The Fenway Flu

During the height of the Red Sox battle against the cold and flu season, I went to Fenway and came home with the flu! Coincidence? I think not! They lost that game against the Angels, but it was still great fun to be back at Fenway.

We got there in time to watch some batting practice
and Mike Timlin shag fly balls. Ortiz hit a bunch of balls out to us, which gave me a new appreciation for outfielders. The balls simply disappeared in the bright blue sky. I had to duck.
Julian Tavarez spent the entire batting practice talking at Oki and his translator. I'm pretty sure Oki doesn't understand a word Julian says. Luckily no fly balls hit the back of Julian's head.
Parlay the Parrot was safe and sound in the bullpen.
The Red Chair
It was supposed to be a Jon Lester game, but the flu wrecked havoc on the rotation. As a result, Justin Masterson was called up from AA and I got to see his outstanding Major League debut.
Luckily, Wally didn't get the flu...The pirates make their way to the pen. Most of them were affected by the flu, which was evident when they went on to lose the game for the rookie pitcher.
and about 5 minutes later, Julian Tavarez made his way to the pen. Someone forgot to wake him.
One of the highlights of the game was Big Papi's 2 run homer in the 9th. It was too little too late for the Sox, but slump busting for Big Papi.
The other highlight was definitely the great debut of the young Masterson.
The hawk even made an appearance.
It was good to see the new World Series flag flying high!Outside after the game, President and CEO, Larry Lucchino, was walking around like a mere mortal, talking to vendors.

497 = 427

Finally, Manny busted his homerun slump and is back on track toward #500...

Boys will be boys...

Lots of antics over the weekend at Fenway Park... Clip one is Lester harrassing the robotic dugout camera. You know you're in trouble when your young pitcher is trying to emulate your bad boy ace and your rookie pitcher, in turn, emulates your young pitcher. Luckily, Lester has better aim with a baseball than with sunflower seeds.

And Jerry Remy was in fine form when he got a new cellphone from NESN.

And Julio Lugo wound up in left field!
And somehow, through it all, the Sox have found themselves back on top...

Beckett Demands to be Traded

According to the Boston Herald, the Sox Ace demands to be dealt unless the players' ice cream machine is returned

Curse This, Big Papi!

Big Papi came out of his slump with a slam:

The infamous jersey

The one unearthed from Yankee Stadium is on ebay for a mere $33,100. Bid now!

I heart Sean Casey

The best thing the Sox did in the off-season was acquiring Sean Casey to play backup...Not only is he awesome, but he's hella funny, too...

Crazy in the clutch: BOS 5 - CLE 3

Well, Jason Varitek pinch hit the go-ahead run and just about won baseball boyfriend of the day, but at the very last second Jacoby Ellsbury made this crazy foul ball catch in the stands. It looks even crazier in the replay as you can see his legs flailing about. The best is he comes up all attitude like he's bad-ass. Silly rookie ;) I love him!

Ortiz jersey unearthed and so is his bat....

David Ortiz has never been in a bigger slump than he has so far this season. So on Sunday, Ortiz sat on the bench while his team played the Yankees and his jersey was dug of the new Yankee Stadium. On Monday, Ortiz and his jersery were back in the lineup and Big Papi got TWO hits! Coincidence? I think not! The curse of the jersey wasn't on the Yankees but on Ortiz. Now, with the curse lifted, we can look forward to many homeruns to come!

Whose line is it, anyway?

IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
2.2	2 0	0	0	0	4	0

Can you guess whose line that is? Oki? MannyD? Nope!! It belongs to this nutcase:

And his partner in crime hit a game winning homerun, they are definitely my collective player of the game...

The come-from-behind 9th inning was phenomenal. It had it all -- great base running, bunting, Ortiz hitting!!!, and Manny's homerun. I couldn't pick a clip of the day so here's the whole half inning (up until the pitching change)...

