Cooperstown
Last year, right after the Red Sox had won the World Series, I was lucky enough to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame. My best friend and I went and came home to two very upset kids, our sons. So a few months ago, A asked me if I wanted to go back again, this time with the boys.
Duh?! 
Leaving tomorrow am with Aidan to go pick up A's son D, going up to Albany, picking A up at the airport, and driving out to Cooperstown. We're gonna spend a few hours walking around town, maybe pick up some souvenirs, grab a bite to eat while talking about baseball the whole time, and then head back to the hotel and let the boys swim for a while before crashing. We're going to go over to the Hall first thing Sunday and spend the day, be back Sunday evening sometime. Gotta love a chance to hang out with your buddy, your kid, and talk baseball for two days
Sometimes nice guys finish first
Dustin Pedroia, the 5'9" second baseman for my beloved Red Sox, just took the AL MVP award. The guy is unbelievably talented - he won a golden glove, a silver slugger, and now the MVP. He's one of the major reasons they did as well as they did this year.
Nice thing is, Boston also got third place with Kevin Youklis, their 1st baseman who ended up playing 3rd for a large part of the season.
Yeah, and A-Rod? 6th 
Never count em out…
So I'm in my office yesterday and a fellow Sox fan tells me 'no way'. He's speaking of course about the streaking Rays and how they're gonna win last night.
"Maybe, but it's never over with them...I'll believe the 3rd out in the 9th inning."
Am I psychic?
Kazmir was the pitcher, so I thought the Sox would have a better chance because he didn't pitch well in game 2(or was it 1?). He shut them down last night, so much for wishful thinking. They didn't hit doodley. By the 5th inning, Dice K was already gone, they were up by 5 already, it was looking really bad.
7th inning they get two more. Oye, well at least Fae will be happy, she won't be a baseball widow. I got a late snack, put on my hat, and watched as they took the Sox down batter by batter.
And then they got a few hits. Pedroia gets up and singles and brings one home. "Good, at least it's not a freakin shutout. Come on guys, don't go out this way."
El Senor 'MyBatIsn'tWorkingInTheOffseason' Ortiz decides he's had enough with the strikeouts - three run homer. Dude, the stadium went crazy. I think I heard them in NJ. Now it's 7-4. Okay, this is better. It's reachable now. Lets see what happens.
8th inning, nothing for the Rays. Okay, lets see what the boys can do. DUDE!!! THREE MORE?!?!? JD Drew hits a two run shot, Kotsay gets a double and Crisp, after a 8 or 9 pitch count, slaps a single to bring Kotsay home and tie it up. Granted, he gets tagged out at 2nd, but all of a sudden, it's a VERY INTERESTING GAME!!
Masterson pitched a beautiful 9th, didn't let anyone score. Youk gets a double on a bad throw to Pena. They intentionally walk Bay to get to Drew. WHy? I know the force out, but he just hit a two run shot! Well, he hit a nice shot to bring Youk home - game over Sox win 8-7.
Sorry Yankee fans, you'll have to wait at least one more game to have your big laugh. Problem is, this is what the Red Sox do. Hope you start praying, because the bats are awake, the boys are psyched, and we're headed for another game.
Josh Beckett, savior of last year, I'm praying for you my friend. You are now the man, don't let me down.
Maddon and the Rays - you have been unbelievable all season. Tho I do hope you're a little nervous now
Papi - you know I love you man. You've been hurt AND you lost the threat behind you so they're pitching you different. Heal up and figure them out again. You're amazing!!!
Surprised + confession
Surprised: Well, lets even go so far as saying shocked. Dodgers swept the Cubbies? Did NOT see that coming. I figured the Cubs would destroy LA quickly and loudly.
Confession: I didn't have enough faith in my team. I really thought the Halos were going to eat the Sox for breakfast and tie it up quickly. Starting out in LA, then coming back to Fenway? Figured we'd be able to take the games in Fenway, but I did NOT see Bay and Drew coming through so completely.
Conclusion: All you need to do is get to the offseason, and then all bets are off. When you get to October, everything changes. Boston seemed to maintain to get in. Talk about waking up? Holy crap! I'm still blown away. And very tired from staying up until 2am watching the end of Game 2. Man, so glad I did tho. What an amazing ending! Papelbon was awesome.
I'm curious to see what you all think - were most of the highpower teams playing hurt for a good part or most of the season, or was it just me because Boston was so f'd up all season.
And to go on record - I'm STILL glad Manny left. I wish the Dodgers luck, if only to allow Joe Torre to give the Steinbrenners the bird.
Go Guys Go!
4 in the first inning, just scored again in the 4th...Man o Man!
Now I have to make a confession. I'm surprised that Boston is doing so well. But it all comes down to what kind of player are you in the offseason. Boston seems to thrive in the offseason. There are several things that thankfully came into focus in the last couple of days/weeks.
JD Drew and Lowell came back from the DL. They've been playing so little this season, and Lowell only played Game 1, he's out again until Sunday's game at Boston. They're taking it easy on him because he has a torn labrum in his hip. Yes, you can wince now.
It comes down to one thing - Tony Francona. He's such a smart manager. He put in Kotsay and Alex Cora in the lineup when he moved Youk over to third because the two of them hit REALLY well off the guy pitching tonight Santana. He is a very good thinking coach.
Uh oh Angels fans - Torii Hunter just went into the dugout with a bit of a limp. Dude, that would suck because he hurt it jumping up in the air protesting a call at first.
