I was trying to think of what I usually blog about on Thanksgiving. I checked the archives, and sometimes I post on TGD, sometimes I don't. Last year I posted about the addition of Jonny Gomes to the Red Sox. One year I did a season wrap-up. Another time I told you about our family's legendary Initials games and how my cousin is good friends with the lead singer of AC/DC. But I think my favorite ThXgVg post was the one from 2005, when I was living in NYC. Read it here.

Actually, what am I talking about... the picture of my cousin with the AC/DC guy from '06 trumps all....

The Yankees have a new catcher for 2014: Brian McCann. Admittedly, I follow National League baseball about as closely as I follow American League curling. But I've read up on this guy and I've come to the following conclusion:

He's been injured, he was a good hitter at one time but isn't any more, he's not that great defensively, but he's somehow the best catcher a team could ever have.

It's funny because after reading about how his offense suffered in 2013 because of an injury, I then read how 2012 was mysteriously an offensive "down year" for him, leading me to believe that the reason people are so high on him must involve his defense. Yet in this article, which, by the way, puts him alongside Yankee legends Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra, they tell me "He's not the best defensive catcher going."

So I guess between his "presence," his eventual assumed Yankeeography, and a very, very short porch in right field, we're supposed to believe this guy is leading the Yankees back to glory. We world champion Boston Red Sox fans will believe it when we see it.

Red Sox WS movie has its premiere; Ian Browne unfamiliar with difference between "premier" and "premiere." You'd think a guy named Brown-plus-E would have known! Actually, he gets it right on his third and final try. (Underrated mistake: "treatment" spelled "tretament" in url.)

I never got to post my WS pics. So I shall do that now. Click to enlarge and in charge.

This was the first picture I ever took at a World Series game. Got the tix by calling the ticket office, something America has forgotten how to do. We weren't able to leave Providence until about 5, and traffic was hell. We had to go off the board with some crazy route, and, after ending up in the MFA garage which was charging a criminally low rate, we finally got to will call a little after 7:00. It was a mob scene all around, but there was just one guy in front of us in the WC line...and it was taking forever. Once we finally got our tix, I did that thing where you go right up to the front of the line, and some guy got pissed. We'd just waited a really long time, and any time I've gone to WC, the drill is you just go right in. But this guy wasn't buying it. I tried telling him I'm not one of those line-cutters and that we'd already done our wait. Nothing. I was so amped up, I tried to do that thing where you be friends with the guy fighting you: "come on, it's the World Series, let's all be happy!" I could hear the dude's wife behind him give the ol' "just let it go" line. With wife approval, I knew I was gold. (Still, I wanted to stand there and plead my case with them that I didn't want to win this fight by default, that I was a good person and felt I had a right to go right in--especially in what was really a "mill about" situation as opposed to a proper "line.")

So we got in. Or so I thought--my mom still had to get her bag checked, which was a longer line, and it was the WS so they were extra checky. Charlie told me to just go on in and he'd wait for my mom and meet up at the seats. Which weren't together anyway--we had three single bleacher seats, but all within a few feet of each other.

Did I mention it was a mob scene? This was around 7:30. I'd just gotten inside and wanted to go down close for a little while, but I soon realized just getting out to the bleachers was gonna take a while, so I didn't stay long. If you know Fenway, you should be able to tell where the walkway is. Crazy.

This was, sadly, the best shot I got of the WS logo on the field.

The World Series is at Fenway Park in 2013!!!!!

Joe Buck on the field.

I don't even remember going this far toward home plate. But I got this shot and then headed out to center field. To see where my seat was, look at the center field wall and follow it to the right, past the Giant Glass sign, past Mercedes, past NESN.com...all the way to where the fence disappears into the crowd. I was at that spot, front row behind that wall at the far end of it. My mom was closer to straightaway center in the front row, with Charlie three rows back and a couple seats over.

As I came out of the tunnel, they had announced both teams and were just about at the starting lineups.

My ticket.

I had a good shot of Lester warming in the 'pen.

Lots of people opted to watch the intros on the scoreboard.

Papi is announced.

Another shot of Lester and the crazy crowd.

Teams lined up.

Slightly closer version of teams lined up....

You might remember that there was some mistiming with the flyover and the anthem. Although it almost seemed purposely done. So all of a sudden I heard a frightening noise and just when I realized the world wasn't ending, I thought to throw my camera up and snap. I got these three lights. So there's my flyover shot.

Yaz, who we'd seen a few days earlier at his statue unveiling, throws out the first pitch.

The game's about to start, and I'm desperately trying to see the field and get a few pictures in the very few windows of nightlight between people passing right in front of my face in the walkway.

The first World Series pitch witnessed by me, lifetime.

The view to my left and down.

And to my right. I didn't think I had this many pictures, considering I arrived late and was far away from the action. But I guess I did. Enough to warrant this being a two-part deal. So stay tuned for part two with the game pics....

[Update: Part 2 is now up, click here.]