The Life and Times of a Die-Hard Red Sox Fan

Disappointing, But Not Disastrous

2010-04-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

Well, we are not off to a good start. But we aren't off to a terrible start, either. Three games with the Evil Empire, and all were very close. All of them could have easily gone the other way, too.

I'm sure there is much hate for J Papelbon at the moment, especially since his last outing for 2009 resulted in the end of the season for the Sox. I'll not join that camp just yet, just as I'm not hating on Okajima for walking in the winning run Tuesday night. After all, it was Marco Scutaro's botched throw before that that even caused him to have to pitch to that batter.

Kevin Youkillis is very wise. His response to all of that was to say that no single event or play in the game caused the loss. It is a group effort. If they had scored more runs, they wouldn't have been in that situation. That's why it's a "team."

Anyway...so we're 1-2. And, thanks to the Rangers, the Sox are now behind the Blue Jays, too. Sigh. The Rangers are experiencing bullpen troubles, as well, and their closer blew their game today. Franky Francisco entered the game in the 9th, with the Rangers ahead 1-0, and lost it. However...just like the Sox, the Rangers couldn't score any runs. They went 0-10 with runners in scoring position, and the great Vlad Guerrero was responsible for 3 of their 5 hits. The only run was unearned, scored on one of 4 wild pitches by Toronto pitchers.

The Rangers are looking like the Rangers of old, and Ron Washington is probably on the bubble, due to his drug issues, which may or may not be over. Who knows?

The Sox, on the other hand, have looked pretty good for the first three games. I think they have the looks of a solid team this year. I AM concerned about Papi. I love Papi. But he just doesn't seem to have the magic any more. I hope I'm wrong and he pulls out of this.

That's my nickel's worth for today.

TTFN, y'all!

Well, Looky Here!

2010-03-29T04:09:00.000-07:00

We all know how last season ended up.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I'm excited about the new season, which will be under way shortly. In fact, our beloved Sox begin the season on Sunday night, if I'm not mistaken? I have tickets to the Texas Rangers home opener on Monday, April 4. Right behind home plate on the second level. Great seats.

I also have tickets reserved for two of the three games in August when the Sox come to Arlington. The Texas Rangers play in Arlington. They do NOT play in Dallas. Heh. Come to think of it, neither do the Cowboys, anymore.

Anyway. I'll be back blogging baseball stuff here, hopefully. I need to get caught up with my old friends over here. Even though I can find most of them over on Facebook.

The smell is in the air. It's electric. In less than one week, we will hear those beloved words echoing from Fenway Park (and half of all of the baseball parks in the country), "PLAY BALL!"

That makes me smile.

TTFN, y'all!

Off To Never-never Land

2009-06-12T00:46:00.000-07:00

Seriously? It's been almost a month since I've been here?

Well, you see, it's like this...

No, really...

I think I have too many blogs. Plus everyone that I care about over here is on Facebook, which I think, great as it is, has ruined some things like this for me. I have two "Diaryland" blogs besides this one. My primary blog is purely spiritual, where I blog my semi-daily devotions. The other Diaryland blog has begun being pretty much about Stephanie and our adventures with autism.

Then there's this blog.

Where I get to ask this question.

In what kind of surrealistic dream land do we live, where it could ever be thinkable that the Red Sox could be 8-0 against the Evil Empire in the season?

When I left home to come to work tonight, the Evil Ones had taken a 3-1 lead, thanks to some subpar pitching by Manny Delcarmen. We love you, Manny, but you just didn't have it tonight. Even though I know the Sox are famous for those 8th inning comebacks, I had a bad feeling about this game. You know what I mean...sometimes, you just know that this one isn't going to work out.

By the time I got to work and was able to get logged on to this here 'puter, Mike Ogulnik was announcing the AL scores on "Rangers Replay," which, by the way would be a winning edition of said program, as the Rangers took the Jays 1-0 tonight, in a tremendous pitcher's duel. I was racing him, trying to get the Red Sox web site up before he announced the score. It was pretty much a tie, as he gave the score right as the site loaded up. I could scarcely believe my eyes and ears, and almost squealed with joy at what I saw/heard. The came back. In that magical 8th inning.

And so, the dream continues. The Red Sox have successfully thwarted the Busted Bronx Bombers 8 times this season and 9 straight if you go back to the last time they met in '08. I read that the last time the Sox started off a season 6-0 against the Evil Empire, they were known as the Highlanders. Dear Lord, that was a long time ago. And I read that the last time the Sox swept three series from them was 1974.

To make things even better, it looks like Papi may be back. He popped two good ones during this series, one to straightaway center field.

And don't we all just love Brad Penny now, after plunking A-Roid in the back? Wasn't that just great fun? I only wish I could have seen the 8th inning. But, alas, to work I had to heigh-ho.

Don't anybody dare wake me up from this dream.

TTFN, y'all!

Not Enough

2009-05-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick word to the Red Sox bats. For the last several games in a row, you've scored four runs through the first two innings, and then decided that was enough to win.

WORD!

It's not!! Please keep hitting for the remainder of the game.

Okay?

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Where Have You Gone, Dom DiMaggio?

2009-05-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today, the Red Sox Nation mourns the passing of a legend. To some, the "lesser" of the DiMaggios, Dom DiMaggio passed away early this morning, Friday, May 8, 2009, at the age of 92.

According to the Boston Globe, many believed him to be the best player that ever wore a Red Sox uniform.

So long, Dom. So long. Say "hi" to Ted for us...

Not Those Kind of Surprises!!

2009-04-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

13-0?

A one-hitter?

Who were those guys and what did they do with the Red Sox?

An investigation will ensue immediately.

I Love Surprises!!

2009-04-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

When I went to bed for my brief nap before going to work last night, the Sox were behind 5-0, and Carmona was shutting them down handily.

I arrived at work at 10pm, and got right into work stuff, so I briefly forgot about the game.

I know. I'm not worthy.

But then this buddy of mine walked in, who happens to be a Cleveland fan. I suddenly remembered the game, and immediately opened up my Interwebs browser, expecting to congratulate him on his Indians whipping up on my Red Sox to take the series.

I went first to MLB.com, and the first thing I saw was a headline that says "Van Every's shot lifts the Red Sox in the 10th." I almost fell out of my chair. Life is good.

I know in my heart that our Sox can never be counted out, and it ain't over until the mythical fat lady sings. And one of the things I love so much about baseball over all other team sports is that there is no wimpy putting down a knee and letting clock run out, or dribbling in place until the clock runs out. It's not over until that third out is posted in whichever half an inning ends the game. You have to earn that last out. And there is nothing quite like the thrill of standing with the Red Sox nation in any park in this country and cheering your fool head off when there are two strikes on that last batter in the 9th inning. Of course it's magnified by 1000000000000000 if you happen to be in Fenway Park when this happens.

I should write for a newspaper.

Just kidding. But I do think it would be great fun!

Anyway...back on top for the Sox, once again. Here's hoping for a series win (a sweep would be nice) in the Juice Box (I like that name, Dawn) against the Desperate Housewives, who appear to be even more desperate this year.

Hey...anyone ever gone from Worst to First to Worst?? Hahahaha

TTFN, y'all!

Give Lugo To the Yankees

2009-04-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

In his first game back, much to the Red Sox Nation's dismay, Julio Lugo effectively ruins the Red Sox winning streak. Singlehandedly, no less.

When the score was at 7-4, Sox winning, Lugo missed the throw at second base that would have been a double play, ending that inning. Next batter hits a three run homer, tying the game.

Cleveland would go on to win on an error by the pitcher on a routine play at first. 9-8, Indians. However, subtract the three runs from that homer, and the Red Sox win 8-6.

Julio Lugo sucks. And the Red Sox management are morons for letting him back in the game when everything was working just fine.

IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!!!!!

A Letter

2009-04-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Misters Francona and Epstein,

Please get Lugo out of there. We don't like him. We never have. We like Nick Green. Even Jed Lowrie. Anybody but Lugo.

Thank you,

Me and every Red Sox fan that I know.

Back Where We Belong!

2009-04-28T01:25:00.000-07:00

First of all, I must correct an error from my last post. Apparently, I grossly misunderstood something during all the excitement Sunday night, after Captain Stealth made away with home plate.

Jacoby wasn't the first Red Sox to ever steal home. But it hasn't happened on a straight steal since 1994. Ok. Got that cleared up.

Now. On to today's topic.

Life is good. The Red Sox have returned to their rightful place atop the AL East (if only by a few percentage points). They have won 11 straight games. Wow! And the Yankees lost yet another game to Detroit last night. To make things even better, people are actually laughing at the new Evil Empire Stadium! I've heard one radio person refer to it as a little league park. And I clearly heard a heckler on Saturday afternoon, after Jeter hit a medium length foul ball, say, "That would have been a home run in your park!"

And the Rangers are within 1 game of .500 again, coming home to a series against the Oaklands. The Athletics are, according to the guys in the Rangers post game show, scoring an average of 4 or less runs per game. So there's a chance that they could come out of that home stand over .500. I don't know how long it's been since they've been over .500 in April! (Not counting the first week.)

Here's hoping Mr. Penny doesn't give up another 8 runs today. Wakefield was bloody brilliant last night. As was Cliff Lee, to give him his props. Both pitchers were great. That should have been what happened Saturday with Beckett and Burnett on the hill. Oh, well. You just never know.

TTFN, y'all!

...And It's A Sweep!

2009-04-26T20:24:00.001-07:00

The Red Sox have swept the Evil Empire for the first time since 2007.

And...

Jacoby Ellsbury became (according to Jon Miller and Joe Morgan) the first Red Sox player to ever steal home on a "straight steal."

Jacoby, you rock, son. You simply rock.

Ok. Now, I must work.

TTFN, y'all!

Rival Saturday

2009-04-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

It's time for game number 2 in the series between the Red Sox and the Evil Empire.

I tried to set up a LiveBlog account, but I can't get the site to work right. Every time I click on the "next" button after entering the information, I get a blank screen. Oh, well. Game starts in 4 minutes.

Top of 1st. Jeter. Great stop by Lowell. One out. Demon gets a single. Tex walks on four straight pitches. They got Swisher batting cleanup?? Heh. He looks like a punk Italian kid. Swisher singles. Demon scores. 1-0 already. What's it take to get a strike called here?? Cano pops to center. Two outs. Aw...they have an honorary batboy...turns 100 tomorrow. Cool. Man, Beckett's wild in the first inning. Posada singles to left. Tex scores. 2-0. Prayer meeting at the mound. Beckett is behind 16-15, balls to strikes. Matsui grounds to Youk, easy play. Three out, but it's 2-0.

Bottom of 1st. Ellsbury leads off. He flies to Demon. One out. Ok. Shut up telling me how great Burnett is. Pedroia is up. Single for Pedie. 8 game hitting streak going on. Papi up. Struck out four times last night. Hits into a double play. Crud. Three out.

Top of 2nd Berroa grounds out to Lowell. One out. Woot! Beckett strikes out Gardner looking! Looking better already. Jeter singles to center. Two outs. Demon pops up to shallow center, Ellsbury catches. Three outs. Good inning.

Bottom of 2nd Youk's up, one of last night's heroes. Grounds out to third. One out. Drew is up, one of last night's goats. This ump is calling strikes for Burnett that were balls for Beckett. Grr. Drew walks. Bay is up, another of last night's heroes. He hits the ball right to Swisher. Swisher didn't even have to take a step. Two outs. Lowell is up. Lowell out on a pretty ugly strikeout. Three out, still 2-0.

Top of 3rdWho's that idiot in the camera pit? The ump walks Tex. Seriously, he called that same pitch a strike for Burnett! Hah. Swisher swishes! Heheheh... One out. Oh, crap. Cano hit's a two run bomb to right. 4-0. Posada singles to center. Matsui grounds to second, Posada out. Two outs. Berroa singles to right, runners at first and third. Gardner grounds out to second. Three out, but it's 4-0.

Bottom of 3rd.Tek dribbles for an easy out. One out. Nick Green grounds to short. Two out. Why are they talking about Nascar?? Ellsbury's going to bunt? Maybe not. Shoot. Ellsbury pops to second. Three out. Still 4-0.

Top of 4th. Sigh. Jeter singles to center. Demon flies to right. One out. Jeter steals second. Wow. Nice throw after fumbling with the ball a second. Tex walks again! He is very patient...walks a lot. Runners on first and second, one out. Hunter Jones is warming up. Hah. Swisher swishes again, only this time without swishing. Two out. Bad words! Bad words! &%$%^&*% Cano hits a wall double, scoring two more runs. 6-0. Beckett needs to leave now. He's not on today. Posada flies to left. Three out.

Bottom of 4th. Really needing a rally right now. I may have to get a rally cap going here. Pedie is up. Good. Pedroia draws a walk. Papi tries again. Aw, man. Papi pops out foul. What a waste of an at-bat. One out. Youk is up. Youk singles to center. Two on, one out. Drew walks, bases loaded for BayBay! One out. Bay singles to left, one run scores. For some reason, Youk is stopped by Hale, but Demon bobbles the ball. We could have had two runs. Oh, well. 6-1, bases still loaded, one out for Lowell. C'mon Mike!!! That was a sorry pitch! Same pitch he struck out on last time got him again! Two outs. Tek up. Hahahahahah....GRAND SLAM TEK!!! 6-5! The crowd chants "Yankees suck! Yankees suck!" Green up. Green strikes out, but our captain has gotten us back into the game.

Top of 5th. Oh, dear. Beckett's still in. *scared* Matsui at the bat. Grounds out to Pedroia. One out. Berroa lines straight to Youk. Two out. Delcarmen is warming in the pen. Gardner flies to Ellsbury, Beckett gets out of this inning with only 10 pitches.

Bottom of 5th. Sure feels later than the 5th inning, but I'm glad it's not. While my 'puter was frozen, Ellsbury tied up the game with a solo shot into right. Pedroia got a hit on the very next pitch. One one, no outs for Papi. Papi hits a wall double, Pedie goes to third. Runners at the corners, no outs. Youk is up. Burnett hits Youk in the leg. Bases loaded for Drew. Arrgh. Drew hits into a DP. Two out, runners at second and third for Bay. BayBay hits a wall double, scoring two runs. It's now 8-6! Lowell, up, lines to Swisher for out three. But the Sox catch up and go ahead.

Top of 6th.Beckett is back, with over 100 pitches. Jeter walks. Boo. Demon, the traitor, hits a two run shot to right, and the game is tied. Foolish on Tito's part in my opinion...shouldn't have let Beckett come back. Pitching change, Delcarmen is coming in. No outs. Hey, Tex didn't walk, he struck out! One out. Swisher doubles to left field. Cano grounds out, great tag by Youk. Two out. Posada strikes out! Three out, tied 8-8.

Bottom of 6th.Hm. New pitcher. 41. Who's that? Tek strikes out. Nick Green up. Who does not need to be replaced by Julio Lugo. Green gets hit on the arm. Ellsbury up. Another wall double. Green to third. Pedie is up. One out. Pedroia walks. Looks like a pitching change. Bases loaded for Papi. Papi flies out to right, Green tags and scores the go ahead run, but Pedie has a brain cramp and gets tagged out at second. Three out, 9-8 Sox.

Top of 7th. Delcarmen's back. Matsui up. Matsui singles up the middle. Berroa grounds to Lowell, who throws out Matsui. One out. Base hit by Gardner, Berrow gets to third. One out. Jeter up. Gardner steals second on Tek. Now we have two runners in scoring position. Jeter strikes out! Demon is up. Okajima pitching. OH MY GOSH!!!! Pedroia does a Bill Buckner!!! Two runs score on Pedie's error. Evil Empire leads 10-9. Two out and Tex is being intentionally walked. Demon gets caught off base and tagged by Pedie. Three out, 10-9.

Bottom of 7th While my 'puter was locked up again (sigh), Youk got a double, somebody got walked, and Lowell hit a homer over the Monster to put the Sox ahead 12-10. Tek flied out to left, and Green grounded out to short. 12-10 Boston after 7 innings.

Top of 8th. Okajima vs Swisher. Swisher pops up to Bay. Cano is up. Sigh. Another homer for Cano. 12-11. What a slugfest. Pitching change. Ramon Ramirez is in to pitch. Shut up about the NFL draft, you're announcing a baseball game!!! One out, Posada walks. Matsui is up. Matsui doubles, Posada goes to third. One out. Melky Cabrera in to pinch hit. Ahahaha...Cabrera grounds to pitcher, they get Posada gets caught between third and home, but Matsui was already to third, so Posada is out. Two outs. Gardner's up. Gardner grounds out to Pedroia, who gets it this time. Three out. 12-11 Sox.

Bottom of 8th. Ellsbury gets on, due to interference by Posada. Ellsbury steals second on a close play. Hmmm...we got a break there. He was tagged. Pedroia gets a hit, Ellsbury, with fire at his feet, scores from second. 13-11! New pitcher. Pedie gets to second on a passed ball. Papi flies out to Swisher, Pedroia tags and goes to third. Youk is up. They're walking Youk. Another new rule proposal. On an intentional walk, let's just let the guy go. Don't make the pitcher throw the pitches. (Papelbon is warming up for the ninth.) The walk Youk to get to Drew, which is pretty smart on their part. Drew strikes out. Anyone surprised? I think last season was a fluke. Oh, dear. Another pitching change. Let's make this game even longer. Bay is up. Bay walks after getting a full count. That brings up Mike Lowell, who has already homered in this game. Lowell gets a wall double, scoring all three runners. Demon creams the wall, but, unfortunately gets back up. 16-11 Sox. Tek up. Aw...Tek strikes out looking, thought it was a ball. Three outs.

Top of 9th.Papelbon comes in, hopefully to shut this game down. Long at bat for Jeter. He draws a walk. The announcers seem amazed that no one has left the game. It's like they've never announced a Boston home game before! Demon hits a "little flair" to Nick Green for out number one. Tex is up. Hm...Jeter got to second. Must have been "defensive indifference." Tex walks for the fifth time today. Swisher is up. Swisher swishes again. Two outs. Cano is up, who has been trouble today. These announcers are very hung up on how long this game has been. Pop up to Ellsbury. Three outs.

Final score: Red Sox 16, Evil Empire 11!

No Lugo! NO!

2009-04-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

Word on the website is that Lugo could be back in the lineup by Monday.

Why?? Pray tell? Nick Green is doing quite well.

Anybody know where Tanya Harding is? Maybe get her to whack Lugo in the shins with a pipe?

Red Sox vs Evil Empire, Friday Night, 4/24

2009-04-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

I'm listening to the crowd at Fenway chanting "Joba. Joba. Joba." as Joba the Hut has been rattled right out of the box. First by a balk call, advancing Jacoby to second, then the steal and passed ball, resulting in Ellsbury scoring. He then follows this by walking Pedie. I love it. Because I can't stand Joba.

Aaand Youk walks!

Lester struck out the side in the top of the second! Around a couple of walks, but still.

Bottom of second. Bay gets a nice hit. But Lowell hits into a double play. I missed the third out.

Top of third, Lester gets out of a challenge with no runs.

Bottom of third. Nick Green gets a hit. That boy is impressing me. Peds gets a double. Papi strikes out again. After going to 3-1, Joba intentionally walks Youk. Bases loaded. Drew hits a long out for out number 3. Drat.

Top of fourth. Lester's in a little trouble. Runners at 1st and 2nd, 1 out. Base hit, run scores, tie game. Fielder's choice scores another run. Evil Empire leads 2-1. Lester gets a strike-out for the 3rd out.

Bottom of fourth. Nice. Bay gets a double off that weird wall in left field. Joba hits Tek! Hah!! Nick Green hits a shot right back to Joba, and Joba makes a crappy throw to second. Everyone is safe! Dang it!! Ellsbury hits into a double play to end the inning. Still 2-1.

Top of fifth. Nothing for NY but a double by Nick Swisher. Heh. He should have changed his name. "Swisher." Hahaha...

Bottom of fifth. Pedroia got on first somehow...I missed it. Ortiz singles to right. Youk grounds, getting Ortiz out at second. Then Drew hits into another double play. Still 2-1.

Top of sixth. Manny Delcarmen's warming in the pen. Nice catch by Ellsbury for out one. Nice double play to end the first half.

Bottom of sixth. Bay hits a long out to right field. Lowell doubles off the monster! Tek gets a single, sending Lowell to third. Green singles, scoring Lowell. Tie ball game. Pitching change. Jacoby flies out. Pedroia flies out, getting Joba the Hut off the hook for the game.

Top of seventh. Okajima's in to pitch. The guy that looks at the ground when he throws. How does he do that?? Jeter gets a double because Drew was afraid of the wall. C'mon, JD!! Ok. Now, Okajima blows a sacrifice bunt and doesn't make the throw to get the guy out. Runners at the corners, no outs. Delcarmen is warming up again. Crap. Tex gets a hit, scoring Jeter. 3-2, no outs. Another hit, bases loaded. Pitching change, thank goodness. Delcarmen coming in. Bases loaded, no outs. Fly out, one out. (Michael Young just hit a two-run homer for Texas in Baltimore to put the Rangers ahead 5-4 in the top of the ninth!) Fly to Bay, but he has to dive to catch it, so runner tags. 4-2, 2 outs. Ground out for number 3. Finally out of this one.
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Bottom of 7th. Papi flies out. (Marlon Byrd just made the catch for Texas that JD Drew missed while ago. Byrd wasn't afraid of the wall. Both of those runs should be charged to Drew.) Hmmm...Youk got out while I was watching the Rangers win. 2 outs. Drew up. He walks. Pitching change. Bay hits into a fielder's choice, getting Drew out at second. Still 4-2. I'm getting nervous.

Top of 8th. Oh, no. Saito's in with his 6+ era. There's a one out walk. Nice throw by Peds to get out 2. Struck him out! Yeah!

