First things first. Wrigley Field does that thing where they put the team logos out on the field as the on-deck circles. And you guessed it--they've got the pre-2009 non-updated Red Sox logo. I guaran-fucking-tee you they were at Kinko's the DAY the new Marlins logo came out. But not even Major League Baseball teams (including the Red Sox themselves at times) know about our change. Someday....

So Dice-K started out poorly. (So did NESN--their audio was about 5 seconds behind the video for a while.) He walked three in the first--BUT, we know he does that kind of thing. No runs had scored, it was bases loaded, 2 outs, and the Cub guy hits a bloop down the left field line. Podsednik goes over, then decides to pull up. He takes 3-4 slow steps, and the ball lands....and almost hits him on the foot! Two runs score, and that's all the Cubs would need. I hate how Remy said he agreed with Pod's decision to pull up as we watched the replay...and refused to change his mind upon seeing the replay show he could have caught it. Not 100%, but, I think he should have given it a shot. Two would have scored anyway.

In the next inning, their pitcher hits one down the right field line--A-Gon decides to dive for it...turning it into a triple. Guy later scores with two outs. Funny, the non-outfielder tries a dive, the real outfielder pulls up. Had the opposite happened, we might still be playing right now. (Also, WHY THE HELL ARE WE PLAYING GAMES WHERE THE PITCHER BATS IN 2012? Oh...maybe I've noted this before....)

Dice settled down completely. It was a little bit of a mess early, but there was some luck. Then he did fine. And got 0 run support. I consider this a good day for Dice, though the radio will tell you he killed your family and that the team should be disbanded.

Dempster hadn't given up a run in his last two games, and that happened again today. We loaded the bases off their wild semi-closer in the 9th, but couldn't push anything across. 3-0 final.

Finally, as you know, NESN's been missing pitches lately. No news there, but they specifically do a bad job when it's time for the "clubhouse tour." They've even been known to show it on a split-screen while the game is happening. But today was the worst. They showed the Wrigley runway, alone on the screen, for FIFTY seconds. By the time they got back to the action, they'd missed a pitch, and barely got back in time for the next one. No mention of the pitch was made. No apology was given. They just decided that pitch didn't matter. (Or they thought they had it on split-screen.) Either way, those ass holes need to stop this crap. I'm all for seeing hidden parts of ballparks--but I also like strawberries, doesn't mean I want to turn on the Red Sox game to see a giant strawberry on the screen for three hours instead of the game. And you'd think since they've had this problem before when doing this, they would have made sure it never happens again. But no. Here's video of the "incident":

Dice-K against the Cubs' one good starter, today, 2:20.

You all didn't tell me about this!

And I didn't see it when it was floating around last August. Obviously I haven't read D.S. in years, but I feel like I should have seen this somewhere. So, if it's old news to you, no need to tell me what a big deal it was because I can imagine. Well, big in the "weird news" sense of the word. And if it's new to you....I know, right?! People purposely fondling each other in the front row, facing out. And not just two. Did anyone ever figure out why this happened (beyond "for the hell of it"), or get any further info on the people involved? So odd. The only reason I found it now is because Fenway had a female PA announcer the other day, and when I went to Google info about our previous one (Leslie Sterling), this was the first story that popped up!

Anyway, I did research beyond what the original commenters did, and figured out the game in question was the Sunday night game, July 16, 1995, bottom of the ninth.

Blowout win tonight in Miami, so we win the series. Doubie almost rolled zeros, too.

Now we go to Wrigley (the Cubs are battling for worst record in all of baseball) before coming home for nine games. We're still 6.5 out of first but the Jays have joined us in the cellar. Gotta get right outta there and keep this winning streak going and we'll be back close to first again soon.

