Musings from Mandy

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.

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 ...

Hi from Canada...eh. I did not bring my laptop because I forgot my charger at work, but I did just pay 5 dollars for 10 minutes of internet. Anyway, we left NH at 5:45 and got to Cooperstown at noon. We went through the Baseball Hall of Fame in a about an hour. I would love nothing more than to do it over myself. I think it's a great take, but I think that the set up makes it easy to miss stuff. I did see Cy Young's jersey, Curt's bloody sock, Manny's bat, and of course the plaques of Bobby Doerr, Ted Williams, Yaz, Fisk and all the others. I took some nice pictures that I'll post when I get home. One final thing, Okajima is IN! And the fact that him and Chris Young both made it when I voted about 34 times for both is no slim coincidence. At least I am pretending it isn't.

I know I slacked on Thursday and Friday, but who wants to talk about losses? or 32 year old guard? Not me. Anyway, the Sox came home yesterday and all was well in Red Sox Nation. Wake pitched great. Delcarmen got the job done. (How cute was it when Mikey went out to talk to him?). Then, Mr. Jonathan Papelbon came out to close things in the 9th in grand fashion. A K, a very long fly ball, then an extremely close play at first where it looked like got him on the replay, but, as we all know, ties go to the runner, Kenny Lofton in this case. Cinco-Ocho took exception, and had a few, er, many choice words for the umpire, until the little second baseman that could came over and pushed him away. (Thank God he didn't get tossed). He came back, hit Jerry Hairston on the hand. Regained his composure, and came back to get the K to end the game. I've watched the game twice, once in real time, once on the midnight replay, and now it's on again in the backround. One thing ...

Ten things I think I think...(Sorry MMQB). 1. I think that the NFL Player's Association needs to remove the Franchise Tag from the next collective bargining agreement. Why have something that no player wants and few are willing to play under? Asante Samuel says he won't report till week 10 . If I was Scott or Bill, I'd tell Asante if you show up week 10, we're tagging you again in 2008, and that is a promise. Here is my call on Asante. He is a very good corner. I do not think he is a great corner. I also think that he routinely missed tackles last year because instead of setting up for the stop or to break up a pass, he was going for the pick in his money year. Mike Felger said on FSN that the Pats should work out some kind of a secret deal with Asante that if he plays under the tag this year then the Pats will not tag him again. I totally agree and while I don't know if Asante would even want to do that. After all the things the Patriots have done this offseason to...

* Someone is going to be in the dog house . *Trot Nixon deserves the tip of a dirty hat . The only other time I've heard applause that loud was when the Sox came back against the Yankees and Okajima got the save earlier in the year. It was awesome. *The Sox right now, it appears, can do no wrong . Josh Beckett came back from his 15 days on the DL and got his MLB leading 8th victory . *Roger Clemens will not make his first start against the Sox, and the Red Sox are skipping Tavarez's start to align their rotation against the Yanks. It will be Wang and Wake Friday, Moose and Schill Saturday, and Andy and Joshua on Sunday. Tavarez's next start will be against the A's on Monday, with Matsuzaka taking the ball the following day. (Also in there it says Ortiz took BP yesterday, but his hammy is still bothering him.)

Hello MFY, so we meet again. It’s nearly June and the Red Sox are (get ready, breathe in, breathe out) 10 and a half games up on the 2nd place Yankees and Orioles, and…drum roll please, only 1 and one half game out of last place. See Devil Rays fans (all 3 of you), there is hope for you yet! Anyway, two months in and heading into the 3rd Yankees series of the season…here are some of my thoughts: *I don’t want Karma to take this the wrong way, but it almost seems like it’s going too easy. I mean, I’m a Boston fan, I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. (all while hoping it doesn’t). *Dr. Charles Steinberg is really responsible for Papelbon having “Shipping up to Boston” play when he gets to the mound? And here I was so excited that he loves that song. (and another thing, I hate people called doctor that aren’t actually the people you want working on you when you drop from a heart attack or something…If I ever get a doctorate of History or something, I am not having people call me...

Well, how about them Red Sox? The Sox doubled up on the Tigers twice yesterday, beating the Tigers 2-1 in the first game, with Julian Taverez pitching a great game, going seven innings, allowing four hits and one run. Coco scored a run on a Manny RBI (both members of Sox Stalkers, not that it does me a whole hell of a lot of good), and then Okajima pitched a scoreless 8th and Papelbon K'ed the first two outs of the 9th before getting a weak grounder to Lugo for the last out. Tavarez also had a fantastic quote. "Jonathan, we call him 'Gasolina'. This guy goes six, seven days without pitching and then he goes out there and throws 95, 96 without walking anybody. No panic with Pap. Once the game gets to the ninth inning, it's over. That's how we see it with Jonathan." *Curt beat the Tigers 4-2 in the second game (although of course didn't get the win, because that would help my fricking fantasy team). (Confession time - I don't know too much about w...