Bottom of 8th. Need some action here. Let's have one of those famous Red Sox 8th innings! BAD call on Mike Lowell! That ball was inside. One out. Tek routine grounder. Two out. Ouch! He hits Nick Green in the knee! Changing pitcher in the middle of a batter?? C'mon! YES. Ellsbury gets a hit. Two on. NOOOO!!! Pedie gets called out on another bad pitch! What's WRONG with this ump??

Top of 9th. Lopez in and starts out by hitting the batter. Well, great. And a walk. Sob. And another walk. Whyyyyyyyyy????? Oh, yeah!!! Nice double play, getting the lead runner! And my media player freezes up. Boo. Cabrera pops out, saving the inning.

Bottom of 9th. Ortiz strikes out...again! Youk singles. Drew grounds out, but Youk gets to second. BAYBAY!!! Home run, ties the game!! Van Every comes in to replace Lowell (why??) and singles. Tek strikes out. Here we go into extra innings.

Top of 10th. Papelbon in. Molina singles. Expected sac bunt. One out, runner on second. Great play by Peds to get Jeter out...Molina advances to third. Shoot. Demon walks. Tex is up. And there's a prayer meeting on the pitcher's mound. WOOT!!! After a long at bat, Tex strikes out on a high pitch! Three out!

Bottom of 10th. New rule proposal. Batter gets to steal first anytime the catcher misses the ball, regardless of the count. Oh, Nick! Struck out on a high pitch. One out. Ellsbury pops out to Jeter. Sigh. Argh! Peds strikes out.

Top of 11th. Ramirez pitching. Posada walks. Another lead-off walk. Sac bunt fails. Posada out at second. They should know better than that. Posada is old, damaged goods. Base hit to right. Two on, one out. (In my mind, we wouldn't be here if JD Drew wasn't AFRAID OF THE WALL!!) Nice. Another double play, good play by Pedroia, the MVP! Three out.

Bottom of 11th. Ortiz has a chance to be the hero. I'm calling it. Oops. Wrong again. Ortiz strikes out.......AGAIN! Four tonight. One out. YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUK!!!!!! I called the wrong batter! Youk takes it deep for a walkoff home run (did that ball go in the street??) over the Monster, and the Sox have won 8 straight games!

Final score, Red Sox 5, Evil Empire 4.

This Is More Like It

2009-04-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

As we approach the morning start time of the Patriot's Day game, the Sox are sitting on a 4 game winning streak. They are still tied for third place, but it's an improvement, and they seem to have come alive a bit. Yesterday's game was a nice effort by the pitching staff.

Over in my neck of the woods, the Rangers continue to struggle, but they are tied for second place, and took yesterday's game from the Royals with a walk-off homer by Michael Young. The real excitement for them was last week, though. In their 19-6 blow-out of the Orioles, Ian Kinsler was the superstar. It wasn't enough that he hit for the cycle in that game (seems to be a popular thing this season), but he also went 6-6 in the game, becoming the first Texas Ranger to ever get six hits in a regulation 9 inning game. He would eventually have 8 at-bats in a row with a hit, across mutiple games. Kinsler remains my favorite Ranger player. Yes, even ahead of Josh Hamilton. Elvis Andrus is coming that ladder really quickly, too.

However, I would be remiss if I didn't say that my favorite part of this past weekend had to be the part that happened in a brand new stadium somewhere in the Bronx. It wasn't enough that the Indians spoiled the home opener in that brand new stadium. They had to go and beat the Evil Empire 24-4 on Saturday, with a 14-run second inning. Awwww....anybody feel sorry for them? I didn't think so.

In the meantime, I'm going to try my hand at MLB 2K9 this season. See how my Red Sox fare with me manning the controls. I'm not very good at this game, so I'm playing in "rookie" mode. Pitching and fielding seem to be ok, but the batting part is killing me. I can't get the timing down yet. Oh, well..."the season is young." Bahahahaha!!!

TTFN, y'all!

AAAAARRRGH!!!!

2009-04-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

So close! So close!

Oakland 6, Sox 5, bottom of the 12th.

Still in last place. How long can we use the excuse, "The season is still young?"

What's Going On In Boston???

2009-04-13T22:47:00.001-07:00

Hello.....

Is there anybody in there?

Just nod if you can hear me...

Is there anyone home??

Hey guys!!!

The season started last week, ok??

Time to wake up and start playing baseball!

What's Going On In Texas??

2009-04-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Baseball season is three days old, now, and things are starting out rather strangely. I am, of course, disappointed that Boston has lost their first series to the dreaded Desperate Housewives, but right now, my attention is on my second-favorite team, the one in Texas.

Of course, we were elated that they won Opening Day, and won it very solidly. Then, they won their second game, with Nelson Cruz crushing two home runs, one going into the second deck beyond left field, over 400 ft. We're hoping that he doesn't do what he does every time he comes up from the minors. Usually, he hits like crazy for a couple of weeks, then goes to sleep. Elvis Androus also got his first major league homer in the second game (along with his first error, but, oh well). The Rangers have not won their first two games since 2000.

Then the unheard of happened. The Texas Rangers SWEPT their opening series!! The last time they did that, they won the American League West. Not trying to put the cart before the horse, but this team looks different this year.

As for the Red Sox, they are still going to be ok, I think. The season is very young, and things are just getting cranked up.

But it's baseball season, so all is well.

TTFN, y'all!

PLAY BALL!!!

2009-04-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

It's been almost two months since I've been here. But life has begun again. Now that there has been baseball at Fenway, I can sincerely say that it is, once again, BASEBALL SEASON!!!

Can I get a "WOOT!!"

And this has been, perhaps, one of the best Opening Day (two days?) in recent history. First, Stephanie and I and another family member (Christi's stepfather) watched in somewhat chilly temperature as the Rangers got all over Cliff Lee and the Indians yesterday, 9-1. Kevin Millwood looked stellar for 7 innings, and the only run that the Indians got came in the bottom of the 7th when poor Kevin let one get away from him and Salty couldn't stop it. An Indian was on third base and scored on the wild pitch. Millwood struck out the batter on the next pitch for the third out. C.J. Wilson looked great in the 8th, and Frank Francisco closed it out in nice fashion. The game featured some great plays by all team members, a three run jack by Blalock and a solo shot by Salty. Elvis Androus made a great play at shortstop that, well, sorry, Michael, but you just probably woulnd't have gotten that one.

And then, things got better!! How, you ask? I'm glad because I'll tell ya! The Orioles beat C.C. Sabathia!!!!!! Take that, HANK! The ORIOLES!!!!

Today completed the near-perfect set of Opening Day games when our beloved Sox handed the Desperate Housewives the first of what we can only hope will be multitudes of defeats during '09. I got in on the 8th inning on MLBTV, as I was, you know, sleeping for the day. Beckett must have looked pretty good today, from what I could gather. It was 5-1 when I started watching, and Okajima had put two men on. They scored when Eva Longoria got a hit off Masterson. 5-3. But Masterson took the rest down and that was it. Papelbon closed it out as only Papelbon can do, and the Red Sox are back where they belong, in first place in the AL East.

I feel alive again.

TTFN, y'all!

Vacation!

2009-02-10T22:03:00.000-08:00

So we're going to Spring Training in March, during Stephanie's Spring Break.

But before most of you get all excited...we're going the wrong direction. Yeah, we're going to Surprise, Arizona. Right. Texas Rangers Spring Training.

I'm doing this for Stephanie. Plus we've always wanted to go to Arizona anyway. We've never been there.

So here's the plan. We fly out on my birthday, March 13. We land in Phoenix (after a layover in El Paso), and drive to Surprise, where we will check into our hotel. We'll probably just look around some the rest of Friday, find where all the players are and stuff like that.

Saturday, it's back to Phoenix for a game against the hated White Sox at their home field. Then Sunday, we go to a game in Surprise against the Padres at the Rangers home field.

Monday morning, we pack up and head north, probably to a cabin somewhere in Munds Park. Tuesday, we will more than likely drive to Williams, where we will get on a train that will take us to the Grand Canyon, where we will take "motorcoach" tour of the area.

We have one more game back in Surprise on Thursday, with the A's before we fly back home on Friday.

Should be fun. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the beautiful landscape in Arizona.

A-ROID!! A-ROID!! A-ROID!! A-ROID!!

2009-02-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

This just in!!

It seems that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for 'roids in 2003. (He was with the Rangers, then, according to the report.)

Life is good!!!

Oh, yeah...and he won the AL MVP that year, as well as the home run category.

Hah!!

You can read the full report here.

I can't wait to hear the crowd at Fenway this season!!

Ok. That's it for now.

Hoo...let me catch my breath...

Thanks to Krystle for posting this on Facebook!

The Strike Out King Comes To Boston!!

2009-02-04T04:01:00.000-08:00

Whoa! The Red Sox have signed Brad Wilkerson?????????

WHYYYYYY?????

THEO!!! THEO!!!! *slap-slap-slap*

Theo. Listen to me. I realize I'm no "boy wonder" GM, but, please, listen! I live in Texas. I go to Rangers games.

I'VE SEEN BRAD WILKERSON PLAY BASEBALL!!!

Sure, he "belted" 20 home runs his last season here. But I noticed that the article on www.redsox.com does not mention that he LED THE LEAGUE IN STRIKEOUTS!!!!

I watched him strike out 5 times in one game. (That might be a slight exaggeration. But it was a lot.)

Gah.

Might as well put him at shortstop. He's at least as inept as Lugo.

Sigh.

Meanwhile...the Rangers continue their march toward mediocrity.

And Manny, the fastest bat in the west, remains homeless.

TTFN, y'all.

Briefly...

2009-02-03T02:01:00.000-08:00

Whoa. Been a long time.

I guess I didn't have much to write about. Hmmm...still don't.

I'm glad to see that Tek made up his mind. It will be nice to see him still in a Sox uniform this season. I hope they can fix whatever was wrong with his bat, though.

Elsewhere, I see that the Texas Rangers did absolutely NOTHING to improve their team during this off season. I guess Jon Daniels and Tom Hicks are happy with a less than mediocre second place in the American League Worst. I mean West.

I figure they'll trade Josh Hamilton before the season is over. If'n they do that, I'm burning all of my Rangers stuff. Just in case anyone wonders, though, I have more than twice as much Red Sox stuff as I do Rangers stuff. I got my priorities straight, doncha know?

I don't feel like writing much else right now...I'll try to keep this more up to date.

TTFN, y'all

Giraffes?

2009-01-14T01:55:00.001-08:00

I knew there was something evil about these critters....

TTFN, y'all!

Hall of Fame

2009-01-13T02:10:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Jim Rice after all this time. Finally, he made it into the HoF. That's very cool.

Congratulations to Rickey Henderson, as well.

Can it be baseball time, now?

AT&T NEEDS TO WAKE UP AND SMELL THE MLB NETWORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

Ok. I'm serving notice to AT&T U-verse.

I love the service. I love the DVR that records FOUR CHANNELS AT A TIME!

I love the "whole house DVR."

But if they don't hurry up and get MLB Network, I'll drop them faster than a hot potato!!

ARE YOU LISTENING AT&T PEOPLE?????

Geez.

*grumblegrumblegrumble*

What?? WHAT?????

2008-12-31T04:19:00.000-08:00

What's this crap I'm hearing about the Sox maybe trading Ellsbury for Hanley Ramirez????????????????????????????????????? (I would have put more question marks, but my pinky got tired.)

Has Jon Daniels invaded Boston or something?

Help?

2008-12-27T08:25:00.000-08:00

Two things have happened recently that are creating great trauma for me.

The first one happened earlier this week when Mark Teixeira signed a contract with the Evil Empire. The very fact that a player that I have great respect for signed with "them" is bad enough. But anyone who knows my family and my youngest daughter knows that we are now going to have a problem of Biblical proportions in my household.

THERE'S ABOUT TO BE A @$#%$& YANKEE FAN IN MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!

I told her I hope she likes sleeping out in the back yard.

Just kidding.

Sort of.

The second thing happened yesterday.

My oldest daughter went out and ordered THIS!!

Ted? I can't breathe, man! This is what you have to look forward to someday! I've never had so many emotions going through me at one time.

We don't have an official date, yet. Probably won't be until sometime in 2010, but they've ordered the dress. It won't have pink edges. They will be hunter green instead.

Sigh.

TTFN, y'all!

Breaking News

2008-12-23T21:13:00.000-08:00

In a move that has stunned baseball fans worldwide, shortly after signing Mark Teixeira to a multi-year 180 million dollar contract, the Yankees bought baseball.

No, I'm not referring to those little white, round thingies.

The Yankees bought Baseball. The game. Worldwide. Reactions range from ecstatic to suicidal. Terry Francona, manager of the Boston Yankees, was heard to say, "I figured this was inevitable eventually. I had hoped that John Henry would manage to at least come away with half of Baseball, but I guess this is it."

Michael Young, shortstop for the Texas Yankees, was actually more upbeat about it. "Maybe we'll finally be able to afford some pitching now," he was heard to say.

One of the first projects that will be taken on is the tearing down of every major league baseball park and rebuilding them to be exact replicas of Yankee Stadium. The first, of course, will be Fenway Park, mainly because the Steinbrenners are sick of hearing about how it's "America's most loved ball park," and "the oldest ball park in America." No more of that. And no more domes. "If we can play in an open stadium in New York, then everyone should have to," said Hank Steinbrenner. "Why the *bleep* do they need a dome in Tampa, anyway? It's never cold there." I guess no one told Hank it rains every day at 2pm in Florida.

It has yet to be determined how teams will be told apart when they play each other, since all teams will now be wearing pinstripes. And there will certainly be duplicate numbers on those uniforms, as well. "There are still a lot of details to be worked out," said Hank. "Not the least of which is deciding who gets to win the World Series each year." Of course, they have now made it certain that the Yankees will win every World Series from now on.

Anyone who attempts to form another league playing Baseball, will be sued and made to cease immediately. Many players are thinking of taking up cricket.

There are only two positive outcomes to this scenario that I can see.

1. Scott Boras will no longer have a job, because agents are no longer necessary.

2. Bud Selig will also be unemployed, because the Steinbrenners will now be making all the rules.

After hearing of this development, Jerry Jones began contemplating the possibility of buying Football. Mark Cuban has begun counting up his assets as well. Ironically, no one is interested in buying Soccer, and the over-riding sentiment seems to be that the Canadians can have Hockey.

TTFN, y'all.

No Tex for Now

2008-12-19T01:45:00.000-08:00

Scott Boras must be pulling his usual crap. The Red Sox have, extremely abruptly, completely pulled out of the race for Mark Teixeira, after reportedly making the biggest offer out there.

Anybody remember Boras lying to the Texas Rangers and telling them that Raphael Palmeiro had a better offer? When he didn't? So Palmeiro wound up playing for the O's instead of the R's.

For a team like the Sox, with all their money, to just yank out like that, something's going on.

That's ok, though. I would love to see Tex in a Red Sox uniform, but, honestly, we don't need him that badly. We got Youk, man. Who needs a Tex when you got a Youk??

(Please don't take that personally, other "Tex." Of course, we need you!)

If we can't get him, though, I'd really like to see him play in Baltimore. Why not? It's his home. I just hope he won't take that Nats deal. Dear Lord, what a horrible team. Surely, he wouldn't want to play there.

In the meantime, the Rangers are adding all kinds of improvements to their Ballpark. Seats closer to the field, LED scoreboards (which I'm opposed to, though...I'm a purist. I like the manual outfield scoreboards), and some kind of high-tech video thingy around the middle deck of the stadium.

Seems like all that money could maybe buy a pitcher.

But what do I know? Rangers "fans" don't come to watch baseball, anyway.

TTFN, y'all.

Breaking News!!

2008-12-15T14:58:00.000-08:00

This just in from The Borowitz Report!

December 14, 2008

Yankees Sign Iraqi Hurler

Shoe-throwing Right-hander Impresses Scouts

In their latest bid to beef up their pitching rotation for the 2009 season, the
New York Yankees today signed Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi to a three-year
deal worth $32 million.
The right-handed al-Zeidi, 28, impressed the Yankee scouts with his performance
in Baghdad yesterday when he threw both of his shoes at President George W.
Bush.
While neither of the shoes hit their target, both throws "had great
velocity and good movement," said Yankee owner Hank Steinbrenner.
"The first shoe was high and outside but the second one was right down the
middle," Mr. Steinbrenner said.
The Yankee boss said that he was also impressed with Mr. al-Zeidi's
fighting spirit when Secret Service agents tackled him.
"That could come in handy when we have a series with Boston," he
said.

Sad News

2008-12-15T01:08:00.000-08:00

I regret to have to write that my wife's father passed away Saturday morning at around 4:30.

We'll be attending his funeral at 1:30 on Tuesday afternoon. It wasn't an unexpected thing, though. He had been ill for a long time.

Sorry I've been absent for so long. Kathy's right (in the comments for the last entry), there are other things to write about than the Red Sox.

Wait. What am I saying??

Hahaha...

Lots of stuff has been happening. The Yankees are once again trying to buy there way back into the playoffs by sucking up all the good pitchers. And now I hear they are throwing in on the Teixeira chase. Ugh. I've pretty much decided I want to see Mark Teixeira wearing Red Sox. Even Boras said he would like to send Tex to the Sox, that way he could send Manny to the Nats. But the Evil Empire has expressed interest in Manny, too.

In the meantime, the Rangers want The Big Unit. Yes, folks, the Rangers are trying to sign Randy Johnson, the oldest pitcher in baseball. If not the oldest, then certainly the ugliest. You know, if they are going to go after oldness, I'd rather see them get Curt Schilling. I have no clue why they want Johnson.

Of course, I have no clue why they traded their only starting catcher for two minor league nobody pitchers, either. And that deal of massive stupidity (has Jon Daniels never learned anything????) messed things up for a lot of people. It eliminated the possibility of any deal between the Rangers and the Sox for one of their backup catchers, both of whom the Sox were definitely interested in. It eliminated the possibility of Varitek going to the Tigers (I'm actually kind of glad about that one, but it made for one less option for Tek). At least the Rangers management is aware that they need pitching!

Stephanie and I will, once again, be attending the "Sluggers of the West" awards banquet in January. We had a nice time at last year's banquet, and I managed not to "boo" at Tom Hicks. The crowd's reception of him was somewhat less than enthusiastic, though. We got some nice pictures of Stephanie with players after the banquet, though, and I'm hoping we can do that again, this time.

In other news, we are rapidly approaching the end of our first semester of high school for Stephanie. At the moment, she is doing mostly ok. She's struggling with a science class, which they call "I.P.C." I think that means "Integrated Physics and Chemistry." It's supposed to be an easier level science class, but her teacher is not very good, from what I can gather. I'm hoping we can come up with some ways to raise that grade before the semester is over. She passed the first half, so we just need to get high enough to have a passing average for the semester.

Christi is doing mostly ok, after her father's passing. She is probably handling it better than most of the other family. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

The last thing is that the company I work for is cutting our wages by 10% at the beginning of 2009! Ugh! That's putting us back close to 4 years! At least I have a job, right? But still...that's a pretty hefty chunk. I'm having to cut my 401k contributions to make up for it. The sad thing is, our division is actually making money. It's the divisions that are union that are killing us all. So we have to suffer for it. That's SNF! Hahahahah!!!

I think that's got us caught up for now. I need to work on getting the rest of my Christmas shopping done.

TTFN, y'all!

Good Things Come In...Well, Boxes

2008-12-03T00:02:00.000-08:00

Whoa. That was a long time between posts. See what happens when there's no baseball?? I'm bored and boring, both.

I got a pleasant surprise tonight. One of my buddies at work walked in carrying this box and gives it to me. (How appropriate that my other friend is listening to Pandora right now, and it's playing "Boston" by Augustana...) So, anyway...inside this dusty box (he found it in some dollar store somewhere) is *drum roll* (are you sitting down?)

A NOMAR GARCIAPARRA BOBBLEHEAD!!!!!

IN A RED SOX UNIFORM!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

If he weren't a guy, I might have kissed him.

Let's don't go any farther with that thought, please...

Anyway. So now I have a "Nomah" bobblehead.

Life is good.

I'll see you next time something exciting happens.

So Long, CoCo...

2008-11-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Boston Globe has just announced that Coco Crisp has been traded to the Royals for relief pitcher Ramon Ramirez.

I haz a sad.

But I'm glad that it was Crisp and not Ellsbury. So it's not too bad a sad that I haz.

I'm sure there will be more dealing soon.

TTFN, y'all.

Cat and A Soda Box

2008-11-15T06:54:00.000-08:00

Not much to talk about today, but I found this really cute video that my cousin forwarded to me.

Enjoy! And no cat-hating comments allowed. Cats rule.

TTFN, y'all (also made famous by a cat...except for the "y'all" part...I added that)!

Exit, stage left!

The Wrath of the Stephen Lich King...wait...

2008-11-13T03:46:00.000-08:00

I'm sure by now my daughter has her copy of the new WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

She probably already has it installed on her 'puter and has already created a...what are they called?? Bloodguards? Blood Knight??

Death Knight! That's it.

Sigh.

I can't get mine until 8am at Target this morning, after I drop the other one off at school. Then I'll get it installed, but probably won't be able to actually play until tonight, at which time, I won't be able to get within a hundred million parsecs of the server I actually plan on because of all the activity from the expansion.

Sigh.

Plus I find out that this person where I work (who also plays WoW) has THE NEXT TWO DAYS OFF!!! That is so unfair! Heheheh... I tried to bribe the guy at Target last night to give me one early. But he couldn't do that.

I'll probably buy the new Stephen King book while I'm there. He just released a new book of short stories, called Just After Sunset. He retired, you know. Heh.

About three books ago.

Right.

So, anyway, if I don't update for a few days, this time, you'll know why. I'll be glued to the computer with my new Death Knight.

Dun-dun-duuunnnnn....

TTFN, y'all!

Dollhouse--Doomed Before It Starts

2008-11-11T00:56:00.000-08:00

Ok.

Anybody who knows me (or has known me for very long) knows that I am a huge fan of all things Joss Whedon. Especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly/Serenity.

