Just a dull ache now..

Yeah, y'know, being away from Fenway is not the life for me.

One day, I'll work there. It may be soon, it may not be for years, but everything comes back around to baseball. If I could do anything, I think I'd be Mike Hazen's sidekick.

I've had a ripping headache all day, didnt sleep well last night after spending hours on drawing up an important cover letter. Dreamt about front office people (not kidding).. no one in particular, but i remember being stressed out, which clearly ties directly into my current situation. Tossed, turned, got up at 7 and worked on the cover letter for a couple more hours until work.

Alrighty. Well, tonight I'm really just writing to post something. We can start with the easy stuff... Petey was incredible last night, and Youk and Scutaro were right there with him. combined 9 for 15! 9 runs and 4 rbi! noice.  I'll have to go back and see if Petey did that thing he does when he steals... I watched a lot of the game but was out of the house for some of it. I believe those were his first steals of 2010. AND Mr Jason Varitek, 3 for 5 with 2 runs and 4 rbi (as many as Petey/Youk/Scutaro put together!)... part of me is so stoked that Tek is showing more than just signs of life. He's never been a favorite, but I like the way he plays the game and I appreciate what he means to our pitching staff.
How many times have i mentioned that I'm not a Beckett fan, never have been? Trust me, I'd love to be. If only he'd give me a reason to be. His temper makes him entertaining to me, but otherwise he's just frustrating. He has this reputation for being so ... good. But... he's not been our team's Ace over the past few years. I must have gone off on this tangent before so I'll end it here.

I'm listening to the Paw Sox broadcast; the accents are so endearing. The commercials are quite small-townish and they make me smile. The team that the PawSox are playing came out on top of their game last night... after 15 innings. They're dead tired. There should be no question who wins tonight, and yet we're trailing by 2 runs. Kason Gabbard (who has bounced around a bit over the past few years) is pitching in place of Fabio Castro who got bumped up to Boston. Good Lord. Boston. What a mess it is up there. Nothing that cant be fixed, but it requires good players performing at or above their "par" levels. When my head isnt throbbing I will try to post some good points from the farm system, because there are some sharp looking players early on in 2010.

With that said... Bill Hall just doesnt fit on this team. I hate to be yet another hop-on on the bludgeoning bandwagon, but I'm trying to bring to mind anything that Bill Hall has contributed yet this season. Ah. One RBI.

Well well well. Check you out, Buckaroo. (Shoot, sorry, I know that some nicknames are gratingly obnoxious. I like "Buckaroo" so much because it's somewhat deprecating, and I've often had trouble taking Clay's attitude, or the attitude I've perceived him to have, seriously.) So far he's thrown 82 pitches over 6 innings! Efficient. Has only given up 1 ER! Pitching well though his strike out and hit against counts are not exactly stellar. I'm going to live in the moment because at any second he could start to crumble, as have become characteristic of the rest of our starters. It's refreshing to see so few runs scored against. The fact that we have only scored once in response is another story all together. Buckaroo. Reminds me of both a little kid and Dunkaroos.

You were waiting for it! I know you were... Michael Bowden is up tomorrow. Tonight he's sitting a handful of rows up from the net behind home, charting and texting and feeling bored. What I wouldnt give to be a 23 year old guy who gets paid many hundreds of thousands of dollars.. I would gladly chart games a few times each week, and wouldnt even be bored doing it.

Alright, my eyes are burning out of my head (or so it feels). Went to a Quakes game on Sunday, was one of those impeccably sunny warm days that make me desperate for Fenway, McCoy, or Hadlock. Sunny Sunday afternoons were MADE for baseball.