And Manny actually spoke to the press about it. Well, "spoke to the press about it" might be an exaggeration. But he did stand in front of the mic looking just slightly less annoyed than Josh Beckett. His answers are, of course, unintentionally hilarious.

Yankees not taking any chances

In an attempt to curse the New York Yankees, a Red Sox fan on the construction crew of the new Yankee Stadium buried an Ortiz jersey in the concrete of the new stadium. At first the Yankee management thought it was a joke, but upon realizing it was true, promptly dug it up. It took laborers 5 hours of overtime to collect the jersey. And I thought only Red Sox fans believed in curses.

Closer Competition

I had heard the rumblings. I heard that the Sox might try to make Manny DelCarmen a closer -- just for those days that Papelbon is off, of course. Well, Manny D proved he's got the goods, as he earned a save against the New York Yankees on Sunday night. Watch out, Pap! You've got competition....

Random Clip of The Day

I don't have cable. Yesterday I thanked that baseball gods that I have MLB.tv because otherwise I would have missed the 9th inning of the Yankees game. I was excited to watch a game on FOX but I don't have FX! Today, I'm blacked out on MLB.tv and I don't have ESPN. So I'm cursing the baseball gods and MLB.tv. I decided to occupy myself with a game from last August, back when David Ortiz could hit. For some reason, the boys at Rays TV showed the Coco Crisp gets run over by a moose clip. It was a really good video of the incident, so I uploaded it for your viewing pleasure. That is, if you're not otherwise occupied by a certain Yankees game!

Manny rolls through a stop sign

"F@#% Inner Peace"

Jimmy Kimmel sent his crew to totally disrupt a Mysore class...

The Fenway Hawk Conspiracy

Apparently a hawk has taken up residence in Fenway Park and it's not too happy about all the commotion in it's backyard. In fact, it attacked a young girl on a tour of the Park last week.

So you might wonder why this hawk hasn't been moved to a new home...

Well, watch the hawk's appearance in the Sox home opener against the Detroit Tigers as he appears to attempt to drop a mouse in the visitors' dugout. Maybe there is a reason that the Sox are keeping their new friend around...

Photos courtesy of boston.com. Video courtesy of NESN

Opening Day Highlights

No not the ring ceremony -- that was boring as crap and made me miss Dougie... The highlight of the 5-0 win over the Detroit Tigers was Manny's homerun -- I mean, triple, well, actually probably a double and an error, unless he ran right out of the box and then maybe a triple.. definitely a triple if he Coco Crisp. But for Manny, it was a homerun, of sorts. For the scorebooks, I believe, it was a triple and an error. But nonetheless, Manny rules!

Lords of the Rings

Before the game today, the Red Sox got their World Series Pennant:
And their rings:
And in case the size of the ring isn't apparent when they are side by side, check it in comparison to a normal ring. Holy heck!

btw, manny d doesn't suck either

just because he gave up a grandslam on one pitch, doesn't mean MannyD's off to a bad year. When Big Papi hits a grandslam, it never even enters our minds that the pitcher stinks. We know that Papi can hit in the clutch. And so can Frank Thomas. MannyD is in better shape than 2007 and has a year of experience behind him. He will have a fantastic year, and so far he has, if you can just erase that one pitch from your memory. Poor guy. I'm sure that's his nightmare -- called in with bases loaded and Frank Thomas at bat... if it didn't give him nightmares, it certainly will now!

On the bright side...

