HeadOfSoxNation

Com'on dude, Pedroia doesn't even playyyyyy for the Reds...

MVP considerations assuming a Sox postseason birth? Discuss.

Good first Sox AB for Kotsay.

You guys are retarded. The Yanks are a sinking ship. Babe Ruth himself could have started this gamethread and it wouldn't have made a bit of difference. The Sox will win this game and that's all there is to it. I've never been this confident going into a game before.

Casey is hitting .352 this year. He can go weeks without playing and then come of the bench to bang out a few hits. You want Millar, a guy who is hitting around .240 with regular playing time, instead of Casey? I love Millar and I'll cheer him anytime he comes back to Fenway...but Casey is your better option here, even though he doesn't have any power.

So the BrewCrew apparently thinks that their hotshot AA shortstop Alcides Escobar will be big-league ready by the end of the season and may be looking to deal J.J. Hardy over the winter. Who thinks the Sox make a run at him?

Ha, I love him.

The Hilton Back Bay is my favorite hotel in all of Boston...it's kind of pricey, but I'm going to let you guys in on a little bit of a trick when it comes to hotel reservations. When you make your reservation, say "I'm going to be in town doing some consulting work for IBM." Typically, consultants don't get corporate rates, but IBM consultants do and IBM's corporate rate is the lowest of the low 99% of the time. I got Hilton Back Bay for $120 a night doing it that way. Oh, and if all else fails, I've stayed at the Charlesmark in Boston and it's quaint and small, but nice. Pretty cheap and it has a nice little eclectic bar right in to your left.

What's different about the hats today? Are the logos camo or stars or something for 4th of July (yesterday)? I can't tell...but something's different.

Man, I'm really on the other side of this. I love watching the Rays and find myself wishing that they were in another league or even another division so that I could actually flat-out root for them. They're certainly not the most talented team on paper in the division, let alone in the big leagues, but straight-up, they're playing the best baseball right now. You're right, it is July. But it's also exciting to have a new team at the top in the ALE and to be chasing someone that's not the Yankees. Do I think they'll ride this out and finish the season in first place? No...but I'll tell you, if it's not the Sox that do it all, I'd love to see it be the Rays. You guys that hate on the "bandwagon" fans...you're spoiled because the vast majority of you (granted, not all...) but the VAST majority have only followed the Sox when they've been at least halfway decent. Fenway didn't always sell out every game like it does now. Red Sox Nation wasn't ALWAYS as widespread as it is now. Most of you are less than 25 years old, some less than 20, and you want to talk about bandwagon fans. It takes time to build a culture around a team. By the time most of you were born, that culture for the Sox had already been created. The Rays have never even been DECENT. They've been atrocious and a doormat for their entire existence. If you only admitted the people that have followed the Sox since prior to decency, Fenway wouldn't be much more populous than the Trop was last year.

I was there last night...and it was unbelievable. Unnnnnbelievable. I was a little worried in the first 8 minutes or so because Kobe was hitting everything. I was sitting with a great bunch of guys with the exception of one square two seats down from me. Otherwise, the whole building was aliiiiiiiiiiiiive. I got my picture taken with Tirico down on the court (we're both 'Cuse guys, I had to do it haha) One question...I've never been IN Boston for a Championship with the exception of yesterday. Do they always close all the bars down? I can't imagine that they do. But we had a vision of spilling into one of the bars surrounding the Garden after the game and every single one was shut down when the game let out. It's a smart idea...but I found it hard to believe they'd take such drastic measures to cut down on incidents after the title. Man, BoPD must have paid out a zillion hours of overtime yesterday; you couldn't walk 3 feet without seeing a guy in his full-blown riot gear. I heard something like 55 arrests...that doesn't seem to be a lot at all to me. What happened to the days of good old cars getting flipped over and lit on fire? Ha. PS - If you can catch an unedited version of the Garnett/Tafoya interview, you'll see him look at her and say "you look good, girl." It's priceless. Congrats C's...glad I could be a part of it.

Hm...I guess I can't really dispute the picture. Seeing him yesterday really struck me though. Maybe I'm confusing him with Bartolo Colon? :dunno:

Is it me or did Hansen drop like 30 lbs? I feel like he used to be a pretty stocky guy, and now he looks wicked thin.

Anyone got tickets? I'm going to Game 6 if it happens. I certainly hope it gets that far...here's to hoping the Celts take the first two, then one in LA, then win it all in Game 6!

Does anyone know if they look at the zip on your credit card? Like, for instance, I live in Syracuse so all Yankees and Mets games are blacked out for me. When I register, say I use a new email address and a new credit card, can I put my zipcode in as like Anchorage, AK or something so I'm technically not in any market and then entitled to everything? I feel like they must use the zipcode attached to your credit card, but I don't remember how it worked when I last signed up.

No Manny tonight...goddamnit.

Alright Manny...let's end this. Can Ellsbury run?

Who is the Sox equipment manager? I'd like to find out what he did with all of our bats!

I thought Faithful was a huuuuuuuuge waste of my time. I'd rather read old game threads on here haha.

Check out Shoeless Joe...it's the book that Field of Dreams was based on. Decent and VERY easy read. It's a great book for the beach.

Alright...80 pitches... He looked sharp after that HR...I'm sending him out there to try to get through the 6th. I pull him with any serious trouble or when he gets to 95 pitches.

I don't think they'll let him get past 85 or so. That said, they'll definitely let him get out there and through the 5th to (hopefully) earn his 1st big league win.