What I heard on sports radio was too disturbing to even talk about, but I'll just say that the seeds they planted yesterday bore fruit really fast! You'd think the Red Sox are 30 games out and made up entirely of Hitlers. And that was after a win! Fuck all those people. The backlash has to start at some point. I keep saying it, but I really am going to start making anti-media signs at Fenway. In fact, they've got that window that looks out onto Lansdowne, I say we all start bringing rotten tomatoes to games!

Buchholz has been much more like what he already was lately, and not like the question mark people thought he was for no reason. We only scored 2 tonight, but it was enough for a 2-1 win. The Marlins had chances in the late innings, but Padilla and Aceves got their jobs done.

Here's a question: How come the Padillphus pitch is never called a strike? The ump always seems to miss it. Today Vicente threw one that looked perfect. Don, instead of noticing that the ump called it a ball, started a conversation about the pitch in general. (I did like how he noted that he's been throwing it all year, as opposed to McCarver, who acted like Padilla pulled it out of his ass as a gag.) Anyway, two pitches later, they went to the Pitch Zone, and you could see that the Padillphus had been right in the zone! Almost in the middle! Unfortunately, Don and Jerry were focused on the current pitch. But fortunately, Padilla got that batter out.

Earlier in the day, I made the mistake. You know, the "flipped on sports radio" mistake. If I was an everyday listener, this blog would be full of stories about the Big O. Fortunately I hardly ever hear him. But today I did, for about 5 minutes, and I heard him say that the Red Sox might be sellers at the end of July. Four losses. That's all it takes. Not for a caller, for the host. The Red Sox were 3 games out of first place, then they lose the next four games, and suddenly they're sellers! But here's the thing. This O guy has been in the business a long time. He knows it's all about ratings. And you could tell as he was saying it that it was strictly a shit-stir. Because it was done in that teaser style, like, after the break, we'll talk about how the Red Sox season may be over. Despite being four days removed from three out of first, with more than half the season left. I hate these assholes so much. Now they've implanted the word "sellers" into the minds of the know-nothing water cooler fans. They know exactly how much power they have and they're laughing their way to the bank (hopefully coming across some drunk drivers). The best is when someone calls them out on this and they give this big innocent routine about how it makes no sense for them to root against the Red Sox, and then proceed to laugh the caller off the air confidently, further brainwashing their existing moron fans into thinking they're on the level and the few smart callers are conspiracy nuts. You'd think they'd be the voice of reason if a caller said what they said today. Instead, they're the ones that plant the seeds. I swear I heard a caller that was planted too. The guy said something I've heard other callers say almost word for word, acting as if it was his own idea. Somebody needs to blow up that station and the other one too. HAVE I SAID THAT ALREADY?

Shittiness. One thing about tonight's broadcast:

Man on first. Double to right. Adrian goes to play it off the wall. It's gonna be second and third. Until! He bobbles it. Every Red Sox fan gasps. Runner now sent home, scores.

Don and Remy don't notice. I can understand if they happened to look at the runners at that moment and missed the bobble. But surely they wondered why the runner had enough time to come around from first, right? So they go to replay, at which point I say to Kim "they totally missed the bobble--watch as they notice it on replay." So Remy starts talking us through the replay, the bobble happens, Remy mentions it casually...and then tells us it didn't matter, that the guy was gonna score anyway.

I just about lost it at that point. I'm yelling at the screen. This is an error. We all knew it as soon as we saw it. There's no question. And these guys completely missed it and even with a replay aren't figuring it out.

Okay, one more thing. Later there was a close play at first to end an inning. Don told us that Pedroia was arguing. But the camera showed an extended shot of Ramirez going to the dugout. They did replay it before going to break--but their score box was covering first base. When they came back from break, they failed to revisit the entire thing. No shot of the argument, no replay, no more talk of either.

The answer to "who's in charge over there?" is "the people who have been all along."

But I'm way more frustrated with the losing streak and the gimmick of Interleague Play interfering with yet another baseball season.

Kim was selling her soap at a street fair in Worcester, so after checking that out, I decided to go to the Tornadoes game, what with Jose Canseco being the team's designated hitter. As it turns out, I almost saw history. In the "independent league" sense of the word, at least.

