Sox-Yanks '07: and so it begins...

I just watched A-Fraud hit his second dinger of the game, with Coco almost making the catch of the decade to rob him (instead he just fell on his head). Schilling and the Sox are down 5-2 in the 7th...it ain't ova yet.

Happy 31st James

Eh....feels the same as 30. Damn you for your fantasy victory week 1!

Daisuke Gets Win #1

Daisuke Matsuzaka got his first MLB win today and looked impressive...as if we here in Red Sox nation had any doubts!

He went 7 innings giving up 2 runs and 6 hits with 1 walk and 10 strikeouts. At one point he retired 10 in a row...oh yeah, that includes striking out the side in the 4th.

I know this outing was just the beginning of his career here, and the skeptics will remind us that it was only one win, but after watching him pitch today I, for one, think all those millions that went into signing him was money well spent.

"The Boston Red Sox paid $51 million just to negotiate with the sensation from Japan...And in Kansas City? A few hours before game time, more than 18,000 tickets remained for sale at the box office at Kauffman Stadium. Seats in the 40,785-seat stadium start at just $8."
-Andrew Ryan, Boston Globe, April 5, 2007

$8 to see Daisuke's first game in the bigs? I'll bet you dollars for donuts that tickets to see Matsuzaka's Fenway debut next Wednesday will cost at least 10 times that, and that's for SRO in deep right, forget about grandstand.

After the game I spoke to my friend SirKenLord (who, by the way, directed this pretty amazing documentary on the annual Koshien Tournament in Japan). He spoke to me of Matsuzaka's 1998 heroic performance in the single-elimination high school tournament that year, throwing 250 pitches over 17 innings in the quarterfinals then throwing a no-hitter in the finals to win it all. SirKenLord said Matsuzaka was his hero.

We like heroes here in Boston. Especially ones in Red Sox jerseys.

Spinnys Illusion

I came across this somewhere last night (lost the URL). Don't get too sucked in though....Daisuke's debut is at 2pm EST.

Opening Day 2007

The Red Sox are opening their season today in Kansas City at 4:05, and I can't wait. It's the same every year; the Patriots are done and the Bruins and Celtics are too lackluster to be as exciting as spring training. The anticipation builds, the new players are (thoroughly) scrutinized, and predictions of a trip to the postseason are abundant. It used to be "This is the year", and now it's "This is as good a team if not better than the 2004 club" (which, in the off chance you forgot, won the World Series that year).

Some popular topics, if you aren't excited (or cynical) enough already:

• Daisuke Matsuzaka's kickassedness
• his de-facto nickname "Dice-K"
• Papelbon as the closer
• the rotation (always a favorite)
• J.D. Drew's injuries
• Julio Lugo's value
• Youkilis in the 2-spot
• Coco's expectations (again)
• Varitek's slump
• Papi's HR total last year
• Pedroia's potential production
• Shouldn't it be pronounced "Why-lee" Mo?
• Manny-Papi or Papi-Manny
• Hideki Okajima (the other new Japanese guy)
• How much the Yankees are gonna suck

Flatland the Movie

Ah, Flatland...the 19th century essay about life in a 2-dimensional world and the subject of many a middle school math class across the globe (hopefully minus the slightly sexist undertones). Written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott (whose middle name also happens to be Abbott!), the essay is an exposition on the notion of extra dimensions as well as a "satire on the social hierarchy of Victorian society", as it describes a world whose inhabitants are squares, triangles, pentagons and other 2-dimensional figures whose place in society is rigidly defined by the number of sides they have and how regular they are (that is, how closely their sides are in length to each other).

Well, now there's going to be a movie (wuhooo!). Due for release in June of this year, the main character, A. Sqaure, will be voiced by Martin Sheen, and the trailer actually looks pretty compelling. The website for the movie is pretty slick, too.

If you haven't read Flatland yet and are interested in reading the actual essay, you can download it from Project Gutenberg for free.

Now all I have to do is convince TLM to go see this with me...

The Missing Hubcap Club

Four years ago when I found myself in the new car market for the first time, I came across lots of makes and models, each with their own bells, whistles, advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately I settled on a Toyota Matrix (and no, not because I happen to love the movie by the same name). She was stylish, roomy, great on gas mileage, and most importantly a great deal less costly than other comparable cars.