A Great Weekend

well, tonight's game vs Detroit has been eventful so far. we're in the midst of a rain delay right now, but to offer a short recap- Junichi Tazawa made his major league debut as a starter and went 5 innings, 1 earned run. his line actually looks pretty good... 4 hits, 2 bb, 6 k.. he threw 35 pitches in the first inning (actually, this was due to not one but TWO botched double plays, one of which was a complete wreck and the other which was broken up by a runner sliding into... shortstop? it definitely wasnt even close to second base and it kept Petey off-balance). he definitely got better as the game went on, and hey, you cant expect super solid performance can you? it's a big transition for a pitcher from AAA to the majors. what a strange game though. they scored 3 runs in the first inning and left us all with pits in our stomachs, thinking of our anemic-as-of-late offense. tazawa was throwing strikes but wasnt overpowering the tigers. bottom of the first and we did nothing. 2nd inning... bay with the 3-run homerun to tie it up. Jason Bay is a fixture favorite, and by that I mean that I know I'll be rooting for him for the rest of my life. Same with Pedroia, although Petey came first. Red Sox uniform or no, Bay and Petey are such likable characters and they make the game exciting.
Before I move on... there was a detroit batter just barely hit on the hand (well, it was just an out of control pitch delivered by a big-league first-timer... come on) and then an inside pitch to victor martinez in retaliation... and then... Porcello DRILLS Youk in the back. And there was no question, Youk was out of the batters box just like that, charging the mound. Porcello looked a little terrified and i dont blame him for it. No damage done in the end but Youk made it to him (you should have seen him go) and they were both on the ground by the time everyone else got to them.
Mikey Lowell came off the bench and hit 2 homeruns.

It's getting late now. Friday was the Paw Sox, and what do you know... we won. Futures at Fenway happened all day Saturday... and now I wish that they'd have a minor league game at Fenway every week. My ticketed seat somehow ended up being the one directly behind Kelly O'Connor who is the photographer behind www.sittingstill.net and who I've known online for about half a year. She had some great camera tips (our cameras are similar.. our zoom capabilities are not!!) and it was refreshing to talk casually with another woman who really just knows baseball. I'll have to jot down some highlights tomorrow because I'm fading fast and there are two games to summarize. I'll try to throw some pictures on here too.

Night.

parting thoughts from the 6/17 game

By the way, what's going on with Youk? All these strikeouts (3 this past game) and 0fers lately (0-4 this past game). or 1-fer's. not typical of the Youkah.

Petey looked great though. 3-5 with 3 RBI and 2 SB. I look forward to a long career as a Pedroia enthusiast.

500 consecutive sellouts at Fenway Park. Will be there tomorrow for 501.

Matt Wieters hit his first MLB homerun tonight. Way to go, kid- congrats. More to come from you, I expect.


NICK GREEN. LOOKIN SHARP, LOOKING LIKE A SHORTSTOP. I was at McGreevy's with coworkers tonight watching the game, decided not to skip out and hit up Fenway... man alive, Nick Green has really stepped his game up a notch or two in the past little while.


Smoltz and Buchholz combined for a win in Pawtucket. Today (6/18) Zink is on the bump... I need to sit down with someone who knows what's going on to hear the explanation for the MESS that the rotation has been as of late. Bowden will be going on 6 days rest if Friday is his start, Clay went on 7 tonight (and didnt even start, he  relieved Smoltz), Zink is going on 6.. it's that Smoltz guy, and all this rainy weather/ppd games, but the way guys have been shifted is a little crazy (Zink was scheduled to go 6/16 which would have been 4 days rest.. then as a game time decision they put reliever Rocky Cherry in to start.. I know, i've already mentioned a bit of this but I'd love to know a little more about what's going on behind the scenes here).


Today (6/18), I'm out of work at 4 to watch Sox BP from the Monstah (so unique to be in there before the gates open), then taking lots of Hanley pictures for my friend Victor, who is either a Sox, Rays, or Hanley/Manny Ramirez fan.. but cant possibly be all of them. oh, and the best part... catching the Sox/Marlins game from Pavilion SRO. LOVE it, some of the best spots in the house to watch a game from.

That's all i've got in me... I'm fading fast.. night.