As of right now, it is 4PM ET. There have been no confirmed deals from the Sox, and none of the rumor mills have anything big in the works. If this is how The Deadline ends, I don’t like our chances down the stretch. I’m keeping my fingers crossed…

Update:
So Theo’s made it official, no big deals were completed. While I understand the decision not to sell the farm, I’m just worried that we may be losing our chance at taking the AL East considering that we’re in first place with about 60 games to go. I guess the best term to describe the past 24 hours is “frustrating.” After watching the Yankees steal a good bat, and decent starter we’re left twiddling our thumbs. If Boomer is our big pickup (and I mean big) he better look like the Boomer of old, not the Boomer who refuses a rehab assignment and throws batting practice during the first few innings instead.

A big thanks to Joy of Sox for posting updates more often, and faster, than boston.com. With SoSH shut down for non-members, it was far and away my best source of information throughout the day.

I was fully prepared to sit down on a Sunday night with some chips, salsa, and a nice cold beer, and watch Mr. Schilling make us all forget about the Yankees pulling a “look one way, while we run the other direction with your best player” robbery from the Phillies today. I figured it was going to be a good night when right before I had to chance to press the mute button to shield my ears from verbal disgust that is Joe Morgan, ESPN mentioned that Orel Hershiser would be taking over for him tonight.

After Schilling gave up home runs to O-Cab, Vladdy and Rivera all cleared the green monster in the 3rd, I realized it wasn’t to be. Hell, when a guy who looks like this goes 3-5 with 2 doubles, well, ugh:

But even with Schilling struggling the Sox still made a comeback from 5 down to get the score to 6-4 in the 5th. And then the tide turned. First, Doubles got hit on the forearm, but the umpire (who had a strikezone about as fickle as a 12 year old going through puberty) wouldn’t award him first base. We’ve reached a new level of blind. (It led to a strikeout that ended the inning with runners on 1st and 2nd.)

Then, for some unknown reason, Tito decided that it would be a good idea to give Van Buren his first high-leverage innings. The guy isn’t good enough to pitch in blowouts, but with a 2-run game in the 6th you want to make sure he’s in there. Otherwise who else would give up 2 singles, a walk, a should have been single to center if Coco didn’t make an amazing catch and then a single to right. After all that Tito decides Tavarez needed a chance to look just as bad.

I know Tito managed the bullpen to perfection in games 4-7 of the 2004 ALCS, but it’s almost like he has a Wheel-of-Fortune wheel down in the dugout and spins it whenever he needs a reliever. Unless he was instructed by Theo not to use Delcarmen, Hansen, and Timlin tonight there is no excuse for bringing in Van Buren, Tavarez and then Seanez.

Just over two hours until The Deadline. I’m still waiting…

This seems to come up about 3-4 times a year, but the Yankees payroll is just disgusting at this point. Because they can afford to take on Bobby Abreu’s contract ($13M this year, $13M in 2007, and a $13M club option — which the Yankees may not have to pick up), the Yankees got him and starter Corey Lilde from the Phillies for:

• A SS in low-A ball batting .237 with a monstrous 2 home runs
• A relief pitcher in AAA with a 2.08 ERA
• A catcher in below-A ball with a .264 BA
• A starting pitcher in below-A ball with a 1-2 record, and 2.97 ERA

So basically, if you could afford the contract, all it took was a bag of balls for a career .300 hitter and a decent starting pitcher in a market where Sidney Ponson got a tryout. Too bad the commissioner is no better than a bag of balls, otherwise maybe there’d be a salary cap by now.

And Theo, we couldn’t beat this to get Lilde? I hope to hear some great news in the next 18 hours, otherwise I’m very concerned.

What a drought. The Sox can’t seem to score runners from third, and the once infallible bullpen now seems to have trouble going more than 2/3 of an inning without giving up a run. However, what the Sox have really been lacking for the past month has been a Big Papi walkoff. (Has it been long enough to use the cliches yet?) For one month and three days Big Papi wasn’t able to come up to the plate and win a game with one swing of the bat. Somehow the Sox are still in first place. It’s a miracle.

What really impressed me about this walkoff was Papi’s comments afterwards. He basically said that Romero, who was brought in specifically to face him, has a great sinker and was going to try to jam him. So, with the overshift in place, Papi just gave it an inside-out swing and put it where there would normally be a shortstop. Clutch and smart. When is the Big Papi statue being erected?

