What a weekend! Too bad I missed it.

In taking time away from following the Sox this holiday weekend, I think it's safe to say that I am partially responsible for their current impressive winning streak.

After all, there's no way Clay Buchholz becomes the first Boston rookie to throw a no-hitter if I'm watching.

Cause that's the kind of shit that happens when you take a brief sabbatical from the torture test that is following these Red Sox: winning streaks happen, impressive performances happen, history happens.

So while I indulged in all the familiar aspects of the "last weekend of summer" (an ironic moniker here in sun-baked FLA)--bicycling, beaching, barbecuing and boozing--the Sox got busy turning an ugly four-game losing skid into three straight confidence-boosting wins.

Let me say that I did catch a few innings here and there over the weekend, enough to keep me somewhat abreast of the goings ons but not enough to get any kind of feel of the games.

Friday after trekking to the beach as part of my "kick off the holiday weekend by biking to the beach, get tanked, and then attempt to ride home" campaign, I got home and in front of the TV just in time to see Nick Markakis' 3-run homer that made the score 9-3 Baltimore, after which I promptly drifted into a semi-coma and awoke to the "Good Evening" screen from the Extra Innings package.

Saturday I started out watching Clay's masterpiece, but got so busy getting the house ready for a party the next day that I inadvertently left it on the PIP while I had college football on the main picture. I saw the blowout score of the Sox game and thought nothing of switching it back.

Not until the Sportscenter "30 in 30" spot announced what Buchholz was in the process of doing did I bother to switch it back, and I managed to witness the last three outs without a ball dropping in to punish my blatant stupidity.

Sunday was the day of the party, so game watching was out of the question. Didn't even find out that the Sox won until the next morning, which I believe was Monday but sure felt like a Sunday.

Anyway, last night I made a decision to watch the Florida State football game on the big screen and leave the Sox on the TV in the back and the PIP, just to complete my weekend of lost viewing.

After Boston got ahead 10-1 I concentrated on the offensively weak Noles instead of the offensive fireworks going on at Fenway and failed to see Toronto's 8-run 6th inning that nearly led to one of the most disappointing losses of the season if not for a great catch by Ellsbury.

I know, this one is inexcusable. Fucking Noles.

But now I'm back for the pennant run and I'm not even upset that I missed all the fun because when I tuned out this team was reeling from the Stankees sweep and the Baltimore opener and now it owns a 7-game lead in the East again and control their own destiny from here on out.

You're welcome, guys.

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Pix I forgot to post: Sox/Rays Game

This will be my last post of the night. It's a bunch of pictures from the Sox/Rays game I went to last month.

Didn't get around to posting them.

Now I am.

My son waiting patiently for someone to sign...

...and Beckett happily(?) obliging

Paps calmly going through his pregame

Oki acting like he can't understand the kids screaming "Dice-K" at him (true story)

The massive video screen touting the marquee pitching matchup...
...and the game actually lived up to the hype...

...until this happened (Dioner Navarro's homer--from the video board, I didn't have the camera at the ready)...

...and then this happened (BJ Upton's homer off Manny D.)...

..and finally, this happened.

And on that note, I'm hitting the sack.

Game 1, today, 1:10PM EST

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Boredom sets in with no game to watch.

This sucks.

With no game on, no good movies on and and rerun of the captivating Hippos/Crocs special on Discovery HD Theater, I've resorted to perusing the Net in order to be entertained, which is usually never good.

What's that, you say? Read a book.

Good one.

So I was researching the custom Benz that Papi put up for sale on eBay, and I found out that the auction ended this afternoon with 18 total bids, the highest at 525,000, but none of them were legitimate offers.

The car was a friggin gem, straight out of West Coast Customs and into the arms of a World Series champ, but I'm not sure if the average eBayer could've afforded the price tag.

Dude, next time use the DuPont Registry.

Wait around a while and I'll see what else I can dig up.

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Welcome to Beantown, Big Ticket!

It's good to be a Bostonian when you get to see a 7' future Hall of Fame basketball player toss out the first pitch to a burly Boston baseball demigod on a picture-perfect midsummer night at Fenway.

Ah, good times, good times.

Oh yeah, and this sight was pretty sweet, too.

