Redemption

Tonight, I received a treat. I attended the game with fellow bloggers Jere and Reb, along with Jere's friend, Pat. The weather was divine. Not too hot, no humidity to speak of and plenty of sunshine, until, of course, the sun went down. And then we were afforded a sweet kind of coolness. But not nippy. Just right.

I arrived a little late, which was embarrassing, since I am the only one who lives a mere 25 minutes from the city. It was smooth sailing, traffic-wise, until I took the Somerville exit off 93. I thought it would save time, sneaking over to Storrow via the McGrath. Not so. I was unaware of the construction patch at the intersection where the McGrath meets Medford St. It's a real test of one's patience to experience back ups when the construction site is void of activity. There were trucks, equipment, holes in the ground and plenty of orange barrels and cones. But no work. I am surprised I didn't see a few tumbleweeds kicking around the construction site. This, in addition to lack of parking spots, caused me to be about 15 minutes late.

Once there, though, the stress sort of floated away like tiny bubbles. We got some Red Sox BP action and some up close and personal shots of our guys.

Here is one of Theo chatting it up with Curt:

I enjoy Theo's buzz cut, but I wouldn't mind if he decided to grow it out a little. I saw his college graduation picture (from the 2003 DVD) and thought he his hair had good texture. We all had a hard time getting his profile, let alone a frontal view. Poor Reb. Every time there was a chance to capture this, her phone rang or something equally distracting happened.

Papa Jack:


Wallace and Matt:

So, Matt, do you think Christian Bale makes a better Bruce Wayne or Batman?
Eh, six of one and half a dozen of the other.

We had our first probability bet at this point. See the chairs that the mullet is setting up there? (Seriously, that is a terrible mullet. A sorry, practically bald on top type mullet. If you've ever been to mulletsgalore, you might predict that it gets a 2 in aggressiveness, out of a possible 10) We put a buck (more or less) down on who might be getting interviewed. We didn't stick around, though, to see the results.

We wandered off to our seats, located directly below the scoreboard. Replays were a little tough to see, but the view was good. I brought binoculars, which helped, but weren't necessary.

Wells was doing alright, but Jere pointed out that he was being lazy a lot, and we all agreed. He was ahead of the count at many points and rather than make anyone chase, he threw another fastball, right over the plate. And this resulted in hits. I am still a little fuzzy as to why he was ejected, though my mother explained that while making a series of comments, he turned his back on the home plate ump after what he thought was a strike. And then the 2nd base umpire (which was the speculation under the scoreboard) saw this and threw him out. From where we were, it just looked like a crazy, unexplained brawl. The last thing we saw was a very pissed off Wells throw the ball back toward 2nd base, then huff off. Here's what Johnny and Trot were doing while all of this was taking place. A Statler-Waldorf type conversation had to be happening. They do this kneeling thing a lot. I wish they would just go ahead and break out in a "shlameel, shlamazzle" like Laverne and Shirley one of these days.



The Manny 2 run homer in the 7th inning was fantastic. Loved it. Really loved it.

Terry was ejected, too, as you all know. Again, from my vantage point, he didn't look to be his usual hot self, but my mother said he was ripshit with a capital R. We did see that he continued to piss and moan even after he was ejected.

A question that was raised: Why was Abe Alvarez in the bullpen? Who was "put on the DL" in order to have him called up? Mantei's name came up. I'm too lazy to get to the bottom of this right now.

We held our breath through Embree's outing. He alternated his fastball with a few breaking balls and I thought that was a nice change. Timlin went. Then Keith was brought in to close. It seemed like an eternity for that final out to come to pass.

Oh, and the guy formerly known as Drinkwater has been demoted to Sip-water, according to Jere. Or Sippy. He was togged up in a blue windbreaker tonight, and was sitting in his rightful place behind home plate.

Time for beddy-bye.