I get a cold, it's non-stop--I'll never forget working down in the music storeroom ("the cage") at Borders in Danbury in 1998 with this dude Cullie (his reason for hating the Yanks was that he was a KC Athletics fan back in the day and said how they were basically used by the Yanks as a farm team) and hearing him say on the phone to Bruce up at the desk, "yeah, he's down here, I've been listening to him blow his nose for four hours"), I was able to catch at least the ending of four sporting events that I cared about today: Nebraska-Arkansas State at noon (we kicked their asses but you know how it works, they get a big payday for their school), Red Sox-Blue Jays at 1 (Sox win in 9th on Ciriaco's hit--this guy deserves a role on the 2013 Red Sox, and I don't mean that in an "I'm a moron and I think just going with no-names will somehow make us win the World Series because guys with big contracts are horrible people who are also bad at baseball and should feel bad" way, just a "he's done everything he's been asked and has been able to remain steady and solid when most assumed he'd drop off severely" way), Yanks-Rays at 4 (fucking Rays), and O's-A's at 9 (don't start with me O's, we've got a deal here, remember?).