Double-H! A no-hitter! This was the first time I'd seen a Red Sox pitcher throw a no-hitter on TV (Lowe's: I was at Fenway(!); Nomo's: I was working overnights, so I slept through it--only would've had it on radio anyway; Young's lost no-no: may have caught it on radio, no real memory of whether I did or not), and holy crap was it hard to watch at the end. I can't even imagine being on the mound in that situation, with two outs in the ninth.

I kept seeing "Lowe (11-11)" at the bottom of the screen, and figured that was good luck. (I also remembered that his was a 10-0 win, so when we had men on in the eighth and an 8-0 lead, I rooted for two more runs, which we got.) Great job by Coco in the outfield, and more of a great job by Dustin--one of the best plays of the year, no-hitter or not. And Clay himself made that key stab of a grounder, too. What a night.

Of course, I was pissed at Lugo for messing up that double-play ball, immediately thinking of how he could be screwing Buchholz the way he did Schilling, making him get an extra out. But not even Lugo could ruin this night. The three guys I kept thinking about were Millar, Markakis, and Payton. I figured Millar would be rooting for us, so he'd give up an out to see the no-no. Markakis grew up a Sox fan, so he might be secretly rooting for the kid, but he's just so good, you should never bet against him. And Payton, I figured he wanted to break it up more than anyone, and he almost did. The fact that Markakis was scheduled to hit third in the ninth scared me, but Buch-61 got him.

Reactions:

Drinkwater: Arms up in air, three jumps, then the usual sprint for the exits, but not before running into the guy next to him.

Kapstein: Big smile, no clapping, just a little fist pump, much like CLay himself.

Werner and Henry: Jubilation, yet I wondered where the ever-present Lucchino was.

Theo: "Hell, yeah! Eat that, Cashman!!!!!!!!" He was as psyched as the regulation fans were.

And I loved how Beckett yelled out, fortunately toward a microphone, "Clay Buchholz, better than Curt Schilling," right to Curt.

Poor Lester has to follow that....

I salute you, Clay Buchholz. Anti-terrible job! 5 games up.

Red Sox, don't cut a six run lead to one and put the tying and winning runs on base unless you're gonna finish the job! Going to the bottom of the seventh, down six, I felt we had a really good chance to win. This was the O's bullpen, after all. But it wasn't to be. Damn!

It's okay, the ringless-since-2000 ones got destroyed by the Devil Rays at home, so we're still 5 up. I'd say "I knew they used up all their energy against us," as I fully expected a letdown from them tonight. But it is true about momentum ending with that day's starting pitcher. Phil Hughes Philled his Huggies, and the D-Rays guy threw a gem--a run on two hits, with no walks, in eight innings.

Buchholz goes tomorrow, as Tavarez had to move up to tonight. (Nobody's mentioning that he'd already earned another start that would've been tomorrow before it was determined Wake wouldn't go tonight.) Then it's Lester on Sunday. Wow, a three-game series in which none of our top four starters pitch.

How crazy was that play where Roberts missed the ball by the stands, and Millar goes and fist-pumps the fan? It also brought up a question in my mind: Where is the imaginary line that the fans can't cross without being called for interference? Is it the edge of the field or the edge of the stands? Because in that spot, there's a sign that sticks out from the wall. So the air above the sign is kind of a mystery zone. I'd guess you can stick your hand out to the point where the field starts. So if there's a sign, you can reach, technically, out of the stands, as long as your hand doesn't extend to a point over the field of play. But what about tarps? Can you reach out to the top of the cylinder? Or all the way out to a point above the field-facing side of the tarp? Or out at all? Wait, the fielder is allowed on top of the tarp, so maybe the fielders totally have the right to the air above the entire tarp, and/or signs, as long as they're low enough to climb on to or reach over. (see diagram, click to enlarge)

Call-ups for tomorrow: "& Meyers" Ellsbury, "B-randy" Moss, Royce "I totally played when Jere was still collecting baseball cards. Okay, non-Gedman baseball cards." Clayton, and Bryan "Here Are Some Words That Rhyme With" Corey. And Double-H Buchholz, of course.

