Musings from Mandy

I realized the other day, quite how much I am not over the Patriots lost. I'm still absolutely angry. As one of my students proved the other day with his, Giant's Super Bowl hat, complete with it's, "We Wanted It More" logo, I am angry, I am hurt, and I wanted my Super Bowl ring and even the warm wonderful glow of spring training is not quite warming the ice over my sports heart. *I live in coastal Eastern North Carolina, and I've been waiting to see this whole Duke / UNC feud up close . A few weeks ago, I saw that match up at a neighborhood sports bar, and quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing about how other rivalries rival the Boston / New York rivalry. I'm sorry, but I haven't seen anything yet to see show me otherwise. *Does Tiger Woods actually drive a Buick? I don't think so. At least, I hope not. I've seen the picture of his house, and I don't see a Buick parked in that driveway. *The NBA All Star game uni's did nothi...

After 8 long days without internet AND cable TV with the exceptions of some sneaking done at the Sheraton I am back thanks to the shady internet guy who came today and and the new roommate who figured out how to get my wireless internet working. Anyway, for the last week + I have been like a junkie in need of heroin. Through phone calls, texts, bits and pieces of info through the Chicago news (for some reason we get there here), and the occasional break from high school football in the local paper, I have been without sports. I haven't seen Sportscenter, I haven't seen the Sox play except for when we could pick up Maryland TV in the Outerbanks last weekend, (I saw the O's first walkoff), I haven't read Rob Bradford...it has been a cold dark world. It's also been a kind of stress free world. I haven't been on Tom Brady Baby Watch 24/7. I haven't spent nights worrying about our lack of offensive production. I haven't heard announcer after announcer complai...

It's kind of like someone took this picture specifically for me. Like they said, "Hey, look at Paps and Mikey sitting there drinking beers, playing cribbage, you know who would love this picture, Amanda. I better take it for her" Joshua's girlfriend. Now, I'm not saying that Josh isn't infinitely hotter because he plays baseball than he actually is. I'm just saying his girlfriend is...surprising. Manny and Okie drinking wine. My only question is, where is Papi in all these pictures? Maybe these are Papi's pictures? Maybe he took them for me? Papi's probably sitting on the floor indian style between the pilots touching buttons and trying to grab the controller with a huge grin on his face. I mean, how great are these pictures? Kansas City who? Whoever took them, thank you for bringing them into my life.

This is going to be a rambling mess, but I haven't posted in a while and I have a about 29293 things running through my head right now. Proceed at your own risk. Okay, I'm offically stressed out. Our in ability to hit with runners in scoring position is so freaking frustrating I can't take it anymore. David's single followed by Manny popping out last night just added to my tension. I'm wondering if we need to make a move for another bat (although if our lineup could just hit how we know our lineup can hit, all would be well in my world). July 31st is quickly approaching and I think Theo has a big move in store for us. Here is my things with trades. I don't think in terms of statistics or productivity or contracts. I think in terms of how much I love the player. Under those rules, Jon Lester, MDC, the Typo Twins (Jacoby and Kason) (Credits to Surviving Grady for that one) , Mike Lowell and Wily Mo would not even be considered for a possible deal. (I didn't ...

Hello on this lovely Sunday, I hope everyone has had a great weekend. I am currently enjoying the Sox game, but I was going through my mail and I had one of my SASE from the Great Autograph Experiment of 2007 . I sent out 20 "fan" notes with SASE to 20 Major Leaguers, just to see who I'd get back. I got my first back today, unsigned along with my note, from Manny Ramirez. Apparently Mr. Ramirez doesn't deal with fan mail, but someone took the time to send my card back, which is nice. Dear Mr. Demarlo Hale, If you ever run my torn minicus boyfriend into a GD out at home to end the inning again, I promise to inflict SEVERE bodily pain. Love, Amanda And I leave you with the handsomest third baseman and El Capitan...

Well, I'm back. I hope everyone missed me. I'm starting off today with a Home Run Derby recap and will then have a road trip recap later on today. The quote of the road trip definitely goes to our cab driver the last night who said, "You girls know what the best thing about Detroit is? Chicago is only 3 and a 1/2 hours away". Right on sir, right on. We have a pregame concert by the Counting Crows, which, whatever, but we do also have....Mike Lowell videotaping the CC with baby Mike Lowell! This is absolutely my favorite part of the HR derby, cute pictures of cute players with cute little kids. The Home Run Derby starts off with all the players being introduced by the always horrific Chris Berman. Honestly! What does he bring to the table? He's just loud and annoying and I don't know anyone besides Bill Belichick that likes him. I can't wait for him to tell us that a ball is hit to Japan when we clearly see it landing in the bleachers. Grrr. We ...

