So the day I do venture up to Fenway, they let a little rain cancel the game. The good news is I never got out of my car, so there was no chance of worsening my sickness, which is getting better. So I'm gold for the Pesky ceremony tomorrow, and then two games.

RIP Paul Newman. We had your sauce with dinner in your memory.

Still sick, but heading out to Fenway. Too bad management decided long ago they didn't want the division. The wild card ruins everything again. But at least we're in. That's the key.

Man, that dude at Extra Bases can't win. After the two egregious errors of the last week, tonight he says that if the Red Sox and Yankees play five innings tonight, he'll eat his media guide. We're currently in the bottom of the seventh.

As a ticketholder for tonight's game, I'd like to thank that site and the newspaper that writes it for specifically giving me every indication that the game wouldn't be played and not to go to the park, even to the point of saying, "I wouldn't make any long drives down to Fenway tonight."

Okay, to be fair, I'm sick. I shouldn't have been outside tonight. And the score is currently 16-5 Yanks. But what if you had tickets and you've never been to Fenway? Or never seen Red Sox-Yankees? Anyway, I'll see if I'm well enough to go tomorrow. (I won't listen to Extra Bases, which should be called The Opposite of Everything That's Correct Bases, or weather.com, who also clearly had no idea what the weather would be tonight.)

But I'm definitely going Sunday for Pesky day.

Update: 12:50 AM: We lose 19-8. But you know what happens after we lose 19-8 to the Yanks at home! (I was surprised TC mentioned that right when the game ended, but I can assure you I thought of it as soon as it went to 19-8, since I was at the last 19-8 game.)

Sox officially in a delay. Lots of good seats now on sale for tomorrow in foursomes, and some tix for Sunday, too.

Rays losing 3-0 early.

Pesky's number will now be retired before Sunday's 1:35 game. As for tonight, the game is still a go as of now, gates opening at 5:05.

So people with tickets to Sunday will get to see the ceremony. I'm still hoping tonight is rescheduled for late-afternoon Sunday so I can see two games that day.

3:00 and still no news on tonight's game. But SRO tix are available, and I'd think this game would become the second game on Sunday, so if you buy those, you'd get to go on the nice day, see Mussina fail at his bid for 20, and maybe see the Pesky thing depending on how they re-schedule everything. Or you could wait till official word is in that tonight is cancelled, and then quickly buy tickets so you can go to the make-up game with them.

The point is, you've got options. But I really hope they don't play in this tonight, since I've been blowing my nose all day. Upwards of 500 times, I'd say. You know how my colds are.

Maybe if we weren't spending 12 billion dollars every month on the Iraq war....

Just got through right away for Celtic tickets. The 10-dollar seats! That's a sweet deal. I recommend the 800-4NBATIX line over stupid ticketmasturbater, but I did get through right away on both. (Placing a phone order for one game and an internet order for another simultaneously is one of my special talents.)

Again, I got all my tickets for the weekend earlier in the day, but right now, head to the team site and you can get what I just turned up above--4 together in the grandstand for Sunday. Also saw infield grandstand, four together, and a few rows up in dead center, four together, for Friday night. I hope you're awake because these'll be gone in the morning....

Again, the seats pictured, I just pulled up five minutes ago, but did not buy (so don't look for me there)-just proving this really is true. It's not "impossible" to get tickets--it's rather easy, and you can do it for face value. Some people still don't believe me so I like to provide as much proof as possible...

Lester dominates Natives and we're still barely alive in the east race. Three wins and three Devil losses and we're division champs. Anything else, we're Andy Card. Of course, there might not be three games this weekend with the crazy rain.

Rain will also affect the NL races with the Mets and Phils at home, one game separating them at the top of the east. The Brewers won, so they're tied with the Mets for the WC.

And the Twins just won, completing their sweep of Chicago, and putting them a half game up in the central. If those two stay even, or if the White Sox play one game better over the weekend, Chicago will have to play a makeup game on Monday. If after that, the two teams are still tied, they'll play each other Tuesday to decide the division.

All year, multiple times a day I check "the schedule." The little Ts appear for all the games except Yankee games. Inspired by the fact that they appeared for the April series, and I got two games and could've gotten all three--I kept a close eye on this final series.

Just now, the Ts appeared! Wanna go to Pesky night? Go ahead. Singles in the bleachers available. Wanna go to Saturday or Sunday? Buy those, too, at face value, and laugh at the people who end up sitting next to you who paid 100 bucks for 26-dollar bleacher seats. (Oh, and remember, when ordering, if it says "tickets not available" or something, you know what to do. Try again. I just got one for tomorrow night.