Tito got pissed when a cell phone kept ringing at the post-game press conference. Stick it to the man, Tito. Humans are the rudest. Speaking of Tito, I flipped past CNN today, and noticed the words "Red Sox" on their bottom scroll. I kept reading: "...manager Terry Rancona was ejected from yesterday's game..." The next headline came up, and it was completely unrelated. First of all, the name thing. Terrible job. Second of all, how is this fact by itself, or even with other more important facts from the game, CNN-worthy news? Reading the next few headlines, I did get the feeling they gave the job to a high school intern for the day or something.

Oh, and did you see after the top of the first tonight, when NESN forgot to go to commercial? As soon as the music cut out at the point they should have cut to ads, and then came back...I knew we were in for a treat. I'm on my feet yelling to my girlfriend, "We may get secret talking! Secret talking!" It stayed silent, and then you heard a mic click on. A breath is let out... Here we go... Unfortunately, there was no cursing or anything, but we did get to hear Don and Remy trying to figure out how to get a pre-game interview, and how they have to pay for it or something. I love that stuff. When we first got cable back in the 80s, there was a certain news channel that would show the reporters sitting there during what was a commercial break--for some viewers, not for us. You'd hear some funny stuff....

[edits to this post: Terrible Joba has been suspended 2 games. And Wakefield is not starting tonight due to back issues. He'll miss a start, with Tavarez filling in.]

View Larger Map

Weird-lookin' abandoned structure, eh? Start zooming out until you figure out where it is.

So, I'm finally ready to talk rationally about what happened in the game yesterday. Terrible Joba, aka Joba the Slut, aka Slobba, aka baby head on Clemens' body, who gives Lincoln, Nebraska a bad name, by the way, was totally throwing at Youkilis. I don't even think Posada was calling for it. In fact, I'd guess the rest of the Yanks are pissed at the Terrible One. We're gonna be super-psyched to get revenge when they come to Fenway in a few weeks, so the last thing they wanted was to give us more motivation.

We'll see about the possible fine situation. What is it, two thousand bucks for not wearing the correct jersey top? I wonder what it is for throwing a ball 100 MPH at someone's head, risking their life?

And now more about the map at the top of the post. If you've ever driven up the FDR Drive on Manhattan's East Side, and looked out into the East River, you've seen an old, abandoned, castle-like building. It's on Roosevelt Island, just about opposite the United Nations. It's called Renwick Ruins, and was originally a smallpox hospital. It was a nurses' residence until the 1950s, when it was abandoned. Check it out, here's a pic I took of it from a moving car a while back:



Finally, check out this sweet prank.

I was thinking of making a separate webpage celebrating the fine examples of recent assholery toward the Red Sox. Now I have even more of a reason.

Let's look at this rationally: The Red Sox. A fun team with fans who have supported them for a long time despite the team never winning, who were made fun of, a lot, for this, who now can be happy that the team finally won, but still support them as proudly as ever, while still going to other cities to see their team, buying tickets that the local fans don't want.

Now look at it from Jim "I Better Prepare the Pee-Proof Dome for my Gravestone and Surrounding Area" Caple's point of view: The Red Sox. A team whose fans "take over" seats from--I'm not making this up--"hard-working local fans," who should keep a World Series celebration "to ourselves" like the White Sox fans did (?), and who are--ooooooh, "acting like Yankee fans." Oh, no, what will we do, we've been told by a douchebag that we're acting like Yankee fans! Everybody, let's all stop rooting for our team! and just sit quietly when they win the World Series for the first time in our damn lives!

Seriously, that whole "tell people they're acting like their enemy" threat is so old and tired and ineffective. And thoughtless! You're a writer for ESPN, you can't think of an original idea? People were saying this shit since before we won the World Series! "Red Sox fans will become Yankee fans." What, do we now only cheer when the scoreboard tells us to? Do we now sing homophobic songs at every game? Do we act like we've already won when we haven't yet? Do we only pay attention to our own players, saying "no one could be better than..."? Do we treat fans of other cities like lower-class people? Do we ignore years in which we've lost and only bring up the years in which we've won? Do we talk about our uniform like it's a fucking sacred shroud? Do we hold up signs indicating the rival must have some magical curse on their heads? Do we rub our six championships in, hmmm, anyone's face, even though most teams haven't won that many? Do we use the term "mystique" seriously?