Joss has been preparing a new television show (much to our delight) for a while now, called "Dollhouse," which will be starring Eliza Dushku, who played "Faith" on Buffy and Angel. I also just found out tonight, while reading my newest edition of SciFi Magazine, that Amy Acker will also be on "Dollhouse."

YAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!

Amy played the beloved "Fred" on Angel, who was later transformed into the demonic "Iliria." I probably spelled that wrong. Anyway.

But I also found out something today that has made me just bit angry.

FOX has decided to move Dollhouse from its planned Monday night spot to Friday night.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Remember Firefly?

Of course you don't! Know why???

FOX put it on Friday night!! Nothing survives Friday night.

Ok, maybe Numb3rs does, but not much else.

I encourage all three of my readers to find a way to flood FOX's email box with letters begging them to move Dollhouse back to Monday.

What?

Oh.

Ok. Two readers, then.

TTFN, y'all!

Rangers and Red Sox Making Another Trade?

2008-11-07T01:13:00.000-08:00

Rumors, rumors, rumors.

Word on the street is that the Sox are interested in Taylor Teagarden or Jarrod Saltalawhatzitshickiedoodle. (Stephanie can spell his name...longest name in baseball, too.) I dunno about this.

I realize that if the Sox can re-sign Tek, they probably should bring a youngster for him to mentor. But I don't think Salty is the answer. I could be wrong. With someone like Tek teaching him, he might turn out ok. But I saw some pretty horrible games with him behind the plate in Texas last season. (Is it late enough to call it "last season" yet?)

Teagarden, on the other hand is supposed to be on of the Rangers' top prospects.

And I wouldn't be unhappy at all to see Clay Buchholz in a Rangers uniform. But I don't know if the Sox are interested in dealing him. The word is that the Rangers are interested in Buchholz or Masterson or Bowden.

I actually enjoy this time of year, even though I miss the games. I like the anticipation of seeing who's going to deal who (whom??) and what kind of miserable deals Jon Daniels is going to make for the Rangers.

The Teixeira conundrum is still out there, as well. He pretty much has a wide-open field in front of him. Lyle Spencer, on the "Hot Stove Blog," has called Tex "the best all-round player in the game." Well, he said that the case can be made that he is. I don't want to be guilty of misquoting.

Personally, I would love to see Tex get to go to Baltimore. That's where he is from, and they would love him there. However, I don't know if the O's can afford him, and the chances of him coming out with a WS ring from Baltimore are slim to none. Unless, that is, the O's can pull what the Rays did last season and go from "worst to first." I don't see that happening.

I'll say again that Boston doesn't really need Mark Teixeira. I would love to see him in a Red Sox uniform, especially if there were a chance he might wear pin stripes. But if Mike Lowell comes back from this hip surgery, we don't need a first baseman.

Congratulations to two players that I like a lot!

Michael Young of the Rangers and Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox have both been awarded Golden Gloves!! Great for both of them. Young beat out Jeter and a host of other Shortstops. I'm really proud for him.

Oh, and TED!!! Get over and vote for Josh Hamilton in the TYIB awards. He's up for hitter and for whatever category they have his performance in the HR Derby. I voted for him about a kabillion times. I got his book, too. Came out a couple weeks ago. I'll let you know how it is as soon as Stephanie gets through with it. I'm hoping I can get him to sign it sometime. It's called Beyond Belief.

I guess that's it for this one.

Wait. One more thing. Sadly, we bid adieu to Michael Crichton this week. Author of many novels, the most famous probably being Jurassic Park, he lost his battle with cancer this week. I'll miss him.

TTFN, y'all!

We're Number One! We're Number One!

2008-10-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

According to this Yahoo! Sports article, the Red Sox are favored 3 to 1 to win the World Series in 2009.

Alright!

Let's start the season tomorrow.

No, wait. We have to give Lowell and Papi time to heal, don't we? Ok. I can wait.

.

..

...

....

.....

Are they done yet?

TTFN, y'all!

Congrats to the Phillies

2008-10-30T02:20:00.000-07:00

First of all, Wow! Dawn. That was the best comment I've ever had. Very well thought out and, I think, pretty "spot on." I think I agree with all of it. Ultimately, I'd rather see Papi healthy, but we have to do what we have to do. Like I said in a previous post, I'm a Red Sox fan first. There are players that I love with all my heart (my jersey that I picked for my Red Sox Destinations trip was Tek's), but I want the team to win. In this day and age, I am learning to not get too attached to players. Especially with El Diablo Scot Boras running the show. Anyway, thanks, Dawn for those insights.

You, too, Ted. I always appreciate your comments, too. Don't want you to feel slighted, there.

So, here we are. This is the time of year that I love/hate all at the same time. Baseball is over. I love the season of Autumn, the cooler temperatures, the changing colors, etc. But baseball is over. That makes me sad. I sit around, wistfully thinking about being at games, either at Rangers Ballpark or Fenway Park. Dear Lord, even thinking about being at Fenway Park gives me goosebumps. I've been there two season in a row, and I still get all giddy at the prospect of going back. What is it about that place? Some would say it's just a baseball stadium. My reaction to a statement like that would not be pretty. That would be like saying a Rolls Royce is just a car. Or a Steinway is just a piano. (I've played a Steinway. It intimidated the crap out of me. I was playing an $86,000 piano. I'm serious. I didn't make that up.) Fenway Park is magic. Bill Simmons says it's haunted. I couldn't get our tour guide to offer an opinion about that. But Ted would, I'm sure, back me up when I say that there is definitely something special about that place. In fact, I think I just decided that that's where I want to be when Jesus comes back. Yeah. What better way to end it all? Go from heaven on earth to the real thing.

I don't even know how I got off on that tangent...

So, the Phillies have won it. I'm glad about that. I wonder if the Rays fans will be whining about the conditions. Tough bounce. It is Philadelphia in practically November. Yeah, it's cold. Duh. You knew this gig was tough when you signed up for it.

However, it brings to mind the idea that MLB needs to maybe have some kind of backup plan for the WS in just such situations as this. The NFL has their Super Bowl in a predetermined location each year. Baseball could do that, but it's different. You have potentially seven games of WS play (unless the Sox are in it) and only one Super Bowl game. What if the team that normally plays in that stadium got in the series? They would have home field advantage for the whole thing. You could wait until the playoffs are set to pick the stadium. (Or you could just pick Rangers Ballpark every year... ROFL!!!) Oooorrrrrrr...how about this?? MLB builds a stadium somewhere in the south that is for World Series games ONLY!!! Build a huge theme park around it. People who could afford a trip to the World Series would get admission to the theme park with their WS ticket.

I know. Crazy idea. And most fans would not support such a scheme. After all, what better thing than to see your team play in a World Series game in their home stadium?

But this whole thing of having to delay a game for two whole days is pretty crazy, too. And with the best teams in baseball typically being in the Northeast, well...it gets cold in them parts in October.

When do they announce MVPs and ROYs and stuff? Soon, I hope. I know one thing. Cliff Lee better get a Cy Young award. Oh, wait. Brandon Webb won 22 games, too! Hmm...that complicates things a little doesn't it? But Lee had the second best ERA in the majors.

Well, I've rambled enough for one day. I gotta go back to pretending to work for about another hour. I'll be back in a couple days, probably, to let you know what I thought of Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon.

TTFN, y'all!

What's Up With the Umps??

2008-10-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

MLB umpires are getting worse and worse.

I'm not watching these Whirl Serious games, but I've seen two questionable calls, one in each game, that seem to have had a bearing on the outcome of the games.

Major League Baseball cannot afford this. While I acknowledge that umpires are human and, therefore, prone to make mistakes, I just can't bear to see the quality of officiating that we have had, really for the entire season. It's just been consistently bad.

Tonight, the home plate ump called one of the Rays out on a checked swing strike. Then he gave him first base. Which was it?? A strike out or a walk? How do you call a strike, then call a walk?? I saw the video clip. It was clearly a strike. His swing went past the point of no return. Does making a bad call tonight that benefited the Rays make up for the alleged botched no-balk call last night? Do two wrongs make a right? No, but three lefts do...

This is unacceptable. Perhaps if baseball had a real commissioner, he might address this issue. But since all we have is Bud Selig, that's not likely to happen. Sigh.

Rumors, rumors, rumors. Always one of the most fun parts about the off-season. And yes, as far as I'm concerned, the off-season started last Sunday night.

The most interesting rumor that I'm following is the one that has Mark Teixeira possibly becoming a Red Sox. I would love that. My daughter would also love that. We are both pretty big Tex fans, although it really pained me to see him with the Halos. I liked it better when he was with the Braves. And I really, really, really, really don't want to see him wind up with the Yankees.

But here's the problem. Do we need a first baseman? I dunno. A lot depends on Mike Lowell's status for next season. I love Mike Lowell almost as much as Dawn (ok maybe not...that would be kind of, you know, gay). If he's healthy, Youk plays first base, and we don't even need Kotsay (whom I don't feel is a good fit for the Sox anyway...he was a good bandaid). But if Lowell doesn't make it back from this hip injury, Youk could play third and Tex could play first base. Mark Teixeira is a fantastic switch-hitter (who walks a lot) and a gold glove first baseman. We saw his handiwork as we were playing the Angels in the playoffs. He robbed us several times.

I still feel like shortstop is our weakest position. What's up with that? It seems like all these years, we have never been strong at short. I don't even remember who was playing shortstop in '04. Then we got Renteria from the Cards, and he was forgettable. Then we had "E6" (thanks for that, Dawn...I love that), who is less than weak and Alex Cora, who is adequate, but not great. Jed Lowrie is ok, but still young with a lot to learn. And his plate performance leaves a bit to be desired. (I'm not just saying that because he made the last out of the season, either.) He wound up with a .258 avg, which ok, but even Lu--I mean E6--had a higher average than that. So, HEY THEO! Get us a shortstop!

We also need to get our starting rotation back in order. That kind of fell apart at the end of the season. I love Wake, but I think it's time for him to hang it up. Dice K was our best this season, going 18-3! He improved quite a bit over last year. Lester was next at 16-6. He had a pretty good season, too, along with a no-no against KC. But next was Beckett, who only won 12 games this year. He was disappointing this year, and I know he's tired of people asking him if something was wrong, but HEY...SOMETHING WAS WRONG!!

So for next season, we have Dice K, Lester and Beckett. Maybe Byrd. I don't know...jury's still out on him. I think he might be ok. We need at least one more strong starter, maybe two. The bullpen actually finished a little stronger than it started.

Ok. So. We have a few players that really need to get healthy over the winter. Lowell, Papi, Drew... We need a strong shortstop, and we need a couple of strong pitchers for the starting rotation.

I'm optimistic about '09.

Now I have to start thinking about something else to write about for um...*counting* November, December, January, February, March...*ahem* FIVE! Yeah, that's it. Five months. Dear Lord...might as well be 50! It would help if I liked football more. But even then, all we have is Jerry Diva Jones and his band of delinquent misfits and our girly-man quarterback. Pft.

Back to work with me!

TTFN, y'all!

How Long Until April?

2008-10-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

I had my few moments of pity party.

I stomped around and grumbled about how the Sox didn't deserve to win that game.

Then I got over it.

I wear my Red Sox shirt with PRIDE! I won't go running home with my tail between my legs. (I'm speaking figuratively...I don't really have a tail. In case someone didn't know that.)

And I'll tell you something. There'd better not be ANYBODY out there trying to blame Jon Lester for that loss! He was pretty brilliant out there last night. I guess Garza was just brillianter.

"Brillianter??"

Oh, well.

All the guys are right. The Sox overcame a lot of adversity this year and I'm darned proud of them. I'm encouraged by the comments I'm reading on the web site by the players.

Yeah, they lost. But they aren't defeated.

They're the Red Sox.

And I'm a Red Sox Fan.

And I'm proud of my team.

One question, though.

Is anyone going to even be watching this Whirl Serious?

Not me. And I'm not being vindictive. I just don't care.

Perhaps I should go ahead and pull for the Housewives. My daughter's fiance is from Florida.

Whatever. Anyway...I want to make sure everyone knows this...

I'M PROUD OF OUR TEAM!!

TTFN, y'all. (I'll try to find stuff to write about...I don't have nearly as many adventures as Ted. Thank GOD! Heh.)

Just kidding, Ted. You have a beautiful family.

Really.

I mean it.

Here We Go Again!

2008-10-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

This is un-freakin'-believable!

The Mighty Sox have forced game 7 in the ALCS for the third time in five years! Those poor Housewives really don't know what's hit them.

And can we petition the MLB to NEVER give TBS another postseason baseball game??? That was totally unacceptable. And if they had a power outage, how come they could broadcast stupid comedy shows for half an hour?? Huh?? Should have been totally dark.

Tonight, I might just watch with the internet feed from WRKO on. I'd rather hear them call the game, anyway.

Varitek. Oh, Captain, my Captain! Every time I start thinking he's about done, he pulls off something like that. Game winning home run for his first hit in the entire series. Geez.

Beckett. Wasn't totally himself, but it was good enough.

Okajima. Wow. What else can you say?

Masterson. He scares me, but last night, he got it done.

Papelbon. Is it 23 scoreless post-season innings, now? 24? 25?

I will not make any predictions for tonight. I don't dare. But Lester is on. And Garza shut them down last time.

But this is different. This is Game Seven. This is Red Sox Country.

This is the Red Sox Nation.

If we win tonight, I wonder how all those people with all those stupid haircuts are going to feel...

TTFN, y'all.

Apparently, It's Next Year Already

2008-10-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

Those are the best tasting words I've ever eaten!!!

In an unbelievable comeback, the Red Sox have forced the series back to Tampa Bay.

J.D. Drew is tonight's hero.

Down 7-0 in the 7th inning and they win it 8-7. As that radio guy says...

"CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??"

I humbly beg forgiveness for giving up.

TTFN, y'all! See you Saturday night!!

See You Next Year

2008-10-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a fun season. Sort of.

At this writing, the game is not over. But it pretty much is. Sox are swinging wildly at first pitches, Rays are up 5-0 after three home runs off Dice-K.

It will probably be one of the least watched World Series in history. I know I won't be watching. I absolutly couldn't care less about who wins it.

I would love to have to log on and eat these words later on, but that doesn't appear to be realistic.

So long friends. We'll have to find other things to write about for a while.

TTFN, y'all.

For Boston

2008-10-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

I've got the shakes.

Like Ted, I feel lost these last couple of days.

There is a baseball game tonight, but it's, you know, National League. *pft, pft* Where's the mouthwash?

But you know, weird as it seems, I think all is as it should be. The Rays and Sox have been battling this thing out all season, so it only seems fitting that they should be playing each other for the ALCS. And I really, really, deep down in my heart, believe that the Sox are the better team. I guess we will find out this weekend.

This season went by so fast. I hate when baseball season is over. It seems like such a long time until April. I realize that we still have some post-season activity left, but the season is, essentially over, and we are down the home stretch to the finish line. I just hope our finish line is further down the road than the Rays.

Honestly, I want a Red Sox/Dodgers World Series. Bring it on!! I want to hear the Fenway Faithful BOO MANNY!!! *Cue "Shipping Up To Boston by the Dropkick Murphys* Yeah, I do. I want to hear it. And you know they will. Because you know what? At the end of the day (I really hate that phrase, but I'm using it anyway), we are RED SOX FANS!! We are not Manny fans. We are not Johnny Damon fans. We are not "Nomah" fans. WE ARE RED SOX FANS And if you wear a Red Sox uniform, we love you. But if you change that uniform, forget it. Especially if you "diss" us on the way out. We might be more or less neutral if you go peacefully, or if it was Theo's idea to trade you. And if you dare decide to go to the Evil Empire when you could have stayed in Boston??? You might as well have grown horns and exchanged your bat for a pitchfork! *Is the song over yet?*

*Whew.*

Ok. Anyway. Two more days to endure without Red Sox baseball. And then, Friday night, I won't even be able to watch the game, because I will be in Glen Rose, TX, celebrating 23 years of wonderful marriage to my beautiful wife! Woohoo!!!

Nice romantic setting, a cabin by the Paluxy River. No TV. No phone. No wireless internet, either, but that's ok. There's radio, and the game should be on ESPN radio. Unless they decide to air some stupid high school football game like they did last year. Pft. And...there's a hot tub on the deck outside. Yeah, baby!

On a more sombre note, prayers would be appreciated, as my wife will be undergoing a hysterectomy next Wednesday. It's not a life-threatening or cancer situation. Just some complications that couldn't be resolved with less drastic procedures. Should be a pretty routine thing, though. And with today's technology, they say the recovery time should be no more than two weeks! Boggles my mind.

Ok. That's it for now. I've got a driver looking at me. Back to work. See you guys Friday night! (In spirit, at least)

GO RED SOX

TTFN, ya'll!

Red Sox 7, Angels 5

2008-10-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

I almost felt sorry for all those Angels fans they were showing at the end of last night's game. Oh, heck, I did feel sorry for them. Because I've experienced that feeling at the end of a Yankees game.

That was one incredible game, though. I watched the entire game on DVR after we got home from a dismal high school football game. (Our team lost 28-14.) Red Sox did that thing they do where they jump out in front and then slowly lose the lead for the rest of the game. Only this time, J.D. came through in the ninth.

Torii Hunter should be embarrassed. Hurt himself jumping up and down like a little boy after a close call at first base. It really affected his play for the rest of the game, too.

Then there was that close call at second base in the ninth when Crisp almost got picked off. But if you look at the video from all angles, the ump made a very good call. The short never tagged Crisp. I don't think he ever touched him at all. But if he did, it was long after he touched the base.

Jason Bay is doing a great job of making us forget Manny. He has a homer in each playoff game, now. Ellsbury continues to shine. Pedey needs to get out of his slump, though. And we need Lowell back for Sunday. But the beauty of it is that, with the players we have in place, we are ok. Kotsay did well last night.

So the Red Sox are now 11-0 against the Halos in post-season.

And wouldn't you know it? I flipped the page from September to October in my Red Sox calendar and whodoyathink is on the page?

Manny.

Ugh.

See you Sunday night. And everybody look for TED on TV!!!!

Lucky bas...oops. I can't say that, can I?? Heh.

TTFN, y'all.

"You'll Laugh So Much Your Side Will Ache..."

2008-10-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

For your between game entertainment, I offer this side-splitting video of some amateur gymnastic blunders. I laughed so hard I cried. Really. I thought I was going to hurt myself.

Enjoy.

Extra points if you recognize where the title of the entry came from.

TTFN, y'all!

A Decisive Victory

2008-10-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

I can breathe a lot easier tonight.

I was concerned about this playoff series. I'm still not "counting my chickens before the cows come home." The Angels have beaten the Sox 8-1 during regular season. But that was then.

This is now.

This is "Soxtober."

Jon Lester was mostly brilliant tonight. Jacoby Ellsbury was more than brilliant. 3 for 5, and that was having a triple taken away from him to be scored an error on Garry Matthews, Jr. Ellsbury was freakin' inhuman! That catch in center field was amazing.

Final score, 4-1 Sox. And the one that the Angels got was unearned. So there.

And this was the only playoff result that I'm happy with today. I was pulling for the Brewers and the Cubbies.

I'm really going to have a difficult time tomorrow. I hate the White Sox. I hate the Housewives. I'm rooting for a 0-0 tie into 30 innings. In all five games. That way, whoever it is the Sox have to play in the next round will be totally exhausted.

And listen! Do you hear that? It's the sound of silence in New York at both stadiums! What a sweet sound!

See you all Friday night.

TTFN, y'all!

YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

2008-09-23T23:01:00.000-07:00

*whew*

That was the sound of me finally breathing!

I've been holding my breath for so long, I've passed out several times.

But we can finally breathe. The Sox have clinched a playoff spot.

And...

THE YANKEES AREN'T IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!!

Can I get a "HALLELUJAH!!!" And an "AMEN!!!!"

How many years has it been since the Evil Empire has missed the playoffs?

If I'm seeing right, it looks like 1993 was the last time, so 15 years?

Whatever. It's great.

We still have a shot at the division, but it's going to be close. TB won both games of the doubleheader today. Magic number is 2. And there's what...5 games left? 2 more with the Tribe and the final three with the Evil Ones. Frankly, I don't see Tampa losing enough of those last 5. We can hope, but the Sox would have to win 4 of the last 5.

At this point, I'm just happy to be able to breathe again.

TTFN, y'all!

It's All My Fault

2008-09-17T02:17:00.000-07:00

*sob*

The first time I walked away from the computer (I have MLBTV, since we can't get any Red Sox games in Texas and ESPN couldn't be bothered to TELEVISE THE MOST IMPORTANT SERIES OF THE SEASON!!!!!!!!), the Rays broke the no-no.

The second time I walked away, they tied the game.

Then I went to bed for a nap in the middle of the eighth inning.

I'm sorry. I should have known better.

At least the Evil Empire lost, putting them one step closer to not making the playoffs for the first time in a couple of centuries. Can I get a "hallelujah?"

And it looks like the Mets enjoyed last year's collapse so much they're going to do it again.

And at least we can say that it's been a hard fought battle. And who can say that this hasn't been an exciting roller coaster of a season?

But it's just...man. How many Boston fans have been grinding their teeth because every time they look at the standings, they see the TB Rays on top?? We're used to seeing the Evil Ones there!! These guys just came out of nowhere! I need to dig out my copy of S.I. from before the season began to laugh at the predictions they made. A few of them came out right, I think, but they put the Yanks on top, and the Rangers in last. Hah. The Rangers has surprised everybody by coming in second this year. And, like they always do, they've decided to play some baseball, now that it doesn't matter any more. They have surprised the Tigers twice already this week, and the guy with the floofiest name in the MLB hit a grand salami Monday night. (That would be Taylor Teagarden in case you don't know who I'm talking about.)

How do you like that word? "Floofiest." Heh.

And I would like to have this rumor that there could be a trade of Jarrod Saltalamacchia for Clay Buckholz completely squelched!! While I would love to see Buckholz in a Rangers uniform, the LAST thing (LAST, I say!!) that the Red Sox need is Salty. He's a bloody awful catcher! Ugh.

