Niiiice!

Extra-innings games are extra-cool when your team actually wins them!  Woot! 

Truly pleased that my man Mike Timlin got the win.  (Was hard to watch – spent most of his inning with my head down saying a little prayer for Mike…I owe God something for that one!)

Baltimore is, thus far, fabulous.  Internet access is weird but I’ll try to get something more substantial about last night’s game up maybe tonight.

For now, here’s hoping that Manny hits his 500th over the next two days.  Let him get it over with (and let us see it!).

Off for breakfast and a tour of Camden…more opportunities for Orioles fans to lament the existence of Red Sox fans!

Whoopee! I’m Home!

Sure, it’s 2am…but I’m home.

I’m an idiot. But I’m home.

I was smart enough not to get drunk at Mark’s going away – but dumb enough to stay out until 2am. So I sit here debating getting a couple of winks and packing in the morning before I have to leave – or doing it all now and possibly not sleeping at all tonight. I have a feeling that in a few minutes my body will make the decision for me.

Tomorrow around 9ish I’ll be on my way to Baltimore. The best way to reach me all weekend is at my Mac address which is cyndonnelly at mac dot com (spelling it out because I really don’t want it getting spammed!). I’ll try to post tomorrow night after the game at some point – but make no promises.

Have a great weekend, folks – let’s hope the Red Sox get their offense kicking!

To help me get some sleep:

“I forgot to pack”

This was the thought that woke me out of a dead sleep this morning. See, I have this trip to Baltimore that I’m leaving for tomorrow. Here’s how my week went:

Monday: Spent the day in Pawtucket; came home and crashed early.

Tuesday: Worked until just after 8pm. Got home around 9pm. Actually stayed up and watched the game. Got about 4 hours of sleep.

Wednesday: Worked until just after 8:30pm. Got home around 9:30pm. (THIS IS WHEN I PLANNED TO PACK) Tried to stay up and watch the game but fell asleep. Totally forgot about packing. Thought never even crossed my mind.

Thursday, 5:30am: Woke up in a panic because tonight is Mark’s goodbye dinner and I won’t be home until late and I realized I haven’t FREAKING PACKED FOR MY TRIP. I make me crazy sometimes.

So I’ll be packing at midnight tonight getting ready for the train to Baltimore tomorrow AM. I have this feeling my sleep patterns won’t be right until November.

Oh yeah, and the offense is still pissing me off. I hope Wake took a bat to the clubhouse last night, but I’ll guess he didn’t. Hell, at least HE did HIS part.

Sox better make my total lack of sleep worth it this weekend. S’all I’m saying.

The PawSox moved Justin Masterson’s start from the 31st to TONIGHT at 7:05. Guess they’re preparing for Daisuke to possibly hit the dl. If he does have to make a spot start, chances are he’ll do it next Tuesday. (Which makes perfect sense since I’m going to the game on Wednesday thanks to Mr. Tru!)

On the contest front, Kevin Millar is in the lead for most photos sent my way so far. See, Sox fans never forget. (Props to Crystal for sending me an absolutely beautiful photo of Kyle from the Boston Baseball Writer’s dinner last year that she found on a blog that WASN’T KellyO’s. Too bad the photo was. Wasn’t Crystal’s mistake, as the blog didn’t credit Kelly at all – and actually had to have “found” the photo in a pretty sneaky way. Poor form blog I won’t link here. Poor form. But, still, Crystal wins for MY favorite photo thus far! Kelly should consider submitting it! )

There will come a day when I’ll embrace the fact that I’m 39 and need to maybe get 8 hours of sleep a night in order to function fully. That day is not today (or any time this weekend)!

I guess the best part of the busy week and lack of sleep is I don’t have much time or energy to focus on the suckitude of the Red Sox offense. That works for me. I’d rather NOT think about it. I’m going to think about work, and saying goodbye to a co-worker/friend and having a hell of a time this weekend!

(Speaking of suckitude: Bronson had none of it last night. He pitched great, the Reds’ offense was insane and he got a win. Yay for a team not abandoning their pitcher! Let’s hope that catches on in Baltimore with the Sox this weekend.)

Just because:

Free Stuff!

Everyone loves free stuff don’t they? I know I do. So when I receive an email offering me free stuff (especially Red Sox-related free stuff) I jump all over it.

Well, nothing is truly “free” is it? I get sent two copies of THIS beauty:

One for me…one for YOU.

Now, probably every Red Sox blog in creation is going to be giving one away. (Surviving Grady already got the ball rolling this morning!) So your chances for getting one for FREE are pretty darned good. But in the event that you don’t win one, you can visit MLB or A&E and pick up one for yourself. Maybe two if you have a blog and want to give one away? (I suggest going to the A&E site as I believe the MLB store is run by Yankees fans who spend their days looking for new ways to torture Red Sox fans who wish to purchase something from them.)