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Sox Drawer: Gagne, Garnett arrivals reinvigorate Boston

By bringing two legendary players to Boston, coupled with the impending Patriots debut of Randy Moss, the Hub is once again the center of the sports universe

Sights like this, plus the arrival of Eric Gagne, have made Boston the center of attention once again (AP/ESPN photo)

Ah it's times like these I almost wish I didn't leave the gridlocked & grimy confines of the World's Greatest City for the wide open, sunny spaces of fabulous South Florida.

As I type this there is enough rain falling outside to film "Evan Almighty II".

But really, I have to envy all my family and friends who still live in the city that never sleeps, sports-wise, for I can only imagine how giddy the locals are over this latest round of Beantown glory.

Sure, none of the three teams (unless the Bs trade for Sidney Crosby the team is dead to us) have actually won anything yet, but the prospect of a trio of titles in town within the next year is enough to turn the frown of a grizzled, weather-beaten Maine-iac upside down.

With the Celtics trade for Kevin Garnett and the Sox deadline deal that brought Eric Gagne to town coupled with the Pats off season signing of Moss, the three major teams have all brought marquee name players to clubs already rich in talent (well, in the Cs case not exactly rich, but...) which not only virtually assured each squad of a run at its respective championship but succeeded in focusing the national sports spotlight on a city with a trio of teams and owners who are not afraid to make a big deal.

Are you listening, New York, Chicago and Detroit?

Or, as Curt Schilling's buddy Dan Shaugnessy put it in his gloating Globe article today

"We are the town with Manny Ramírez, Tom Brady, Kevin Garnett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Randy Moss, Ray Allen, Curt Schilling, Bill Belichick, Paul Pierce, David Ortiz, Adalius Thomas, Jonathan Papelbon, Tedy Bruschi, Josh Beckett, Rodney Harrison, Jason Varitek, Richard Seymour, and Eric Gagne. We have reasonable expectations of a World Series, a Super Bowl, and the NBA Finals. There never has been a better time to be a sports fan in Boston."

I'll just have to settle for being a Boston sports fan.

Oh look, the sun is starting to come out.

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Sox Notes: Schill out till after break; Celts crash & burn in draft

Sox say Schill won't return to the hill until after the All Star break at the earliest
Not like we didn't already know this was coming, but Terry Francona confirmed what every member of the Nation knew to be fact-Schill's stay on the DL will last longer than the minimum 15 days, and from the looks of it, considerably longer.

Francona had this to say yesterday, as reported by the Globe's Gordon Edes:

"He can throw now, but I think they want him to reach certain levels with testing. All the things we said the other day remain true. We want him to be able to finish the season being a consistent, good pitcher. That's why we're trying to use good judgment."

Schilling went on the DL retroactive to June 19th with what is being classified as shoulder tendinitis, and with baseball set to resume play after the break on July 12th, that would make almost a full month out of action for the 40-year-old, 15-year vet.

Needless to say the situation cannot be classified as good. Even if the workhorse righty makes it back shortly following the break, the combination of the unsurety behind the cause of the injury and Schilling's advancing age doesn't bode well for a man who has already logged over 3,200 innings pitched on that appendage attachment.

All we can say is get well soon, Curt.

Cause I'll take half a Schill over a whole Gabbard.

Off Topic: Celtics continue to wallow in obscurity
The annual NBA Dog & Pony Show, a.k.a the 2007 NBA Draft, took place in front of a bunch of millionaires, soon-to-be-millionaires, and loser hoop junkies at MSG last night, and even though the Celts possessed the fifth pick in this talent-deep pool of players, Danny Ainge and Co. somehow managed to fuck it up anyway.

After Greg Oden and Kevin Durant went 1-2 to Portland & Seattle, there were still a lot of quality, NBA-ready players that could have helped the Cs in a rich draft class: the Gator duo of G Corey Brewer & F Joakim Noah; clutch PG Acie Law IV; pterodactyl-like F Brendan Wright of UNC; and Chinese prospect Yi Jianlian (is he related to Ann Jillian?) all could have helped a team that needs help at almost every position.

Except shooting guard.

See, the C's have had this occasionally disgruntled, 5-time All Star named Paul Pierce entrenched at that position since...oh, the late '90s.

So when Boston selected Georgetown forward/ mystery man Jeff Green and then traded him along with anchor Wally Sczerbiak (thank god!) and Delonte West (oh no!) to the Sonics for aging, ailing, defense-free shooting guard Ray Allen, the few remaining members of the Green Machine fanclub dropped their jaws, scratched their heads, then ran to the phone in a effort to unload their 07-08 season tix.

