Well, for the first time since 2000, I do not have season tickets to the Red Sox.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve been lucky to get to five of our games over the course of a season. I blame the children.

Last year’s team was unlovable. I hope this year’s team is more charming, and I look forward to summer nights on the porch with the radio going.

Maybe this is the year.

Cue the duckboats!

I only got to watch the pre-game show and the first couple of innings last night, but I’m really excited to have baseball back in my life again. My first game at Fenway is in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait.

I’m glad that Mike Lowell got the biggest ovation at introductions, followed closely by Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield. I think the crowd knew that these might be the last chances they have to thank these guys for all they’ve done for the team.

And, this kid is my new hero.

I’m sad that I didn’t hear about the baseball analytics conference at MIT last weekend. Had I known about it, I would have been all over it. If you’re a combination baseball and numbers geek like I am, it’s nirvana.

RedMonk has a great writeup.

(Good news. My Red Sox ticket draft is in a week an a half. I can’t wait to see which games I’m going to this summer.)

(And yes, Red Sox is at the top of my Favorites Topics list right now.)

This has to win the “baseball geekery of the day” award. Larry Granillo at Baseball Analysts does an insanely detailed analysis of Walk-off Wins. If you love baseball or numbers (or both, like me), you’ll love this post.

Papi’s close to cracking the walk-off home run list. Just need a couple more.

Curt Schilling calls out the utter inanity of some of the denials you’re seeing when players are caught with their hands in the pharmaceutical cookie jar.

I’ve never taken steroids, I’ve never taken HGH, and I am not saying that to clear my name or make a statement, I’m saying that because even though I did not, I’ve never drank a protein shake from my strength coach, I’ve never taken medication from a doctor or the team, I’ve never gotten an injection from a team doctor or otherwise that I didn’t ask and wasn’t told exactly what it was. I’m far from svelte or ripped, and never have been. I was never a fitness freak or gym rat — those are the guys that measured every milligram, count every tablet in their regimen. Yet somehow we’re hearing these same people talk about being struck momentarily stupid when West African bullfrog semen is found in their blood. “What? How’d that get there????” Their routines, from reps to nutrition are as mapped out as scouting reports. They eat a certain way, train a certain way, and they play a certain way. There is no ‘black hole’ or ‘hidden formula’ happening in these instances. So you get up at 5am? You eat at 6am? Thirty minutes of cardio, upper body, lower on alternate days, whirlpool for x minutes, maintain x calories of protein and carb intake? You do all that, and at some point you let someone stick a needle in your ass, or throw a ‘protein shake’ or rub a ‘crème’ on you, and for that 30 seconds to 5 minutes you have absolutely no thought, care or concern about the product? A step recognized as vital to strength gain, or recovery, a step to setup the acceleration of your recovery or magnification of gains from your hours of work and you just go dumb?

I’m sad that Manny Ramirez took steroids, in the same way that I’m sad any of the players felt the need to take them. But, it is what it is, and I’m not going to fret too much about it. At least Sadie and Lucy are young enough that I don’t have to answer any uncomfortable questions.

Also, Dan Kennedy does some nice conjecturing on when Manny started taking the juice.

Lucy’s never been through a pennant race before. I’ve been explaining how it all works, telling her fabulous stories of Papi.

Most important: dressing the part. I’m in my lucky Trot Nixon jersey. Lucy’s in her lucky Red Sox dress and bloomers.

Over the past couple of weeks, I rewrote my gallery-building engine in Ruby, making it much more flexible and easy to use. So now, I may actually be able to put up some of the old galleries I did, but never published, like this one of a Red Sox vs. Yankees game from 2004.

Here are the pictures:

1. Budweiser sign
2. Couple at Fenway
3. Baby at Fenway
4. Fenway math
5. Curt Schilling
6. Jason Varitek
7. Jason Varitek warming up
8. Jason Varitek being all pensive
9. Johnny Damon throwing
10. Johnny Damon warming up
11. Manny Ramirez warming up
12. David Ortiz
13. Curt Schilling faces Derek Jeter
14. Curt Schilling brushes back Derek Jeter
15. Watering the infield at Fenway
16. Yankees fan gets booted from Fenway
17. Another Yankees fan gets booted from Fenway
18. Schilling leaves
19. Keith Foulke saves the day

Hooray!