This was a big win for the Sox. They went into the 8th down by three; via the magic of a Big Papi solo shot, two singles, a wild pitch and a bloop double (by Doubles) the Sox managed to tie it. Then, in the top of the 11th, with one of the z-twins pitching, Manny throws a perfect one-hop throw to nail the Angels’ catcher at the plate preserving a tie. An all-around team win by the Sox (By team I mean any player on the roster whose name doesn’t rhyme with Loco, he didn’t do shit).

But I can’t take a win like this without some criticism. Jerry is so delighted with his little “way back, way back” call that it’s near impossible to understand what’s going on other than a long fly ball. Plus, he’s wrong WAY more often than he’s correct. Here’s a tip: watch the fielder. If the fielder lines up the ball, TELL US! If he’s not moving, TELL US! Really it’s not rocket science. How many times does he have to raise the blood pressure of every warm-blooded member of Red Sox Nation before he’ll actually attempt to learn something that will make him better at his job? Suck is an understatement for his work on the microphone. Maybe if we as Sox fans are lucky, we’ll be treated to a new September call-up: Dan Hoard, the Pawtucket announcer.

OK boys, here’s the deal. Runner at 3rd, fewer than 2 outs. What do you want to do? No, Coco, strike out swinging is not the correct answer. No, Mark, grounding into a double play is not correct either. You want to GET THE BALL OUT OF THE FREAKING INFIELD! Really, is this so hard? The Angels didn’t seem to have any problem with it. We had:

• a chance in the 2nd
• a chance in the 5th
• two chances in the 6th (yes, that means there was a runner at 3rd with no outs and didn’t score)

I know the final score makes it look like getting those runners in from third with fewer than 2 outs wouldn’t have been a big deal, but when the game was 1-0, or 2-1 going into the 7th, it might have made all the difference.

So Lester is no longer perfect. I’m not terribly shocked. But to the weak hitting Angels? Ugh.

(Thanks to Kim for the photo!)

Where would you rather be at 12:30 on a Wednesday: Sitting at a desk in an office arguing about whether or not a piece of code needs and extra semicolon, or out at a ballgame on an 80 degree day? Yeah, me too. That’s why I was “sick” yesterday.

Wednesday day games are “dollar dog” games. Limit 10 hot dogs per transaction, complete with free heart attack.

The A’s big promotion to draw fans to an afternoon game was Root Beer Float Day. Basically for $2 you get a mug and a root beer float. For $15 you get unlimited floats. The way people were diving over each other for these things you’d have thought they were filling the mugs with absynth.

Note to people singing the National Anthem: learn the words! The woman singing yesterday didn’t reach the level of Michael Bolton for game four of the 2003 ALCS. (He forgot the words, and had to look at a cheat sheet to remember them. I was there, and yes, I booed afterwards.) Her only gaffe was thinking the word “o’er” was actually “for.” Gotta love that California public school system. I might have been more forgiving if I wasn’t afraid of August starting before she finished singing.

Not a terribly good game for the Sox. Kyle Snyder looked good in his first three innings, but started falling apart in the fourth. He basically made two mistakes: one to Frank Thomas with nobody on, and one to Frank Thomas with two on. It looked like the same mediocre fastball both times. Considering the state of our rotation you can’t ask for too much more out of the fifth starter than 6 innings, 5 runs; I can ask for him to be smart enough to not throw the same pitch a man nicknamed “The Big Hurt” hit for 400+ yards the first time for the first pitch of the second at bat.

I don’t know if it was the sunlight or what, but I ended up talking with a lot more Sox fans at yesterday’s game than at the first two. I always thought the term “Red Sox Nation” was catchy, but until you start conversing with other fans you don’t quite realize how true the term is. I had to drive about 50 miles each way to get to Oakland. One man I met in line for the Root Beer floats (yeah, I got one…it was still cheaper than a soda at $3.75) who flew in from Salt Lake City for yesterday’s game. But that was nothing compared to the family sitting in front of us who drove 11 straight hours from Boise to get to the game. According to him, they left at about 11pm the night before and 11 hours later pulled into the Oakland/McAfee/California Penal System Coliseum parking lot. Amazing. Why do I not see many Yankee fans doing that?