In an effort to erase the last 3 games from my memory, I watched a game from last August against the (Devil) Rays. Nothing like the Rays to make me think the Sox don't actually suck ;) So the worst is true. The boys are jet-lagged. Francona said that Mills called him at 1:30 in the AFTERNOON on a gameday to make sure he was still alive. Francona was still sound asleep. That's not normal. So when Ellsbury is jetlagged balls don't stay in his glove. So when Lugo is jetlagged, he can't, well, do anything. So when big Casey is jetlagged, he shouldn't get the nod at first. When little Dustin Pedroia is jetlagged, he can only make reasonable plays. And when Kevin Youkilis is jetlagged, he can't scoop up anything and make Lugo et al. look good. Now we know... Now we know what happens when our boys are jetlagged. The good news is that JD Drew will have a fantastic year and will prove that not only doesn't he suck, but he deserves his paycheck. The good news is that Manny Ramirez is not going to wait until May to hit, but he will also prove he deserves his paycheck. And the good news is that we still have Coco Crisp, just in case Ellsbury isn't exactly all that we hope he is, just yet..... And the best news -- this one took a late 2007 game to remember. This was was shoved to the back of my mind, trying to repress the agony -- but it is by far the most inspirational and motivating piece of good news that there can be -- let us not forget, ERIC GAGNE' IS NO LONGER ON THE BOSTON RED SOX. Oh YEAH! It is 2008! The boys are back in town and sleeping in their own beds (for 24 hours straight). Good times to come -- starting Tuesday at 2pm....

Manny Being Coco

With that and a third loss to the Blue Jays, the Red Sox are finally headed home for a well deserved day off....

In Tek We Trust...

In what was a disaster of a game (TOR 10 BOS 2), there was a highlight -- watch Clay strike out the batter and Tek throw out the runner all in one play

Flashin' Back

While watching Richard Simmons on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, I remembered him on General Hospital way way back in the day. So I went a googling and found this. Tooo funny:

The Pregnant Man

Manny Being Manny and Big Papi Being Big Papi

Now that games count again, (Thank God!) the Sox pitching is back on track. Dice-K and Lester both threw outstanding games against the Oakland As. Papelbon's command came back as well. The bats were looking a little jet-lagged until Big Papi hit this fantastic homerun. Manny, of course, tried to steal the show -- and he succeeded by starring in the funniest clip of the day. I love Manny being Manny...

Fenway Flashback: When Jonny Comes Marching Home Again

August 14 2007

It was Jon Lester's first start at Fenway Park in 2007 and he was greeted with quite a reception.

And he threw an outstanding game, giving up only one run and two hits over 7 innings. Lester had outstanding command of all of his pitches -- except for that first walk. He might have been a bit nervous ;)

NESN had a mic on Dustin Pedroia and provided this funny little clip:

And shortly thereafter an earthquake occurred -- no, it was just Kyle Snyder goofing around in the pen...

But the real highlight was the ninth inning. I'm still cuckoo for Coco Crisp!

Jimmy Kimmel should write the pop-up videos for Lost

Missing Japan

Some random screen shots from from Japan -- Did you see how the Japanese fans get autographs? The wall is too high to reach over so they literally fish for autographs and hang items and baskets over the wall to collect autographs. Very clever...
Look at the As players taking pictures of the Japanese dancers during the opening ceremonies. The ballplayers may have been the center of attention for the Japanese but they were still tourists in Japan...

Like an episode of LOST

Like the popular television show, the Boston Red Sox have been bouncing around in time -- from an exotic island to the city of Los Angeles. Is it a flashforward or a flashback? The Red Sox left Tokyo after their evening game -- you know, the one that was on at 3 in the morning -- and arrived in LA an hour before it started. Now if that doesn't cause some serious jet lag, what will? About the incident, manager Terry Francona said “So we throw our first pitch at 7:07 (p.m.) and we land at 6 (p.m.). I’m still trying to figure that out,” he said. “I have no chance.” The boys left a time when games counted and Brandon Moss was the star of the team. A time in the future when Manny Ramirez does yoga, talks to the press, carries around giant checks, and bats like it's postseason. They have arrived amidst spring training exhibition games that don't count. Brandon Moss is a member of the PawSox. But let's hope that even if Manny quits talking to the press, he will continue to hit the heck out of the ball. Manny Ramirez is my constant...