Sue PP okayed the deal, and he will slide over to the familiar SF spot when on the floor with Allen, but really, is having two aging & possible disgruntled superstar guards on the floor with a bunch of unproven youngsters really a recipe for postseason success?

Didn't think so either.

Don't get me wrong, I love Ray Allen. Loved him when he was a scrawny, sharpshooting kid at UConn, loved him as Denzel's talented, sensitive meal ticket Jesus Shuttlesworth in Spike Lee's underrated "He Got Game", and loved him as he poured in almost 17,000 points over 11 NBA seasons.

But he is by no means the answer to what ails the struggling Cs.

Surprisingly many media honks, including the estimable Jim Rome and CBS Sportsline's Tony Meija, have lauded this deal, with Meija going so far as to say the Celts are "relevant again" with the arrival of Allen.

Huh?

The only way the C's would have been relevant again is if the ping pong balls had gone their way and they had landed the 1 or 2 pick like they planned when Doc & Danny had them tank the last half of the season to win the lottery.

Instead they've got two 30-something vets coming off injury-plagued years who both would rather be playing somewhere else.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

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Game Preview: Sox @ San Diego

Beckett (10-1, 3.39) vs. Peavy (9-1, 1.78)

4EST Petco Park

The rubber game of this series features two of the best pitchers in baseball, and this meeting of the two young guns could at least be a preview of the Midsummer's Classic if not a potential Series preview as well.

I know I better not get ahead of myself, but this game has the potential to be one of the best pitching matchups of the season, a game where one run could win it and a home run will be hard to come by.

That's because Peavy has allowed just one homerun all season in over 100 innings of work, and Beckett, after serving up 36 taters last season, has allowed just five longballs this season. Plus Petco is one of the toughest yards to jack one out of, so look for the run(s) to be scored in an unconventional manner.

I know I predicted a 1-0 Sox win on a homer by Pedroia, but since the Globe is reporting that Pedroia will sit today and Peavy gives up homers about as often as Manny does interviews, I think I'll amend that prediction.

I still like the Sox in a close, low-scoring game, but I think the game will be lost by the bullpen rather than the starters.

I know, how about Mirabelli gets a pinch-hit single off Cla Meredith and Lowell comes around and plows over Bard with the winning run in the ninth.

Call it poetic justice, Red Sox style.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now I have to recap the Dodgers/D-Rays game last night my son & I attended last night.

First off let me say that there were as many Nomar jerseys & t-shirts, all three varieties, as all the other jerseys combined, and that goes for Rays gear, too.

That being said, he didn't play.

Not only did he not play, but he was a no-show for BP and did not make so much as a courtesy appearance to the throng of fans who lined the third base wall in hopes he would sign their 8x10 glossy of him in his Sox uni.

The whole night turned out to be pretty entertaining, though, from the throwback to the '50s theme to the tribute to Zim and his Brooklyn Dodgers mates. The unis were awesome, the game was exciting, and the Rays even won on a late homer by Dioner Navarro (right after my son said "oh great, Navarro is up!")

Russell Martin & Randy Wolfe rock the sweet Brooklyn throwbacks

Plus it was a packed house (for the Trop)-over 24,000, second highest total of the season, and many of the fans in attendance came ready to engage in traditional ballgame activities.

Like heckling the opponent.

The highlight of the night came before the game, during BP, when some "enthusiastic" Rays fans decided to ride temper-prone Dodgers hurler Brad Penny like the electronic bull at the old Joyland.

Using clean but biting remarks the gang of hecklers not only got Penny to turn and listen to their rants but he actually interacted with them, returning their barbs with responses like "are you retarded?" and generally looking amused by their witty, beer-soaked banter.

The best part about the whole thing is that while this was taking place, Penny signed bats, balls and gloves for the other fans along the railing of the outfield wall. So then the rowdies ridiculously asked if he would sign theirs and he said "yes", but when they threw one down he tossed it back to the infield with the rest of the shagged horsehides! Classic.

Not only that but one of them was retarded enough to toss his glove down.

After a few minutes of curious inspection with his teammates and mulling over whether or not he should bring it to the bullpen and light it on fire, Penny teased the dumb dude with an offer to trade gloves, then made the dude practically beg to get it back.

Which he eventually did, to the dismay of many disgruntled onlookers, who didn't find the whole situation as amusing as me and another Sox fan next to me did.

We felt right at home.

It was fucking awesome.