Caple and the rest of the jealous reporters are the ones who really need to shut up, not us.

The worst thing about this article is not the line about being like Yankee fans--he even admits that he's saying that in an effort to "sober us up." I just hate when he, or anyone else, starts a sentence with "ever since 2004." He's implying that we won, and so we all decided to go out to other cities and get in other fans' faces. Look, man, 86 years without winning and still being a fan of the same team should prove to you that we've always loved our team, win or lose. Surely you noticed Red Sox fans flocking to other stadiums, while selling out Fenway Park, BEFORE 2004. I've got pictures, guy. Or look at the old game tapes. Or listen to Ken Coleman in the game from 1967, which appears on the DVD about that season. He mentions how they've seen great support for the team all year long, at home and in other cities.

Do these people think that if Dave Roberts had had one less Wheatie that night in October 2004, and had been thrown out, and we still hadn't seen a championship, that we'd all have given up? A Camden Yards with 50,000 Orioles fans? You have to be shitting me. We love our team and we follow them around. (And ask the Sox fans you see at road parks--you'll note that most of them traveled from or once lived in New England. These aren't bandwagoners.) If anything, complain about the state of a professional sports league that allows most of its teams to not have a chance to win, leaving the few teams that do have a chance forced to try to keep up with Steinbrenner.

What this guy should do is go to a game at Fenway Park. If he can find any of the visiting team's fans (this doesn't include Yankee games, naturally), he should follow them around the whole game, and see if anyone insults them in any way. We're not out to hurt anybody, we're just rooting for our team, and against the Yankees. (That last sentence could very well be America's motto for all non-Yankee fans.)

Caple: We're not going anywhere. We are proud of our team. We put up with a lot of shit. Almost all the other teams' fans got to see a championship. We are so psyched for what those guys did for us, we're still going to cheer them, as a (non-Yankee) visitor or still as one of our own. I don't see anything wrong with that. Other cities: we have no problem with you or your team, we're just in your park to root for our guys. (And we'll be rooting for your guys against the Yanks.) If this causes anger in you, consider directing that toward your fellow fans who aren't buying seats, or the league for not doing a better job of keeping all the teams on a level playing field.

Again, we can all rejoice in our mutual hatred for the New York Yankees.

Let's go Red Sox. And all other non-Yankee teams. Clap clap clap clap effin' clap.

Five games up as we move toward September.

Last night, my girlfriend and I were in the car listening to the game, when Geffner said to Castiglione, "I hate to break this to you, but Paul McCartney [in the crowd] is not rooting for the Red Sox." My girlfriend says, "Paul McCartney!? He probably doesn't know anything about baseball!" I respond, "that's a Yankee fan."

A note on camera-work: How is it that professional camera people still fall for the "high fly ball" trick? On Damon's bullshit homer in game one, the NESN camera followed the ball, instead of showing the fielder. Oh, that's really high, that must mean it's deep, so I'll follow it as it sails into the night.... Wrong! Wrong! They were lucky to barely catch the end of the ball's flight as it dunked into the walkway in front of the front row, having left the camera aimed toward the upper deck. I really would've liked to see the fielder going into the corner and almost having a play on the ball. I went to the Yankees' site to see the home team coverage of the play. While they kind of fell for it, too, they at least aimed the camera down toward field level earlier than NESN did. (They did follow the original angle with several others, some of which totally did the "follow just the ball to make a bloop dong look majestic" thing.)

A note on heat: Are we really allowing "hot" to make a resurgence? Terrible job. I'll never forget getting to New York in '05, and quickly realizing that everything was "hot," apparently thanks to Paris Hilton, who apparently said the word all the time--even though I didn't know who was hearing her talk, let alone how they'd go about finding a way to hear her talk, let alone having any desire to imitate any of her sayings. Now, since everyone hates Paris Hilton, I thought "hot" was dead, having already completed the American ad campaign circuit. However, now songs are coming out with "hot" in the title, leading to more "heat": Some deodorant commercial says you should use their crap "because you're hot," even using that phrase as their url. Terrible job by everyone as usual. "Hot": It ain't cool.