I would advise looking at the forecast, though. But I figure with a ticket to Friday and the ones I already had for Saturday, I should get to see the Pesky thing. [Bonus: Just grabbed a SRO for Sunday in case Friday and Saturday are both rained out and the only game of the weekend is Sunday.]

A new possibility for Moose: With all the rain this weekend, all three games of the Yankee series might not be played. But on Sunday, Moose will be out there on the absolute final day of the regular season, sitting on 19 wins. What if he were to have a 10-0 lead going to the bottom of the fifth? And what if it starts to drizzle? And what if he got two outs? And then the rain starts coming down harder? And then Jeter botches an easy grounder? And then ApRod does the same, keeping the inning alive, as the downpours arrive? And then the game is delayed? And then after three hours, the game is called? Or, it's resumed but there's absolutely no way Moose can go back to the mound? And he finishes one out away from his first 20-win season?

Like, wouldn't that be awesome and stuff?

Red Sox win with key hit being a Bailey triple on a high fly ball to left center that missed dongtown by inches. For most others in the league, that's a double, just because they'd assume it's either a homer, or off the wall and two bases maximum. I'm tellin' ya, if I could just sneak onto a major league roster (Pirates?), I'd be stretchin' singles into doubles, doubles into triples, and constantly scoring from second on wild pitches, reaching on dropped third strikes, and getting two on a ball four that goes to the backstop.

Speaking of the Pirates, have you noticed a little bit of an underdog bandwagon going on there? Kim and I noticed a few Bucs caps one night, and then I saw on some website someone writing about how they live in NYC but "everybody" is wearing Pittsburgh hats. Since then I've see more. And it makes sense. What's not to like about the Pittsburgh Pirates? They haven't won shit in years so everyone who isn't a demagogue wants to see them finally break through. When they have won, they've done it fun fashion--We are Family! Pops and crew, '79! And even the early '90s teams--I know I quickly tired of the Braves back then. Would've liked to see the Buccos come through one of those years. And, actually, my Yankee fan friend and I, when we were like 13, kind of randomly picked an NL team we could both like, and fell in love with Jose Lind, Sid Bream (pre-Braves), Bonilla, skinny Bonds, Van Slyke (who I later stopped talking to when he robbed Greenwell of a hit in the All-Star Game), Lavalliere, Belliard--we even bought yellow Pirates shirts at Team Spirit in the Danbury Fair Mall. (I later sold mine for 13 dollars to my neighbor whose family came from western Pennsylvania.) The point is, everybody loves the Pirates. I think the nation is ready to fully see this through. Pirates: World Champs, 20...., well, let's not get crazy...2126! (Note: if at any point on this blog I've said I hate the Pirates and they're "dead to me" or anything like that, I'm sure I was just blowin' smoke. Ignore.)

Speaking of teams that just....don't win: The Orioles. For the last seven games, we've rooted for them to help us out, against the Yanks and Rays. Seven times, they've lost. Each one worst that the one before. Tonight it was a 6-0 they turned into an 11-6 loss. So, one more Rays win or Sox loss, and Tampa Bay are the east champs.

And the Mets. The poor Mets. Tied, bottom 9, man on third, no out. Then bases loaded, one out. They don't put it away, and the Cubs win it in extras. They're now tied for the wild card lead. And the Twins! They've cut the division lead to a half game. Will be fun these last four days....

[Update, midnight: I went to the Globe's Extra Bases "blog," and looked at the post title, in the back (front) of my mind thinking about how they got the final score wrong the other day. As I read "Game 2," I thought for a second that I technically could say that since it wasn't a doubleheader, that's misleading, etc., etc. But come on, that would just be nitpicking. Then it quickly hit me that it wasn't even game two of the series anyway! It was game three! Terrible! Can they get anything right? (And after seeing the guy who wrote this on NESN the past few nights, I feel bad since I'm sure he's trying his hardest and all--but who's in charge over there?!)]

Summer, 1994. Back home in Ridgefield, CT, from my first year in college. Eighteen years old. Every night I'd hang out with my little crew at what Ridgefielders know as either "the old high school," "parks 'n' rec," or, lately, the Ridgefield Playhouse. Outside, on the basketball courts. We'd play till we dropped. Then we discovered that if we took down the net at the tennis courts, we could play hockey--funny, since most of us didn't play or even like hockey. After the nightly trip to the Amoco gas station for beverages, Chan, Gumby, and I would stay up all night watching Mr. Belvedere, Three's Company, and especially Small Wonder--coming up with our own dialogue for the family with the robot daughter. One night I videotaped everything. I titled the tape "FunSummer '94: Jocks 'n' Freaks." I taped outdoor basketball all night, imploring my pals to "play for the camera," then a session in the Amoco parking lot with the pot-smokers--it was always fun to get their twisted point of view. We even interviewed the Dunkin Donuts guy at 3 AM, as everybody slowly sank away into the hot night.