This was a fun team to watch, and, with Ellsbury, Pedroia, Beckett, Matsuzaka, Lester and Buchholz, next year is looking pretty good too.

It’s fun to live in the city of champions.

P.S., damn you, Fox. Let’s try starting the games a little earlier next year.

[tags]Red Sox[/tags]

We have a good article today on what the World Series means for hundreds of local businesses. It’s a good time to be in the hospitality business here in town.

We don’t benefit in this particular way from the World Series, but we certainly aren’t going to turn away all the additional people reading the Globe and hitting the site for the next couple of weeks.

Oh yeah, it’ll work out pretty well for those who bought furniture from Jordan’s, too.

Wow, what an amazing game for the Clay Buchholz in his second major-league start.

This may be a special year for the Red Sox yet. I believe.

The Red Sox showed again why this is a special season, erasing a five-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Orioles. This win was pure hustle. I love rooting for a team that will fight to the very end.

Chad Finn, of the always readable Touching All the Bases, writes an article about Strat-o-Matic baseball, a game that dominated most of the ’80s for me.

The guys at Goodwill Park taught me Strat-o-Matic [SOM] back in the summer of 1980 or 1981, playing with cards from the mid-seventies. I started Catfish Hunter, and he cost me the game when he gave up a dinger in the ninth. “He does that a lot,” they consoled me.

I got my first copy of SOM with the 1982 card set. I was the only one in the family interested in sports, so I created elaborate leagues and draft scenarios to keep myself amused. I would kill off two teams (Toronto and Seattle were generally the victims back then), allow each team to keep five pitchers, a catcher, three infielders and two outfielders. I’d then distribute the rest of the players. The Red Sox occasionally had a thumb on the scale during this distribution — hello Bruce Bochte!

I played SOM for 10 years or so, carrying the cards around the house and down the cape. I still have fond memories of it. Thanks, Chad, for bringing them back.

[tags]strat-o-matic, baseball[/tags]

When I bought a Red Sox jersey to wear to the games in 2000, I didn’t even have a moment’s delay when deciding which one to wear: it was Trot Nixon’s #7. I’ve worn that jersey over a hundred times in the Fenway bleachers since then. And now, Trot has signed with the Indians. I can only wish him the best of luck.

Trot was my favorite because he plays baseball like a hockey player; he was the original Dirt Dog. I can’t wait to go to a Cleveland game this summer and give him a standing ovation.

Here’s Trot warming up in right field, taken from my seat in 2004:

[tags]Red Sox, Trot Nixon[/tags]

For several years, I’ve been sharing Red Sox season tickets with friends, sitting out in the bleachers for 10-20 games a year. It’s great during the summer to get to a few games, but it really pays off in October, when we get into the Park for playoff games.

Yesterday, we went to a corporate event at Fenway, and I was able to get a wide shot of the outfield. Here’s where we sit at each game:

Here’s another shot of the Red Sox captain, from July 17th, 2006.

[tags]Jason Varitek, Red Sox[/tags]

We finally got a game last Sunday, and the starting picture was Kyle Snyder, up filling in while Clement and Wells are on the disabled list. Here are a couple of pictures I got of him from my seat in the bleachers.

[tags]Kyle Snyder, Red Sox[/tags]

I’m sad that I can’t win this, because this looks like the coolest contest I’ve seen in a while: watch a game with Theo.

The grand prize winner will also receive a dinner for two at Fenway Park before a 2006 regular-season home game, and the chance to spend the game with Theo Epstein in his private suite!

Theo will also be chatting on Boston.com on Monday, July 10th at noon.

[tags]Red Sox, Theo Epstein[/tags]

I can’t wait for Pedro Martinez’s return to Fenway tonight.

In his prime, Pedro was electric. Every Pedro game was an event — you went in *expecting* a no-hitter, expecting to see something special.

I doubt we’ll ever see another pitcher like him.

Previously:
Red Sox Opening Day – 3/31/2003
Pedro! Pedro! Pedro! – 4/18/2003
The Full Moon at Fenway Park – 10/12/2003
Do you belieeeeeeve? – 10/16/2003
Grr. Argh. – 10/17/2003
Yub Yub – 10/19/2004

Jason Varitek, from April 2004:

Here’s Johnny Damon warming up, from April 2004:

Johnny Damon, throwing the ball into the infield, from April 2004