So the Sox return home now to face the ANAHEIM Angels. It feels like when you have been looking forward to having a good friend come into town, you have a great time, and then there’s the depressing goodbye. At least I know they’ll be back in a month.

Another game attended, another win. This one was extremely strange. It started like it might be a laugher, got way to close for comfort, and then became hysterical.

Since my work has been extremely busy recently, it was imperative that I leave early again to catch some of BP. We didn’t bother to join the cattle-call of autograph seekers this time, and instead just enjoyed watching the players do their thing before the game. The most impressive player (other than Papi hitting bombs into the second deck) was A-Gon, taking grounder after grounder. As he takes in the ball it’s all in one fluid motion, almost like it’s part of his body. The man works hard at perfecting his craft, and it shows.

A quick note for Sox fans. Do not buy home Red Sox jersey’s with the names on the back. It looks bad and cheesy. And if you wear said jersey while holding your significant other’s pink Sox visor, it screams “bandwagon.”

The first inning started well with a hits from Youks and Loretta. (More than any Manny home run, I’ve been looking forward to seeing the Sox this year just so I can scream “YOOOOOUUUUUKKKKKSSSSS” when he does well. It’s not every day I get to cheer for a Jewish prophet.) One batter later, Manny hit the longest single I have ever seen in my life. The ball traveled about 375 feet, one hopped the fence, and somehow Manny didn’t make it past first. Beats me. A sac-fly and we’re up 2-0.

In the first inning everybody in the park should have been able to tell that Schilling didn’t have his “A game.” He was missing pitches, couldn’t put people away on 0-2 counts and batters were getting pretty good wood on the ball. But the great thing about Schilling is even when his stuff is off, he still grinds through it. 6IP, 4ER, and only 3Ks isn’t too impressive, but he got the win (barely) and that’s what matters.

With one out in the third, Manny hit a solo shot. Then came quite a spectacle. Trot “somebody found my kryptonite and I haven’t hit a home run in 123 plate appearances” Nixon lined one over the wall in right-center for back-to-back jacks. Suddenly you could hear the “Let’s Go Red Sox” chants echoing througout the stadium. What beautiful music.

Around now is when I wanted to kill the guy sitting behind me. He wasn’t an A’s fan, instead he was a “know-it-all” fan. He was obviously on a first or second date with a girl who knew nothing about baseball. So he, being the greatest baseball analyst this side of Bill James, tried to explain everything to her. “A foul is a strike, but it can’t be the third strike.” Here’s a quick suggestion, if you’re a baseball nut, don’t bring a girl on a first date to the ballpark if you’re going to have to lecture her the whole time. It’s going to annoy her, it’s going to annoy you, and for Christ’s sake it annoyed everyone in section 227.

By the 7th the game had become a seat-squirmer. Delcarmen came in with a 6-4 lead and promptly gave up 3 straight singles (and a run). I have never seen him pitch before, but he looked exactly like the reports I’ve read: good stuff, but has trouble with his command. With the tying run on 2nd and no outs he then got Bradley to fly out, and Thomas and Swisher to K…swinging.

I don’t know if the Sox offense knew that Tavarez was warming up, but I’d like to think that their explosion in the 8th was a direct result. Two hits and a walk loaded the bases. Then, just to make the game more fun, as Duchscherer (whose name is too long to fit on the scoreboard) was being relived, he managed to piss off the home plate umpire and got ejected. Only in Oakland.

Trot, facing a lefty (a move I still don’t understand when you have Kapler AND Wily Mo on your bench) managed a 4-pitch walk for an RBI, and then the Cap’n doubled home three more with basically the same hit that was Manny’s single in the first. Even the Z-twins couldn’t screw this one up.

One the way out, I stopped in the mens room. Mens rooms at ballgames apparently have a different set of rules than everywhere else. For one, it’s not only allowed but expected for you to talk to the man standing next to you peeing into a trough. Also, where else would you start either a “Let’s go Red Sox” or “Ted-y Bru-schi” chant? As much as I’d love to do that at work, I think people would just think I’m nuts.

Two games, two great Sox wins. I couldn’t be happier.

More pictures!