As the Red Sox fan in the group, life was pretty sweet in hindsight: I'd yet to have to deal with Yankee dominance. Their last trip to the playoffs had been when I was in first grade, 1981--a split-season in which the Yanks, giving me an early lesson in Yankee dumb luck, were allowed into the playoffs simply because they'd been in first place at the end of what became known as "the first half." Happy birthday, you're the newly-invented "first half champions." I'd learned the phrase "Yankees stink" at age three, and by six I was learning what that meant. Fortunately, they would lose that World Series.

After that, despite that I had to go through a classic Red Sox heartbreak experience as an eleven year old, I did get to see my team win its division three times between '82 and FunSummer '94. While the Yankees--who for much of that time were the embarrassingly horrible Yankees--did not win once. I was still constantly ridiculed--after all, they still had 22 championships since our last one, and I was surrounded by Yankee fans. (Who, when their team failed, could conveniently become Mets fans.) But thinking back, it was a charmed life. I had no Yankee championship in my memory-bank (the last one came when I had just turned three), and I was witnessing the longest postseason drought for the New York Yankees since their first World Series appearance in 1921.

But FunSummer '94 would be the end of the drought. Nobody made the playoffs that year because of the strike, but in '95, the Yanks finally did. Granted, that was a happy season, as the Red Sox pulled away with the division, easily beating the Yanks. But, much like they were the first-ever A.L. East "first half champs" the last time they'd made the postseason, they would become the first A.L. "wild card." The next year, with the help of a kid reaching over the fence, and despite my inventing new gods to pray to so I wouldn't have to experience my worst nightmare, they actually won the World Series.

And every damn year since--for over a decade--I've had to sweat through their playoff series, half the time against teams who turn into drooling babies at the site of Yankee Stadium. Their current championship drought, now eight years, has been fun. Real fuckin' fun. But we've still had to go through Octobers knowing that at any moment somebody could steal a cheap home run, pull a miracle play out of their ass, or fall prey to the phony "ghosts" and "mystique"--which, if you haven't heard, DO travel. Yes, Michael Kay is continuing the Yankee bullshit tradition by saying, Hey, ghosts can travel. (Wait, why would they want these current choker ghosts to follow them to the new stadium?) Anyway...

It's over! For the first time since FunSummer '94, there will be baseball playoffs with no Yankees. I had to turn thirty-three before I could see it happen again. The Yanks' passing of the Twins and their staying ahead of the Jays was a blessing in disguise. That meant a Red Sox win could directly end the streak. And the Yanks stayed alive just long enough so that their fans got that glimmer of hope--the "ghosts' last hurrah!" Don't they know the non-existent ghosts are clearly rooting against them at this point?

So, as we go to the playoffs, and the Yankees stay home--the first time both of those things have happened since 1990--I wanted to give people an idea of what baseball life was like for those a generation older than me, and how that affected them and their offspring.

From the time my dad was seven years old to the time he was twenty-two, there were 17 baseball seasons. Do you know how many times the Yankees won the American League in those 17 years? Fifteen. Nine of those times, they went on to win the World Series. His own team won zero pennants over that stretch. And that went for fans of every team in the league--though Indians and White Sox fans could say their team won a whopping once out of those 17 seasons.

This stretch came a few short years after another in which the Yanks won seven out of eight A.L. crowns, winning the World Series after all but one of those pennants. Which came after the period in the '20s, when they won six out of eight pennants.

And right before I started having memories, people slightly older than me saw the Yanks go to the playoffs every year but one between 1976 and 1981.

So do you see why there might be a building hatred of this organization? You don't have to be a Red Sox fan--between 1936 and 1965, only twice did an AL team other than the Yanks win the World Series. That's a minimum 30 year drought for every other team in the league--except the two who could say they won once in three decades. Basically, every fan from every generation has had to see a Yankee dynasty at some point.

Now, I was going to point all this out when the Yanks were eliminated anyway--but then I got an odd comment from a spammer, which I told you a little about--the one who tried to give "just the facts" by saying the Red Sox have "by far the second-highest payroll this season," when they actually have the fourth. And it gave me the perfect conclusion to this post.