The whole incident lasted about 20 minutes, and when Penny jogged off to hit the buffet table, all the people in the section were genuinely disappointed to see the repartee come to an end.

But hey, at least the game was nearly as entertaining as the pregame show.

Aki Iwamura sporting the spiffy (minor league) St. Pete Tarpons duds

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A special shout out to a great new website

I want to take a moment to thank the folks behind BlogInterviewer.com for asking me to be included on their innovative new site.

What sets this site apart for all the run-of-the-mill blogrolls is that BlogInterviewer lets the reader actually preview various sites by providing a screenshot as well as a mini-interview with its creator, not just a soulless, impersonal link. Very cool.

This is a terrific way for lesser-known blogs like mine to get our name out there among the traffic heavyweights, and I have little doubt it will catch on like wildfire.

And I'm not just saying that because they were kind enough to ask me to be a part of it.

Really, I'm not.

Anyway, please click the link above and peruse the site yourself; if you want to shoot directly to my page (and I know you do), click here.

Thanks again to Mike Thomas and the rest of the gang for choosing my humble little blog, and keep up the great work!

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Back From the Abyss: in a New York state of mind

After spending the weekend in NYC, this transplanted Bostonian and lifelong Stankee hater found he actually liked the Big Apple.

Incredible views like this one from the rooftop lounge atop our hotel was just one thing that made my trip more enjoyable than I'd expected

Before you all start to vilify me, it's not like I'm admitting that the powerful allure of iconic American landmarks like Times Square, Central Park and the Empire State Building converted this Boston born Sox Diehard into some kind of closeted wannabe New Yawker...

...but after the fam and I had such a fun, fast-paced and nearly profanity-free three days in the City That Doesn't Sleep, viewing many of the most famous structures and areas in the world while attending one of the best weddings in history, I was surprised to realize that I found the city whose sports teams have caused us Boston fans so much misery over the decades to be a...gulp...a...nice place to visit.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm about to hop aboard a jet airliner and trade in my blue cap with the red script "B" for a set of pinstripes or anything, but the actual city itself, as noisy, smelly, polluted and crowded as it is, is a great place to spend some time provided you have the right combination of factors in your favor such as hotel location, weather and a family member/ friend who lives in the city.

Thankfully my sister Melissa, she of the aforemen-tioned fantastic wedding (more coverage of that event will be posted on my other blog, TampaBayBostonian, sometime tomorrow) has lived in the city for years and she aided greatly in making sure we stayed at the right hotel (Shelburne Murray Hill- hip, contemporary, and favorably located yet relatively in-expensive), went to the right places that fit in with our short time frame (Empire St Bldg, Central Park) and steered clear of places that didn't (Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero.)

Check out where this store owner decided to place Mr. April's jersey-behind baby Matsui's!Classic!

In my efforts to avoid all the coverage of the two despised baseball teams in the region, which wasn't easy since they were playing another one of those silly Subway Series, as a result I didn't get to see much Red Sox action, either.

Saturday I went to the hotel bar to catch the Dice-K game on the plasma since it was on FOX, but the US Open was on instead, and when I asked if they would put the baseball game on, I got a curt "we're watching the golf" reply from a waiter. Alrighty then.

Sunday I saw none of the game since that was the day of the wedding, and yesterday I was "lucky" enough to catch a bit of the latest Schilling shellacking on the hotel TV before we went to dinner, and from what I saw (McCann's three-run homer, Schill with nothing), I'm glad I missed the rest.

So it looks like most of my prediction before I left came true-the Sox swept the Giants series-but thanks to Schilling my hopes of starting the long road trip off on a positive note did not come to fruition, and now it turns out he might be hurt. Great.

Oh well. At least the Sox still have the best record in baseball, and more importantly I survived my first foray into the devil's den with my sanity and senses intact.

I will try to get back up to speed with my Sox postings tomorrow, after I sleep off the effects of jet lag and late night jags, and I'm sure I will revisit this new found affinity I have for the city that harbors two of RSN's most loathed rivals.

The situation is so perplexing I may have to call in Dr. Melfi on this one; she's not doing anything these days.

Meeting legendary Letterman foil Rupert Gee was one of the many highlights of a great trip

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On Vacation: Into the belly of the beast!

The Bloody Sock will be on hiatus for the next four days as I head to the Big Apple for my sister's nuptials.

That's right, this charter member of Red Sox Nation is heading into the lions den, and in the middle of another subway series, no less.

