Musings from Mandy

Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek with the fam waiting in line at Carrabba’s in Fort Myers . . . Sox rookie Brandon Moss meeting friends to catch a flick at the Regal 20 . . . Pitcher Jon Lester begrudgingly signing his old Pawtucket Red Sox cap offered up to him by a PawSox long-time season ticket holder now in possession of it . . . I usually don't take my news from the Inside Track, however, Jon, you best not be signing things begrudingly until you are 18-4 with a 2.49 ERA. Do I make myself clear?

The most chatty Joshua I have every seen!

Q: I find myself actively HATING the new Red Sox. Since winning it all in 2004, it has been a complete nightmare for me -- from the out of control bandwagon of Pink Hat wearers, etc., to the Chavez Ravine-esque feel of games at Fenway now (arrive in the third, leave in the seventh!), to the well-moneyed cabal of front office carpetbaggers with a "hometown boy" dangling at the forefront like a Tammany Hall vote wrangler at the docks of old Manhattan, to the string of bad personnel moves -- we are mirroring EVERY SINGLE bad aspect of the post-2000 Yankees. Everything that every fiber of my being loathes. Their obsession with catching up to the Yankees has made them forget about what got us the title in the first place: a TEAM.--C. Fleming, Boston, Mass. SG: You know, I felt twinges of this reader's anger this winter, because the truth is, I never wanted to root for a team that bought championships like the Yankees, even though our 2004 payroll was easily nine figures and w...

Would you like to buy Manny's neighbor's grill? Click here . *Manny talked yesterday to Karen Guregian and Amalie Benjamin . I usually don't like KG but I liked her piece on Lester yesterday and I liked this effort today. *Tedy Bruschi was on WEEI yesterday and talked about a few things. Mike Reiss has a partial transcript here. *Bill Simmons is going to save Holy Cross basketball . Finally, Happy first day of Spring! Also, Eileen turns 47 today, so a Happy Birthday to her as well.

Okay, I'm bored with spring training and no nothing about basketball, so I'm going to let the Red Sox post for me today. Here are some of my favorite quotes from Spring Training... "In the East baseball and the teams are a way of life. In New England you have Catholicism and Red Sox Baseball, and not necessarily in that order." Curt "I live for that kind of challenge. I love for the fans to expect a lot from me, because I expect a lot from myself. That gets me going, when they expect a lot from you. I set my goals real high. I figure if I set my goals real high and don't reach them, then you're still going to accomplish a lot." Jonathan "Josh Beckett told me I'm a natural hitter . . . I was born to hit," Dice-K "I said to Matsui-san, 'I'm sorry to bother you right before your game.' He said, 'Don't worry about it. Thanks for coming over to say hello.' He wished me good luck so I wished him the same and sai...

I did not do a running diary of the Orioles and Red Sox yesterday for three reasons. #1. I made a gourmet dinner yesterday during the game. Goat cheese mashed potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and breaded chicken. It was quite delicous if I do say so myself. #2. Was anyone elses sound all messed up yesterday? I couldn't hear a thing Jerry and Don were saying, but I could hear some fans like they were sitting next to me. Way to be NESN, please, keep screwing up the 3 Spring Training games that you do show. #3. My cousin Kerry came over to watch the game with me / talk about our Texas Ranger trip (3 weeks!). Anyway, some thoughts from the game: *When they had on Tom Werner and John Henry in the bottom of the 1st, it was painfully uncomfortable to watch JWH on TV. You can tell he hates every minute of it. As the Sox batted Steve Traschel around, JWH called him, "painfully deliberate". I'm pretty sure that is how he feels about all his on camera appearances as w...

Hello, I'm blogging from home today, but I didn't want to let anyone who checks daily down (aka, the 3 of you). Anyways, as we all know, the very first spring training game of the year took place last night against the Minnesota Twins. (And I missed almost all of it!). I got home last night at 6:50 ready to watch Curt and my dad asks me if I wanted to go to Kryssy's hockey game. Playoff hockey game. So, being the good cousin that I am, I headed off to the game. We sit down and an Andover guy has been yelling since we sat down to the Andover girls. He was loud, a little obnoxious, but was only cheering for his team. My dad turns to me and goes, "What's that guy's name that killed that guy at the hockey rink?", and I go, "Junta or something?" and he goes, "Yup" and looks at the guy. I go, "Dad, he's not that bad" and he goes, "No, I'm talking about me, I might need to kill him". We got there at the end...