After I'd thought about that, but before I came to the computer to write it out, I flipped on my TV to hear, at that moment, Mr. Rogers say, "That looks very hot, Mr. McFeely." "Oh, it is very hot," said McFeely. Turns out they were talking about the pulp that becomes construction paper. But I did laugh my ass off. This is a good segue to that thing about the senator and the toilet sex:

Okay, first of all, we need no more re-creations of this event. Granted, Olbermann's was funny, but when the local "thinks he's a comedian" news guy does it, no one's benefiting.

Second of all, terrible job by this guy. It's he and his fellow righties that push these family values on everyone, keeping gay people in the closet, leading them to have to have their sex in secret. The irony being that this dude himself has to go to the public restroom to get his. How easy it would be for him to come out and say, It's okay to be gay, like I am, and therefore we're going to allow simple things that hurt no one, like gay marriage, to be legal.

Third of all, I think some dude next to me in a stall once tried to get me to do whatever it is these bathroom-sex people do! I was in Chicago, on tour with my band, in June 2001. We were at the public library. I'm in the bathroom, and I notice a pair of sunglasses below the divider. I'm thinkin', Hmmm, that's odd. Then, I see the guy's hand reach under and grab the bottom of the divider. I remember just staring at it, and then realizing that the sunglasses were being used as a mirror. And in a place where pants are on the floor, I thought, This guy's trying to rob me! So I kept an eye on the hand, and my wallet, and he decided to high-tail it out of there. I remembered what his shoes looked like, and when I left the bathroom, I told my bandmates and we half-heartedly looked for him, but he got away. But now I'm wondering if he was somehow trying to get me to have sex with him or something, now that I know there's this entire culture with hand-signals and stuff.

Okay, so, baseball today, at 1:05. I want a second shot at that Joba the Slut.

They're not exactly kicking our asses. But a win tomorrow would be nice.

Great job by those Yankee fans, the greatest fans in sports, for listening to the sound effects that tell them when to cheer. They've really come out with acute listening and scoreboard reading skills. But you could expect that for these series, which we know are "their World Series." When you're perennially the bride's maid and never the bride, you've gotta have something. It's almost like there's some sort of "curse" on their team that always makes them come close but lose heartbreakingly in the end. And the odd thing is, it's almost like they enjoy this losing lifestyle, like their Puritan roots have locked them in to an eternal pessimism.

It's funny, though--and you might not believe this, as I don't even know if any video footage still exists--the Yankees were once a winning team. It's true! In the last millennium, it was they who were the winners, year after year. Then the little gnomes or leprechauns, no one can be sure who or what it was, came along and the rest was history. Some wonder if the Yanks finally winning a World Series might be the worst thing for them. What would they do!? It's almost like their fans don't really want to win, for fear that their team would become "just another team."

In the meantime, they'll keep trying to get beyond step one: finally overcoming their nemesis Red Sox. Unless this magical "curse" is somehow lifted, don't look for that to happen any time soon.

Good time to bring this post back.

Still 7 up on the Bronx Bin Ladens. Less worried about them than I am about Manny and Kielty being injured.

If the Yanks had scored two runs tonight, it would've been Christine Sixteen to Deuce in Detroit Rock City. But like everything else tonight, they effed that up, too. 16-0.

I have to say, that's about the score I imagined for them tonight. The phonin'-it-in Moose on the hill, and the whole team not very inspired to play at all knowing we just swept. I guess they have that wild card to shoot for, but if they keep playing like the dead team they are, they're not even gonna have a chance to get their asses kicked by us in the ALCS.

You know what's funny? When I hear people say, "I really don't want the Yanks to make the playoffs--I want to see it just once!" Don't get me wrong, anyone who says that can sleep on our futon whenever they're in the area. We'll even make them breakfast. Okay, we'll buy cereal and leave it out for them. Whatever, the point is, it's funny how the inspiration for not wanting them in is the fact that they're always in. Whereas for me, I can remember just dying when they got the wild card on the last day of the '95 season--and it'd been 14 years since they made the playoffs!

I should reflect on that era more. '82-'94. Age 7 to age 19 for me. No Yankee post-seasons. Sox made it three times. Weird to think that since then, there still hasn't been a Yankee-free October. So, yeah, let's keep 'em out! For all the reasons!