Went to the Rangers game last night. I really wanted to get there early and yell at the Texas players how weak their fans are and how annoying the song, "Deep in the Heart of Texas" clap clap clap, but I had to return some overdue library books and go to the ATM on the way. As Katie and I were cutting through the common, a man yelled to us, "Going to the game?", we told him we were, and he asked who they were playing, we told him Texas, and he proceeded to argue that we were actually playing the Devil Rays and that Matsuzaka was pitching. You're a day early, buddy. Don't let this pony tail fool you Sir, I know my shit. There was no line at the Cask and Flagon, so we had to stop in and have a beverage. The Old Cask is 10 times better than the new Cask, by the way. Anyway, two drinks later we head into Fenway and stop behind home plate to watch the pre-game stuff and come to realize we are standing right next to Larry Lucchino donning a red hat with the...

found on Surviving Grady...

So, the other day I was reading my ESPN the Mag, and there was a section about the best way to get autographs. Now, I have to say, autographs have never done much for me. I'd much rather get my picture taken with the player then have them sign something that will end up in a photo album and then eventually get ruined when the basement floods. In my autograph collection, I have Nancy Kerrigan (at Toys “R” us when I was maybe 12). (Funny side story, I need a piece of paper, so my dad handed me a notebook that we hadn’t bought yet, and I thought for sure I was going to get arrested. And then, my dad wouldn’t even buy the notebook that I had used to get the autograph, he just tore out the page and put it his pocket…and I was horrified we were stealing paper!). My second autograph is ML Carr. My mom won some contest when she worked in the bakery at Shaw’s (I’m serious, she worked there). So my dad and I got to go play basketball on the court at the Garden. The real Garden, not TD Bankno...

You know how every once and a while in Little League, you'd end up with 8 kids, and you'd have to take an out in their place? That is how I feel whenever Crisp and Lugo are up. Like they are automatically an out. Something is clearly up with Mike Lowell's fielding, and quite frankly, I blame Julio Lugo. How could this be Lugo's fault you ask? Well, Mike has spent is entire career playing 3rd base next to Alex Gonzalez, who, is a fielding wizard. Because Mike is now next to Lugo, who has the range of my stove (pun intended), he is going after balls that should be the shortstops, and therefore increasing his error total. Bullshit you say? I don't care. When in doubt, I am going to blame Lugo. *I have spent hours reading all the stuff here, and I don't even collect autographs. Just an excellent time . *Justin Verlander threw a no-no the other night incase you missed it, and he was hitting triple digits in the 9th. Crazy. *This is the ugliest thing I have ever se...

*To lead off today, we have some photoshop genius from BostonDirtDogs acknowledging some of the holes in our offense. Good thing they aren't batting first and second. *So, as stated in yesterdays post. I had some inside info that Mike Lowell was at the Children's Museum yesterday. When I left work at 4:30, I followed my normal path home. I had a bit of a dilema. Do I swing by Au Bon Pain and get a water? Just incase Mike had the same idea? Do I maybe go admire the new construction? Just incase Mike was doing the same? I eventually decided that I would do the admirable thing and go home. I walked to the bus and got to the intersection of Congress / State and as I'm waiting to cross I'm 97% sure that I saw Brendan Merriweather. As I was waiting, a guy drives by me and I think to myself, "that looked just like Brendan Merriweather". After he passes, I check out the license plate, and it was from Florida. Of course, it was entirely possible it wasn...

So I'm on the phone at about 3:15 doing an exit interview with yet another disgruntled employee who is leaving. I always shut the door to my office when I'm on calls like this because, frankly, I work with retards who will stand in front of me the entire time I'm on the phone to wait for me to finish. I'm so glad that working in HR, my workspace is private and people respect the confidentiality of my role. Awesome! As I said, I'm on the phone, and my door is shut. One co-worker barges in and tried to get my attention. I point to the phone and mouth "come back later". A second one does the same thing, followed by a third, fourth, fifth, and finally sixth. Through my window that looks into the hallway in my office, I see that a small group has gathered. Finally, Julia (the girl I share an office with) goes out into the hallway to see what's going on. Five seconds later, she walks back into the office, shuts the door, glances at me, and sits down...