Fenway Flashback: Nobody Does It Better

August 13 2007

This NESN tribute to Tim Wakefield is unintentionally hilarious:

Sox vs. As Game 1: Ellsbury's catch

I've been questioning whether Ellsbury can be as good a defensive player as Coco Crisp. Well, yesterday, he proved he's got the stuff with this catch to save Bryan Corey's butt!

Manny Being Manny

I'm one of the few folks I know who loves it that Manny doesn't run when he hits the heck out of the ball. It's that moment that he spends admiring his hit that makes him Manny. It's the hustle that ensues when the ball doesn't go over the wall that makes him Manny. I love it! And I was treated to quite a Manny show in the season opener. Manny, who is embarking on a phenomenal season, won the game with this RBI... and no, he didn't run..

I Heart Brandon Moss

Brandon Moss wasn't expected to make the team. The Red Sox have too many outfielders as it is. Moss got to travel with the Sox simply because they were allowed a bigger roster for the trip. And he got to start simply because Drew's back hurt. But I think he just made this team. Just when the Sox were about to give up the season opener to the Oakland As, Brandon Moss hit his first big league homerun against the famous Huston Street...
Brandon Moss is definitely my baseball boyfriend of the day! :)

Fenway Flashback: Papi Keeps the Peace

August 13, 2007

In the best pitching performance, I've ever seen from Tim Wakefield -- he went 6 innings without a hit and in the end, threw an 8 inning shut out, giving up only 2 hits -- Big Papi tried to steal the show with his antics at the plate. When others might throw punches, Papi keeps the peace..

And Jon Lester tries to steal the show by being so dang cute:

Red Sox vs. Giants: JD Drew's Grandslam

The Sox beat the Japanese Giants 9-2. The highlight was JD Drew's grandslam homerun. The highlight for the Japanese seemed to be Dice-K getting knocked over by high-fives celebrating the grandslam. Japanese tv showed the clip over and over again...

In the opening ceremonies Terry Francona was crowned first runner up in the manager beauty pagent...

Red Sox vs. Hanshin Tigers: Opening Ceremonies and other highlights

I got a real kick out of the opening of the game. I just loved the Japanese pronunciations of the American names. I can only imagine how awful our pronunciation of Dice-K sounds to them. I especially like JACOB-E and BOOOOOOOOK-HOLZ. Laughs. The video is too dicey (pun intended) to show you the hat ceremony, but the teams traded hats and the Sox seemed genuinely excited about their new pieces of memorabilia.

And Sweet Caroline made the trip across the ocean...

Look how intense the crowds are -- and how bad Snyder's wild pitch is!

Red Sox vs. Hanshin Tigers: 1st Inning

Pedroia stuck out. Youkilis struck out. I began to think it was going to be a surprisingly tough game. I also realized I have embarrassingly little knowledge of the metric system... And then David Ortiz hit a nice, easy homerun. Here is his at-bat. Enjoy the commentary ;)
Big Papi's homer was followed by a couple of basehits and then a 3 run homerun by JD Drew. Man, it is nice to see Drew swing like this. Good times to come... I started to think this might go like those college games...

Turning Japanese i think i'm turning japanese i really think so....

Wow! What a culture shock trip just to watch the Red Sox game last night. Mlb.com carried it live. The coverage began without announcers and just filmed the opening ceremonies and national anthems without commercial breaks. There was a lot of camera time for Dice-K, of course. Eventually the game began. And it wasn't until then that I realized that there were no announcers. I thought it was odd that mlb.com didn't send their boys but whatever. Then suddenly men begin what seems like yelling in Japanese. OMG! The announcers are Japanese! I don't know why it came as a surprise to me, but it sure as heck did. How funny to hear their commentary but not understand a single word. I realized how much I depend on the commentator to keep reminding me of the count and the outs. The Japanese men didn't use a score line on the screen except for every once in a while. OH and they don't have commercials at all. Well, maybe they do in Japan, but none were shown. So the men stopped talking at the 3rd out and the cameras just scanned the players and scoreboard until the next inning started and the men suddenly started talking again. Very entertaining! Because of the late hour and the long innings, I only got half way through the game. It was highlighted by Papi's first inning homer and Drew's 3 run homer. Drew is going to have a fantastic year, I'm sure! Buchholz had a great 1st inning but failed to impress after that. I'll have video clips later, after I finish the game....

