Over the past couple of weeks, I rewrote my gallery-building engine in Ruby, making it much more flexible and easy to use. So now, I may actually be able to put up some of the old galleries I did, but never published, like this one of a Red Sox vs. Yankees game from 2004.

Here are the pictures:

1. Budweiser sign
2. Couple at Fenway
3. Baby at Fenway
4. Fenway math
5. Curt Schilling
6. Jason Varitek
7. Jason Varitek warming up
8. Jason Varitek being all pensive
9. Johnny Damon throwing
10. Johnny Damon warming up
11. Manny Ramirez warming up
12. David Ortiz
13. Curt Schilling faces Derek Jeter
14. Curt Schilling brushes back Derek Jeter
15. Watering the infield at Fenway
16. Yankees fan gets booted from Fenway
17. Another Yankees fan gets booted from Fenway
18. Schilling leaves
19. Keith Foulke saves the day

Hooray!

This was a fun team to watch, and, with Ellsbury, Pedroia, Beckett, Matsuzaka, Lester and Buchholz, next year is looking pretty good too.

It’s fun to live in the city of champions.

P.S., damn you, Fox. Let’s try starting the games a little earlier next year.

Technorati Tags: Red Sox

We have a good article today on what the World Series means for hundreds of local businesses. It’s a good time to be in the hospitality business here in town.

We don’t benefit in this particular way from the World Series, but we certainly aren’t going to turn away all the additional people reading the Globe and hitting the site for the next couple of weeks.

Oh yeah, it’ll work out pretty well for those who bought furniture from Jordan’s, too.

Wow, what an amazing game for the Clay Buchholz in his second major-league start.

This may be a special year for the Red Sox yet. I believe.

The Red Sox showed again why this is a special season, erasing a five-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Orioles. This win was pure hustle. I love rooting for a team that will fight to the very end.

Chad Finn, of the always readable Touching All the Bases, writes an article about Strat-o-Matic baseball, a game that dominated most of the ’80s for me.

The guys at Goodwill Park taught me Strat-o-Matic [SOM] back in the summer of 1980 or 1981, playing with cards from the mid-seventies. I started Catfish Hunter, and he cost me the game when he gave up a dinger in the ninth. “He does that a lot,” they consoled me.

I got my first copy of SOM with the 1982 card set. I was the only one in the family interested in sports, so I created elaborate leagues and draft scenarios to keep myself amused. I would kill off two teams (Toronto and Seattle were generally the victims back then), allow each team to keep five pitchers, a catcher, three infielders and two outfielders. I’d then distribute the rest of the players. The Red Sox occasionally had a thumb on the scale during this distribution — hello Bruce Bochte!

I played SOM for 10 years or so, carrying the cards around the house and down the cape. I still have fond memories of it. Thanks, Chad, for bringing them back.

Technorati Tags: strat-o-matic, baseball

When I bought a Red Sox jersey to wear to the games in 2000, I didn’t even have a moment’s delay when deciding which one to wear: it was Trot Nixon’s #7. I’ve worn that jersey over a hundred times in the Fenway bleachers since then. And now, Trot has signed with the Indians. I can only wish him the best of luck.

Trot was my favorite because he plays baseball like a hockey player; he was the original Dirt Dog. I can’t wait to go to a Cleveland game this summer and give him a standing ovation.

Here’s Trot warming up in right field, taken from my seat in 2004:

Technorati Tags: Red Sox, Trot Nixon

For several years, I’ve been sharing Red Sox season tickets with friends, sitting out in the bleachers for 10-20 games a year. It’s great during the summer to get to a few games, but it really pays off in October, when we get into the Park for playoff games.

Yesterday, we went to a corporate event at Fenway, and I was able to get a wide shot of the outfield. Here’s where we sit at each game:

Here’s another shot of the Red Sox captain, from July 17th, 2006.

Technorati Tags: Jason Varitek, Red Sox

We finally got a game last Sunday, and the starting picture was Kyle Snyder, up filling in while Clement and Wells are on the disabled list. Here are a couple of pictures I got of him from my seat in the bleachers.

Technorati Tags: Kyle Snyder, Red Sox

I’m sad that I can’t win this, because this looks like the coolest contest I’ve seen in a while: watch a game with Theo.

The grand prize winner will also receive a dinner for two at Fenway Park before a 2006 regular-season home game, and the chance to spend the game with Theo Epstein in his private suite!

Theo will also be chatting on Boston.com on Monday, July 10th at noon.

Technorati Tags: Red Sox, Theo Epstein

I can’t wait for Pedro Martinez’s return to Fenway tonight.

In his prime, Pedro was electric. Every Pedro game was an event — you went in *expecting* a no-hitter, expecting to see something special.

I doubt we’ll ever see another pitcher like him.

Previously:
Red Sox Opening Day - 3/31/2003
Pedro! Pedro! Pedro! - 4/18/2003
The Full Moon at Fenway Park - 10/12/2003
Do you belieeeeeeve? - 10/16/2003
Grr. Argh. - 10/17/2003
Yub Yub - 10/19/2004

Jason Varitek, from April 2004:

Here’s Johnny Damon warming up, from April 2004:

Johnny Damon, throwing the ball into the infield, from April 2004

I don’t get to go to any Red Sox games until May, so I was flipping through some of my digital photos to see what I was missing. I realized I had a gallery from April 2004 that I never published. Oops. Anyway, here are some of the best ones.

Here’s Curt Schilling:

Here’s Curt Schilling pitching to Derek Jeter:

Here’s Curt Schilling brushing back Derek Jeter:

Here is a very handy reference to all the Red Sox uniform numbers since the 30’s.

(via Steve Buckley)

Ahh, the first drunk Yankees fan of the year to get thrown out of Fenway.

Departing, I might add, with the level of dignity and class one associates with the Bronx.

Newly acquired Red Sox reliever Todd Jones rips the Boston media in his Sporting News column.

To be honest, the media here is brutal. They are the most negative spin doctors I’ve run into. They make big deals out of nothing. One reporter goes in for an interview, and the next thing you know there are 35 around your locker asking the dumbest questions, such as, “Did you mean to give up that homer?” or “After this loss, is your team finished?”

Nomar, it’s your birthday, happy birthday Nomar.

Dan and I went to the game last night and watched the Sox destroy the Tigers without even breaking a sweat.

Of my fifteen games this year, this one had the lowest jacked-n-pumped quotient. Monday night. Threat of rain. Tigers. Burkett.

Can I tell you how much I love Kevin Millar?

Back in front of his own locker, Millar leveled a blast at Roger Clemens, who on Saturday hit him in the left hand with a 95-mile-per-hour fastball, then chided Millar afterward for failing to get out of the way of the pitch.

‘’This has turned into a big old stupid thing,'’ Millar said, ‘’and it started with his stupid comment that I should have got out of the way of his 95-mile-an-hour fastball. The classy thing would have been to call the clubhouse and see if I was OK.