Ok. It's time for lunch.

TTFN, y'all!

Welcome to September, Housewives!!

2008-09-16T00:18:00.001-07:00

Hah!

Finally, the Sox win a game in Tampa Bay, and they do it in style, which also propels them back into their rightful place of first place in the AL East.

Shut up, I know they're tied. Doesn't matter, they're IN FIRST PLACE!!

I only missed it by two days. I said that they would be in first by the end of last week.

It was home run derby at the Orange Juice Stadium. In fact, almost every run was scored by home runs. At one point, it was 11-1, and the Sox only had 8 hits.

Did Jason Bay's shot ever come down? So much for the old rule that "what goes up, must come down." I think that ball is still in the catwalks. It's walking up and down singing, "I'm too sexy for my hat...too sexy for my hat...too sexy for my hat, watcha think about that??"

Now, to come back down to earth a minute, I have to remember the Toronto series, where the Sox ran away with the first one, and forgot to show up for the second one. I'm hoping that doesn't happen tonight. But this was a Sox team that looks like they want it bad. And this was a Housewives team that looks tired.

And does Joe Maddon's expression EVER change??? Sheesh!

Boston needs to sweep this series. 2 out of three isn't enough, because that would still leave them tied. They need to leave Tampa Bay all alone at the top.

In other news, I suppose I'm supposed to feel all sentimental because the Evil Ones are playing their last game in the House of Pain Sunday night. Except that they are building an exact replica RIGHT NEXT DOOR!! C'mon! Who does that??? What they gonna call it? House of Pain Deux?

But enough about baseball. Oh. Wait. That's not possible.

Anyway, some real life stuff. I got this phone call from Stephanie's school today. From her vice principal. Yes, she has her very own vice principal. No, not really, but they have two split up over the ninth graders. Anyway, it seems that he was having some trouble getting Stephanie to go to class.

We tried to get these people to understand, at the beginning of school, that Stephanie is high-functioning autistic with anxiety disorder. We told them. We were concerned about how she was going to adapt to this huge new school with four floors, three flights of stairs (who in their right mind builds a school like that??) and the North and West rooms on opposite ends of the school (???). But they "poo-pooed" us. "We got it," they said. Well, now they know. She finally had a miniature version of one of her meltdowns at school.

But it turned out to be a good call. I said "I told you so," in much gentler terms, and the vice principal already had a plan in his head. I'll give him lots of credit for that. He's going to talk to her "case manager" today and they are going to put her in a modified classroom, where she will have all of her work brought to her. There will only be a few kids in this class, so there will be more one-on-one type instruction. The plan is to give her a little time in this class setting and then gradually try to ease her back into the traditional setting. I think this is a great plan. They really should have tried this to begin with, but late is better than never.

And, also to their credit, they have been supportive through these first three weeks. They have worked with us on scheduling and stuff like that. They have never turned a deaf ear to us. I think they don't understand this type of thing as well as they think they do. After all, we have yet to get the ISD to agree with the diagnosis of autism, even though we have it from two different medical professionals. Go figure.

And that call was only one of four that interrupted my six hours of sleep yesterday afternoon. Sigh. So I'm a little tired tonight. I had really hoped to stay up and watch the whole game, too, but I had to get a nap.

Hah. See, there, I managed to get back to baseball, didn't I?

I know. I'm a very sick man.

TTFN, y'all.

Hear That Sound? It's Me Banging My Head On A Table!

2008-09-12T03:16:00.001-07:00

I can't really say what I was thinking the other night when TB hit that home run in the top of the bloody 14th inning at Fenway. Can't have my church people knowing that I even think those kinds of words.

And how much help did they get from the umpires?? I'm not one to grumble that umps lost a game for anyone, but good grief. There was no freakin' way that left fielder was going to catch that foul ball that the fan interfered with. No way!

Then there was the out at second base when the infielder was bobbling the throw!

It didn't help any that the ESPN announcers were pulling for TB!

Heh. I sound like a sore loser, don't I?

WELL I AM!!!! So there.

And I guess we have to make another trip to Tampa to play a series there, where we have yet to win a game this season.

Dang it, the Sox were supposed to be in first place by now.

Ok. I'll stop whining now.

It's been a busy week for us in the real world. We had "mini-school" Monday night, where we got to follow along on Stephie's schedule in high school. We had a really good time, got to meet her teachers and also talked to a guy that we found out Sunday afternoon is her "case manager." We never had a "case manager" before. But it turns out we already knew this guy from a church that we went to a few years back. So that's cool. He remembered us, too. AND her science teacher was at that church at the same time, and HE remembered us, too! How cool is that? So we have several advocates for Stephanie in this humongous new world for her.

Her schedule has changed several times in the few weeks since school started, but we think it's finally settled in.

I think we've been to our last baseball game for the season. She wants to go to her high school football game on the 19th, when we were supposed to go see the Rangers play the Halos. But I've already got a taker for the tickets if she sticks with that idea.

I guess I should do some work. I have an hour and a half left on my shift, but it's my slow night.

Hopefully, we can win some games this weekend. Incidentally, my mother hates that the Dodgers are winning now. She figures Manny will get all the credit. For some reason, she's not very fond of him right now. Go figure.

TTFN, y'all!

Wow. What A Weekend!!

2008-09-08T01:53:00.001-07:00

It was a great weekend in Arlington. I've got pictures, but I haven't downloaded them, yet. Uploaded? I dunno.

Anyway, I met Tex at Friday night's game. It was really cool to finally meet someone from these blogs. We chatted for a few minutes, then went back to our seats, me with my "Hambino" sandwich (yowzir!!!) and Tex to keep watching her Beckett mow down Rangers.

Sox took two of three (third straight road series they've done that, I think). 8-1, 8-15, 7-2. Saturday's game was pretty brutal because Wakefield basically, well, sucked. I can't remember, but I think he walked in something like three or four runs in that dreadful second inning.

Sunday's game was possibly the most fun. My wife was with us, and I always enjoy when she comes to a game with us. We started out in a second level box on the third base side. After about two innings of roasting in the 90+ degree sun, we decided to move to the upper deck on the first base side. It was all in the shade, and virtually empty.

It was also very exciting to get to see Papelbon pitch in the ninth. I haven't seen a replay, but I'm pretty sure that the ball that was hit into the left field corner in the bottom of the ninth was FOUL!! The idiot ump had his back turned to left field, then turned around and made a call that he could not have possible seen! But it didn't really matter, because they got the third out on the next batter.

And there was that call on Varitek, when he was called out while the first baseman was bobbling the baseball...

And a very bad scorekeeping call on Friday night...the first "hit" against Beckett was really an error. Lowrie made a bad throw, pulling Kotsay off of first, and the scorekeeper called it a hit. Again, it didn't really matter, because there was another real hit pretty soon after that, but I was going to be really mad if that had turned out to be the only "hit" of the game.

Paul Byrd was pretty amazing Sunday afternoon. He has turned out to be a pretty good addition to the team.

Papi smashed a home run on Sunday afternoon that might still be going if it hadn't hit the "Brookshire's" sign on the front of the upper deck in right field. He really crushed that ball. I think it might have just barely started its descent when it hit the front of the upper deck stands. Wow.

The most fun, though, was seeing Toronto sweep the Desperate Housewives!! Oh, yeah!! So we are 1.5 out of first, and the Evil Empire is down to fourth place. *Did he say FOURTH place???* Yes, he did. Toronto is on a hot streak, so they caught up to the E.E. by a half game. I can smell Girardi's pink slip already. Good times.

The Housewives will be in Fenway Park tonight for the record-breaking 456th consecutive sellout ballgame (do I have that right?), and by Thursday, the Sox will be in first place. Hopefully to stay.

Well...back to work, I guess.

TTFN, y'all! And, Tex, once again, it was truly an honor to meet you! Maybe I'll see you again next season. Sox should come here twice, if they follow the pattern.

Two of Three, Twice, On the Road...Not Bad!

2008-09-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

Well, Dice-K certainly showed his stuff, the other night, throwing 8 innings with only 2 hits. He's already won more than he did last year.

But those darned Housewives just won't lose!! *cry* We've won 2 of 3 in two straight road series! That's phenomenal for our Sox this season!

It's crunch time now, though. They are rolling pretty good right now, in spite of crucial injuries, and need to keep it up.

Since today is September 1, I got to flip my Red Sox wall calendar to another page today. I've been looking at Wily Mo Pena for a month. I don't have anything against Wily Mo, except that he isn't a Red Sox anymore.

But now? My eyes get to occasionally glance over at the great and marvelous Jonathan Papelbon, right in the middle of a pitch.

Four more days until the Red Sox hit Texas like Hurricane Gustav in full force! Rangers better take cover. At least I don't have to worry about the Red Sox foiling any hope of the Rangers making the playoffs. That seems to no longer be an issue. Not that I would have been "worried" about that (just making sure there is no question about my loyalties, here).

I guess that's about it for today. Happy Labor Day, all!

C-R-U-S-H!!!!!!!

2008-08-27T23:47:00.000-07:00

Oh, yeah!

The only thing that could have made this day better would have been the Housewives losing.

Red Sox are one game away from a sweep in their final series in the House of Pain.

And the little guy comes through tonight. First ever career Grand Salami for Dustin Pedroia. Watch it here.

Final score Red Sox 11 Evil Ones 3

Is it just me or does Girardi look like a man who's been beaten down?

I hope they still have his announcer spot open on ESPN.

Actually, no. I don't. Let him flip hamburgers.

Hee.

And...to make the night even more wonderful, the Rangers got their first three game sweep of the season and their first ever sweep in Kansas City. I know...it's just Kansas City. But it's also just the Rangers, so there.

Whoa!! And the Athletics beat the Los Angeles Anaheim California Angels of Orange County again! So the Rangers are chipping away at that 15 game lead.

BAHAHAHAHAHA. Hoo.

The Rangers better win all they can for the next week. Because next Friday night, September 7, the mighty, mighty Red Sox roll into Arlington to complete the full-season sweep of the Rangers. That's right...they're gonna take all 10 games this year. And I'll be there. Looking for Tex.

Ok. Back to work with me.

TTFN, y'all!

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!!!

2008-08-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

And there was much celebration and dancing in the streets!

Why, you ask?? I'll bloody well tell you why!

Reason number one: Red Sox-7 Evil Empire-3!!

Reason number two: Blue Jays-6 Desperate Housewives-2!!!

Sox move within 3.5 games of first place in the AL East!

And, to top it off, Rangers-2 Royals-1, with Kevin Millwood pitching his second complete game in a row.

Life is good.

Is anyone keeping tabs on the Sox/Yanks series for the year? I'm sure I can find it, but I'm lazy.

We now have two days of high school out of the way. And so far, Steph still likes it. Heh.

In the really scary, sad department, a friend of mine at work almost died this morning. Our security guard that mans the gate from 6 in the morning had a heart attack this morning. Very serious, according to the guard on duty when I came in tonight. Prayers are going out. I hope he's ok. We talk about the Rangers and Red Sox every morning when I'm heading home.

TTFN, y'all.

I'm Back

2008-08-25T01:27:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I haven't blogged in a while. I guess I just didn't feel like writing. I think I'm depressed because the Desperate Housewives continue to rule the AL East.

But FINALLY, yesterday, our boys got it RIGHT! They WON when the DHes LOST! And I saw the glorious ending of that ChiSox/DH game. Believe me, it's the only time I will ever root for Ozzie's bunch. Ever. Well, except for when they play the Evil Empire.

Anyway, we gained a game back, so we're back to 4.5 games out.

With somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 games left in the regular season.

Man. Didn't we just start a few days ago??? How could it be this late already?

I'm all pumped up to see the Sox in Arlington in two weeks. I know that I'm in section 18 for one game and section 218 (Lexus Club level) for Sunday afternoon's game.

Tex, where are you sitting?

In other news, we had a very fortunate experience yesterday that tells us that there is some hope somewhere for the human race.

My wife went to the grocery store. Well, first, her and Steph went and got haircuts. Then they went next door to the Kroger to pick up a few groceries. I had been at a meeting at church and got home while they were gone.

I heard a car door outside and Steph came in and said that Mom left her purse at the store. Turns out she left it in the shopping cart after she unloaded the groceries. She hurried back to the store, and, praise God, someone had turned it in at the Customer Service desk, and everything was still in there!

She was still shaking when she got home. But there are still some good people out there. That's nice to know.

Last thing. Stephie and I went to the Rangers game Friday night, and on the way, we listened to her new Jonas Brothers cd in the van. I was kind of casually listening and here is what I thought I heard:

I don't wanna fall asleep,
Cuz I don't wanna f*** it up...

EXCUSE ME?????????

I certainly perked up and started listening more closely.

I still heard the same thing.

So I started the song over. All this time, Stephanie is totally wondering what I'm doing, right?

Well, it was a little more clear earlier in the song. What it really says is this:

I don't wanna fall asleep,
Cuz I don't know if I'll get up...

*whew*

I knew, really, that the Jonas Brothers would NOT be using that word in their song. But, hey. Say it fast and slur your words a little....

I'm just sayin'.

They need to be a little more careful.

TTFN, y'all!!

Brain Test--Right or Left?

2008-08-07T23:36:00.001-07:00

I don't usually post twice so close together, but I found this neat brain test, thanks to a friend's blog. Robin is a Christian Fiction writer who used to have a Diaryland site a few years ago. Anyway, she linked to this brain test, which is supposedly able to tell you which side of your brain you use the most, based on your answers to 20 questions. Here is my result.

Your Brain Usage Profile:
Auditory : 47%
Visual : 52%
Left : 58%
Right : 41%

Jeff, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant with a balanced preference for auditory and visual inputs. Because of your "centrist" tendencies, the distinctions between various types of brain usage are somewhat blurred.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor, unless it requires total spontaneity and ability to improvise, your weaker traits. However, you are far from rigid or overcontrolled. You possess a degree of individuality, perceptiveness, and trust in your intuition to function at much more sophisticated levels than most.

Having given sufficient attention to detail, you can readily perceive the larger aspects and implications of a situation or of learning. You are functional and practical, but can blend abstraction and theory into your framework readily.

The equivalence of your auditory and visual learning orientation gives you two equally effective sensory input systems, each with distinctive features. You can process both unidimensionally and multidimen- sionally with equal facility. When needed, you sequence material while at other times you "intake it all" and store it for processing later.

Your natural ability to use your senses is also synthesized in your way of learning. You can be reflective in your approach, absorbing material in a non-aggressive manner, and at other times voracious in seeking out stimulation and experience.

Overall you tend to be somewhat more critical of yourself than is necessary and avoid enjoying life too much because of a sense of duty. You feel somewhat constrained and tend to sometimes restrict your expressiveness. In any given situation, you will opt for the rational, and learning of almost any type should be easy for you. You might need certain ideas explained to you in order to fit them into your scheme of things, but you're at least open to that!

I don't know if I agree 100% with that, but it's certainly close. I especially like the part that says that I can "function at more sophisticated levels than most." Hah. Yeah. I'm reeeeaaal sophisticated. Pft.

Anyway, take the test for yourself. See how you come out.

TTFN, y'all!

What??

2008-08-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

So I logged on tonight.

AND THERE WAS NO RED SOX GAME!!

WHO LET THAT HAPPEN???

So I watched the finale of So You Think You Can Dance with my wife. Wait...the show is not called "So You Think You Can Dance With My Wife." Maybe I should rephrase that.

Anyway, we actually watched last night's final competition and fast-forwarded through most of tonight's 2 hour finale.

We both believe the right person won. Joshua was phenomenal, and such a sweet guy. Plus he's from Fort Worth! Which we didn't realize until tonight.

On a much, much sadder note...

A family was discovered dead in their home, about two miles from where we live. Apparently, the man shot his teenage daughter and his wife, then killed himself. I heard the news this morning, and when I saw the paper after I got home from work, it showed where they lived. I immediately was fearful that this was going to wind up being someone that Stephanie knew. But no names were released until mid afternoon.

Sure enough, at about 1:30 this afternoon, Stephanie came in and woke me up to tell me the name of the 14-year old girl. She was in Stephanie's history class. She didn't know her real well, and said that she couldn't even remember ever talking to her. But still...

As we watched the news tonight, there were kids on the news, and Stephanie kept saying, "I know him," or "I know her, that's so-and-so..." She wants to go to the house tomorrow and write a message on the poster board that's hanging on the garage door. Tonight, during the 9 o'clock news, there were probably several hundred people around the house, holding a candle-light vigil.

Life is hard enough without crap like this getting thrown at you, you know?

It takes me back 34 years or so to when my best friend in the whole world killed himself one Saturday morning.

I've still have not gotten over that.

I don't expect to.

But this thing is different. I'll never, EVER understand what could possess a man to kill his family, then kill himself.

As Ted said in a comment last week...

I haz a sad.

No Ta-ta today.

Red Sox 8, Royals 2--Rangers 8, Evil Empire 6. BAM!!

2008-08-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

So the Sox are now 4-1 A.M. (After Manny.) Or it could be P.M. (Post Manny.) Then they could have P.M.S. (Post Manny Syndrome)

Can you tell I'm sleepy? I get silly when I'm sleepy.

Note to the Red Sox. In order to catch the Desperate Housewives (previously known as the Tampa Bay Sunbeams), you have to WIN when they LOSE! Got it?? Geez.

In the meantime, the local boys (that would be the Rangers) have whooped up on the Evil Empire TWICE IN A ROW!!! And the Monday night game ended in tremendously grand fashion as Marlon Byrd hit a WOGSHR (Walk Off Grand Slam Home Run) to beat the Evil Ones 9-5. Tonight, they were up 8-2 before struggling C.J. Wilson gave up a Grand Salami to, of all people, Richie Sexson. BOOOOO!! But they still held on and won 8-6, putting the Rangers 6 games over .500 for the first time in 100 years.

That was probably a slight exaggeration.

And the Los Angeles Anaheim California Orange County Angels lost to Baltimore, so the Rangers actually gained a game on them. Oakland continues to lose (I think it's 8 in a row, now), so the Rangers are solidly in second place for now. But 10.5 games behind the Halos.

Our Sox continue to be 3 behind the Desperate Housewives.

Also, the Rangers are only 1.5 games behind the Evil Ones in the Wild Card race. That will disappear by Thursday after they achieve their first sweep of the season.

Oh, and did you see poor, poor Joba the Hut Monday night? His pride got hurt so bad from the pounding the Rangers were giving him that his shoulder started hurting. I felt soooooo sorry for him.

NOT!!

It would appear that the Rangers have his number. Now, if they would just share that number with the Sox...

Heh. And A-Roid got hit twice tonight! Twice!! Hah. So the Evils hit Josh Hamilton. Pft. Hamilton had already blasted another 2-run homer against Petite. (I know. I did that on purpose.)

I'm enjoying this way too much.

I'm hoping the Rangers can keep up the spanking Wednesday. Also hoping that the Sox can continue their A.M. winning ways.

I guess I'll go back to work now.

TTFN, y'all!

Tex, we gotta meet up somehow in September!

Back in Texas

2008-08-03T05:42:00.000-07:00

And just like that, it's over.

We had a mostly uneventful return trip last night. Our flight out of Boston was delayed because of a pretty hefty thunderstorm, so we sat on the runway in the rain for about 30 minutes or so. We finally got off the ground, adding yet another thing in my life that I have never done before, and that's take off in the rain. I tell you this much, I would much rather take off in the rain than land in the rain.

We made it to DC for our connecting flight with just over 30 minutes to spare. We originally supposed to be there with an hour and a half layover. We had just enough time to grab some more pretzel dogs, use the restroom, discover that the gate information we had gotten was wrong and get to our proper gate. We walked up to our gate right when they were letting first class on. Great timing!

Oh, yeah. And we could have upgraded to first class for $135 each on that flight, gotten dinner and comfortable seats. But Christi said no. :-( Oh, well.

Back in Texas at around 9pm. There was a group of young people from Pennsylvania (can't remember what town) who were going on to El Paso from DFW to cross over into Juarez on a mission trip. They were going to help build a house for someone. It was cool sharing our plane trip with them. One young man on our row had never flown before. And the looks on their faces when they heard that it was 100 degrees at 9pm in Texas...THAT was priceless!!! We just told them to wait until they got to Mexico. I wished them God's blessings as we got off the plane in Dallas.

The one thing I missed the most about Texas? Drinks at Sonic. There are no Sonics in New England, at least not that we saw. So you can bet we will be stopping there on the way to church this morning!

I've got a few more pictures to upload to the computer and post at flickr, but, as you see, I have now added my flickr link to the sidebar.

In Red Sox News, Jason Bay continues to make good in Boston, hitting a home run in yesterday's route of the Athletics. I am loving this. This is the Red Sox we all know and love. I know Oakland is struggling, right now, but this is also what the Sox need to get their momentum back.

Now, if we can just find that guy that Tonya Harding hired to wack Nancy Kerrigan in the shin and sic him on Eva Longoria. EVAN! I meant EVAN!

TTFN, y'all!

Day 7--The Golden Egg and America's Stonehenge

2008-08-02T05:37:00.000-07:00

August 1, 2008

Christi was actually up before me Friday morning. We had our usual leisurely time in the morning with our coffee. Sometime around 10am, we decided to go get something to eat and try to find a place in Salem, NH, called “America’s Stonehenge.”

We decided on a little restaurant called “The Golden Egg.” It was fabulous! Friendly service and the food was great. Christi had a special called “Fire-eaters Eggs,” I had a smoked salmon omelet, and Steph had chocolate chip pancakes. Christi’s won. I had a couple bites of her eggs, and they were “to die for.” My omelet was good, but not as good as the Fire-eaters.”

After breakfast, we set out for Salem. We had to go back into Massachusetts a bit on I-95, then back into New Hampshire on the 495. We finally found the place, thanks to our GPS thingy. It was waaaaay off the beaten path, with not a lot of signs along the way. Christi was skeptical.

