Wild Card

Sox are in the playoffs! Great. Now we just need to stay healthy, especially Beckett, Lester, and Lowell. My preferred lineup for the Angels series:

1 Ellsbury (CF)
2 Pedroia (2B)
3 Martinez (C)
4 Youkilis (1B)
5 Ortiz (DH)
6 Bay (LF)
7 Lowell (3B)
8 Drew (RF)
9 Gonzalez (SS)

Leave Varitek out. Its obvious he doesn't have the swing he once did, and he can't throw runners out stealing 2nd. The Angels are the most small-ball style team in the American League, so they WILL be stealing bases. Let Martinez take care of it. Varitek can PH if necessary, or get pitchers ready in the bullpen. My suspicion is that Francona will have him catch Game 2 anyway, with Beckett on the mound. Hopefully Beckett has good enough stuff that stealing base runners won't be a huge problem.

Gotta love tonight's lineup - all benchwarmers except for Ortiz.

.406

Today, September 28th, was the final day of Major League Baseball season in 1941, a double-header for the Boston Red Sox. At the end of the previous day's game, Ted "The Kid" Williams had a batting average of .39955 - a number that would have been rounded up to .400 for statistical purposes. Williams, despite the advice of manager Joe Cronin, elected to play both games of the double header, going 6 for 8 with a home run, raising his average to .406 - the last player to hit .400+ in baseball history.

Props, the Big Trip, & Upstate NY

Marching band props have occupied my life this week. Hopefully they'll be done today or tomorrow. Big show on Saturday at Hershey.

Went to see our travel agent (Mike's mom) about our Italy/Greece trip next year. We'll be gone for about 2 weeks, around Labor Day 2010... 4 days in Tuscany, 3 in Rome, 3 in Athens, and 4 in Santorini. Can't wait.

Also decided to make a trip to the Finger Lakes in NY this year, after we initially thought we wouldn't have time to go. Andy and Alison are coming along so we can celebrate Alison's 29th birthday while we go to wine tastings all day Saturday & Sunday.

Fenway

I found this account of attending a Red Sox game at Fenway Park in 2002 on deadspin.com... Hilarious:

The summer before my first year at college my Dad scored tickets for the Red Sox / Yankees at Fenway, something we had always wanted to go to. Believe me when I say that the real action wasn't on the field, but was spread throughout the bleachers. This was the summer of 2002... Fenway was still a place of unabashed debauchery, racist Southies, and DRUNK B.U. students; Not a pink hat to be seen. A quick overview of the stands during the game revealed numerous amounts of fights and no small amount of hot dogs, beers, and plastic ice cream helmets flying back and forth between Red Sox and Yankee fans. Behind my Dad and I sat the biggest stereotypical South Boston resident I had ever encountered; He spent the whole game yelling at the middle aged women in front of us who had unwisely decided to wear their Bernie Williams' jerseys to the game. "Ber-knee! Beeeer-knee! Why are't you in da ghame Berrrr-knee?"

At one point a Yankee fan in front of us was escorted out by security and decided to flip off the crowd as a parting gift; As he was being showered with garbage, boos, and cries of "FAGGOT", I took the remains of my half-eaten hot dog and hit him square in the head with it. My Dad, a lawyer, and usually a model of restraint, turned to me and said, "Nice shot." Never have I felt so close to my Dad.

Weekend

Friday - drove down to West Chester for a party. Got there about 5, met some new people, had some great imported beer. Left between 8:30 and 9, decided to grab food at Burrito Loco. Closed at 9. WTF?! That place was open til 3 AM when I went to WCU. Not cool.

Saturday - EP rehearsal at 10. Got a LOT accomplished. We took the kids to the New Oxford show (Cavalcade) just to get them out for an early season performance. Good way for the newbies to get all the jitters out before our first TOB show at Hersheypark Stadium 9/26/09. Weather was crap all day, off and on mist/drizzle during rehearsal and again during warmup. Stopped for our performance, which was actually quite good for the first time out. Took 1st place out of 7 bands in our division. Stayed for a (mostly) lame judges meeting, got home, crashed.

Sunday - Woke up earlier than I wanted to. I hate that. Went to Giant to get donuts for breakfast, then ended up going to brunch with Williams/Washburn clan at Cracker Barrel. Yum. Came home, cut grass, watched some football, put newly sharpened chain back on the chain saw, trimmed back one bush, cut down 3 others (one left to cut). Had grilled pizza for dinner about 8:30. Watched some more football, Entourage, crashed.

All in all a good, productive weekend. Looking forward to this coming Saturday's 2nd party on the new patio.

9/11

I can remember the exact moment I heard about what was going on in NYC on 9/11.

2001 was my freshman year in college. I had the worst class schedule of all time. Mon, Wed, and Fri I didn't have a class until 2:00 in the afternoon. Tues. and Thurs. I had classes at 8 AM. Basically, I never got into any sleep routine because I always wanted to sleep in M/W/F and had to get up at the crack of dawn on T/Th. 9/11 was a Tuesday, so I had gone to my 8 AM class (I think it was a Geography course), and I remember coming back to my dorm afterward and hearing someone talk about a fire in one of the World Trade Center buildings in New York. I didn't think much of it until I got upstairs to my room - 721 Sanderson Hall - and turned the TV on.

It was pretty crazy to live through those days after 9/11... experiencing college for the first time as a freshman, while this huge crisis was occurring... basically watching the news all day on TV while still going to classes and, slowly, life moving on. Not a day I'll soon forget.

Patio = Finished

As promised, here are a few pictures of the new patio. We finished it on Saturday, just in time to throw a surprise engagement party for Sam and Mike.

Sox

Forgot to post about the Sox last night. Great game... another good outing from Buchholz. Ahead of Texas by 3 in the AL Wild Card.

Oh, and here's out latest Red Sox addition, a new grill cover!

Patio Project Progress

Here are a few pics of the patio so far... I think it should be done today or tomorrow morning:

All the stones we bought and had delivered:














About 2/3 of the way done:





















I'll post more pictures after it's finished!

Quick post

Good rehearsal last night with EP. Kids continue to work really hard. First performance on Friday.

Sox beat the Rays 8-4 last night. Great outing by Lester, Billy Wagner continues to dominate in relief, 6-out save by Papelbon. Youk, Drew, Bay all homered. Moment of the Game:

Amazing catch by Ellsbury with the bases loaded. Saved the win.

Working on the patio tonight, maybe leaving work early tomorrow to hopefully get all of the stones down. Anybody wanna help??