Good Morning. I'd like to thank Mother Nature for giving us enough snow to make it a pain to go to work, but not nearly enough snow to close the office. I'd also like to thank her for giving our New York offices enough snow that they are probably going to close early. I'd also like to mention that our Ohio and Kentucky offices closed early yesterday, so thanks for that. Anyway, not a lot going on today. The B's beat the Oiler's 3-0 last night in "Hail to the Chief" night. Apparently, the Celtics did not play the Bucks last night in Milwaukee, but rather will play them here in Boston, tonight. The lesson there is that you should never take what I have to say about the Celtics to be true. Down in good old Fort Myers Diasuke Matsuzaka played CATCH yesterday. Wright Thomson, writer for ESPN.com drove 110 from Miami to Fort Myers to watch Dice-K play catch. (scroll down a little in the blog). A good AP story on Lester . My favorite person named WilyMo is goi...

Dice-K played a little catch with George Kottaras and met with some of the Sox staff. Now, is it just me, or does he look a little chubby?

Anyone watch the new last night? They had RED SOX HIGHLIGHTS . Of course, it wasn ’t an actual game, it was Beckett, Delcarmen , Lester, and Papelbon playing CATCH. That’s right, catch, with an actual baseball and glove. After a winter of hot stove talk and “10 questions about the Red Sox ” columns, I’ll take it gladly. I was at the gym when they showed the sports part of the news (I know, the gym, I’ ve been so bored that I have gone to the gym the past two days to kill time). Anyways, Josh is sporting some new facial hair, which, I’m still up in the air about. Papelbon has some long on top, short on the sides thing going on (it’s not quite a party in the back yet, but well on its way). And, best news of all, Jon Lester looked tanned and healthy, which is so great. Here’s some good quotes from Amalie Benjamin’s blog… With a cap on, hiding his still growing-in hair, Jon Lester appeared almost like his old self today at the minor league complex. Lester was one of the first few to ar...

From www.survivinggrady.com ... Today is truck day . Which means we're all one step closer to nights with Remy and DO. Afternoons with Timlin and Tavarez. Breakfast with Coco and Papi. Checking scores on Sportsdesk and staring just a bit too long at Hazel's cleavage and swearing this is the year I finally grow a 'stache like Eck's. Begging for tickets and refusing to leave the house before the final out is recorded and taping up my knuckles for those nights when we just can't push that winning run across in the ninth. Soundproofing the apartment and fire-proofing the furniture and re-installing that layer of bulletproof glass over the TV screen. Leafletting the neighborhood so they know that the bloodcurdling screams they'll be hearing from my place are nothing to worry about. Unless it's in October. And we're playing the Yankees. And I've got my gun permit.It all begins with a truck. With a convoy. And we're ready to roll once again.

Some important info here. I’m so excited to be talking / thinking about the Sox. My outlook is a lot more optimistic than usual. Don’t worry though, I’ll probably be my old, miserable self by opening day. I just can’t wait for some baseball. As you read this you’ll probably notice at some points I tried to write using stats and stuff, and then I got bored with that and started rambling. Also, thanks to http://www.baseball-reference.com/ for all these stats that will be used today. This site is a great way to kill a few hours / days. 1B Youuuuukkkkkkkkkkkkk. Last year was the first time Youk appeared in 100 or more games (147) and responded with 13 HR, 72 RBI, and a .281 batting. Obviously you’re hoping for more power from your 1B but more than anything, I’d like my mom to stop asking why everyone is booing him every time he is up. 2B I was going to write how Dustin isn’t ready and how the Sox should have resigned Loretta. Then I realized Dustin was born on August 17, 1983, making me a...