We got there and went in to the main building, where we purchased our admissions. There was a 10-minute video presentation in a side room that explained the origins (or the unknown nature of the origins) of the place called “America’s Stonehenge.” There are parts of this place that have been dated back 4000 years. Much like the original Stonehenge, the origins and purpose of the place is unknown.

After the video, we set out up the trail (according to one of the girls in the shop, there would be approximately ½ mile of walking. About halfway up the first trail, Steph started freaking out on us. She didn’t want to walk, she was afraid of bugs, etc. This has happened several times on our vacation, I just didn’t write about them. This one was probably the worst, though. Finally, Christi just took her back to the gift shop so I could try to enjoy the place.

So I continued on by myself. It was a very interesting walk, and there were quite a few things of interest on the way. The central point of the whole structure seems to be a walk-in cave/chamber that the archeologists have named “The Oracle Chamber.” So named because of long tube hewn in the rocks that is called “The Speaking Tube.” There was also a place within the Oracle Chamber where a person could crawl in, hide and observe everything without being seen.

I followed all the numbers along the way, and tried to get a picture of every spot in the exhibit. I don’t really think the place lives up to its name, “America’s Stonehenge,” but I do admit that there is something strange and inviting about it. There are large stones around the periphery of the structure. The next to last stop on the trail is a large, wooden platform (from the ground, it looks like a children’s playground), from where you can overlook the whole area. There is an astronomical chart in the middle of the platform which points at the various large stones on the periphery. Each one designates a point of sunrise or sunset, such as the equinoxes, and various other dates. It was quite fascinating.

A lot of the structures in the area have been rebuilt by the archeologists, some as long as seven years ago. There are excavations, in the area, though, that they have dated back several thousand years.

Whether or not the marking stones around the outside are authentic or not, I can’t say. Do we believe the archeologists, or are they making stuff up? Who knows? It is all very interesting, though.

I got back to the gift shop, we bought some sodas, and headed back to the house.

We discussed dinner plans, and decided on a place in Rye we had passed several times, called “The Carriage House.” It had a sign that said “Casual Dining.” But it didn’t open until 5pm, so we waited a few hours, while lounging around and enjoying the ocean. We did that a lot this week, which was the primary purpose for being here.

The Carriage House was a charming little restaurant. Pricy, but the atmosphere was really nice, and the people were very friendly. Turns out was sat right next to the bar upstairs (we had a spectacular view of the nearby beach), and I had an ongoing conversation with the bartender about Manny and the Red Sox.

As for the food, well, it was different, that’s for sure. Christi and Stephanie both had a Philly Cheese-steak Wrap that came with fries, but they were sweet potato fries. Christi didn’t like those, but Steph did. I had one of the daily specials, which was grilled swordfish with a sauce that I can neither spell nor pronounce. They had a half-portion available, so I got that. It had a large shrimp on it, along with a bed of rice, a huge broccoli sprout, and some stuff that looks like it came out of the yard. I ate everything but the yard stuff. Turns out, the waitress read the special wrong. It was supposed to have been salmon. But, since she told me swordfish, the chef made it with swordfish. I’m not sure I would have cared. It was very good. We decided to have some dessert, there, too. Christi and Stephanie shared a thing at the waitress’s suggestion that was kind of a hot fudge croissant. I had Crème Brule. Holy cow! I have only had that once before, and I have loved it both times.

It was the most expensive meal on our trip, but it was really good and enjoyable.

We headed on back to the house, to watch a thick fog roll in while Steph and I watched the Red Sox game. They won!! 2-1. And Jason Bay scored BOTH runs. Later, I saw a clip of Manny hitting into a double play to end the Dodgers game, and then a clip of him doing that thing where he doesn’t run after the ball. There was a ball hit out to left-center and the center-fielder beat Manny to it. He looked kind of lost.

The really cool thing was that, when Jason Bay came up to bat the first time, he got a standing “O” that lasted several minutes. Boston fans….there’s nothin’ like ‘em!

Unfortunately, the Sunbeams won again, too. But the Halos beat the Evil Empire again, 1-0 (in the ninth inning!), and the Rangers battled back to beat the Blue Jays. So it was a mostly good night.

The power went off in the middle of the night, around 1:30am. Stayed off for almost two hours, which made sleeping difficult, especially for me, because of that machine I have to use. I don’t sleep well without it, because I have sleep apnea. But it finally came back on a little before 4am, so we got another few hours of sleep.

I’m typing this all on Saturday morning at around 8:30. We have to leave our little paradise in about an hour and a half. I’m going to get in my devotional time before we have to leave, so I will close for now.

It’s been a pretty remarkable week.

TTFN, y’all!

Day 6--Hampton Beach, New Hampshire

2008-08-01T05:33:00.000-07:00

July 31, 2008

Thursday, we kind of puttered around the house until almost noon. We were all hungry, so we got in the car and headed down the road towards Hampton Beach, with our swimsuits on. The weather was nice with a bit of a cloud cover. It was foggy/hazy out on the ocean when we got up. I love mornings on the ocean like that. They are kind of creepy, but very pretty.

We found Hampton Beach, got a parking place (it’s $1.50/hr to park there), put in a little over 2 hours worth of quarters, and started walking to find a place to eat. We found a little restaurant on a corner that had its menu posted all over the windows. Looked decent, so in we went. Christi and I shared a meat lover’s pizza and Stephanie had a “small” calzone. They said small. It was half the size of our pizza! We ate some of that, too. We all kind of shared everything. It was pretty good.

Then we went on across the street to the beach. It was relatively crowded, but not too bad. We saw it last year on a Saturday. I wouldn’t want to be out there on a Saturday. We put our stuff down and went down to get our feet wet. The water was chilly, but, as they say, “it’s not bad once you get in.” And that was true. The initial impact was rough, but when your skin gets acclimated to it, it’s really pretty nice. I got in about waste deep, and Christi and Stephanie went in almost as far. We just kind of walked around in the ocean water for a while, then got out a loaf of bread and started feeding the gulls. After that, we went back across the street, ordered so fried dough (it’s like a funnel cake, only with no funnel) and I went to get the car and picked up Christi and Stephanie at the corner. I got back to the car with 3 minutes left on the timer. How’s that for accuracy?

We drove back to the house, Christi went out and laid on the deck some more, while Steph and I lounged in the house. Around 5pm, I put some potatoes in the oven, then around 7, we cooked a couple of big steaks and had a nice dinner. Unfortunately, by that time, it had begun to rain, so we couldn’t eat outside. We did, however, eat at our kitchen table, right by the windows, so we could watch the occasional lightning flash out on the ocean. There was also one of those cargo ships out there and at dusk it turned its lights on, so that looked pretty cool, too.

During all of this, the California Los Angeles Anaheim Orange County Angels, along with their newly acquired Mark Teixeira, were beating the whatzit out of the Evil Yankees, which I enjoyed thoroughly, even if it was the Angels. The Rangers lost to the worst team in baseball, to split their series 2-2. Rangers remain in second place, now 12.5 behind the Angels.

Thank the Lord, the Sox had the night off. They needed it, after all the drama and the sudden trade maneuvers that occurred yesterday. Manny is gone. I don’t know if that’s good or not, but he had really pushed the envelope of “Manny being Manny” this time. Hopefully, the team can recover. They play Oakland tonight, and can help themselves and the Rangers at the same time. These three team deals are confusing, but I think I finally got it. The Sox gave two players to the Dodgers; the Dodgers gave those two players along with two of their own, to the Pirates, who gave Jason Bay to the Dodgers, who in turn traded Bay to the Sox for Manny. If you’re scratching your head, join the club. I’m still not sure I totally get it, but either way, Manny’s a Dodger and Jason Bay, whoever the heck he is, is a Red Sox. I saw his numbers, though, and apparently, he’s about as good at the bat as Manny.

BUT WILL HE BE AS MUCH FUN????

I think not.

Will he be able to throw someone out at second from that corner in left field?

I think not.

Oh, well.

Sigh.

Anyway, this is our last day/night at this house in New Hampshire. Don’t know what we are going to do. We may just lounge around and do nothing all day. We’ll have a few hours tomorrow that we have to figure out what to do with, because we are supposed to be out of the house by 10am, and our flight doesn’t leave Boston until 4-something. The car is due back at 2-something. And then, back we fly, to 100+ temperatures.

Ugh. I’m sweating already.

TTFN, y’all!

So Long, Manny!

2008-07-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

Manny Ramirez is a Dodger. Jason Bay is coming to Boston. In a deal that involved three teams, the trade was done right before the deadline. Manny will play for Joe Torre. The Sox gave up a lot for this Bay guy. Including Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen. I'm not sure we can afford to give up bullpen, even as bad as it is, lately. I hope that we can recover from the drama. We'll see. In spite of all the stupid things he said over the last couple of days, I'll miss Manny. I'm sorry to see him go to the National League. That's like leaving the country as far as I'm concerned. I care less than zero about the National League. I'll never root for a NL team. Don't know why. Just the way it is.

TTFN, y'all!

Days 3-5, Rye, New Hampshire

2008-07-31T09:01:00.001-07:00

With this entry, I get caught up on our vacation activites, so far. Also, I've added more pictures to the flickr site. So here's the update...

July 28, 2008

Monday morning we got up and packed up to check out. We were probably out of the hotel by 10am. All we had to do to check out was call a number on the phone and leave our key-cards in the room. We got the car and left the garage, paying our parking fee on the way out.

We had gotten directions from the concierge on how to get to the right freeway to get us out of Boston and on to New Hampshire. We had decided that we would wait to eat until we were on the road.

I need to insert a brief story here…it is funny now, but at the time, it was quite unnerving. Sunday night, while sleeping, I heard the door of the room slam shut. I jerked awake and said, “What was that?!” Christi, pretty much asleep, said that she thought Stephanie went to the bathroom. I said it sounded like the room door. Christi was up in a flash and ran to the door. She opened it and I could hear Steph crying from outside in the hall. She had sleepwalked, and went out of the room into the hall!!! Christi got her back in the room, and she was talking, saying that she didn’t know where she was. We got her calmed down, and back in bed. In the morning, she didn’t remember any of that. I guess we got her a bit too tired from the weekend. Just the night before, she had talked in her sleep and said, “Cash is coming.” Was she referring to Wakefield’s catcher?? Who knows?

There aren’t many places to stop on the highways up here, so we went ahead and found our house in Rye, New Hampshire. We got unloaded, checked out the place, took in the beautiful view for a few minutes, then headed out to find something to eat.

As is usually the case, there is a notebook of stuff in the house, including local restaurants, shopping, etc. So we chose “Ray’s Seafood” for our first meal here. Turned out to be quite good. Very good clam chowder. Christi and Stephanie had fish and chips and I had a haddock roll. It was ok, not great, but ok.

After lunch, we dropped Stephanie back at the house and went back to the grocery store that we passed on the way in to stock up on some stuff. It was kind of hard, because we were full from lunch and getting very tired. But we got that done, then came back to the house, where we just lounged for a few hours.

After that, we went back out to Ray’s for dinner, where we had more clam chowder (it was better than the first time), and this time, Stephanie had fried clam strips, Christi had a shrimp roll, and I had a tuna melt sandwich. It was all very good. The tuna melt was fantastic. The shrimp was delectable. I’m not a big fan of clams, but with tartar sauce, even they were pretty good.

After that, we took a brief drive on down the coast to see what we could see. It is a beautiful coastline and there are some really, REALLY nice houses along the way. We saw several sand beaches and also saw Rye Harbor, where we would eventually get on the boat for our fireworks cruise on Wednesday evening.

We went back to the house to spend the rest of the evening resting. And watched the Red Sox lose to the Angels.

July 29, 2008

Tuesday morning, I actually woke up kind of early. The sunrise over the ocean was very pretty (and quite bright, as well…very different from the sunset in California!). We basically just lounged most of the morning, and had frozen waffles for breakfast.

After breakfast, we got in the car and headed up to Maine, to go to Kennebunkport. We drove through Ogonquit on the way, a very picturesque little town with a beautiful coastline. We also drove through Kittery, the first town on the border, which seems to be mostly outlet malls.

We got to Kennebunkport and parked outside a small shopping area that included a restaurant called Federal Jack’s. So we decided to eat at Federal Jack’s. Last year, we came to Kennebunkport on a bus tour and ate at a place called The Landing. It was overpriced, and not very good. Federal Jack’s was pretty good. We got an order of nachos for an appetizer, and the were delicious. Christi and I both had a Pepperjack burger and Steph got Fish and Chips. It was all really good. I had to use a fork on the burger.

After lunch, we hit the shops. We didn’t get a lot of stuff there, but enjoyed walking around. Christi found a note pad to put on our refrigerator, and we got some fudge at the candy shop. Oh, and Christi got a chocolate-dipped strawberry and I got some chocolate covered cherries at this candy store. Yum, yum!!!

We drove on back to Rye and spent the evening resting, eating chips and guacamole and other snacks instead of a dinner out anywhere.

And we watched the Red Sox lose to the Angels. Also learned that the Braves have traded Mark Teixeira to the Angels. I’m thinking that the Angels are pretty much unstoppable this year.

July 30, 2008

Wednesday morning. Christi and I went to eat breakfast at a place we had seen by the grocery store called Hebert’s. Pronounced “ay-bare’s” maybe?? Anyway, it was pretty disappointing. Eggs were ok, but the potatoes were very bland and the service was only tolerable. Oh, well. Then we found a Radio Shack, where we got a car charger for Christi’s phone because she had left her charger in the hotel in Boston. At least that’s what we think, because we can’t find it. Oh, and Steph wasn’t with us, because she wanted to stay at the house.

After Radio Shack, we went into Portsmouth, a nearby town in New Hampshire. Portsmouth was absolutely charming! We loved it. Much better than Kennebunkport! Lots and lots of shops, along with some local color, a beautiful town square with a huge church in the middle. We had a blast. There was a Celtic store, along with some other places that we just had a great time shopping in. There was also a little store that had all kinds of sarcastic gifts and stuff…reminded us a bit of Spencer’s gifts, only more random. We got some gifts for relatives, etc., got a soda and headed back to the car (because our two hour parking was over). Right next to the car was a “chocolatier.” We bought some chocolate. It was divine!! We may find our way back there before we leave.

We headed on back to Rye to rest up for our evening cruise. Around 5, we went back to Ray’s for dinner. Another round of clam chowder, even better still (how do they do that??). Christi had the tuna melt, and Steph and I tried the lobster pie. It was ok, but I don’t think I liked the sherry sauce.

We got to the harbor with about 45 minutes to spare, so we just sat on a bench looking at boats and nearby houses.

Finally, it was time to board. We were a little concerned about the boat. It was smaller than I thought it would be (I seemed to think we were going on a kind of steamboat), but it didn’t go very fast, so Stephanie was ok on it. We went out about 9-10 miles off the coast of New Hampshire to the “Isles of Shoal.”

The Isles of Shoal consist of 9 small islands, some of which are in Maine, and some in New Hampshire. We got a nice narrative of history about the islands while cruising around them, including the wonderful tales of ghosts and murder involving the island known as “Smuttynose.” They never explained why it’s called “Smuttynose.” But legend has it that the ghost of Blackbeard’s 13th wife haunts the shores of Smuttynose, waiting for him to return. There is also a tale of two women who were murdered on the island and one who survived to tell the tale.

Then there is Star Island, where there is a huge conference center that is co-owned by a Universalist church and a congregational church. They host many conferences throughout the year there. That would be fun!

Another island had a nice lighthouse on it, called White Island. The lighthouse still works, but it is run by computer and has an LED lamp in it instead of the old style lamp. That’s kind of sad, but at least it’s still there. The house next to it is unused. They say that, during the Perfect Storm of 1991, the waves were actually going over the top of the lighthouse!

The other islands are mostly either privately owned or have nothing on them. One is run by a local marine organization (not the military marines, but, you know…oceanic studies), one is an experimental place that is attempting to recover a bird population. One is just a pile of rocks.

It was a very informative cruise and lots of fun. Also very pretty out there.

We went back towards the mainland and stopped about a half mile off of Hampton Beach to watch the weekly fireworks show that starts at 9pm. That was something we’ve never done before…watching fireworks from sea. It was pretty cool. The “booms” from the fireworks were surprisingly loud, and the echoes….wow! Water provides for some pretty amazing echoes.

Then we rode back to Rye Harbor, arriving around 10pm. We got in the car and headed back to the house.

And listened to the Red Sox lose to the Angels. This is depressing. I believe that this is the first time they have been swept at home since that dismal 5-game sweep against the Yankees in 2006. Well, we have Oakland in town tonight. Maybe we can recover some dignity.

Plus they have to decide what they are going to do with Manny. I think this may be it for him. He’s acting pretty badly now. Sigh.

Today, we are probably going to drive to Hampton Beach.

TTFN, y’all!

Day 3--Red Sox 9, Yankees 2!!!

2008-07-30T05:03:00.000-07:00

July 27, 2008

Sunday, we slept in (until at least 8am) and got up to go have breakfast at the same Cheesecake factory that we ate at Saturday night, hopefully, with no disgruntled fans throwing cappuccinos. They have a nice outdoor area for dining, and it was cool outside, so we chose to eat out there. Christi and I both had a nice omelet with lots of stuff in it, like cheese, avocado, mushroom, tomatoes, onions, etc. Very tasty. Steph had French toast. After breakfast, our plan was to get tickets for the “Duck Tour.” Unfortunately, the next available tour was at 5:30! Ugh. So much for that. So we shopped around a little mall in the Prudential Center and wound up buying new tennis shoes for Steph and me, hers having the double sock emblem of the Sox and mine having the entire Red Sox logo on the side. Woot! Steph also got a Jon Lester t-shirt and I found a set of pint tumblers that were cheaper than the ones at the team store on Yawkey Way.

We went back towards our hotel, trying to decide what to do. Christi and I wanted to go find Faneuil Hall, so we discussed our options. We decided to get on the trolley tour, which takes you all around Boston, but you can get on and off anywhere. Steph didn’t want to do this, so she stayed in the room. When we got to the trolley booth (which was in the lobby of our hotel), we were told that they were currently not selling tickets because it was “full.” Well, phooey!

We took a taxi to Faneuil Hall. (Keep in mind that, this whole weekend, we are paying $32/day for parking for a rental car that we never used until Monday morning!!) We walked around Faneuil Hall for about an hour, taking in the various sites, including a trio of pretty good performers doing some flexibility/balance tricks. One guy climbed to the top of a ladder while balancing it on it’s two legs, then jumped from the top of the ladder to a very tall unicycle and rode it around for a few minutes, ending his trick with juggling three bowling pins while on the unicycle. The finale had the girl standing on the other guy’s shoulders while he balanced on one of those large, inflated gym balls. Pretty impressive. Being street performers, they rely totally on audience contributions, so we gave them $5. Faneuil Hall had a few nice little shops in it, along with an old Post Office. It was closed, of course, because it was Sunday. Quincy Market was entirely food shops. From end to end, totally packed with people! It was very difficult to get through there. We stopped and got a couple of sodas with ice along the way, because we were very thirsty. We got out from there, and there were a lot of little carts lining the side, all pretty much selling touristy stuff. We never made into the other market building, but instead, walked down toward the wharf. There were a lot of retail shops on the way, including Gap and American Eagle Outfitters, nothing that we don’t see at home. There were more carts, though, some selling cute little signs that said stuff like “Whatever” and “All because two people fell in love.” We considered buying both of those for Stephanie’s room! Haha.

We got to the wharf and found a bench to sit on for a few minutes. I took a picture for a couple of ladies and some kids so they could have one all together. One of the ladies was from Albania. There were a couple of toddlers playing in a fountain across the sidewalk. The wharf was very picturesque, with lots of boats, both large and small. There was an “Airport taxi” boat, as well as a couple of tour boats. Across the harbor was a large building that appeared to be apartments or town homes, with a deck on the roof. It was all pretty. But we were getting tired, so we headed back to the hotel, this time via subway. It was a nice subway ride, not very crowded on Sunday afternoon.

After we got back to the hotel, we pretty much crashed until close to time for our last game. Stephanie wanted donuts from the Shaw’s across the street (they had a Dunkin Donuts shop inside), so Christi took her over there. They came back in before leaving though with a report that it was pouring down rain. That got me kind of depressed because we had already seen two losses, and now it’s raining? They got umbrellas and went across to the Shaw’s for the donuts. After they got back, we started getting ready to go to Fenway. We got jackets and umbrellas (I had to wear a dark blue windbreaker! Yankee colors???) and went down to the street to, once again, pile into a taxi. When we got to Fenway, it wasn’t raining very hard at all. We got up to our seating area, and decided to get some dogs and burgers before going up to sit.

It turned out to be a very nice night. There was no more rain, even though they delayed the game for an hour, because the forecast showed possibility of more coming through. The twilight sky was brilliantly colored!

They started rolling up the tarp at about 8:30 and got the field prepared for gametime. Game started at about 9:05-ish. We had already had the lineups and National Anthem. Hah. The National Anthem was sung by two of The Cowsills. I swear, I am not making this up. I don’t know how many people reading this will remember them. Popular family group in the 60s, predating the Partridge Family (I think). Their biggest hit was called “Indian Lake.” I have at least one of their vinyl albums.

Anyway.

Game on. Red Sox hit the ground running and never slowed down. It was glorious and made the whole night worth it. Big Papi hit a rocket to the right field bleachers, and as one lady who was coming back up to our row said, “That’s what we came to see!” The Sox scored in the first 4 innings and in the 6th, leaving only three innings blank. The Yankees didn’t do much at all. Sox win 7-2, exactly as bad as they lost the night before. Lester was pretty good. We got to see our new friend Manny Delcarmen pitch again, and Timlin closed it out.

It was a tremendously frenzied weekend, and we were totally exhausted. But it was one of the best weekends of my entire life. Even if the Sox did lose the series to the Evil Ones. I took one last picture of Gate C, as we left Fenway, being reduced to tears several times during that walk. We probably won’t be back for a long time, if ever. But, hey. How could any experience ever match this? Dear Lord, I’m starting to cry just from typing this!!