Some dude on EEI was pissed that Dustin Pedroia said "we're gonna shock the world." He's saying how all we did was what we "should have done," beating a bad team. Uhhhhh, hello, Mr. Media Man--wasn't it your kind who told us that we were all "panicking" and all that totally made-up shit? Did it ever occur to you that a rookie in Boston might think that everyone thinks the team is going to lose? Besides, sweeping any team in four-game series, scoring double-digits in each game--I'd say that goes beyond what we're "supposed to do."

So I was thinking about a Red Sox-Cubs World Series. Just in general. Do you think that if the Cubs won the World Series at Fenway Park, the fans would cheer? Honestly, do you know any Sox fans who wouldn't? Provided it's not some situation where we blow game seven in the ninth. I just mean if we're down three games and ten runs, wouldn't you just say, Hey, of course I rooted for the Red Sox, but if the Cubs hang on here, I'll cheer them? I totally would. If anyone somehow reads this as me not rooting for the Red Sox, read it again, I guess.

Why all these nominations for media people for president of Red Sox Nation? Isn't the point of it for a fan to win? It's a fan club, right? What would, say, Joe Castiglione do with the special suite at Fenway given to the winner? My money's on a regular fan. I'm pretty sure that was the intention of this thing....

Saturday night, I was watching The Life Aquatic with commentary, as I have been a huge fan of Wes Anderson since Bottle Rocket. Twelve hours later, one of that movie's stars, Owen Wilson, was rushed to the hospital after cutting himself and taking pills. He's okay, but that really saddened me. I thought of his brother Luke in Royal Tenenbaums attempting suicide to that Elliott Smith song. (Elliott himself committed suicide a few years later.) I hope Owen gets what he needs and gets back to enjoying life. A lot of you know him from the scores of mainstream films he's done since Bottle Rocket, but he'll always be Dignan to me. Get well (or whatever you say to a person who attempts suicide), Dignan.

Every once in a while, I'll get an e-mail from an internet ticket agency, asking if I'd like to put an ad of theirs on my blog, in return for a monthly payment. It usually contains a well thought-out line like this:

Our site is www.[____].com, and I feel as though we would be a good fit for your site

Right. My site that has a sign right at the top that says "ad-free blog." What they're sending me, of course, is a form letter. Love the form letter. Nothing says "you're special" like a message with your name plunked into a pre-determined spot within the text, in the wrong font, with a telltale space between it and the comma that follows.

But that only scratches the surface when it comes to why I don't accept these offers.

Can you think of a lower form of life than "ticket scalper"? Just because they do it behind the guise of a colorful, fancy web page instead of standing on the corner with a bad beard and worse gut, it doesn't make it any less sleazy. (In fact, the dude on the street wouldn't even charge a "handling fee.")

These agencies buy up all the tickets to the games. The games that we the fans (that includes most sports bloggers) want to go to. They're part of the reason tickets are so hard to get. Then they go and mark up all the tickets they take out of your hands to ridiculous rates. Current example: Sox-Yanks at Fenway in September. $20 standing room tickets going for as high as $228. And I only checked one site. Then add the service charges (which are higher than what the teams themselves charge) and shipping. $30 Green Monster standing room? Try $745 a pop, from your "friends" at the ticket scalping site. $100 field boxes are marked up a mere 15 times to 1500 bucks each.

Yet almost every Red Sox blog I read proudly advertises for these ticket-sellers. (Often above the links to their friends' blogs! And often with ads for fucking Yankee tickets!) Why? You'd have to ask the bloggers, but I'd guess their answer would be, "Someone offered me money to do something that takes a minute to do, so I took it." And if you need that money, and you're comfortable with the process, that's your call. I have had friends accept the offers, and I still read their blogs. It's a tough call, especially when you need money. Maybe you use it to cover the cost of keeping up your blog. Fine. (Another option: consider getting a free blog.) I just hope these particular bloggers ask themselves if it's worth it to shill for the exact people I'm pretty sure we all despise. I want my friends to be happy, but if that involves making money, I hope they'd consider doing something creative and making that money themselves, or at the very least, accepting advertising money from a company that doesn't go against what they stand for. And of course I worry that they might think I think less of them, which I don't. Again, it's their call.

