Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Games 2 & 3

The game was great, again, with the Sox taking an early lead and then almost blowing it before cracking the game wide open in the 8th, sending all the Oakland fans home early. I predicted a Trot Nixon homerun in his first at bat, and in his 2nd he broke his 0 for 126 at bat streak.

One thing you never see at home is Papelbon warming up. It's especially noticeable in Oakland, as the bullpen is along the side of the field. If the Sox have a lead, Papelbon is up and moving around in the 6th, stretching his legs and jogging a little in the 7th, and waving his arms all around in the 8th. He starts throwing nearly 3 innings after he starts stretching. The Oakland fans mocked him a little bit, mimicking his frantic arm swings and twisting torso.

The Oakland fans were a little less hospitable last night. The frustration with their teams performance and with the number of Sox fans in the stands was palpable. One guy in our section kept chanting durogatory things about New England, including "Chappaquiddick," which I probably just butchered. The guy behind me leaned forward and said "Trot Nixon is gay, you shouldn't wear his jersey, 'cause he's gay." Trot then walked in a run and blew past a stop sign to score from first on a double, which is a very gay thing to do. The Sox won convincingly and all the As fans had gone home by the 9th.

Today's game was less exciting. We got there early for batting practice and Root Beer Float Day, but the Sox skipped BP. We watched Foulke throw a side session from about 15 feet away. He threw ~30 pitches, and he and Nipper seemed pleased with it. He's due to come off the DL next week. Ruth got Jermaine Van Buren to sign my ticket, but I let her keep it. Because it just didn't mean that much to me. In the game, Haren and the As offense managed to appease the As fans, who seemed to have forgotten that they got spanked in the first two games.

Tomorrow morning I'm on an early plane to the east coast, where i'll be visiting some friends before joining the Frey family on Cape Cod for a few days.

2 comments:

Caleb said...

That was all very poorly written, but I wrote it in four sittings and have no desire to go back and edit. So, Mom, Dad, whoever else - I apologize.

Dad said...

He's just upset because he's getting whomped in Old Sluggers this week.

It was JVB, BTW, who, after a difficult inning against the Sky Chiefs, screamed, "F**K!" at the top of his voice 10 feet from the dugout. The entire stadium heard, I'm sure.