Fenway Flashback: Retro Day

June 22, 2007
Petco Park, San Diego

Apparently it's retro uniform day --at least in San Diego. The lousy announcers haven't explained a thing, so I have no idea why, but our Sox have shown up in San Diego wearing their old school grey and blues:

Tek looks a little weird with the tall red socks but they look pretty good overall. Well the Padres seem to have chosen the strategy of distracting the Sox with the ugliest uniforms in club history. Hell, these have to be the ugliest uniforms in MLB history:

And it looked like it might work. Dice-K walked the first 3 batters! He eventually got used to the uniforms and pitched a pretty decent 6 innings, holding them to only one run. Even though their socks looked like this:
And their batting helmets looked like this:
Like I said earlier, the announcers were rubbish. They didn't even mention that JD Drew was out of the line-up, let alone why. Then when Pena was removed from the game and replaced by Dave Murphy, they made the announcement, but didn't bat an eye.. or explain who the hell is Dave Murphy??

Thanks to good bullpen work by Lopez, DelCarmen, Oki, and Pap, the Sox won 2-1. The Padres had lots of opportunities but failed to capitalize. The highlight? Papi's picture on the scoreboard, done Mr. T style:

Nevada Votes Mormon

Wow! I knew there were a lot of Mormons here in Nevada. I know a few. Well, the ones I know aren't mormons anymore, but they were born that way and they all have a LOT of siblings. And I know the power of the Mormon vote. Hell, I watched Dancing with the Stars. The Mormon vote kept Marie Osmond in that game months longer then she should have been. So maybe it was naive of me to be surprised that Romney stole the show her in Nevada, winning the GOP caucus by a landslide. The Republicans sent so many folks to caucus, it caused logjams in many precincts here in Northern Nevada and set the whole day back almost an hour. And they were apparently all there to vote Mormon! Who knew!

Fenway Flashback: And I'm Still Cuuuckooooo for Coco Crisp!

June 20, 2007
Turner Field, Atlanta

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I LOVE LEAD OFF HOMERUNS! JD Drew hit one against the Braves to start a little first inning homerun derby... Drews run was quickly followed by none other than my new favorite Red Sox, Coco Crisp! The Braves intentionally walked Tek (huh?) to pitch to my little Coco Crisp. Did they forget he hit two homeruns against them just 2 games earlier? Well, they must have thought it was a fluke, but they were wrong. Coco is hotter than hot... Check it:

Not to be outdone, Big Papi hit a homer in the second and the homerun dancing began:

A couple of innings later, Manny joined in the homerun fun. And then even Hinske got in on the action. Here's a little clip of all those big swings.

And here's even more dancing. This clip is a little long as the announcers are just fascinated by Manny being Manny...

That said, the weirdest part of the night. Tavarez threw a 7 inning shutout.. i might be starting to like interleague play =)

Fenway Flashback: I'm Still Cuuuckooooo for Coco Crisp

June 19, 2007
Turner Field, Atlanta

Ok, there is ONE thing I do like about interleague play. I like watching Josh Beckett bat. It's really funny. He stands up there really stiff like he's not even going to swing, but then when he does swing, he can hit! Here he hits an RBI double to help his cause...

Look how smug he looks out there on second base. =) But the real highlight of this game was another amazing play by little Coco Crisp. Another unbelievable diving catch:

About the catch, Becket has this to say:
Yeah, those are my thoughts exactly! Lovelovelove me that Coco Crisp. I also love how Cora puts his fist up prematurely because he knows that if anything is in the same zip code as Coco, he's got it...Lastly, here's a cute little Manny being Manny moment that entertained the announcers:

Fenway Flashback: I'm Cuuuckooooo for Coco Crisp

June 18, 2007
Turner Field, Atlanta

It was the Coco Crisp show. Coco, of all people tried to save Schilling's ass in this game against the Braves, hitting TWO homeruns. Yes, you read that right, Coco Crisp hit TWO homeruns! But for me the highlight was this missed catch. I think Coco has got to be the most talented outfielder in baseball. I mean, really, he's a freaking ball magnet. He can catch anything. But he did miss this one, but in missing, he almost jumped over the centerfield wall, spiderman style. Check it...

I really love Coco Crisp. I love Ellsbury too, but I will really hate to see Coco go..

RIP

Sad news! I just found at that Worthington Foods (aka Kellogg) has discontinued my beloved TUNO =( =( It was the best (and only) fake tuna around. It will be missed....

Fenway Flashback: Father's Day

Have I mentioned that I hate interleague play? Well, the June series against the Colorado Rockies cemented my opinion. The only thing that made the series slightly watchable was the knowledge that the Sox will kick the crap out the Rockies in a few short months -- when it matters. Every Holliday hit had me thinking, 'whatever, he gets picked off in the world series' ;)... Then there was Beckett's first loss decorated with a grand slam. Bad bats and bad times at Fenway.

Then the strangest thing happened... JD Drew led off. I know, weird, huh? But it worked! The jolly green Giant came to town. It was the Drew-Pedroia one-two show. It was fantastic! The two went head to head to see who could get more hits and RBIs and Dustin won, going 5-5, including a homerun! The Sox won 10-2. Night 2 was a little tighter -- Manny hit a homerun for the only run of the night for either team. Who needs Barry Bonds when you have Manny! And finally it was Father's Day and the Bonds finally hit a homerun off Wakey. No matter, the Sox still won... The highlight for me was Donnelly getting dumped onto the DL and MANNY DELCARMEN getting the call. He didn't throw particularly well, but I know it's the start of good times in that Sox bullpen.

The other highlight was this tiny little clip of Little Papi taking BP...He's the cutest little guy ever!

A new twist on the steroid controversy...

look at those biceps!

When I read the New York Times headline "Prominent Entertainers Cited in Steroids Inquiry" I thought it was a joke -- a spoof of the Mitchell Report. Then I read the first paragraph and I was sure it was a joke.

Entertainers including the singer Mary J. Blige and the rapper 50 Cent are among thousands of people whose names are turning up in an investigation into obtaining steroids or human growth hormones, an Albany newspaper reported on Sunday.

But it's no joke. Mary J. Blige is now Mary J. Blige*. Yup, she gets an asterisk on her grammy award... Will she ever be voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? I wonder if Arnold is on that list?