Same as it ever was.....

Stealing home? Never saw that....now have. Ellsbury caught the corner of my eye and in the proverbial flash...he was tailights.

...and you may ask yourself..how do I work this?

Fenway Park is inviting and repulsive simultaneously. The wonder of a place I have been attending since 1962 with its parcel of history dragging behind it has an allure to me I can't escape. The gross and vile commercialization of it all, which I realize is part of the times we live in, precedes any entrance to the park and continues until the last note of "Dirty Water" buzzes in your ears. THe two dollar "Boston Baseball" is by far the best bargain at the park. (Disclaimer: I shoot for it and have for 18 years.) Yesterday, I did something that I never do, in that I went to a bar and watched the end of the Sox/Yankees game. Tonight, I venture to the bandbox...but no $4.75 hotdogs for me.

46.2 Miles

A 50 minute bus ride and I am at McCoy Stadium for Media Day. Looking at last years photos, it reinforces the fact that somebodies status in the Minors is never permanent. If any body knows what I can do with pictures of Brandon Moss and Craig Hanson...drop me a line.This photo from several years ago is Manny being $18,000 earring.

The Sun Came Out Today...

Can't say that I am born again but there is new grass on the field....I went to 30 consecutive Opening Days. 1976-2005. After watching the giving of the World Series rings in 2005 and appalled by the crass commercialism involving Fenway, I waved my PawSox hat and bid consecutive Opening Days adios...and rode off on a Bonanza bus for points unknown. Do I miss it? Not really....Tuesday will be Media Day in Pawtucket. It is almost 20 years that I have been hanging around there shooting. It is there that I honed my craft. All I ever wanted to be (after the astronaut years) was to be as close to baseball as possible. Ernest Withers once said to me, "I find no fault with your pictures of baseball." Oh yeah, that is Jeff Suppan, circa 1993

The Big Chill...err.....Shill

Love 'em or hate 'em.....he did waht he was rewarded to do......bring a World Series victory to Boston. x deuce. Never have I cared what a player said off of the field and if rascism still exists, it doesn't make it to the press....in that case I would change my ideas about someone. You say Bush fan? I say World Series ring.

Willie Lee

My dear friend, Willie Lee, formerly of the KC Monarchs and Birmingham Black Barons, turned 74 yesterday. He is as kind and genuine a man as I have ever met. His story of being on the cusp of the Majors and praying that the Red Sox didn't pick him because of the racial climate in Boston at the time is chilling but not unusual for players of that era. He wound up in the Tigers system, got hurt and played softball in Canada for awhile. I hope to get his story on tape in Birmingham this Spring. My pal, Willie, driving around Birmingham in a big ass burgundy Mercury.So perfect.

What's it gonna be?

No, not the meatloaf refrain...Of course, most Sox fans do love them forever...THere is nothing like trudging through the 162 game season. Every day is a different story. Not every day, I have the blues. If the Sox hadn't done it yet....twice...every day we would have the blues. I went to 30 consecutive Opening Days, 1976-2005 and after seeing the rings presented, I thought, that is it....I am done. I have always wanted to saY to someone, hey...do you want to go to the World Series, which is where this picture is from in 2007. Done that now, too....now, a Negro League tribute at Fenway...may I live that long.

He's Back....

Hiatus? Maybe....I have felt like a bull waiting to be released at a rodeo. Baseball is within shouting distance now....every winter I brood and sit around counting the days until my feet hit the concrete, then the gravel and then........the green, green grass around home...so far, I already have Salem, VA, Pawtucket, Portland, ME and Birmingham on my to do list....My book proposal is at an agent....my refrigerator has so many magnets from the (mostly) baseball cites I have been in, I am running out of room. Spell check tried to turn Pawtucket into Puckett...Kirby, anyone?

Not Soon Enough...

A photo from the next to last game at "The Old Boneyard" as my pal, Tunes and I have called it for years. It has been a cold and impersonal winter. The weather doesn't care who it inconveniences. We got heated up over Texiera and then got frozen out once more by the Spankees...I have been busy writing a proposal for my book.....yes, after 18 years on the baseball road, I am finally ready to join the overpopulated market of baseball books.....I look around the crowd at Fenway sometimes and wonder who would buy it. My answer is five people, and I would know four of them...

An HGH Hangover..

I haven't felt much like thinking about baseball this week. The kick in the fans groin known as A-Rod has taken its toll. I guess the choice is clear. You can go to the majors and see drug stuffed clowns or to the minors and see people stuffed into uniforms acting like clowns.

A-Rod and Aretha

A friend remarked that at the Inauguration, "Aretha wasn't very good." Lets see, a 66 year old woman, after sitting in the cold for a couple of hours...and miracle of miracle, she actually sang her own vocals and didn't use backing tapes!" I thought it was fab to hear and see her and let it go at that. In this American Idol universe, no one sings live, no one plays live and for awhile there, not everyone hit home runs without enhancement. Since the Texas Rangers have never been a threat to most other teams, what joy-boy was doing in 2003 didn't cross my nose. Let he who is without sin throw out the first needle.

So little time...

so many to prosecute...A-Rod joins the tainted. Of course, he didn't lie to a grand jury or Congress as the other lunkheads did...but it is still a shame. Is there nothing believable in Major League Baseball? I had hoped that A-Rod (or somebody) would break Bonds HR record so it could be reclaimed for the real people. With the economy is a death march, sports is a nice diversion. Now, instead of Spring Training chatter, A-Rod will dominate the news. I need baseball. It dominates my life for months. I go to games, I photograph it. I have friends all over the country. I revel in the Minors. Who sang that.."They Can't Take That Away From Me...?" Every so often, I announce I will chuck all of this stuff. To be honest, it is all I know.

More Snow....

Not a lot, mind you...but enough to make your chest heave and count the days until that you can see the green, green grass of home....It has been a long and slow winter. The NPR poofs seem to have stopped chanting "global warming" and have merely extolling "Slumdog Millionaire" which looks to be as much of a dud as year's "Little Miss Sunshine." For all of the synchophants that march behind Fox News and their broadcasts, there is something more zombie-like about the NPR crew...

Is It Spring Yet?

Boston is getting quasi-clobbered with snow this winter. I say "quasi" because the news media sends everyone into a panic with three inches of snow due...when I was a boy.......we used to walk ten miles to school every day and on cold days, we had baked potatoes in our pockets to keep our hands warm. If our family was to poor to buy potatoes, we had hot bricks.

This is my country....

"This is my country...these are my people..." Randy Newman. Every single one of them....from skin to shining skin....what an American tune baseball sings.....