We once again availed ourselves of the “Pedicabs” back to the hotel for the last time. Oh, and by this time, I had absolutely no voice left. Lots of screaming and hollering, you know.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with some highlights of our week so far in New Hampshire. It’s absolutely beautiful up here.

TTFN, y’all!

PIcture update

2008-07-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded some pictures to my flickr account. They can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/bickleyhouse/. That should work for you. I don't think you have to have a password to look at them. They are all in public view. There are also pictures from previous vacations to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons, and the last time we went to Fenway, as well.

I'll be back tomorrow with the victory journal!!

TTFN, y'all!

Day Two--Um...Never Mind

2008-07-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

Here's the journal entry I typed on my laptop for July 26. Um...it just dawned on me that I had the date wrong on the previous journal. I'm fixing it after this.

July 26, 2008

We got up pretty early and headed out to find breakfast somewhere. After asking the concierge for some suggestions, we decided on a place called Charlie’s Sandwich Shop. It was a fairly short walk from the hotel, on Columbus Street. It was an adorable little diner place, very small. We were seated at the end of a table, shared by a nice couple from France. The breakfast was very good, and reasonably priced. We learned from the waitress that it was a family owned place for over 80 years. Her father had worked for the original Charlie in 1927, and become his partner later. Her and her sons and brothers currently work there.

After breakfast, we walked back to the hotel and grabbed a taxi to take us to Fenway Park. He dropped us off right at Gate D (finally found it, heh), where we waited for the tour to start. We actually went around the corner to the Game On sports bar and had some sodas while we waited. By then, the Team Store was open on Yawkey way, so we went in there for some t-shirts. At which point I discovered that I had left my debit card at the sports bar. *doh* So Christi went back to get that. By that time, people were lining up outside Gate D for our tour. It started at 9:45.

This was an amazing tour of Fenway Park. Much better than the standard tour, which we took last year. Keep in mind that this tour was part of our Red Sox Destinations package. We started where last year’s tour ended, in the blue seats behind home plate. These are the oldest seats still in use in Major League Baseball. According to our tour guide, Jessica, they are also the most uncomfortable. I agree. They are the really old style wooden seats. Five inches smaller than the newer seats. Jessica gave us a brief, but enthusiastic history of Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox while we were seated there.

After that, the unthinkable happened. The unimaginable. The impossible.

WE GOT TO GO ON THE FIELD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the field! At Fenway Park! The hallowed ground!!

I almost cried.

We walked around the warning track (they wouldn’t let us on the grass) to where we stood right in front of the scoreboard. We took pictures, looked at the on-field memorial to Tom Yawkey and his wife (this consists of two vertical lines that have Morse Code which spells out their initials), and then…

We got to go where Manny goes. Inside the scoreboard. Wow. We got lots of pictures in there. Hundreds of people have written their names inside the Fenway Park scoreboard (including the Bickleys…) and some of the scorekeepers even memorialized themselves. We looked through the holes that the scorekeepers use to watch the games. We had a picture taken looking out of the hole, by one of the tour people. Incidentally, eventually all of the photos that they took will be posted on line and we can select ours, and they will send us a photo disc of them. Included in the package.

After we left the scoreboard, we wandered around in front of the scoreboard a little more, and then it was up to the Monstah! Yes, we got to go sit on top of the Green Monster. We had a nice view from up there while Jessica told us about broken noses and broken hands that people suffer while sitting up there. She said that during batting practice, balls come up there at an average of every 45 seconds. At about 90 mph. It’s pretty important to be paying attention.

Then we went to the press box and got to sit in there for a few minutes. She explained to use the hierarchy of seating in the box.

All of this took about an hour and a half, after which it was time for our pre-game reception.

We went to a big banquet room on the EMC level (Fenway’s version of luxury suites). After we all got seated, our guest of honor was introduced to us. Manny Delcarmen. Ok. That was cool. At least it wasn’t Lugo. They sent us all around in a line to get his autograph first. Stephanie and I had him autograph our baseballs from our package (game-used, complete with grass smudges), and Christi had him autograph her “credentials.” (That would be the VIP badge.) Then we got to go back through the line for our photo op. We chose to get a picture with all three of us instead of three individual pictures. Manny was very friendly.

Then he answered some questions. The only complaint about the whole thing was that we couldn’t hear most of the questions that were asked. They should have someone with a microphone repeating the questions.

Then it was lunch. The buffet consisted of Fenway Franks (heh), pulled pork, BBQ chicken and other stuff. Potato salad, corn on the cob, and some fairly icky brownies (shoulda got the cookie). Overall, it was pretty good. Then they gave away seven autographed items, including a ball autographed by Pedroia. We didn’t win anything. *sad face*

We still had about 20 minutes in the room, so we were allowed to stay up there if we wanted. Some people, who wanted to leave, were allowed to leave with an escort out. But there was a surprise. Since we were already in the park, if we wanted to, we were allowed to leave the room, go down to the stands and watch batting practice.

WOOT!! We got to watch Red Sox BP, right from beside home plate, just between the dugout and home. That was a treat. Some of the players even waved at us.

We wound up never having to leave the field until after the game. Actually, I’m kind of wondering if it skewed their attendance figures, because quite a few of our tickets were never scanned in. But anyway, it was an amazing day.

Then there was the game.

Sigh.

Wake started out good. We score first. That was pretty much it. Masterson gave up, what five runs??

Final score, 10-3, Evil ones.

We took bicycle rickshaws back to the hotel, and went to the pool for a little while. Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory for a bite to eat, and the most amazing Key Lime cheesecake that I’ve ever had.

Something interesting happened there while we were waiting. There was a group of people standing by the front door behind us. Suddenly, we heard the sound of something dropping and a small commotion. There was a puddle of what appeared to be Starbucks cappuccino on the floor, which had splashed all over the group of people. The person who had been holding the coffee had left. Then it occurred to us that the group there were Yankee fans. If what I think happened is what really happened, that’s pretty shameful. The rivalry is all in good fun. But if a Sox fan deliberately threw down his coffee drink just to splash those Yankee fans, that’s pretty much over the line, at least in my opinion. Oh, well. I’m a “foreigner” to these parts, but still…

We pretty much came back to the hotel and collapsed after that. Slept until after 8 the next morning.

One more game. One more chance. If we lose this one, I’m asking for a refund.

Hahaha…

TTFN, y’all!

Day 1--Yankees 1, Sox 0

2008-07-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

We're currently in Rye, New Hampshire, and I finally have internet access again. I'm three days behind, but I'll post what I have already written for the first day of our vacation. I'll get caught up as I go, and will eventually post some pictures on Flickr. I'll let you know when those are up. So here goes...

July 25, 2008

I’m typing this entry here because this stupid hotel doesn’t have free wireless in the rooms. $400 a night rack rate and you have to PAY for wireless access, but only available on the 2nd floor and the lobby! Sheesh.

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day, in spite of that really horrible call by the ump in the bottom of the ninth. (Please see my rule about umps being thrown out of the ballpark…if I’m John Henry, that ump never works in my ballpark again.)

We got up at 4am, and I really didn’t sleep well at all. Anybody surprised?? We got ready to go and left the house by 5:15 to go meet the shuttle bus to the airport. The company my wife works for provides free parking and bus to the terminal! Woot!! We arrived and the bus was on time, so we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, got through the security checkpoint with no issues and sat down to wait for the plane.

Plane departed at approximately 7:45 central time. The first leg took us to Laguardia in NYC. Ugh. It’s a pretty long flight and those planes are pretty cramped. But we landed on time and our connecting terminal was only a few hundred fee up the way. We got one of their “pretzel dogs” on the way, and, man was it delicious!! We were really hungry, but that thing was just incredible!

Our second flight was on a regional jet (only three seats across) and lasted about 35 minutes (including a scenic detour over Providence, RI, because of flight volumes at Logan Airport, Boston.

Had a bit of a rough landing in Boston, and the pilot almost didn’t make the turn to his taxiing runway. Heh.

We got off the plane, and by the time we got to the baggage claim, our stuff was waiting for us! Hah!! Um…except for one bag? There’s one bag missing, and one left behind by someone that looks a lot like ours. Except that it was a totally different color and had this bright pink combination lock on it?

So we consult the “Baggage Claim Expert.” Turns out that the left behind bag has a connecting flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Oh.

Dear.

Lord.

All my Red Sox clothes, heck ALL my clothes are in the missing bag. And our camera. And maybe my CPAP machine, without which nobody on the same floor will sleep because of my snoring.

The “Baggage Claim Expert” makes a call. In the meantime, another flight arrives. They turn on the belt.

Guess what.

The first bag through the curtain is ours. It was probably sitting just on the other side of that curtain the whole time.

Thank you, Jesus!

We gathered up everything and headed out to catch a rental car bus. Heh. “Rental car bus.” That just sounds funny. We used Budget this time, and their bus showed up right after we stepped outside. We had a nice bus driver who had a great story about a friend who gave him some tickets for a game earlier this year. Then the friend had to leave town because a relative was in the hospital. The friend called to say he couldn’t make the game, but they were free to go or sell the tickets or whatever. After talking it over with his wife, they decided not to go without the friend. The guy said he couldn’t sell the tickets to anyone! (I don’t get that…) It was just the KC Royals, and it was a Monday night, though. So that made the draw a little less popular. The date was May 19.

He finally sold two of the tickets to a fellow Budget driver. That left him with one. Then his friend came back into town, so he called him and the friend took the other ticket back.

The punch line? Jon Lester pitched that night.

Need I say more?

I guess so, if anyone reading this is not a Sox fan. Jon Lester pitched a no-hitter that night.

Many people that he tried to sell those tickets to were crying afterwards.

Well, anyway, we got to Budget, and the line inside was very long. But it didn’t take as long as we though it would. Christi started out in the line, because she had made the arrangements. There was a really nice guy going down the line and offering directions to people for wherever they wanted to go. He gave Christi directions to the hotel and then to Fenway from the hotel. There were two ladies behind her that were staying at the same hotel, but they were in town for a Kenny Chesney concert. I stepped over to listen to his directions, too.

Right when Christi go to the front of the line, she called me over and said that she had just realized that she had signed me up as the driver, so I should do this. So I got in line. The transaction went very smoothly, and we had our car assignment. A Hyundai Sonata. That’s ok.

So we go to collect our things and walk to this car, when the “directions” guy comes over and says, “Can I do some Red Sox fans a favor?” Then he finds out that we have the Destinations package with all three Yankees games, and he insists on it. The favor? He went and got our car for us, then did the once over for damage check for us, too. Wow.

What a day this has been, so far.

Then we kind of got lost trying to follow his directions to the hotel. We made it, though, and got parked and checked in. We got our bags with the jerseys and game balls at the checkout counter, and made our way to the room.

By this time, it was almost 5pm. So we hurried, changed clothes, put on our jerseys (Steph and Christi got Ellsbury road jerseys, I got a Varitek home jersey), and went out in search of food.

We ate at a picturesque little place called Sola’s Irish Pub. It was expensive (I have a feeling everything is), but pretty good. Then we started the rest of our trek to Fenway.

It says it’s only .8 mile from hotel to Fenway. That’s a longer walk than it sounds. But we made it.

Our tickets said to go in Gate “D.” I still haven’t found any Gate “D.” We went in Gate C. We walked all the way around the place and still couldn’t figure out how to get to our seats. They are in the new Coca Cola pavilion. So we finally found someone who helped us find them. Later we think we realized that we entered a few feet away from where we needed to be and walked all the way around in the other direction. Heheheh…

Game time. LeAnne Rimes sings the National Anthem. Somebody with ALS comes out and has a Doctor from Harvard throw out a first pitch on their behalf (Timlin and Schilling and wives work a lot with ALS charities). Kenny Chesney throws out a first pitch.

OMG!!

JACK NICKLAUS throws out a first pitch. I’m not a huge golfer, but JACK NICKLAUS!! I was seriously almost in tears by this point…I’m already emotional, because, here I am in the next best place to heaven, and you know…

So here we go.

I wish I could say the rest of the night went as well. But as you know, if you are a Sox fan, it didn’t. It was, at least, a decent game. But, as I said way up top, that ump made that call on Mike Lowell in the bottom of the ninth, when we had Youk on first base and were poised to tie the game. The ball was, I swear at least 6 inches if not a foot inside. And Lowell got thrown out of the game. People around me were saying he never does that. To cap things off, J.D. Drew struck out looking at two pitches in a row! C’mon, DREW!! You don’t watch the last strike of the game go by!! I don’t care where it is, if it’s anywhere close to the plate, SWING AT IT!! GAH!!!

So that’s it. We found one of those bicycle rickshaw people and got a ride back to the hotel. And, Ted, you know the atmosphere after a game, now. It’s a madhouse down there. You can’t stir the people, it’s so thick. Wow. It’s really cool, in a way, the whole ambience both before and after a game at Fenway. Nothing like it anywhere else I have ever seen.

Ok. I’m done with this one. I’m sitting on the toilet lid in the bathroom of our hotel because I woke up before anyone else. My behind is sore.

TTFN, y’all!

It Starts...

2008-07-25T02:57:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie, here.

It's Friday morning and we are getting ready to leave in about 30 minutes!

See you all in Boston!! I'll update and probably post some pictures along the way.

TTFN, y'all!

OMG, the Rangers Are In Second Place!!!

2008-07-22T00:33:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, the Sunbeams had to beat Oakland in order for that to happen. That causes me great conflict.

But the Sox fared well against the Marginals, so at least they held their ground. And the Injuns beat the Halos, so the Rangers even gained a game on them.

The Evil Empire is too close to us. I'm planning on that changing this weekend. I like what you call them, Ted. I just can't put that here because some of my church members read this.

(Hi, Kathy!!)

Looks like we will get to see the Mighty Beckett pitch, followed by Wakey and Lestah.

Dear God, please let the Red Sox sweep the Yankees. And please let us see a no-no. I'm not asking for much...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I'm King of the World...

>>the Yankees will not be allowed to have any players under 50...

>>The Red Sox will always get the number one draft pick...

>>Bud Selig will be exiled for crimes against humanity and impersonating a baseball commissioner...

>>The Tampa Bay team will have to put "Devil" back in their name....

>>Ozzie Guillen will have to stand in the batter's box and be pummelled by every pitcher on every other team in the majors...

>>The strike zone will be returned to its original position, that is, from the armpits to the knees...

>>All players will be required to sign autographs before every game. The game needs to be about the fans again...

>>All owners will be required to lower concession prices at the ballparks. There is no excuse for a coke to cost $4.50 or a beer to cost $6.00...

>>No more promotions given to "the first 20,000 fans." Everyone who attends will get the promotion...This would not apply at Fenway Park, as they don't need promotions to encourage attendance.

>>Instant replay will be instituted in baseball for disputed calls...there will be no discussion about it "making a game too long." I do not understand what that phrase, "making a game too long" means. How can a baseball game be "too long??"

>>Owners will be allowed to eject umpires from their ballparks for really bad calls...if the above-mentioned instant replay shows the call to be wrong, ejection will be automatic. They'd better have plenty of back-up umpires.

>>Every throw to first base by a pitcher to try to keep a runner on first will be counted as a ball.

>>Both leagues will have the same rules. Either both will have designated hitters, or both will not. I don't really care, let's just make it the same. And the umpires will not look at different places over the catcher. How can there be a consistent strike zone when one league's umpires are looking over the catcher's shoulder and the other league's are looking over his head???

>>There will be NO MORE FREAKIN' MAPLE BATS!! Enough, already!

>>Scott Boras will be sent to Mars...no, Jupiter...no, Uranus. He will NOT be given a space suit...

>>Jason Giambi will be (CENSORED)(CENSORED)(CENSORED)...

>>A-Rod will be left alone. He doesn't need any help at all screwing up his own life...

>>Opening Day will be a national holiday. Of course, it will have to be a local holiday, too, since "Opening Day" happens at different times in different cities...however, the official Opening Day of the season will be a holiday for everyone. Not counting that silly Sunday night game, of course. Or any ridiculous games in Japan, either.

>>There will be no more MLB games in Japan. That was just silly. Unless of course, the Japanese decide to join the MLB, then they can participate in what will truly be a "World Series."

>>Basketball season will be drastically shortened. The season will consist only of the playoffs, which will include all the teams, since only 4 of them don't get in anyway. Each team will be given 100 points and two minutes. The season will be required to be over before Opening Day of baseball season.

>>Football will not be allowed to start training camp before baseball season is over. Baseball will have its own exclusive seven months. All the other sports can share the rest of the year.

>>ESPN will not be allowed to show reruns of football games when there is a baseball game to air. Who on earth wants to watch reruns of football games, anyway???

I will gladly take suggestions from fellow Red Sox fans. I had another really good one, but it went away...I kept getting interrupted by work. *grumble*

Obviously, I'm having some great fun with this, but some of those ideas are actually serious. Especially the one about Scott Boras...

BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

*whew* That was close! While I was up doing work stuff, my computer decided to reboot itself. Thank goodness for the auto-save feature in Blogspot!! I wouldn't have been able to remember all of that stuff...

TTFN, y'all!!

Bored Now

2008-07-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

I WANT SOME BASEBALL!!!

Ok, I got that out of my system.

Yes, Ted, I got to see our boy go wild in the Home Run Derby. I had tears in my eyes watching him. It was amazing. Did you see him HIT THE FREAKIN' WALL??? MAN!

And that brings me to an opinion. They need to change their stupid rules on the derby. How in the world does a guy who hit 35 home runs in the derby lose to a guy who hits 13 less??? The third round was a total anticlimax. Both guys were spent. I mean, c'mon. The winner of the home run derby wins with a whopping FIVE home runs. Oooh! Hamilton should have won that thing, hands down.

At any rate, I couldn't be more proud of him. As a matter of fact, I will go on record and say that between Monday and Tuesday nights, I have never been more proud to be a fan of the Texas Rangers! Michael Young and Ian Kinsler turned a game-saving double play while Rivera was trying to lose the game.

And while we're talking about trying to lose the game, let's talk about booing Papelbon. Ok, I understand. It's Yankee-World. So they hate Papelbon. But you know what??? Papalbon DIDN'T THROW THE FREAKIN' BALL OUT INTO CENTERFIELD WHILE THE NL PLAYER WAS STEALING SECOND BASE, ALLOWING HIM TO GET TO THIRD AND SUBSEQUENTLY SCORE ON A SAC FLY!!! Who, you might ask, was guilty of that???

THE IDIOT CATCHER OF THE TAMPA BAY SUNBEAMS, THAT'S WHO!!!!

Ok. I'll stop shouting now.

J.D. Drew gets MVP honors, that's cool. And Michael Young drives in the winning run for the second time in 5 years (maybe 3 years??). And, once again, the AL proves who really runs the show in the MLB. 12 years since the poor NL has won the All-Star game.

I have a big question. During the introduction of all those HoF players, where was Yaz?? That was disappointing. But Yogi. Man, I cried when they introduced Yogi Berra. I know. He was a Yankee. But, man. What a legend. I really didn't even know the guy was still alive. He may be the last one of that bunch left. Not sure.

And I'm getting so excited, I can hardly stand it. A week from right now, I will be trying to sleep, so we can get up early for our flight to Boston on Friday morning. We got our tickets and itineraries (boy, that's a hard word to type) last week. All in a nice Red Sox folder, with a map from the airport to the hotel we will be staying in.

Our pre-game reception and tour are both on Saturday, which will be a very busy day, turns out.

Friday, we arrive, and will have time to get to the hotel, where we will find our packages with our jerseys. Stephanie and Christi are getting Ellsbury road jerseys and I'm getting a Varitek home jersey--that was a very hard decision for me; I really wanted a Schilling jersey, but it turns out he wasn't going to be on the roster, and I think it had to be a roster player. I love Ellsbury, too, and other players, but I probably have more respect for El Capitan than anyone on the team.

We will also receive a game-used ball for each of us, and I'm not sure what else. Then we have the first game Friday night.

Saturday starts early, with our tour of the park at 9:30am. Hopefully, we will get to go on the Green Monster this time. Then, our reception is at 11:00 or 11:30, right after the tour. They haven't told us which player we will get to meet. I really really really really hope it's not, you know, Lugo. But whoever, it is, it will be a Red Sox player, so that's ok. Then we have the afternoon game on Saturday. I figure after the game, we will head back to the hotel and collapse. Maybe hit the pool for a while.

Sunday's game is a late one. 8pm. So we will probably use Sunday for some sightseeing, try to catch as much of the history in Boston as we can. And maybe get to Fanueil Hall. We keep hearing that it's a really cool place.

We booked an extra night at the hotel since the game was so late on Sunday, so Monday morning, we will pack up and leave Boston for our rental house in Rye, NH. Right on the beach! Ahhhh....five nights of pure relaxation. Nothing to do. Except whatever we want to do. After the frenzied weekend, I think we will need it.

Just a few player notes. I hear the Yankees are making a deal with Richie Sexson. Hah. Good!!! They deserve each other. And there are also rumors that they are thinking about signing Bonds?? I tell you the truth, nothing could make me happier. Let's let all of the players with massive amounts of baggage go to New York. With A-Roid, Bonds, and Sexson, they are sure to wind up in the cellar!!

I also heard a very nasty rumor that the Sox were considering trading Youk for Teixeira. I really hope that there was no truth at all in that. As much as I would like to see Tex in a Sox uniform, that would be a very, very stupid move. Tex will be a free agent at the end of this season, and there is no way El Diablo will let him stay with the same team.

Oh, yeah, and Papi is scheduled to return next Friday night!! Yeehaaaaa!!!

There will be pictures. Lots of them.

TTFN, y'all!

What A Day

2008-07-09T23:45:00.001-07:00

First of all, I offer my sincere, humble apologies to anyone who might have been offended by yesterday's entry. I don't know what came over me. I am, however, glad that the Sunbeams lost. I'll just ignore who it was that beat them. I hope that no one will shun me.