But the sis lives and works in the city as does her fiancee, plus my son & I are in the wedding, so there was really no getting around making the trip into hostile territory.

Plenty of pix and stories when I return. Hopefully the Sox will have swept the Giants by then, Bonds will be put out of action after Matsuzaka drills him in his ginourmous dome because doing so in his country is viewed as an honor, and Boston will already have taken a pair in Atlanta by the time I get back.

Hey, a guy can dream.

After all, I'm going to be visiting the city responsible for years of nightmares for the next few days!

Wish me luck, and best of luck to my sister, Melissa, and her hubby-to-be, Paul!

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Off Day Notes: Time to talk Pats

"...the public perception of the Patriots is changed forever."-Dan Shaughnessy, today's Globe

Since Boston is enjoying some "much-deserved personal time", i.e. its first day off in nearly two weeks, I thought I would take some time & space here to discuss RSN's other obsession, the New England Patriots.

You may have heard that the NFL draft was this past weekend, or if like me if you happened to watch any ESPN during that time your brain may have been melted into an inorganic goo of combine numbers, 'best available' lists and 40 times, complete with a rolling crawl on the bottom and a side graphic box good for further clouding your already suspect judgement.

And I'm sure you heard the big news out of the draft- no, not that National Championship-winning quarterback and soon-to-be professional model Chris Leak went undrafted-but that the Pats made two moves that brought players of highly questionable moral character into the straitlaced Foxborough fold. (Well other than the staring QB fathering 2 children out of wedlock they're straitlaced.)

Brandon Meriweather and Randy Moss bring an immediate combination of speed, toughness, attitude and skill to two positions the Pats needed a lot of help at: the secondary and wide receiver. They also tote enough baggage to make a veteran skycap at Logan wince. The lists of incidents involving both players is both lengthy and well-documented, so I'm not going to pick at the scabs of those painful memories.

Let's just say that when things like gun possession, drug use, squirting water at an official, on-field brawling, running over a traffic cop, and quitting on your teammates are on such lists, well they're really no question about your character.

To quote Trick Daddy, maybe it's because you're a thug. Or a punk. Or at the very least an angry, selfish, malcontent capable of ripping apart a team's chemistry at any given moment, provoked or not.

In other words the exact type of player New England would never allow to grace the huddle, no matter how much talent or ability to win such a player would bring to the team.

Yet in their quest to get back to the promised land of NFL championships the New England brain trust, a.k.a. The Hooded Genius, capo Scott Pioli and the Kraft family, have decided to skip with past protocols and head in a different direction. They have opened up their team as a sort of rehab for players in need of some serious image counseling, achieved by holding the Rozelle Trophy high over one's head, thereby rendering all past transgressions null & void.

After all, it worked for Cory Dillon, didn't it?

But as the old saying goes, "what price victory?" Sure the Pats are mightily improved with these two additions, and many 'experts' are already proclaiming them as a lock for the Super Bowl next year.

I say so what. Didn't the team come within a Dominic"I peed myself" Rhodes last-minute touchdown of making it to the title game this year? And didn't that happen after the team stuck to its principals by not granting a certain wide receiver a contract extension, which led to his hasty departure for the Pacific Northwest just as the season got underway?

The point I'm trying to make is that the Patriot machine has been making boys into men and mediocre players into championship winners for almost a decade now by following a radical-but-effective approach: bring in high-quality guys with a desire to win and be part of a championship team and play the NFL game the right way...

...why scrap that plan now and subscribe to the Chucky Gruden "I don't care about their past just as long as they do it for me on the field tomorrow" method of building a contender?

It's ironic that just as the league heads towards a "zero tolerance" policy with troubled players, the league's model franchise sheds its image of being the original "zero tolerance" organization.

Because as a Patriot fan I know I just don't have a good feeling about adding Meriweather and Moss and even Donte Stallworth to the team to the team, even if they do help bring that 4th title to town. I know that I was a lot happier when New England drafted a diamond-in-the-rough nobody like Logan Mankins and molded him into a solid NFL player, rather than attempting to turn a turkey into a swan like they are with Meriweather.

And I was a lot more proud of a team that won titles with guys like Bruschi, Vinateri, Brown, Vrabel and Harrison than I would be with a with a me-first prima donna who jaked his way out of Oakland and is just gravy-training the Patriot experience in order to win that elusive ring.

So you tell me, which side is worse?

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