“So what are you going to make us do THIS time?” I hear you ask. Well since last year’s giveaway went so well (Yeah it took me a month to crown the winner…if you read this blog on a regular basis, that shouldn’t come as a surprise to you!) I almost considered another poetry contest.

Then I remembered how many of you complained that I was asking too much so no poetry this year. This year, it’s a photo contest – woot!

499!

Four hours of sleep doesn’t lend itself to my being able to write something coherent this morning. So since I need to leave you with something positive, I’ll go with Manny hitting his 499th home run (the only scoring the team did last night).

Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

I’m beginning to think that Manny’s plan all along was to hit number 500 on his birthday.

Good God

I actually stayed up to watch that.

Going to have to think of something positive to post come ‘morning’ but all I have for now is…yeesh.

Aside from Mike Timlin giving up the game in the bottom of the ninth (and that’s a pretty damn big deal) WTF with our offense? One of the worst pitchers in the league and our guys (save for Manny) can’t hit him? It’s a bit sad.  (You all know how I feel about Mike.  So night’s like this really kill me.)

Man, I should have just gone to sleep at 10pm like I planned. Now I’ll be up even later just because I’m annoyed.

Lots of baseball

During a commercial break on the Sox game, I turn the channel to the Twins/Royals game. Bottom of the ninth in Kansas City, Royals losing 3-0 with wo on and 1 out and Joe Nathan on the mound. Mark Teahen hits an in the park home run to tie the score and the fans go absolutely wild!

That is totally why people love to watch baseball. (Two outs now…a walk-off would be sweet – but isn’t happening. Extra innings in KC!)

Sox are losing and PawSox lost after mounting a great comeback. Kyle had a bad night and gets the loss, the poor guy. Sounded like he wasn’t too comfortable up there. He hit two batters, he walked three and he gave up three hits. He threw 54 pitches against 13 batters…and ended his night after not quite two innings – giving up five earned runs. An outing I hope he can just put out of his head, shake it off and go at them hard the next time. I only got to hear the first few innings at work (but I heard all of Kyle’s outing) so I missed most of the comeback stuff, but good for them for coming back from an 8-0 deficit and bringing the score up to 9-8. A great effort by the PawSox tonight to try and pick up their pitcher. Better luck next time Kyle (and the rest of the team!). I really hope this isn’t an indication that Kyle might still be hurt. With all the pitchers currently sitting on that roster, I now get to worry that Kyle’s fighting for a spot. (Baseball is supposed to be fun, right? I’m not supposed to worry like…well, like I do!)

It still hasn’t really sunk in that I’ll be in Baltimore this weekend. (Beckett, Lester and Colon, I believe, will be the pitchers I get to see. I guess it’s fitting that I’d see Crabcakes in Charm City.) I am excited about it; I’m just not prepared yet. Normally I’d spend Thursday night packing for the Friday trip, but Thursday night I’ll be out with my office crew saying goodbye to a good friend whose leaving us. It’ll most likely be a long night, which means I need to prepare myself for the reality that will be packing tomorrow night instead. Ah well, the payoff will be worth it!

First night since the Sox started their road trip that I’m wide awake at 11pm and their annoying me already. (Sean Casey just botched a ball at first and then made and absolutely horrendous over-throw to Daisuke which ended in men on first and third with one out and the score already 2-0 Mariners…yeesh fellas.) I might just shut everything off and call it a night. (Who am I kidding? That won’t happen.)

Even though the Mariners just scored another run, Coco just made a catch to end the inning that made me say out loud “Wonder if Jacoby would have had that?”.

With two outs and a man on second, Alex Gordon makes the third out of the 10th inning.

There’s plenty of baseball to be played all around, folks. Hope you’re enjoying some of it.

Vote early and vote often:

Bruce Allen is, truly, a  man of the people.

And, for many laughs and a few reminders on why CHB is evil, check out the comments!

I Heart Pawtucket

 (Edited to fix all the errors, hopefully!  That’s what happens when I post while 0ver-tired!)

Photo of Kyle from today – Taken by me

What a fabulous day! Out of the house at 7, back at 7 and in between was one terrific game! A great way to spend the day.

I have a sunburn on my nose (ah, THAT’S attractive!) but that’s the only bad thing I can say about the day.

SIX Pawtucket homeruns. Six. It was ridiculous. (But quite entertaining!) Charlie Zink was, once again, ON. I enjoy watching him pitch. He has a compelling story and I really hope he does well.

So, thanks to Charlie and a ton of offense, the PawSox crushed the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees. Jeff Karstens started for the Yankees. (Last time KellyO and I saw Karstens in person, Julio Lugo was breaking his leg and we ended the night meeting Kyle Snyder!) No broken leg this time, but he probably wishes he had just stayed in bed. 11-5 was the final score. Well done, fellas!

Memorial Day