It's like how my sister shops at Wal-Mart. How am I supposed to give her the anti-Wal-Mart spiel, knowing she's got four kids to raise on her own? "Don't go to that store that allows you to get all your shopping done in one trip, instead of having to lug around four kids to five different stores!" All I can do is tell her what Wal-Mart is doing to our country, and to get used to the place, because all her kids will probably end up working there one day, as it will be the only store in town. But I wouldn't boycott my wonderful sister because of the way she chooses to live. And I won't (necessarily, ha!) boycott your blog for having an ad on it.

But come on, ticket agencies? Is the idea of having a little extra money that powerful? And do you really think they like your blog, and that's why they chose to ask you? They don't read these blogs. I've seen blogs with one post, with an ad from the same places that tried to suck me in. Can you imagine how filthy rich these people are? That they can give 50 bucks a month to some blog that no one knows about, no one's ever read, and barely contains any content at all? And do these sites need this advertising? You think people can't type the word "tickets" into Google? I'd say this boggles my mind, but knowing how powerful money is, it really doesn't at all. It's too bad, really. Also, if I had any ad on my site, I know I'd feel my writing change. "Ooh, I better not make fun of Bush, what if my advertiser's a right-winger?" I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I compromised my writing like that. The great thing about having my blog, which is free, by the way, is getting to say exactly what I'm thinking. Nobody can "fire" me, provided I don't start threatening people's lives or something.

What can be done about these ticket agencies? How can we stop them from taking our tickets away? Step one is to not advertise for them, but I think we've covered that. Step two, in my opinion, is to stop selling tickets to them. I understand that sometimes, if you really want to go to a sold-out game, you have little choice but to go to these sites. Do that if you must. (Note, though, that if you pay closer attention to when tickets go on sale, and you try hard using the phone and your computer, or going to the box office, you can get tickets to games through the team.) But if we all stop selling to these scalping sites, that will cut down their supply severely. Let the battle end when the tickets run out on the onsale date.

But Jere, I can make so much cash selling my sweet tickets! Again, if money is the most important thing in your life, go ahead, somebody's gonna be desperate enough to buy. But consider selling your tickets to your friends. Surely you have friends who live in your area who like the team you do. They're having the same difficulty getting tickets as everyone else. Think of how good you'll feel giving them tickets--even for a little above face value. Compared to a thousand-percent markup, it's a bargain for them, and you won't lose any money. Or give them away for half-price, or for free! These are your friends! Stop being a businessperson for two seconds! Or go to craigslist and see if some poor schlub who's never been to Fenway is looking for seats. Or put them on ebay--at least there's a better chance they go to a real person instead of to some agency that will resell them for 20 times their value. What saddens me about those sites, though, is seeing the "regular" people selling their seats at agency-esque prices. If those agencies didn't make us all feel like we can get a thousand bucks for fifty-dollar seats, people wouldn't turn into ruthless businessmen when they've got extras.

And to go back to: if you need tickets to a sold-out game. Try the above-mentioned sites before going to the scalper sites, and, I hate to say this, but you could also try an actual scalper. Go right before the game, or wait until the first inning. When they name their price, go way below it, and start walking away. They'll take less then face value over nothing, believe me. Also, snicker as you walk away with their tickets while peering back at them, like they had something in their teeth. They probably did anyway.

Making this all more difficult, of course, is the fact that these horrible sites are infiltrating the sports leagues. "SH" has teamed up with mlb. So now, everyone wins, except you, the real person. "A. Tickets" advertises on NESN. I just think this is the teams/leagues taking advantage of the people that were messing up their system: "Hey, we'll allow you to do that, but we want a cut of the take." So who am I defending? I'm defending all of us against anyone who's ripping us off.

For anyone who advertises for "SH," consider that their owner said this:

And while some, like Heffernan, argue that real fans with limited resources are priced out in this new ticket economy, Jeff Fluhr, S___H__'s chief executive, says: "I would argue that the true fans are the ones who are willing to pay the most for the tickets."

That's what we're dealing with. And I understand that their site is strictly fans selling to other fans, but where do you think the service fees go, and, again, where do you think the sellers get the idea to markup their tickets so much? That site was the one that sold Monster seats before anyone had any. Maybe if we all "promised" them we'd sell through them if we won the chance to buy the tickets and then "disappeared." Or maybe if we all agreed to advertise for them, and then changed our blogs to anti-ticket agency blogs. There's a lot of ways we could sabotage these people. Feel free to come up with your own ideas.