The person claimed to be a Rays fan, and starting blabbing about how he hates the Red Sox and Yankees, and how they're the same--you know, crap we've heard before from the younger crowd, mainly jealous, Yankee sympathizers who've watched Fox oversaturate American TV with the teams that "sell," and acting like we're as bad as they are--like a Klan-sympathizer watching black artists sweep the Grammys and ignoring history by saying, "they're just as bad as white people now." Or people who can't stand to see the "loser" win because it messes with their nice, orderly lives.

He predictably started mocking the Red Sox side by saying, "Hey, I hate you just as much, but here's how much you suck." (Good timing, eh?) "The Yankees are always sooooo great and have done this and this and this"--he was giving me numbers and figures about just how great the Yanks have been this last decade, as if he was the first to discover it. Or as if he was young enough to have been just learning of it now. This guy screamed 'Yankee fan in disguise.' But if he really was just a young Rays fan, I invite him to go back and look at his facts and figures from the past decade, and add it to the facts I've given above from before we were born. Look at how much the Yanks have accomplished throughout history, and ask yourself why you're mocking the underdog, if you claim to be such a champion of their cause. Why aren't you uniting with my team against the team that has seen such an overwhelming amount of success? No matter how crappy they get, they're going to have more championships than all the other teams for decades to come. They can always point to that. (And as we know, if they don't have that, they'll invent something and rub that in your face, and when that fails, they'll just burn the word "class" into your yard.)

They haven't met their ultimate goal in eight years--an eternity for them, which Sox fans could do standing on our heads (or should I say "crowns")--and I'm gonna cherish it and appreciate it and relish in their misery on behalf of everybody before me who also had to watch them win the World Series year after year after year...but it doesn't make the 26 championships go away. And the Sox' recent two shouldn't make you put us in their category, Mr. Underdog Man. We're talking about generations of people with a solid, Yankee-hating foundation that will be spilled down family trees through this century and into the next one. I guess the big thing the Fox-generation dislikes about the Red Sox is...their fans exist? Go to your parks? Go to our fuckin' park then. Or go to your own for god's sake. We are big enough fans to travel to see the team. Are you? If your team went 86 years without a title would you not loudly cheer for them in any way you could? Is this a crime? And as far as the team goes, again, a bunch of fun-lovin' guys who most importantly have stepped up to beat the Yankees, the team your family and ancestors despise. I still don't get how any American League, non-Yankee fan could've watched the 2004 ALCS and do anything but get down on his or her knees and thank all that is holy in the universe. But that's just me.

The difference between Sox and Yanks is a canyon. The scoreboard tells them when to cheer, for one. But their delusions are the big difference. A Red Sox fan admits it when they lose. Yankee fans will find a win in a loss. No award given to them? They'll invent one and give it to themselves. The one that made me nearly barf up the insides of my feet came during Sunday night's Yankee Stadium farewell party. They asked a Yankee fan what his favorite Yankee Stadium moment was, and he said it was in the 2001 World Series--the way the Yanks "defended their home turf, lifting the spirit of America." As if it was a war, and his team saved the world from evil. In a series, may I remind them, they fucking lost anyway!

To assume everyone likes your team is the most egotistical thing you can do. When I talk about how I don't understand Red Sox-hating, I'm not implying people should turn into Red Sox fans! You should root for your own team--but I'm doing what American League fans have done for decades--root against the Yankees no matter who they're playing. Don't we all have that in common? Hate who you want, but consider the history.

We were flipping around shortly after the Red Sox celebration started sputtering out, and we saw Scent of a Woman was just ending. I watched the climactic scene for the hundredth time and it got me thinking about that Yankee Stadium farewell. So, from Lt. Colonel Slade:

I don't know who went to this place, William Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryan, William Tell--whoever. Their spirit is dead--if they ever had one--it's gone. You're building a rat ship here. A vessel for sea-goin' snitches. And if you think you're preparing these minnows for manhood you better think again. Because I say you are killing the very spirit this institution proclaims it instills! What a sham. What kind of a show are you guys puttin' on here today?

[Update: click here for the video.]

I've been to the last two Fenway clinching celebrations, so it's kinda cool to watch this fun on TV. (Though I wish like anything I was there!) The season starts now, people.