*The Sox had a solid weekend in Arizona, although the bats are still quieter than I would like. Joshua dominated Friday, Julian took care of buisness, and Dice-K pitched good enough to win yesterday, says Jeff Horrigan . The Sox have today off, and get back at it on Tuesday they host the Rockies, and Soxgal. *If you haven't read Curt's recap of his near no-no, please do so immediately. *The Sox are now 40-22 on the season, and 9.5 up on the 2nd place New York Yankees, and 11.5 up on the last place Tampa Bay Devil Rays. *After 6 weeks as #1 upon the ESPN Power Rankings, the Sox dropped to 2nd, with the Padres taking over the top slot . *The Nuggets had a rough week, with J.R. Smith being thrown from a car during an accident and one of the passengers in the car having severe head injuries, and another Nugget DeeMar Johnson was tasered and arrested outside a night club. *Julian Tavarez has his own cure to fix his own blister problem. *Mike Reiss, as always has some good stuf...

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. I mean, Hi Mike! (picture stolen from www.redsoxchick.com )

Even the New York Times loves Mike Lowell; After Saturday’s game, he wore a gray T-shirt that said “Red Sox Strength.” When a reporter asked him what he had said to Derek Jeter as they walked back to toward second base after the injury to Mientkiewicz, Lowell answered with a deadpan look and a reference to Friday’s game. “I told him I made one play off him yesterday and he has Wang hit me in the hand,” Lowell said. When some listeners were not too sure how to take his remark, Lowell looked at one of the press credentials and finished his thought (and at least one of their articles) by adding, “ ‘Ha, ha, ha,’ he said jokingly.”

*Doug Mientkiewicz was kept overnight at Mass General last night with a concussion, cervical sprain, and a broken wrist. I am absolutely, 100% shocked the Yankee trainer didn't collar and board him and send him directly to the ambulance. It was entirely possible with the way his neck twisted and hit the pavement that he had broken something. Red Sox MLB had this to say, "I feel bad for Doug. You don't want anything like that happening. We go way back, I mean, I played against him when I was 15 years old in high school. We hit together this offseason, and I've got a lot of respect for him." *Lowell also took out Robinson Cano who thought it was a "dirty" play but Joe Torre thought it was fine. Not that I care what either one of them think. Also, it says here Michael has a WS ring from 1998 for playing a few games for the Yanks that year. *Here's the game report on a rough one at the Fens yesterday, where Curt pitched good enough to lose.

I went to the Sox Monday night...yesterday, I was tired, cranky, and I didn't want to talk about it. I decided it was a classic let down game after sweeping the Yanks, I was giving them a free pass. Then last nights game came around. I hate Julian Tavarez, you know he's probably going to pitch like shit, and you're hoping the O can score enough to overcome all of his inadequacies. I feel like Denny Green after the Cardinals lost to the Bears, "HE WAS WHAT I THOUGHT HE WAS, HE WAS WHAT I THOUGHT HE WAS". I understand Lester isn't ready and maybe he's still a ways off, we'll have a better idea after today when he throws against AAA for the first time. Why not throw someone else out there. After 5 innings of no-hit baseball last October, I'm not taking out the anointing oil or anything, but at least if you throw Devern Hansack out there, you don't know what you are going to get. He might pitch great, he might not, who knows, but isn't...

*I love those NY papers. Hehe. *Bob Ryan has a good one about the freaking amazing 3rd inning . Just for the record naysayers, I did call it. I told Paul that the Sox were going back to back to back to back. (I meant to say that Jason would hit one too and thought that they would hit 3 in a row, but I said it wrong.) But I did call it. So, if anyone wants to hear it directly from Paul, call my cell phone number only change the last number from a 3 to a 5. One more thing on the 4 HR's in a row. It's happened five times in baseball, and once Terry Francona's dad was involved, and TWICE, J.D. Drew was involved. What are the odds of that happening? *I mean, I know it is early and all, but you can't ask for much more than what we got this weekend. Gordon has the game report. *When Papelbon came on in Saturday and Wild Thing started playing...I mean, it was like a dream come true. We all new he needed a song. He is so bad-ass. I mean, the ovation he gets / everyone singi...