Moving on.

What a pleasant surprise was awaiting me when I woke up from my daily sleep yesterday to find my daughter happily announcing that the Red Sox defrelnicated the Twins 18-5! Who's the hottest team in baseball, again?? The bats came alive, eh? Cash hits one into the parking lot and Youk follows suit soon afterwards. Even El Capitan got 2 hits! Could this be the turnaround that we've been looking for? Just in time to take a week off?

You know, I really wish that baseball would have their All-Star game like football does. AFTER the season. I say that because I live in Rangers-land, where we are notorious for the "aftertheallstargame collapse." I just think that a week without games is too long. The pitchers get off their schedule, everybody gets cold, etc.

Anyway. On to the night game. Rangers vs Halos. So far, they are 1-1 in the series. When I left for work, the California Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were ahead 4-2, after Frankie Francisco had given up two runs. I listened on the way to work, as two innings progressed quite rapidly. When I pulled into the parking lot, it was the bottom of the 9th, K-Rod was pitching, one out, Cat had 2 strikes on him. I went into the building, went back to put my lunch up, make coffee, etc. Went to the restroom. My cell phone rings while I'm washing my hands. It's my daughter. "Josh Hamilton hit a home run. THEY WON!! I'm shaking so hard!!"

So here, for your viewing pleasure is a video of this year's story of the year hitting the walk-off.

VIDEO LINK

What a finish. So the Rangers are now up on the Angels 2-1 in this series with one game left. And they are 4 over .500 for the first time this season, first time since Noah's ark landed, I think.

Ok. That was an exaggeration. But it's been a very long time.

So it was a good day. And the Sox gained another game on the Sunbeams because they lost again. To somebody. Who shall remain nameless.

And I'm supposed to get my tickets and itinerary for our Red Sox Destinations weekend today! EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

TTFN, y'all!

Gotta Bad Taste In Mah Mouth!

2008-07-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else have this awful feeling because we just rooted for the *shudder* Yankees???

Ok, so you all know how hard that was.

But we had to do it, didn't we?

I hope to God that this is the only series in which I EVER have to root for the Evil Ones.

I have to go take another bath. I feel dirty.

Thank You, Kansas City!!!

2008-07-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!

The Royals have snapped the winning streak. As I sit here watching the Sox fail to bring any runs home with the bases loaded, I get the alert that the Kansas City Royals have beaten the Sunbeams. Finally.

Papi, we need you!!! Please come back!!!

On a humorous note, I saw the commercial where this big guy is in a Japanese airport, wearing a traditional Boston cap, and everybody thinks he's Big Papi. His face gets broadcast all over, there are reporters all around him, then one of the mics knocks his hat off. All the hubub stops and someone says, "Hey. He no Big Papi." And they all go away. Hahahaha....funny. It's a commercial for New Era caps, I think.

TTFN, y'all.

F for Francona

2008-07-06T05:31:00.000-07:00

So the Globe gives Masterson a C for yesterday's game and the Red Sox hitters a D+. I definitely agree with the grade for the hitters. I don't think Masterson deserves a C though.

I think the globe should rank the manager, too. Francona deserves an F. A big fat one. Why? Dawn knows!! For putting in LUGO to pinch hit with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth!! That's why!! What was he THINKING??? I know he wasn't thinking "bunt" because there were already two out. So the great and marvelous Lugo strikes out swinging. There is no joy in Beantown today, the mighty Lugo has struck out.

And what was with the umpires just letting Yankees pitchers pummel our batters??? Manny gets hit THREE TIMES???? And there were NO WARNINGS??? Gaaaaahhhh!!!!

*whew*

*deep breath*

Ok. I'm better now.

There were some very bad calls, yesterday, and the strike zone seemed to be extremely mobile. But it seemed to be moving for both teams, so I guess that's "fair."

Honestly, though, I have to say that if Peewee hadn't gotten greedy on that very first AB, this game might have turned out entirely differently. I'm really not sure why he thought he could make second on that hit. And he might have scored on Drew's double. Ah, well. We have another shot today.

At least the Rangers beat Baltimore. But, seriously, folks...somebody has to do something about these Sunbeams! This is getting ridiculous. DAWN, GO GET THAT UNIFORM!!!!!!
TTFN, y'all!

Time to Watch the Game

2008-07-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

I'm actually getting a chance to sit down and watch the game today.

I saw a clip of the ball that Youk hit that sat on top of the wall yesterday. That was too funny.

We had to go out and buy a new refigerator yesterday afternoon. While we were at it, we got a new gas grill, which we are going to put together in a bit. Actually, my wife just asked if I mind if she puts it together in here. So, we might cook out tonight.

We saw a very nice fireworks display last night in Haltom City. Good times.

Well, I'm going to shut up and watch the game, now. Second inning just ended with the Evil Ones up 1-0.

TTFN, y'all!

Big Sigh of Relief

2008-07-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

Yes!! Lester was brilliant tonight! A complete game, 5 hit shutout. Boy, did we need this game!

And so did the Yankees after that blowout against Texas last night.

While I'm on that subject, I would really like to know what Ron Washington was THINKING last night when he put in a bullpen pitcher who had never pitched in the majors with a one run lead against the bloody YANKEES!!! Grrr. 12 runs later...and the Yankees have averted a sweep.

Anyway, the Sox were great tonight.

I wonder if that will be enough for the stupid Boston Globe to give Lester an "A?" Somehow, I started getting these email alerts from the Globe after the games. Ever since they started, I have wondered what in the heck it would take for them to give a pitcher an "A!" Geez!!

The Sumbeams didn't play tonight, so we gained a half game on them.

TTFN, y'all!

Aaaaargh!!! But Yaaaaaaay!!!!

2008-06-30T23:00:00.001-07:00

What a variety of emotions I'm feeling tonight! First, I see (not directly but through mlb's "gameday" feature) our Rangers hang on and beat the Yankees in Yankee Stadium!! Feldman took a no-no into the 4th inning, which is something for Rangers pitching. Josh Hamilton picked up his 80th RBI for the season, and the Rangers beat the Evil Empire 2-1, putting them TWO games over .500 for the first time this season.

Then I learn, on the way to work, that the bloody Sunbeams held on to their lead to beat the Sox 5-4 and move 1.5 up on them in the AL East. It was 4-2 'beams when I laid down for my pre-work nap. This series has come at a very bad time. The Sox struggle on the road as it is, but now they have to contend for the leadership of the division, and it's not against the usual nemesis.

I wonder what it's like to be a Yankees fan right now. Wait. I think I know. Remember the '06 season?? Yeah. It must be a lot like that. I feel no pity. I laugh at their pain. Hah. The only run they got tonight against the Rangers was an A-roid homer.

So...does anyone think that Mark Teixeira will actually wind up with the Red Sox?? While we definitely don't need a first baseman, we sure need a replacement DH. Tex is pretty good from both sides of the plate, too. I would love to get to cheer him in a Red Sox uniform against the Yankees later this month. The problem is, he is still going to be a free agent at the end of this season, and his agent is the worst thing that ever happened to baseball, the devil himself, Scott Boras.

I have to go wash my hands just from typing that name.

I seriously dislike that man.

Well, I guess that's all I can come up with tonight. By the way, just so everybody knows, I would have just died if they had told me that I was singing at one of the Red Sox games in September. I'm so glad I drew a Phillies game. I honestly think I might have sung "root, root, root for the Red Sox..." Sheesh...

TTFN, y'all!

Take Me Out...

2008-06-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it. And it was a blast.
My wife was taking the video on our Canon PowerShot S1. It's a little crazy at the end. She was trying to find me walking back up the steps after the song, so you might get a little dizzy there. But it was all pretty cool. I almost got rained out. It was still sprinkling a bit while I was singing. We decided earlier that she could get a better shot if she recorded the video screen on the scoreboard instead of trying to get a good shot of me on the dugout. And it's a good thing! Because they took me to the THIRD BASE dugout!! Egad! I had to sing to Phillies fans! Pft. Pft. And what the heck happened in Houston??? It was 9-6 Sox when I left my seat to for the singing. By the time I sat back down, it was 10-9, 'stros. Then it was 11-9. What a slugfest. So both my teams lose last night. But, fortunately, the Sunbeams lost as well, right? So we're still half a game up. Whew. Rangers tried to rally at the end, but just couldn't make it. Left the bases loaded in the bottom of the eigth, and two men on in the bottom of the ninth. Oh, well. They just can't seem to make that jump to TWO games over .500!

Oh, and one more thing. When I sing "Root, root, root for the Rangers," I'm pointing over to the Rangers dugout, since I'm standing on top of the Phillies.

TTFN, y'all!

Fun At the Ballpark

2008-06-28T07:40:00.001-07:00

Stephanie and I went to the Rangers/Phillies game last night. It was fun, and an interesting experience.

One thing I've begun to wonder. Shouldn't the beer vendors have enough sense to know when someone has had enough? There were two people that sat a couple rows in front of us that I swear were already at least two sheets to the wind before they even sat down, and they came in with beer in their hands. AND, they bought another one from the beer vendor who just happened to be on our aisle at the time. The guy couldn't even stand up without having something to lean on to steady himself. And during the time we were there (Steph got tired so we left after 5 innings), they bought at least two more each. I'm glad I wasn't on the road with those people.

Then there was the guy next to me, across the aisle. I looked over once, and he was pouring something from a metal flask into styrofoam cups for him and his wife. EGAD! Metal containers are illegal in Rangers Ballpark, AND it is also illegal to bring your own alcohol into the facility. Somehow, he snuck that thing in in his little "lunchbox." But I'm sure he just had, you know, orange juice in it, right? Right.

Then there was the guy behind us that, at some point, decided that he needed to stand up for the rest of the game. It took half an inning, but his friend finally got him to sit down. But it made him mad, so he refused stand up later when the Rangers hit a home run and everybody around him stood up.

As for the game, we had the privilege of seeing Rangers noob Chris Davis hit his first major league home run, getting the lead back for the Rangers in the bottom of the third inning. That was exciting. They went on to win 8-7, putting them one game over .500 for, I think, the sixth time this season. Now, if they can only win tonight, which they should, because tonight is the night that I will be singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the seventh inning.

Woot!!

I plan to get a video taken, so I will post it if we are successful.

One other thing...am I the only one who has noticed the "evolution" of the strike zone?? Has anyone else noticed that umpires no longer call a strike at the letters? I'm pretty sure the zone has never been officially changed. It's supposed to be from the armpits to the knees. Lately, anything around the armpits is considered "high." Just wondering...

TTFN , y'all!

Paste Sampler No. 44

2008-06-27T00:39:00.001-07:00

Warning. This is not about the Red Sox. Sorry...but I thought I would throw something different in for a change. And they didn't play tonight, but they did win the series from the D-Backs. Yay.

Here's something new. Well, not really so new, but new for my blog.

I've been a subscriber to Paste magazine for years, now, and each month, they send out a sampler cd in their magazine, chock full of new music that they have found. It's usually indie stuff or just artists that aren't well know, yet. The subtitle of the magazine is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture." I highly recommend the magazine.

So, I decided that, starting with this issue, I'm going to give my opinions of the tracks that they chose to include on their sampler. This cd is number 44 and has 21 tracks on it. So here we go!

1. "Red Wine," by Izza Kizza. Honestly, this was almost enough to cause me to throw the cd out. I wish they wouldn't put a track like this as number one on the cd, but I also realize that it's all a matter of taste. There are probably some who will like this. Just not me. I'm not even sure what genre it's supposed to be. Some kind of weird reggae, I guess, and I'm not really a fan of reggae, anyway. So...no stars for the first song. I guess I'm using a five star system for rating, here. Kind of going on the fly.

2. "I'm Amazed," by My Morning Jacket. I'm pretty sure this band is featured on the cover. I've heard of them, but this is the first time I've heard their music. The cover says, "Ferocious Concerts. Die-Hard Fans. A Fearless New Record. MY MORNING JACKET Can't Be Stopped." Hm. Bet they can. However, I really like this track. It's good rock music, in my opinion. Album is Evil Urges. There's even a guitar solo toward the end of the song! 4 stars.

3. "Always A Friend," by Alejandro Escovedo. Upon my first listening to this track, my initial thought was, "Did Bruce Springsteen change his name??" We already have a Bruce Springsteen. We don't need another one. Honestly, this song sounds like a clone of Springsteen. Even the music behind the song sounds like one that Springsteen would have written. The album is called Real Animal. If the rest of the tracks are as unoriginal as this one, I would change it to Cloned Animal. No stars.

4. "Hologram," by Katie Herzog. I've never heard of her before, but I like this track. The album is called Apple Tree. Nice sound, and I like the song. I want to hear some more of the songs from this album, so I'll be checking to see if she's on Yahoo! Music Unlimited or eMusic.com. 3 stars.

5. "Two Ways Out," by Darker My Love. from 2. I really like this band. I've got their first cd on my laptop from Yahoo! Music Unlimited. Singer has a rather deep voice, most of the time. Nice harmonies in this track. I'm anxious to hear the rest of the cd. There's another band that they resemble, but for the life of me, I can't place it right now. 4 stars.

6. "Inside A Boy," by My Brightest Diamond. From a thousand shark's teeth. I haven't heard of this group before. Female lead singer. Musically, it's not bad. But I'm not sure about the vocals. Sounds like she has too many teeth. Does that make sense?? Probably not. But there's a particular way that the "s"-s come out. Ok. I've just done a little research. The lead singer, Shara Worden, is classically trained, with an opera degree from, of all places, the University of North Texas! Right in my back yard, eh? I need to listen to some of the other tracks on the album to have a better judgment, here. Again, musically, I like this track a lot. I'd like to hear some more of Shara's singing. For now, it's 3 stars, with a potential of more if it grows on me.

7. "Around the World," by The Death Set, from Worldwide. After three hearings, this song still sucks, big time. Sounds like it's mostly keyboard-driven, with minimal sounds. I think there's only one chord in the song. Oops...there's another one. Two chords. The lyrics are completely unintelligible. Sounds like several guys all going "yahyahyahyahyahyah." It's boring, unimaginative, and unoriginal. In fact, I can't find anything good to say about it at all. Except that it's finally over. No stars. Wait. -5 stars. I can do that. It's my rating system.

8. "You, Me & The Bourgeoisie," by The Submarines, from Honeysuckle Weeks. Hah. I love this song. It's so happy! And it sounds very late 60's early 70's! Female lead singer sounds with nice vocals. It has a nice message, too, about choosing love and choosing life. It's a duo, male and female, made up by John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard. I'm guessing Blake is the girl, since I don't know any girls named John. Apparently, they used to be a couple? Are they again? I dunno, but I love this song, and want more. My first 5 star vote for this sampler!

9. "Where & When," by Hayden, from In Field & Town. This song has an unusual beat to it. It feels like 4, but the snare hits every three beats. It just feels weird. I'm not really crazy about his vocal styling, either. It's not bad. But the voice a little weak. It's "folky sounding." Oh, there's a trumpet solo. Wait, two trumpets. That's not a solo, is it? I don't like trumpets in folk music. And they're just kind of "wandering" around. Kind of random. And the song just kind of stops. It doesn't really end. Just stops. Meh. 2 stars.

10. "Hard Livin'," by Railroad Earth, from Amen Corner. This is a nice track. How do I describe it? It's kind of, wow. Bluegrass, southern rock? With horns. I like it. Yeah. The vocalist has a bit of a Skynyrd sound to him. Yeah. I like this track. I'll be looking for more from this band. 5 stars.

11. "Freeway," by Aimee Mann, from @#%&! Smilers. Ah, Aimee. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Aimee has been plugging along with these solo albums since her early days with Till Tuesday. I kind of like her, but my real gripe is that all her stuff sounds the same. This song sounds just like all the songs on the previous two albums of hers that I have. She just doesn't change at all. But I guess she doesn't have to. It's not a bad sound. But it's always pretty disgruntled. I'm thinking Aimee is a pretty unhappy person, if you listen to her songs. I do remember one scene where she was brought on to play a gig at The Bronze on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. She had the honor of being the first (perhaps only) musical act on the show that ever got to actually say a line. Her line? "I hate playing vampire towns." But I digress. I will give this track 3 stars, just because I still respect Aimee.

12. "Dream," by Priscilla Ahn, from A Good Day. This is a nice piece. It's quiet, relaxing and zzzzzzzzzzzz....just kidding. But it is that kind of song. Very acoustic. Lots of strings. Mellow voice, very soothing. Calming. I like it. This seems to be very positive. 4 stars.

13. "Listen," by Amos Lee, from Last Days At The Lodge. With a name like Amos Lee, how could it be anything but country? It's not bad, though. (I'll try not to offend any of you that like country music...) This songs has a pretty good sound to it. Whoa! Doyle Bramhall, Jr. plays on the album. Does that make it blues? There is a little bit of bluesy flavor to it, I'll admit that. I'm kind of unsure about it at the moment, and would like to hear more of his stuff. 3 stars.

14. "Testify," by Carney, from Nothing Without You. Starts out sounding suspiciously like "Run Through the Jungle." Then this husky female voice comes tearing through it. Yowzah! Found the website...heh. The girl looks rather Goth. But the music. Wow. It's kind of hard to describe. There's this really distorted guitar solo in the middle. It's definitely rock. I like her voice. Holy crap! I don't think that's a girl! Man. I haven't been fooled like that since I heard Kill Hannah. I guess the girl on the front page of the website is just a picture...I'm so confused...My apologies to the lead singer. Well, whatever, I still like the band. This song is kind of eerie. Like I said, the beginning and ending riffs are reminscent of Creedence and "Run Through the Jungle." 5 stars. Plus a bonus star for tricking me.

15. "Bang My Drum," by Daniela Cotton, from Rare Child. Black country singer. Unusual. At least it sounds country to me. And the title refers to what she is going to do, not an invitation to bang her drum. It's kind of a "survival" song. You can push her down, but she'll keep singin' her songs and bangin' her drum. I kind of like it, actually. She's got a good, strong voice, and the message is pretty positive. And she plays a Rickenbacker!! Wow. That gets her an extra star in my book. 5 stars.

16. "Oh No," by Kaisercartel, from March Forth. The name comes from the two members, Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel. I kind of like that. It's cute and clever. Musically, this track is very indie sounding. I'm a little unsure how much I like it, but it is interesting. Has a bit of folky sound to it. I guess they are a couple, too. At this point, I'll give it 3 stars, but it could grow on me some more.

17. "Beyond the Pale," by Scott Kempner, from Saving Grace. This track begins with a single electric guitar and the vocalist, who has a slightly deep, husky voice. Nice vocal, though. Very folky, if not country, but the vocal doesn't sound country. The song builds, texture-wise as it progresses. Has a guitar solo in the middle. I think I like it. 3 stars.

18. "How Am I To Be," by The Watson Twins, from Fire Songs. This is a debut release from a pair of identical twin sisters, Chandra and Leigh Watson. It's kind of hard to categorize, genre-wise. Kind of folky-pop. I'm not crazy about it. 2 stars.

19. "Carbon-Dated Love," by I See Hawks In L.A., from Hallowed Ground. First of all...that's a really dumb name for a country band. I'm sorry. It just is. This is way too country for me. The vocals aren't bad, and they harmonize pretty well. But this is full-blown country, complete with wailing fiddles and steel guitars. Nice steel solo, I'll give them that. I'll give them 3 stars, not because I like them, but because, as country goes, it's not bad. (Trying to be a fair reviewer, here...)

20. "Saint C3cilli4," by Sunlight in Architecture, from Sunlight in Architecture. I don't know about this. They sound drunk. And they put numbers in the name of their song, which makes me expect to hear rap or hip-hop. It couldn't be much further from rap or hip-hop, thank God. But I don't think I like it very much. It's sloppy. There's not much to it, musically. On the other hand, it's kind of trippy-folky. The sloppiness of the vocals makes the lyrics hard to understand. 2 stars. I want to hear some other music by this band, though.

21. "The Poor House," by The Boxmasters, from The Boxmasters. Argh. More country. This one even starts with what appears to be another recording (you can hear the record-scratches) of a steel guitar solo. Then the real song starts with, surprise! A steel guitar solo. Not a good track to finish the cd with, in my opinion. I See Hawks was better. 2 stars. And the final note of the track is kind abruptly cut off.

There you have it. At some point, I might try to listen more intently to the lyrical content of these tracks to see if there is some wisdom in the lyrics. Some songs seem to be deeper than others. I don't know if anyone will find this to be of any value or not, but, hey. That's what we do on Blogspot, anyway, isn't it? We write stuff and hope that somewhere, someone will get something out of it.

But, as always, there are quite a few really good tracks on this sampler, and I will seek out more songs by the same artists with which to populate my mp3 player (which, by the way, is an iRiver, rather than an iPod).

So, now I guess I will do some work (if I can find any to do...it's really slow here on Thursday nights) and listen to the new Coldplay album, Viva La Vida.

TTFN, y'all!

Gloom, Despair, and Agony....

2008-06-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

By now, I'm sure all of you know the tragic news. Curt Schilling will not pitch this year. I'm very depressed by this.

All good things must come to an end, eventually, and Schilling's pitching career is no exception. I just thought I would get to see him pitch one more year.

I'll be in mourning for a few days.

On the bright side, the Sox actually won a series on the road. And hopefully, they can pick up tonight where they left off in '04 with the Cards.

Sigh.

See y'all later.

Phillies 8, Red Sox 2

2008-06-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

Well, that was depressing. Right from the bloody start. Colon just didn't have it, and Hamels did. Oh, well. Today is a new day.

Ex-Sox Makes Good For Rangers

2008-06-12T00:36:00.001-07:00

David Murphy continues to be the best trade that Jon Daniels ever made in his piddly little existence.