I'll end this with one more example of the ridiculousness of this whole thing. I got this e-mail few months ago.

A Red Sox Fan in Pinstripes Advertising
Hi,
I’ve been browsing your Red Sox website, letsgosox.blogspot.com, and I’m very impressed with it.
I’m interested in text link advertising on your site, and would like to know if you’re willing to consider this opportunity. Please let me know.

I can't believe any blogger would see this and think, "Hey, they like me! They're impressed! Yes, please, I'll do whatever you say!" But people have! (More likely, though, it was simply, "We'll give you money if you--" "Okay!")

Maybe I'm wrong about that site, though. Maybe the guy genuinely likes my blog. Maybe he feels my crystal clear ad-free stance, and all my posts about how much I hate companies like his, provide that edge that their site is looking for. And maybe he just happens to think that for some reason, despite being a Sox fan, I'm "in pinstripes." He misreads the title (every time), but it makes perfect sense that I'd be "in pinstripes," so he never questions it.

If you want to debate any of this, great. I know these agencies defend themselves by saying they're doing it for the people. We can talk about that or whatever. But please don't try to make me feel bad about my opinion or tell me that not wanting money is idealistic or whatever. I don't feel bad about being "PC" or "liberal" or "agreeing with Michael Moore" or "bringing up 2004 to Yankee fans three years later." Nothing can make me stop being that way, or feeling like I feel about the way money dictates how society works. Not even that stupid Everclear song from, like, '98 changed my mind about that! I respect everyone's right to advertise, I hope you will respect my right not to. Money's cool and shit, it's just not the most important thing to me. Come on, didn't you see The Wedding Singer?

On a similar topic, L-Girl, aka "We Move to Canada," has written a great piece about ads in general, too. And I know Allan, aka Joy of Sox, has been itching to talk about this stuff, so keep checking in over there--or just join me in his comments sections for game threads during games.

Also note: the next post will contain extra-wackiness and butt jokes to counter the serious tone of this one! If I feel like it!

Us: win. Them: loss. 7.5 up. We'll be 7 or 8 up going into The Bronx on Tuesday.

Win two of three in that series and we'll be 8 or 9 up afterwards. Then we play two series each against Balty, Tampa, and Toronto, with the final home Yankee series amongst those. Then it's Oakland and Minny at home to close the season. I'd say we're in good shape.

Kielty is doing great! And Tavarez with a strong showing today. That was the first time, in at least 50 years and possibly ever, that a team swept a four-game series while scoring at least 10 runs in each game. Amazing.

Phull Huggies took the loss for the Yanks today, while Jeter rode pine.

Dice against Pettitte Tuesday night.

Dave Concepcion had his number retired by the Reds yesterday.

Dave was a classic "back in my day" guy. Every year you could expect to see him in his Reds uniform on your baseball cards (and stickers!). 19 seasons with one team. This was back when shortstops were there for defense only, essentially, and he was a great one. But, hey, his career batting average was higher than what JD Drew is hitting now, so....good to see the guy honored.

In a completely unrelated story, Jonathan Papelbon has a new entrance song. Kind of. You may remember how I felt about "Wild Thing"--a fine song, fits in with Jon's personality, but...does not have what a closer's song should have: buildup. In fact, after it's loud start, right at about the point Pap reaches the infield, it hits a lull, leaving the crowd hanging. Fenway tried turning down "but I wanna know for sure" in hopes that we'd sing along, but it just didn't work.

Pap may have finally come to realize this. Because now, they'll play Wild Thing for the run in, but right after that lull in the song, as he starts actually throwing his warmup pitches, they break into a much better-suited song for the occasion. You know that Dropkick Murphys song? The one that's like "SCHWAna SCHWAna schwinnalee schwinalee, SCHWAna SCHWAna schwinnalee schweee"? Come on, it's everywhere. It was in The Departed. You know it.

Here's the video for it. I'll let Matty tell you the rest of the details of the tune if he wants in the comments. But I will say the lyrics are by Woody Guthrie.

Red Sox at White Sox, 2 o'clock-ish. Tavy vs. Javy.