If the Yanks thought they were alive going into tonight, I'm still not giving up on the division. If the O's hold on to a 5-1 lead, we're 2 back with 5 left. But the key is, we're in. [Update: O's completely blow lead, now trail....] [Update: O's lose, go 0-6 so far in these games vs. Yanks and Tampa...we're 3 back with 5 to play.]

Oh, and the mystery of the "Woooooo!!" shirt has been solved. The back says "Diamonds are forever, and so is El Alcalde!!" Sean Casey. The mayor. El alcalde.

Papelbon: "I'll be riverdancin' in bed tonight!" Congrats, Red Sox. And Red Sox fans. It truly was a Subaru Summer.

To sum up: Red Sox schedule press conference for 5:30 regarding Johnny Pesky. Certain media outlets scoop the team, saying Pesky's number will be retired, adding it will "likely" be Saturday--a game I'm going to. I should've known they were just making shit up. The press conference comes on, and they announce the ceremony will be Friday. (Maybe I'll trade Sat for Fri, we'll see.)

Funny moment at the press conference, when Johnny was talking about his old teammates from the '40s: "I'm sure you folks over thirty remember them." Know of them, Johnny. Can't quite say I have a memory of their playing days thirty years before I was born. Oh, also, I predict on Friday you'll see a shot of Pesky's 6 on the facade that blurs and refocuses on the Pesky Pole right in front of it in the foreground. Or Miami Vice Versa.

Looks like Pesky's number 6 will be retired this weekend--in the game I have tickets for!

Michael Moore's new movie is available for free download at slackeruprising.com.

Sox vs. ClifflY tonight. A Baltimore doubleheader sweep of Tampa and a Boston win means we're one out with five to play. I vote for that.

Wow--terrible job by the fans at my gate. Forming a line? Come on. "Mill about" is the proper way. Anyway, as they all stood pointlessly in single-file fashion, I went right up to the next garage door over (the one that opens ten seconds after the other one) and was the first one in. Okajima awaited me inside, above.

Timlin and that son of his. I always imagine Mike being brought into a closed-door meeting: "Mike, we have some complaints about your boy being on the field...." Mike slowly moves coat flap to reveal some sort of large firearm. "Okay, Timmy, catch ya later." Mike leaves the room with an "I thought so."

And there they go.

Was going for home run balls in right field. Not much action, except for the guy with the pink teddy bear who fell over the five-foot wall onto the field going for a ball.

It was the first chilly day of the year, but I found a spot in the standing room behind plate where you have a wall behind you, so I was totally comfortable the whole game.

Bird footprints in the Fenway concrete.

Now I'm in the front row between home and third for Indians' BP. I honestly didn't notice the cleats when I was taking this picture. Just thought the gloves were cool.

Jhonny Peralta tkaes btating parctice.

Gonnie Garko.

Still weird to me that Jesse Barfield's kid is in the majors. When I look at his face, my brain says he's standing with arms at sides. Then I look left and the arm with the bat up in the air appears.

Somebody actually broke a bat in batting practice. Fasano grabbed the knob and shoved it into the ground. You know how I like broken bats. This is, like, somewhat of a holy grail shot in that genre. You can also see where it says "VISITOR DUGOUT" on that bag.

It was a Sha-PIE-ro fest in pregame, as he played catch with some kid the whole time. Here he talks to Tom Werner, who has a bright light shining on him from the other side.

Franklin G.

In 2008, the "grinning savage" unfortunately lives on. I still say they should go the Dragons route.

One of the underrated features of Fenway: Petrocelli's hill.

Beckett out in right field.

The Farrelly brothers were back, filming a movie about a Cuban athlete or something. So they had Luis Tiant come out to throw the first pitch for the benefit of the filmmakers. This was before that, as Papi greets Luis.

Did you know Wally removes his hat for the national anthem?

Cameraman for that movie going through crowd. My parents were at one of the Fever Pitch-filming games, so know both them and I will be in a Fenway-shot movie. (Or at least our cheers among 35,000 others will be.)

Had a screen view of the action--this is kind of a weird, blurry shot, but I like what the pitcher's doing.

A ball rolls to Papi and he tosses it to a fan.

Pretty cool leg kick for this guy.

Check out all the twos! That Devil Ray score taunted us for a while, but finally they pulled away for a 4-2 win. Our game looked promising plenty of times. But we just couldn't break through. A key play was a ball that should've been runs, but hit the freakin' umpire instead.