You may be wondering what’s with the picture of the fans in Oakland. I’ll get to that…

It took 97 games, but Kim and I finally got to see the Sox in person. And they decided to put on a show for us. Being the good Sox fans we are, we arrived at the park 2 full hours before hand. Even in Oakland the place is a mob of autograph-hungry scalpers. I saw one guy wearing 3 jersey’s and asking players for autographs during BP. The Sox players were much quieter than the Oakland players and generally stayed away from the fans. As Houston Street walked by he had as close to a full on conversation with a fan as you can have without stopping. Seemed like a pretty nice guy, it’s too bad I only want to see him in losing situations for the next 3 days.

Oakland is famous for it’s raucous, scary, and often crazed fans. I think we should start a petition to move the “IS YOUR GUN LOADED? 1 OUT OF 5 PEOPLE IN MASSACHUSETTS HAVE AT LEAST 1 GUN.” sign from the Mass Pike to the 880 freeway.

You quickly realize that the A’s fans aren’t the same as the insane Radiers fans. They’re actually extremely bitter and passive aggressive (much like their announcers). The guy sitting in front of us had a nice line when Youks swung and missed at a Zito curve ball:

Guy: Ooooooh, meet the curve ball Youk-ilis.

Me (to Kim): It’s a good thing that’s his curve, cause at 75 mph if that was his fast ball he’s in trouble.

It’s also a lot funnier when you realize that he wasn’t talking to anyone. But I guess I wouldn’t be too pleased if my team’s stadium was taken over by the other team’s fans. But let’s be honest, “Let’s go Red Sox” just sounds better than “Let’s go Oak-land.”

The game turned out to be a great one. For the first four innings Beckett looked downright nasty. The speed differential between his fastball and his off speed pitches was close to 20mph. And he was throwing both for called and swinging strikes. He scuffled a little in the 5th and 6th innings, but managed to go six innings with under 100 pitches.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this game pretty much summarized the entire season:

• Mannny goes deep (The other way, of course.)
• Papi goes deep (If you turn away for a second you’ll wonder where the ball went. It gets out of the stadium VERY quickly.)
• Youks walks
• Doubles hits a…well…double
• A-Gon starts two double plays (The man is slick.)
• Beckett gives up a home run…
• …and still gets the win
• The bullpen bent, but did not break
• Papelbon strikes out 2 in the ninth

And for good measure, I got to see:

• Everybody’s favorite ex-Sox Jay Payton dive and miss Coco’s fly ball, turning it into a double
• Payton kill a rally in the 8th by grounding into a 5-4-3 DP
• A-Gon hit a bomb (I know, I shouldn’t be quite so shocked about this anymore)

But the most exciting part of the game, by far, was in the bottom of the 9th with 2 out, PBR got to an 0-2 count on Mark Ellis. Now the strike out was cool, but more exciting was that for some reason, NESN apparently showed Kim and I cheering (thanks to Paul for not only noticing, but being able to grab a screenshot)! So I guess I can check that off the list of things I should do before I die.

Tomorrow it’s Schilling vs. Windsor. Again Kim and I will be sitting in section 227. If you happen to be at the game, and want to meet the lovely Kim (I can’t understand why you’d want to meet me) feel free to come by and say hello. Let’s go Red Sox (clap, clap, clapclapclap)!

Oh, and Kim took a ton of great pictures. I posted a couple of them here.

Dear Manny,

The name of the game is BASEball, not KICKball. No more kicking the ball in the outfield. Your attempt to slide tackle the ball in the 7th led to the runner from first scoring, and your kicking the ball back at Coco in the 8th allowed slow-footed Adrian Beltre to hit an inside the park home run. Inside the freaking park! I know it’s fun and all to watch the little Mariners go running all around the bases, but you want to STOP them from doing that.

Oh, and Coco, try to stop missing your jumps by a good yard.

Thanks.

It got to be over 100 degrees here today, and I stayed inside to listen to this pathetic game. Nice work by the bullpen too. If you leave Hansen out of it (and he struggled even if nobody scored), Delcarmen and Timlin combined for 4 runs in 2+ innings.

At least tonight Kim and I will be in attendance in Oakland to see if Beckett learned anything for his Royals start. Remember, fastball good, curveball better.

We lost to the 45-51 (now 46-51) Mariners. It’s 98 degrees here, and I have no air conditioning. I feel about the same as I do when Rudy Seanez blows a 4 run lead in the 7th. This game didn’t help. That is all.