Again, another confession - Dude, DiceK is doing WELL tonight. I'm amazed at the pitches this guy is throwing. I didn't realize he and Lester have so many different pitches they can go to. The only thing that would make this sweeter would be for Varitek to start on a hitting run. I feel bad for the guy, he's had such a crap year hitting and his contract is up this year - should make for interesting discussions. I think Boston will keep him, possibly on a shorter contract than he would have wanted.
Hmm, things are heating up in the 4th. Going to go watch
GO SOX!
edit: 1:03am - tied going into the 9th inning. Oh man. Why did it have to be played out there? I have a soccer game to wake up for tomorrow!!!
edit: 1:16 - man o man, nice hit JD! Please, Please - Papelbon. Finish it so I can go to sleep
edit: 1:30 - Nicely done Jon, put em away. Did you see that catch by Youk practically in the dugout? Holy Crap!
Night y'all.
Fenway pics
WordPress is way too cool. I can link to my flickr account to show you the pics.
In…Freakin…Credible
note:I don't have the cable for my camera, I will post pics tonight
for those who haven't been following, I finally realized a dream last night. My 40th is coming up in January and my best friend, who is a diehard Mets fan wanted to remedy a crime in the world.
Would M@ get to Fenway before his 40th birthday?
Thanks to Alex, that would be a resounding YES!!!
We took off yesterday from our office around noon and headed up to Boston. I LOVE Boston. I love Boston more than I HATE NYC. Yes, I'm sorry, I grew up on Long Island, I live in NJ - I HATE NYC! I've never liked being there. "Oh the energy, the pace, the people, they're amazing, electrifying...blah blah blah" The energy and the pace make me agitated and nervous, no thanks. I go in from time to time because Fae loves it, and I appreciate certain things about it. Given the chance, I'd never go in again:)
Boston? Boston feels like home. I don't know why, but it always has. Ever been to a city that you have almost no connection to and it just feels right? Yeah, that's it for me. It was really nice yesterday because my buddy went to college up there and lived there for several years, so I got a tour of places around and in the city that I hadn't seen before.
So we found a place to park down the street from the park and walked back towards the field. Let me just start by saying this - this is a REALLY small park. I mean REALLY SMALL. I've walked all the way around Shea a time or two, but Fenway is REALLY SMALL. I'd say it's about 4 sq blocks in NYC. Tell you what tho, they pack it in. We walked around for a while, I got a REAL Sox hat, got hats for the kids, grabbed a beer(yes, non-alcoholic) that tasted better than it should, and wandered around outside the game for a while. The weird thing is, I was only 4 blocks away from where I spent a weekend in the early 90's when visiting a friend at Boston Univ. Should have gone then 
Then we went in.
Wow man. Everything I've watched for so long, all right there in front of me. Our seats were about MAYBE 40 feet from the field. During the game, i heard Kevin Youklis say SHIT! from almost all the way across the field.
The whole experience seems a little unreal to me. I saw the Ted Williams seat (longest home run hit in Fenway - the seat is Red), went and touched the foul pole, saw Josh Beckett smiling and talking to some fans while he warmed up. Saw the Sox stretching and warming up like 40 feet away. One of the biggest differences - I always knew this, but this totally confirmed it....
Big Papi has that name for a reason. Dude, he's huge. I mean HUGE. At one point, he and Pedroia were standing next to one another. Wow. Pedroia is a short guy, but DAMN, Papi is Big.
The grass seemed greener, the sounds seemed both more real and unreal at the same time. Hearing the players call for the ball, hearing the SMACK as Papi hit a home run. And I mean SMACK like the instant he hit it, no delay. KNEW as soon as he did, it was gone.
I was finally surrounded by people who understood my love for a team, who waited so long for them to finally make it, and then get lucky enough to do it again. I was surrounded by friends who were complete strangers, by people who listened to me go on and on about this player or that player or anything I wanted to talk about.
This one guy behind us tapped me on the shoulder late in the game and said the most profound thing I've heard in a long time - "Welcome to Fenway, Brother." I felt like I was home, like I was finally sitting in a place where I was supposed to be. Like I had been away for a long time and was finally coming home. I felt like I belonged in a way I hadn't ever felt before.
Besides my wedding and the births of my kids, on a totally Man/Testosterone laden level - the best day ever. And you know what? They didn't even win
a dream realized
I was hoping to be able to attach a pic of me with my blackberry, but its not happening. I'm here, psyched, and realizing a long time dream.
I was going to post a lot. You know what? I'm going to enjoy this without posting:)
Hope you understand, ill wrap it up tomorrow. For now I'm going to enjoy a game in my ballpark with my best friend.
Thanks Alex
Now for my real morning post
Whine whine whine.
Yeah, I think I'm sick. Going to try to get rid of this sinus headache, but I am not sure it's going to go away by itself. Going to go up and get a Musinex in a little while. Can't think straight, tho the japanese post was fairly understandible.
No deep posts today Mike, I promise.
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Boston - 1.5 games behind the Rays, 6.5 games ahead of the Twins in the WildCard. Interesting post yesterday about whether Francona(Sox Mgr) will push them to try and take the division, or rest everyone up so their healthy. A bunch of people could use some time off. We'll see. If we win tonight and the Rays lose? Could make things interesting.
love the one you’re with
Alex has season tix to the Mets and invited me to go tonight. Its amazing how relaxed I feel right now. I'm sitting at Shea, watching them groom the diamond after batting practice, relaxed and easy. With everything I've got going on, its nice to put it all on hold for a small period of time and not worry about anything more important than deciding on popcorn or crackerjacks.
What is it about baseball? Why does it make me feel like a kid? I find it funny that I'm blogging about this and Alex just walked up with a bag of kettlecorn.
Let's see how the Amazin's do against the Padres!!!