School night, so some people did leave after the 7th and 8th, allowing me to get a better view. And a seat. I always talk about how Sox fans are smart and Yankee fans are dumb, etc., but I'm happy to point out the dummies that were there last night. First of all, Jacoby made a dive attempt that I could tell from pretty far away was a trap immediately. As the ump made a VERY clear "safe" call right next to him, Jacoby held up the ball in his glove--leading to a chorus of cheers. I don't know how they could've thought it was an out--unless it was the exact segment of the crowd who were exactly parallel to the ump's arms, making them see only one arm, thinking it was an out call.

Then there was a guy behind me, who yelled out three things during plays the whole game. And each thing was the exact wrong thing to say. Man on second, grounder to short. The guy excitedly yells "turn it!" Turn what, dipshit? Later, with two outs and a man on first, there's another grounder to an infielder, and out comes "turn it!" again! Know your outs, sir. The last time he opened his dumb mouth was on a fly ball down the left field line that was curving foul. The left fielder was going over to the side wall for it. Please note that the tying run was on third. If this ball is caught over there, it's a sac fly and we finally tie the game. But what does dufus say? "Get out!" In other words, what an Indians fan should be saying in that situation. He got his incorrect wish, as the ball landed in the seats.

There's also still plenty of Sweet Caroline confusion, as in when it's played. I think most people know, but it's kind of like when I worked at a bookstore from the time it opened. By the end of the second year, we still had people coming in telling us it was their first time in, and how they'd just recently found out it existed. I think with Fenway, you have plenty of new people each game, or just people who go once a year and therefore don't know things that are obvious to me. A guy next to me who clearly was into baseball--enough to be scoring the game--asked a neighbor, "they don't do Muddy Water any more, do they?" Oy.

So we got the tying run to third, and the winning run to second, after two were out in the ninth. But Lowrie struck out, and we're two and a freakin' half back. No postseason-clinching celebration on this night. But the longer the Yanks stay alive, the more painful it will be for them when they're eliminated. Above is Youk 90 feet away, with the ump who earlier couldn't get out of the way.

It was almost a walk-off, playoff-clinching win tonight. But "almost" is for Yankee fans and hand grenades. Or whatever. We'll have to finish the job tomorrow night.



I will post pics tomorrow--in the meantime enjoy this shot of fans on the Monster with the Citgo sign in the background, about 700 feet away (the E.T./moon shot of Fenway).

Also, I got the weirdest spam comment--I'd just like to say to that person that your claim that the Red Sox have "the second highest payroll by far" is quite wrong. We have the fourth highest.

The Yankees bid farewell to their fans last night, as the franchise prepares for its move to Mars. Oh wait, across the street.

Actually, maybe last night's overthetopfest was a farewell--none of those fans will be able to afford a seat next year...

(You do know I could write a hundred pages on what went on last night and that I'm just trying to ignore it, right? Especially the part where actors dressed as '20s players were trotted out... Hey, wouldn't it have been funny if Wade Boggs had gotten kicked by a horse?)

And I'll be there. Sweet.

Remember in May '88, when Bobby Doerr's number 1 was retired, and John McNamara had to switch to 2? Well, I noticed on Baseball Almanac they only listed 1 as Johnny Mac's #. So I wrote them to correct it. Someone wrote back and said he "checked with a researcher at the Red Sox" who said he checked his scorecards from the first and last games of that season, and they both showed McNamara wearing #1. What? Wrong! You'd think this "researcher" at the very least would've known about Doerr's retired #, and that McNamara therefore couldn't have possibly still been wearing 1 after May 1988! I wrote back with further proof for them, along with the suggestion that that researcher should be fired...

Red Sox win. What a job by Dice. Rays lose. We're 1.5 back. 7 left for us, 8 for them. Chances are they split their doubleheader Wednesday--that extra loss makes it a one-game deficit to make up in seven games. Which is actually 2 since we have to pass them--a tie does us no good. I think we've got a shot!

Last game ever at Yankee Stadium tonight. Let's hope Mo gives up a go-ahead dong to Millar to close the joint's doors (and eliminate the Yanks from the postseason). I will have a special "end of Yankee Stadium" post, probably right at the end of the regular season.

[Oh, and I'm reading stories of how fans were allowed on the field today at Yankee Stadium before it's last game. Why are they acting as if A. it was open to the public and B. you could go on the infield/outfield? I read the release from the team a few days ago, and it said that fans holding tickets to Sunday's game could go onto the warning track all around the field. Why isn't it being reported like this? They're acting like grandmas and kids and whoever are just strolling in through the gates and playing Wiffle Ball on the infield. Oh wait, I know--it's because the Yankees always pretend they are what they're not. And they want the final articles about the place to reflect this. Nice touch!]