Fenway Flashback: The Best Bullpen?

August 12, 2007
Baltimore, MD

The Red Sox held a two run lead right up until Eric Gagne gave it away (yet again) in the 8th inning. The lead gave Julian Tavarez a chance to catch some Zzzzzs out in the pen...

Life in the Cage

Before he earned a major league salary, Reggie Willits of the Angels and his family lived in a batting cage!

Where the Heck is Maks???

I swore off Dancing With The Stars many, many nights, but always came back again to see the very hot Maks shake his stuff. But this season he is suspiciously absent! You can imagine my horror when the lineups were announced and Maks was nowhere to be found.. I did some research and according to ET, Maks is sick of losing and taking a break. Hopefully he will cameo and be back next year...

Fenway Flashback: Poor Coco!

August 7, 2007
Anaheim, CA

In Seattle, Coco Crisp got run over by a moose on an ATV. In LA he didn't fair much better.

Say It Ain't So...

The Sox broke up the band. They released Doug Mirabelli this morning from spring training, leaving Wakefield without a battery mate. Apparently they've forgotten the great Mirabelli trade back of 2006...

Beckett's Back!

No, he's not back on the mound just yet, but the foul-mouthed, eye rolling, media hating Ace that we all know and love is back! There has been much speculation over the past month that the 2008 model of Josh Beckett is a kinder, gentler, chubbier, and more media friendly than last year's version. But yesterday's press conference brought out the real Beckett. The word started spinning again... Here's the transcript for Extra Bases.

"Today wasn't as good as yesterday. We'll just have to wait and see I guess. Doctors told me yesterday that there was a possibility I'd come in and feel like I do today so as far as that goes, the doctors were right.''

Why was that, Josh?

"I'm not a doctor, I don't know.''

Did it happen because of looseness of mound dirt Saturday?

"I'm not going to get into the blame thing, Everybody's doing their job. Nobody's job is any easier than anybody else's. I'm not getting into that.''

Was there a mis-step on the mound Saturday?

"I'm not getting into that. It's nobody's fault. It's something that happens.''

It looks pretty doubtful for you to pitch in Japan.

"I don't know. We'll make those decisions as they come.''

Realistically, two weeks from today they open, you haven't faced big-league hitters yet, can you be ready by the 24th?

"I don't know. If I'd had as much progress from yesterday to today as I did from the first day to the second day, I wouldn't have ruled that out. Today I'm just holding up my obligation (to talk to media). It probably would have been better to talk to you guys yesterday because I was a little more optimistic. I'm in a pretty crappy mood as far as this thing goes because it was a pretty frustrating day because yesterday was good and today's kind of horse(bleep).''

Lower back?

''Yes."

Any discussion about an injection to reduce inflammation?

"No. I kicked around some of those ideas because it's a tough time in spring training, trying to get everything going. You don't really want setbacks this time of year. They basically told me that they couldn't find a spot to put the shot in there.''

Did they discuss that maybe putting you on a plane for 17 hours (to Japan) might not be wise because of your back?

"No. We haven't discussed any of that. We're just doing what we're saying, going day to day on how I feel. I pretty much have an interview with two or three doctors every day and report to the manager and pitching coach and my trainer."

Have you had an MRI?

"Yes. We've done a number of tests. There's nothing wrong with the disks, and I think that's what they wanted to make sure of. It's definitely a strained muscle or pulled muscle, whatever you want to call it. It heals when it heals.''

Have you had anything like this?

"No. Not like this.''

Back issues before?

''No.''

Any idea when you'll be healthy?

''No, I have no idea.''

Can you look far enough ahead to know the next time you can be on a mound?