This seemed like a very black-n-white-ish shot to me so I stripped the color out.

Same deal with this one.

Okay, enough artsy phartsy, let's look at the field. It's called [Corporate Name] Park at Fitton Field. Just over the left field fence is Interstate 290. I was hoping to see Jose break a moving windshield or two.

Beyond right field is the Holy Cross football stadium.

And behind the first base side the terrain rises dramatically to the campus. But if you try to find this park, prepare for an adventure. I ended up taking an unmarked road that happened to take me through the campus and into the parking garage. Kim tried to join me there, but gave up--and she's the one with the GPS!

So suddenly there was Jose Canseco and his giant veiny arms.

I got the feeling he doesn't have many friends on the team. It seems the only people he talked to were non-players, and that was rare.

I'd love to tell you that Jose is waving back to these kids, but no, he had no interest in the fans--he was talking to the trainer and making the "this high/tall" or "I've had it up to here" motion.

A kid right near me went to put a seat down, and it broke right off! How does this organization allow this? Front row, too.

Look at Canseco's arms compared to the one on the right.


Above, a funny moment when Canseco is announced with the wrong uniform number. Hey, it's an honest mistake, he's only been wearing 33 for like 30 years....

Here's the starter for the visiting Rockland Boulders, Pat Moran.

First pitch of the game. It was really hot when the clouds weren't covering the sun. And there's no cover at this park. None. Fortunately we got a lot of cloud time.

I'm confused about this one scoreboard in left field. Is this to give us the Red Sox score? And if it was, would they really be giving pitch-by-pitch results, including hit/error calls? The thing was blank all day, and the Red Sox were playing at the time.

Jose about to come up for the first time.

Jose batting. I just found out now that he hit his first home run of the year Friday night. But his average is well below .200.


Above, the result of Jose's first AB.

He did that thing where you practice your swing with no bat and your palms open after making an out once. "See, if I'd done this, it would have been a home run." Of course, he did this by himself. It's almost as if he's pitching a lifelong no-hitter, and no one's allowed to talk to or even look at him.

Here he is looking on from the dugout. Judging by the size of the Sunday afternoon crowd, Jose is not much of a draw.

This dude (Mike Mullen) had a crazy wind-up and follow-through.


Above, video of said wind-up and follow-through. Didn't I see these moves in that "Virtual Insanity" video?

So Pat Moran took a no-hitter into the 7th. He got Canseco for the third time on a groundout. But with two outs, he gave up a clean single. And that was that.

And then I left. But not before getting this cool shot of the field from the top of the parking garage. I guess the guy ended up with a three-hitter.

As for Jose--it's always fun to see a major league superstar at a tiny park playing with a bunch of guys half his age. And I was happy with the guy for telling what turned out to be the truth about steroids. But I'm thinking it might be time to hang 'em up. If you can't succeed at the sub-minor league level, it's probably all over. But you never know, Suzyn.

Congratulations to Bosox Fan from Wichita and Ryan, winners in the Oil Can Boyd book giveaway contest. In the runs department, it was a close race with BFfW nailing the total of 23 over the last 6 games and beating out Section 36 by a run. (BFfW was the first one to enter the contest, so in retrospect nobody else had a chance in the runs contest.) On the hits side, Ryan had it pretty much locked, needing anywhere between 4 and 12 hits today, and the Sox got 8 for a total of 48. Ryan's 50 was an easy winner.

Section 36 had the right idea overall--he predicted the lowest run total and the lowest hit total. And the second-lowest guess came through in each category! But he was unfortunately shut out.

Bosox Fan from Wichita, e-mail me your mailing address and I'll send out your copy. In a weird twist o' fate I'll be seeing Ryan in person tomorrow anyway so I'll be hand-delivering his copy.

As for today's Red Sox game: _____________________________________.