Zip......

Zimmer.....oh how we ranted and went beserk with madness over this guy when he was first bench coach and then manager of the Former World Champion Red Sox. Damn, he has had a job in baseball almost as long as I have been a sparkle in Mr. Chapman's eyes. Still around, in some woebegone capacity with Tampa Bay, he is about as old school (rude and not very bright) as it gets but he lives to chaw another day. He absolutely exploded at me when I asked if I could take his picture. At that point, I figured he could get just as mad as he wanted.......and took it anyway. Screw him. I had a job to do, too....

Hearts are made to be broken.....

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." Bart Giamatti. Source: The Green Fields of the Mind (Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977)

Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch..

The magnificent Levi Stubbs has moved on. Life ends, as Ernest Withers put it. My fascination with R and B music would earn me a cuff to the head and an admonition about "crazy ni**er music" as a child. It didn't stop me from listening, not by any means. I had written Motown off as silly plastic sounds made to sell to white kids. Stax and Atlantic were the dual standards of the epitome of fabulous. That Motown bunch vs. Booker T and the MGs and the Memphis Horns..kiss my ass. even a white middle class teenager from Boston knew that Duck Dunn could move the Earth...However, when I heard "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) bust out of my Motorola's small speaker....it wiped even the Beatles from my world. I still play it a lot....a sad break up song..but sung with such power and confidence. In the pic, from top left, Obie Benson, Abul Fakir, Lawrence Payton and they call him......Levi Stubbs. I can't help myself.....

Darn those SOX!

One more time, Lazarus and the Red Sox go to the well. You can't write off any lopsided score in baseball as a sure victory or loss. If El Boyos of Summer can come back after Thursday's sure debacle....anything can and is possible. Will I be strolling through these gates again on Wednesday or no? Believe, cuz I believe....

Babes in Leftyland

I admit that I was wrong. As wrong as I have ever been about any up and coming young ball player. Jon Lester became the Real Deal. I am slinking off to Fenway this afternoon to pay my respects. At least I was right about NOMAH!

Curt and His Mistress

2004 found Curt schilling (ouch!) for the Republican Party. I don't care what a baseball player thinks. What he does between the white lines is what I pay to see. Here The Schill escorted Barbara Bush around Fenway Park. Or maybe it was the locker room there and that is why her eyes are bulging out. No, this is as published and not photoshopped.

The Original F-Rod.....

Back in the 90's, The Sox drafted shortstop Frankie Rodriquez. it was decided that he would make a better pitcher than ss, so they recast him in that role. He never seemed comfortable and to my eyes, never had the concentration needed. Brian Rose was another guy I felt the same way about. Rodriquez wound up muddling around the Sox for awhile and wound up in Minnesota, muddling all the way. An old instructor of mine stated that there were no great baseball pictures, because no one actually captured the moment. Here was my answer to him....

Three and out tonight?

Off to "The Boneyard" as my life long pal Tunes and I have called it for let's see..how many years? ...pick a number over 50... I have mentioned Frank Malzone before, having seen him play when I was a kid and being introduced to him in Pawtucket. As much of a crass, bombarding ballpark Fenway has become, it is still not hard to sit there and think back and back and back. I still think of it as empty, banging seats and hearing the echo from that reverberate all over the park. Sure, that noise started that rally, didn't it? The Monster, Yaz, Freddie Swampscott, Dewey, Luis,Spaceman,The Rocket..stop me here...and Malzie....

Cheesiest....

The cheesiest ball park that I have ever been to? It took some soul searching, a lot of mediation and prayer to guide me to the coveted Most Cheesy Ballpark Award. While Riverwalk Stadium, home of the Montgomery Biscuits deserve an honorable mention for cheese well melted, there is a shred less of grated Kraft Parmesan than at Merchants Auto Stadium, home of the NH Fisher Cats, in Manchester NH. Even the sign welcoming you to "Fisher Cats Entertainment Experience" is a supreme tipoff. I thought I was going to a baseball game! I have never seen more between inning interruptions anywhere than at this park. While the Hot Dog cannon and Biscuit Bazooka have their charms, the guy in the ostrich suit whipping hot dogs into the crowd in NH wins the coveted package of Kraft Individualy Wrapped Slices Award. American, of course.