''No. We're going to make sure it's completely pain free. I can't even really if laying in one position too long, or sitting in one position too long or standing in one position too long it kind of goes backwards. I've got to keep moving and stuff like that.''

What do you do tomorrow?

"Whatever they want me to do. Probably the same as what today was.''

Did it respond to treatment? As you're standing here right now, is it feeling better?

"It's kind of numb right now. I've had six or seven icepacks on it this morning.''

"I was a lot more optimistic yesterday than I am today. A lot of that has to do with being in a (expletive) mood because I didn't sleep well.''

Fenway Flashback: Got Ya!

August 5, 2007
Safeco Field, Seattle WA

On a crazy day, when Coco Crisp got run over by a moose, David Ortiz stole a base, Mirabelli was MIA when he should have been warming up Josh Beckett while Tek got his gear back on, and Dustin Pedroia pinch hit for Big Papi, the highlight was Josh Beckett. He stuck out nine, but stole the show with this awesome pick-off:

Fenway Flashback: When Mascots Attack

August 5, 2007
Safeco Field, Seattle WAAmerica's Most Wanted
In a Tonya Harding-like effort to get a leg up on the Boston Red Sox, the Seattle Mariners' mascot moose tried to run over Coco Crisp.Crisp struck back with two doubles, a sac fly, and a walk in the Red Sox win.

Bobby Kielty is in the house!

Do you think if he were born with straight brown hair, he'd be such a clown? The only thing I like about ESPN is the in-dugout interviews. Nothing like live dugout action to liven up a dull game. During yesterday's depressing loss to the Dodgers, ESPN had Kielty's name scrolling across the screen over and over, listed as a Red Sox departure. Kielty had to prove he was in the house by disrupting Ellsbury's interview. I really hope the Sox resign Kielty and I hope that he grows his hair longer and bigger ;)Here's the video of Ellsbury's interview:

Fenway Flashback: Manny being Manny yet again...

August 2007
Safeco Park, Seattle, WA
Manny put his head down and ran the bases like the devil himself was chasing him. He looked up to find Kevin Youkilis on the same bag. Ooops... The next night he took quite a dramatic lead off first. Check it..

Keep Your Shirt On!

Yesterday brought the first loss of 2008, thanks to an ugly inning by Clay Buchholz and and even uglier one by Craig Hansen. The good news is that it gave Don and Jerry plenty of time to discuss the "Dancing with the All-Stars" event. Lots of funny clips, made funnier by Jerry's commentary and Don's giggling.
And if you're curious, NESN has the entire performances.

Baseball is Back!

It's good to have baseball back! Friday night's game brought back Don and Jerry and kicked off baseball for 2008. The first few innings looked like a Red Sox game. The rest looked like a minor league game, full of unfamiliar faces and names. It became hard to cheer correctly. I had to keep reminding myself to cheer for the men in blue. Why are they wearing blue shirts with red socks? It's not a good fashion statement... And there was Tito all wrapped up in a big blue jacket, carefully following the new rule that managers can no longer wear "nightshirts". The highlight of the game, for me, was not actually the game, but a look back at Sox Appeal. Nothing is funnier than when Don and Jerry get giggling...

The Sox won Friday night's game against the Twins with relative ease (8-3). Dice-K and Oki had very nice outings. Saturday's afternoon victory wasn't quite as smooth. A healthy Lester struggled to find the plate and a crazy Papelbon forgot his jersey. Luckily the Sox always keep extra jerseys for Manny on hand, since Manny is, well, Manny...So Pap got to be Manny for the night.."I could feel the dreadlocks flowing, I just forgot my jersey and sure enough, they seem to always have an extra Manny jersey laying around here due to the circumstances."
Papelbon likely had a lot on his mind, as later that night he was to compete in Mike Lowell's Dancing with the All Stars charity event. Despite the distraction, Paps was perfect on the mound. On the dance floor, I can only imagine...