Tonight, he put the Rangers ahead with a grand salami in the top of the 7th in KC. Once again, just like Tuesday night, the Rangers were down 5-1. Once again, they battled back. This time with no outs in the top of the 7th. After the dust cleared in the 7th inning, it was 8-5 Rangers, Byrd scoring on a sac fly. Not content with that, Murphy hit another home run on the very next pitch he received. Heh. Final score was Rangers 11, Royals 5. And our good friend Josh Hamilton seems to be back on the swing again, and...what a catch he made in foul territory over there in right field. Not sure what he was doing in right field...but, hey! He jumped really, really high and snagged a fly over the top of the fence. I thought Eric Nadel (radio broadcaster for the Rangers) was going to have a cow. His voice just kept getting higher and higher.

And our Sox did better tonight. 1-1 in this one so far, which is not bad on a road trip.

I'm not quite so hard on our boys for their road record, though. I was looking at the standings yesterday, and there are only, I think, three teams that have a winning record on the road. And there are a few who are quite a bit worse off than the Red Sox. Oddly, the Rangers, who are now (again) one game over .500, are almost exactly even in both areas, home and away. That's kind of funny. They don't do so well at home, because the idiots that designed that ballpark made it a very good park for hitters. That's why the Rangers can go in there, score 9 runs and still lose the game. Pft. Everybody blames the pitching, but I think it's really the ballpark's fault. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful place to watch a game. But it's a really bad place to pitch.

I guess that's all for now. See you later. I'm getting all butterfly-ey in my tummy...our trip is getting closer and closer. I just got goose bumps thinking about it. Little over a month. If we get to see a sweep in July, I may never come down off of that cloud!

Oh, and Stephanie told me that Mr. Papi became an American citizen yesterday? Congratulations to him!!! That is way cool!

Huzzah, Mr. Griffey!!

2008-06-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

I know this is usually about the Red Sox, but when a man does this, I have to acknowledge it. Congratulations, Ken Griffey, Jr.!

I'm still wondering what Coco was thinking. But that was a great dodge of Shields' girly punch.

I'm also still wondering how the second worst team in baseball managed to shut out the Sox 8-0. But seems like I remember Hernandez giving them fits in the past.

Today was boring in the world of baseball, except for Griffey's historic smash. I'm glad to see that, too. I've always respected him.

Later, guys.

Roller Coasters, Anyone?

2008-06-02T02:02:00.001-07:00

Yes, I've been watching. I guess I really haven't felt like writing much lately. Until Saturday night, that is. And darn the luck, I wasn't looking. I was playing 42 with my wife and kids. Bleah. Stephanie yelled at me from up at the front computer. It's still great, though. Wish he could have done it at Fenway, but there were plenty of fans in Camden Yards to see it, too.

Before the Baltimore series, I was whining and moaning about why Boston can't win on the road. Seriously. It's pretty horrible. But now, they've won the Baltimore series. Maybe it's a west-coast thing. I dunno. But it's maddening.

Who would've ever thought we'd be battling it out in the AL East with the bloody Tampa Bay "Sunbeams???" And I know for sure I heard some screams from Tampa when Lugo was muffing those plays at shortstop and getting thrown out of the game in Seattle. By the way...did anyone ever hear what exactly he did for that idiot umpire to toss him?

And I also have a very serious question for Mr. Terry. When you have two outs in the top of the ninth, score tied 3-3 against one of the worst teams in baseball, and your batter is 0-6 against the current pitcher, WHY DON'T YOU PINCH HIT????? Why the bloody heck do you put Youk in to pinch run instead of pinch hitting??? Sigh.

We're all perfect managers, aren't we?

Ah, well. We're back in the winning column for now.

And look at the Rangers! Our home team was actually over .500 for one day this weekend, and were it not for the 7th inning, they would have won Sunday, too. But for now, the remain at .500, 1 1/2 games behind Oakland in third place. And they've won another series. All things considered, even as disappointing as Sunday's game was, they are playing really well, right now. Better than most of us expected. And to make it even better, they have won more games than the Evil Empire and are ahead of the Evil Ones in the standings!

And our good friend Josh Hamilton hit a grand slam home run on the day his picture appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine!! HAH!! Take THAT, Sports Illustrated Curse!! Still leading the MLB in RBIs.

In non-baseball news (What did he say??), I just finished one of the best books I've read in quite a long time. It's called Look Me In the Eye: my life with asperger's, by John Elder Robison. It's an amazing biographical story of the author's experiences with his Asperger's syndrome. I highly recommend it.

Gotta go eat lunch. Bye for now.

The Magic of Fenway

2008-05-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

Reading Ted's posts (see the link to the right on the "Red Sox Dad") has taken me back a year to my first game at Fenway Park. I can't technically say that it was my first visit to Fenway, because way back in the year of the Subway Series (was that 2000??), my wife and I were in Boston one day during our whirlwind tour of New England, and we finally found Fenway. There were no tours at the time because of renovations or something, and it was October, so season was over. After I carressed the bricks on the outside, we walked up one of the sidewalks (I can't even remember what street) and one of the gates was up. There were a couple of old guys chatting inside, at least one of whom obviously worked there. After one walked away, the other guy looked at me standing there with my mouth hanging open and said, "Well, say something!" I just said, "Wow." He laughed and my wife explained that we were from Fort Worth, Texas and were up there for our anniversary, etc. He pointed up a ramp and said, "Just don't go on the field." I said, "Yes, Sir!!" and trotted up the ramp to the infield seats. I cried then, too. Took some pics of the stadium (Green Monster first, of course) and marvelled at how small the place looked in real life.

Anyway, so last year wasn't my first visit to Fenway, but I say it is my first official one, because we got to go to games there. Reading about Ted's first trip really brought back the height of emotion that I felt when I walked in there for the game last year. I had the pleasure of having my wife and kids with me. It's indescribable. And as I commented on Ted's blog, I did cry, and I'm not ashamed of it.

I wonder what it is about that place that causes that in people? Some would say that it's "just a baseball field." I would disagree. Maybe there's some magic there. Bill Simmons, the sports guy on ESPN, who wrote the book, Now I Can Die Happy after the '04 series, says Fenway is haunted. I haven't done any research on that theory. But, for cryin' out loud, look at the record! I was just looking at the standings while ago, verifying that our beloved Red Sox are, in fact, once again, the best team in the Major Leagues (Woot!!) and the only team, as of today, with over .600 percentage. I was astonished to see that their home record is 21-5! Geez! The only other major league team with that kind of home record is the Braves, with 20-5. What a lopsided home record, and, unfortunately, the Sox are losing on the road. But, with this 7 game winning streak going, maybe they can fix that on this West Coast trip. Anyway. There is definitely something spooky about Fenway Park. Wonderfully spooky, I might add. I love it. Ted loves it. Grown men cry over it. They will probably break the record for consecutive sellouts this year.

I could go on and on, but I won't. Mainly because you're probably tired of reading by now. Fenway is Magic. 'nuf said, as McGreevey would have said.

Way To Go, Jon Lester!!!

2008-05-20T00:32:00.000-07:00

Wow.

Jon Lester throws a no-no and I missed the whole thing. I was on my way to work, listening to the Rangers blow a game with the Twins, when Eric Nadel announced it. I almost lost control of the van. Good on Lester, and great catch by Ellsbury.

It was a great weekend, too, with the Sox sweeping the Beer People, and the Rangers taking 2-3 from the Astros.

Ted, did you SEE Josh Hamilton on Friday night?? The boy went 5-5 and was a double away from hitting the cycle! It was amazing! Of course, tonight, he misplayed the ball that wound up being the losing play. I hope he's not too hard on himself, because losing this game was definitely a group effort. C.J. Wilson blew the save in the bottom of the ninth when they were ahead 6-5, and Michael Young struck out with the bases loaded in one of the extra innings. So...they all contributed. But Friday night...the Rangers hit 6 home runs as they whipped the 'stros 16-8.

So the Sox are on a nice streak, and the Yankees remain in last place by 6.5 games. I will enjoy that while it continues.

That's it for now...TTFN, y'all!

Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance To the Music...

2008-05-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

LOOK!!

LOOK!!

The Yankees are in last place!!

We all know that won't last. But it's fun while it's happening, isn't it?

And I also noticed that the Rangers and the Yankees have exactly the same record. I don't know when the last time that happened was (besides the day before the season started). That's also fun, especially since the Rangers are NOT in last place. Heh.

Hopefully, this day off will help the Sox get focused again. Been a dismal week.

But...curse Bud Selig and his interleague play. I hate it. Even though I'm going to the Rangers/Astros game Friday night.

TTFN, y'all!

May I Present the Play of the Year?

2008-05-14T22:58:00.001-07:00

I don't know what's wrong with our Sox right now, but I trust that they will come out of this slide and eventually retake first place from the TB Sunbeams (puppies and butterflies notwithstanding).

In the meantime, THIS play that Manny made yesterday has got to be the most amazingly awesome thing I have EVER seen! Manny makes the grab, facing the wrong way, running full speed, WALKS up the wall, high-fives a fan, and makes the relay throw in to double up the guy at first base. HAHAHAHAAAAA!!! Oh, and the batter was Millar, wasn't it? Heh.

And that, my friends, is why we love Manny being Manny!

And just for kicks, HERE is Asdrubal Cabrerra's unassisted double play from a couple days ago. (Thanks to Dawn for catching that mistake...I won't change it so her comment will still make sense...that should have read triple play, not double play.) It's only been done 14 times in MLB history. It's kind of confusing, but if you watch closely at the beginning, the two runners were going at the pitch (hit and run?). By the time Cabrerra had the ball, the runners were at second and third. He made the diving catch, jumped up, tagged second base, then tagged Scutaro, who had already rounded second. It was glorious.

TTFN, y'all!

The Century Mark

2008-05-09T02:06:00.000-07:00

I just realized that my "Stunned Silence" post was number 100 for me. That may not seem like a lot, but hey. I've stuck with something for a while, so that's significant. Especially when you consider that I have three different blogs going at the same time.

Anyway, the Rangers held on and shut out Richie "The Bully" Sexson and the Mariners, 5-0. Great game except for the stupid fight. I really hope Gabbard didn't get hurt in there. If you watch the video, which I should have on this post, he gets totally buried under the melee.

Here's the video

You can judge for yourself. The pitch was head-high, yeah. But it was over the plate. Sexson just went ape-...oops. I can't say that here. Heh.

Ok. I'll be watching the out-of-town scoreboard tonight at the Rangers game to see how the Sox fare agains the Twinks. I'm hoping the Rangers can continue their recent winning ways against Oakland tonight.

TTFN, y'all!

Benches Clear in Seattle

2008-05-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

Richie Sexson showed very bad form tonight, when Kason Gabbard threw a head-high pitch in the bottom of the fourth. Sexson took off his helmet, charged Gabbard, threw his helmet at him and jumped on him. Gerald Laird was right behind Sexson, though and tackled him.

The stupid thing is that the pitch was nowhere close to Sexson. It was over the plate, if not slightly outside. Hernandez had hit Kinsler in the last inning, after Kinsler hit a big fly off of him on the previous at bat. Sexson needs to grow up. I'm sorry the Mariners are in last place. Too bad. The pitch wasn't retaliatory. It wasn't even a "brush-back." The idiot Seattle tv announcers said "There's no doubt it was on purpose..." What? I guess Gabbard is such a bad aim that he can't throw a brush-back pitch??

The umps were fair, though. Sexson was apparently the only player ejected. After that display of childishness, Sexson should be suspended for a few games. Sexson, go sit in the corner and THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU DID!!! Bahahahaha!!!

I'm going to try to link the video. Oh, yeah...the Rangers are ahead 4-0 in the top of the fifth.

Ok...the link I had didn't work...it just linked to the "gameday" page for the game. I'll find it and get it in here later, when it gets posted on the website.

In other news, we celebrate as Beckett and Co. were back to normal tonight, soundly handling the Tigers 5-1 to win the series 3-1. Have I mentioned that S.I. picked the Tigers to win the World Series this year?? I know, I know...I just can't let it go, you know. I even saved the issue that has the predictions in it so I can look at it at the end of the season and laugh.

Stunned Silence

2008-05-07T22:17:00.000-07:00

*speechless*

(Papelbon blew a save...)

Red Sox Continue To Roll Over Motor City

2008-05-07T00:37:00.000-07:00

Wow. What fun that was! Wakey was hothothot! Papi and Manny hit back-to-backs, Manny's being number 497 (can you smell it Manny??)! 5-0 shut out over S.I.'s World Series pick. Heh. I'm still laughing over that. The sad thing is, statistically, Detroit should be winning games. Except for the fact that they really don't have any pitching. But they have some killer bats. Who just don't happen to be killing right now.

And it's only the unfairness of scheduling that keeps our Sox from being the "best team in baseball" right now. Arizona has played, what? two or three games less than we have? So they have a higher percentage. Pft!! Pftpft!! It'll catch up with them.

Dawn, didja see that homer that your Lowell hit t'other night? That was sweet. BTW, my wife has adopted Lowell as her "older" brother. He's not really older than her, but he looks older than he is, so she calls him that. Last year during the W.S., she got caught up in it with me and Steph, and really grew fond of Lowell and Jacoby. She calls him her "son." I call him Runs Like Heck. (I can't say the other word...I think some of my church members read this.) Heh.

And tonight, the Rangers woke up for a minute. Or at least three innings. They scored 10 runs in three innings, which was enough. 10 runs should be enough in any game. Among those three was a Mammoth homer by our friend Josh Hamilton. Officially scored at 425 by the Safeco Field scorers, Victor Rojas and Eric Nadel of KRLD radio (Rangers home station) said that was crazy, it was way longer than that. It went into the upper deck at Safeco. I'm waiting for the video to be posted online so I can watch it. From the broadcast, there was never a doubt from the moment it left the bat. Rangers win 10-1 over Seattle, regaining a tie for last place in the AL West. *sob* But, on the positive side, they have been playing at least .500 ball for the past week or so.

Tonight, the Sox should complete a sweep, oops, no...they have two more games with the Tiggers. Then it's on to play the Twinks.

Steph and I will be going to see the Rangers play the A's this Friday night, then the Astros next Friday night. Then I'm pretty sure I have tickets to see the A's again on the 30th. Normally, I wouldn't have done that, but the one for this weekend was added in later. Marshall, the one with the "Marshall in Peru" blog on my list, is in town this weekend, so we are taking him to a game. He keeps winding up in places where the Braves are playing and texting me pictures of Mark Teixeira batting, because Tex was Stephanie's favorite player when he was with the Rangers. I've accused Marshall of using all of our support money to travel around and watch the Braves play baseball. Matter of fact, he hasn't actually denied that accusation...Hmmm... Seriously, he is leaving for Peru again in a few weeks. May be the last time we see him for about four years.

Ok. That's enough for now. We shall cheer on tonight at 7-ish. Go, Manny!!!

A Brief Poll

2008-05-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Raise your hands if you think Roger's lying.

Yeah. I thought so. Look at all those hands.

Poor, poor, Roger. He's finally found out he's not indestructible. You can see the panic in his eyes. It gets more pathetic every day.

It's really sad when a true legend goes down like this. Why couldn't he have been more sensible like Nolan? You know...retire at the perfect time and go raise beef for a few years, then come back and be the president of your old team.

No, not Roger. Instead, he has to be completely delusional and lie and squirm. Sounds like much more fun, doesn't it? I think I agree with the S.I. columnist (I think that's where I read this) who said that he believes that Roger has actually convinced himself that he really is telling the truth. That's even more pathetic.

On to more positive things!

Tonight, our beloved Sox begin a series with the team that S.I. predicted would win the Whirl Serious this year. (Raise you hand if you get that reference! I'll give you a gold star!) *snort* *snicker* *falls out of chair* The *snort* Detroit *guffaw* TIGERS! BAHAHAHAHAHAHA.......

Go, Sports Illustrated!! Any more predictions?? Huh? Like maybe, you know, putting the Red Sox in SECOND PLACE?? Behind the *snicker* YANKEES??

Seriously, does anybody give Joe Girardi till the end of May?

Ok, all joking aside, I will never take lightly the threat that is the Evil Empire. Who can forget last season, when we were 15 games ahead of them at one point, and then suddenly battling for our first first place finish in 12 years? No lead is ever safe with the Yanks. I just don't think Girardi has what it takes to coach a team the caliper of the Yankees. Maybe they need Ron Washington.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Ow. I think I hurt myself.

Speaking of Washington, the Rangers take on the Mariners tonight in the battle for last place in the AL West. Should be, um, interesting. No, wait. Wrong word. I think I meant boring. Sigh.

If I didn't love the Red Sox, I might give up on baseball altogether. But, no...I'm a true fan. I'll keep going to Rangers games, no matter how bad it gets. But thank God for the Red Sox.

Hey. That could be a song! I'll get to work on it...

Heh.

TTFN, y'all!

Life Is Good

2008-05-05T00:34:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful weekend! The Red Sox actually swept their nemesis, the "Sunbeams." (Thanks, Dawn for that one...) Oh, and Dawn, were you at the games? I bet they were just awesome! I was sooooo happy.

And the Rangers actually took 2 out of 3 from Oakland. It's weird, but they are actually playing over .500 ball right now. And I'm actually going to see how many times I can actually use the word "actually."

In non-baseball news, Stephanie is feeling wonderful! It's a miracle! (And it very well may be, as we still have no clue what was wrong with her.) Well, we have a clue, just no official confirmation. She has been feeling better ever since about last Tuesday.

We all went to Scarborough Faire on Saturday. That's the local Renaissance Festival that is held about an hour from where we live. It was a blast. I dressed up as a friar, with a simple brown flannel hooded robe that my wonderful wife sewed for me, along with a gold rope belt and some sandals. I had a staff that I have had since the last time we went there. Really, it was tremendous. They have a beautiful setting with lots of trees and some rather permanent, old timey buildings. There are lots of crafts (very expensive, I might add) and lots of people dress in period constumes. Some dress in not-so-period costumes, such as the samurai that I saw and several "anime" type characters...oh, and a few who must have been modeling as the Sex Pistols. All good fun, though. There were swordfights, lusty wenches, lords, ladies, and I had my first glass of mead. It tasted suspiciously like White Zinfandel. I should be able to post some pictures soon. The best part, to us, is Zilch, the "torysteller." He's there every year, and tells tales, mostly Shakespeare, in "spoonerisms." For example, the one we heard was "Jomeo and Ruliet." It's rolling-on-the-floor funny, too!

Welp. Back to work with me...see you soon.

TTFN, Y'all!!

Close Games

2008-05-01T00:06:00.000-07:00

Wow. The last two games have been very good games, especially for the "baseball purist." Absolute pitching battles. Lester against Halladay...Halladay pitched a complete game (and lost...aw...), Lester pitched 8 scoreless innings and they brought in Papelbon to shut 'em down. Thanks to Youk (well, he doesn't get all the credit does he? Papi walked and Manny singled to set him up), we win in the bottom of the ninth.

Then last night, we do it again, only with a 1-1 tie in the ninth. Papi hit a sweet big fly into the right field stands. But Tek gets to be the hero in this game, with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth.

Meanwhile, the Rangers continue to struggle, so far winning one and losing one to the equally bad Royals. In last night's game, they got ahead early and stayed ahead, despite all efforts to lose. 11-9 final score, as the Rangers hit at least 5 home runs (all of their runs were caused by big flies), and Ted, you will be very pleased to know that our good friend Josh Hamilton hit his first Grand Salami last night, and I just happened to be watching when it happened.

They also have this new guy named Brandon Boggs? OMG, for his first four at bats with the Rangers, he was 4-4. He went 2-4 tonight, with one crushing home run that almost made upper home run porch, and now has a .667 batting average! Daniels will probably trade him next week. For a "big bat."

Things are progressively getting better at our house. We were all sick over the weekend. It started with Stephanie, who started "calling Earl" at around 2am Saturday morning. She was sick all day Saturday, and we actually attributed it to what we thought was (and still think might be) rheumatic fever, which sometimes comes on the heels of a strep infection. Well, this is not contagious. And my wife and I both started hugging the porcelain throne Sunday night. I left work early Sunday night and missed Monday night, she missed Monday and Tuesday. Stephanie finally went back to school Tuesday and after today, will have made three days in a row!! (Hear the angels singing??) She will miss Friday, though, because we have an appointment with a rheumatologist. We want to confirm (or unconfirm) that she had rheumatic fever. If she did, she will likely need to be on low dosages of antibiotics for a long time, in order to prevent another strep infection. We shall see.

Now the Sox have to play the dreaded Rays again. DEVIL RAYS!! Bring back the DEVIL!! Tam-pa Bay De-vil Rays. It just works better.

TTFN, y'all!

The Machine Rolls On

2008-04-23T00:48:00.000-07:00

Wow. The Sox continue to roll with a 7-6 win over the Angels last night. It was a close one, though, as the Los Angeles California Orange County Angels of Anaheim of the Long Skinny State to the West were actually ahead for an inning. Or maybe half an inning.

But hey. Didja see that Jacoby Ellsbury??? Oh. My. God. Two home runs. AND he scored the winning run. It makes my head hurt that anyone was even thinking about trading that boy for Johann Santana during the off season. I see a Rookie-of-the-Year award in his future.

My man Youk also porked one into the Monster seats. Which extended my "Beat the Streak" hitting streak to 8 games. I have a long way to go there, because someone has well over 20 going on right now.

Meanwhile, our poor Rangers can't even beat the Tigers. That's bad. They are most definitely doomed. Lots of speculation. Will manager Ron Washington make it out of Detroit with his job intact? We shall see. The Rangers are worse by at least a week than they were last season. Last season, they had not lost 14 games until April 29th and they weren't 7 under .500 until sometime in May. Sadly, most "experts" agree that they have more talent on the field than they had last year. Something is certainly very wrong, then.

Back to the important team. Red Sox bats have come alive with a vengeance. There's hardly a weak spot in the lineup. And, hopefully, Lowell will be back soon. Um...but what's up with our Beckett? I'm a little worried about that.

Oh, and we have Tampa Bay after the Angels. That's scary. For some reason, the Sox always have a hard time beating them. Maybe this year will be different.