Aside from a missing antenna (the fault of the stupid dealership and the beginning of another rant altogether), I drove off the lot a happy man, and stayed happy up until very recently. You see, I am now an official member of the missing hubcap club.

Why is this post-worthy? For starters, this is not the first time my car has mysteriously lost a hubcap. About a year and a half ago one popped off while I was driving unbeknownst to me until I noticed it missing after I parked. Luckily I hadn't gone far and after a short search I found it and kicked it back into place. No big deal, right?

A few weeks later the sister of a friend who also drove a Matrix told me the same exact thing had happened to her (she was also lucky and got hers back). After then, I noticed that almost every other Matrix I saw on the road either was missing a hubcap or had all four removed (presumably for consistency). I began to wonder if the random popping-off of hubcaps was a chronic problem of Matrixes (Matrices?) everywhere.

In fact it is. Although Toyota won't acknowledge any hubcap issues, plenty of other people write about how they are constantly losing their hubcaps. Interestingly, the people "in the know" who respond either claim the hubcaps are knockoffs and not originals or that the consumers should get them, and I quote, installed professionally. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when I buy a car from a dealership should the hubcaps not be originals and already installed by professionals? I know hubcaps are purely decorative and not terribly expensive (TLM has already offered to get me a new one), but shouldn't there be some kind of compensation for Matrix owners who fall victim to a problem Toyota secretly knows exists? Ridiculous.

All this didn't help me recently, however, when once again I returned to my car to notice only three hubcaps in place. Granted, one may have been taken by some karmically confused Matrix owner to whom the same thing occurred, but I suspect it was just a repeat of the first time and my hubcap is currently lying by some road in or around Boston, just wasting to be found so it can get its spin on again.

For now, I am a proud member of this missing hubcap club and I just may retire the remaining three hubcaps, drag racer stylee. Eh, what the hell.

That is until, of course, the fourth is found, in which case I will, um, "re-tire" them all...

Make Up Your Own Holiday Day

According to Ruth and Thomas Roy from wellcat.com, the "creators" of the holiday, Make Up Your Own Holiday Day is "a day you may name for whatever you wish". I've read some pretty silly ones, but I suppose that's part of the point.

My official holiday today: Menina Day. Any other suggestions?

A Capital Evening

Thanks to "s" from TMT, The Lovely Mary and I were able to enjoy a four-course meal at the new Capital Grille in Burlington as part of a preview dinner benefit for Neurofibromatosis, Inc. and the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism. There were a lot of Patriots players there last night, including Ellis Hobbs (who TLM claims is "tiny" and smaller than I am), and I heard the night before featured all-time Red Sox player Dwight Evans and former Patriots Russ Francis and Ronnie Lippett. There was a silent auction in another room with various types of sports memorabilia (the starting bids for which were extremely high) raising I hope a large amount of money for the foundations.

The atmosphere and people (and open bar) were not the only stories of the night, however, for never is there a trip to a Capital Grille that doesn't involve incredibly well-prepared food.

We started the night off at the bar with some fried calamari and a couple of Ciroc and tonics. After being seated in front of a rather large portrait of Johnny Most (a personal hero) and about 10 feet away from the chef's table packed with Patriots, we were treated to a variety of breads with butter and our second course: a caesar salad for me and onion soup for her.

For the main course, both TLM and I had 14 oz. dry aged sirloins, though mine was prepared au poive (a new favorite) and served with a Courvoisier cream sauce. I don't think I can do proper justice in words to the excellence the taste of this steak demanded. I recommend it to anyone, nay, everyone as a must-have meal.

To finish the meal, TLM and I split a delicious crème brûlée, the first time I'd ever had (or seen) the dessert. This, of course, was the proverbial icing on the cake of a truly "capital" evening.

Then we drove home in a snowstorm.....

What The Heck is That Day

This day is in honor of the unexplained, commemorating the first recorded eclipse of the sun. The popular opinion is that it was ancient Chinese astronomers who first recorded this important astronomical event, around 2136-2137 BCE. In one mythical telling of the event, Chinese astronomers Hsi and Ho fail to prevent or predict or properly react to an eclipse and are ordered to be executed by an angry emperor. Doh...

The Lovely Mary, Double Bagel

I just learned what a "double bagel" is in tennis, thanks to an absolute shellacking The Lovely Mary handed down to some poor woman from Lexington last weekend. It was the first time in my facetiously extensive tennis watching career that I'd seen a match where one person didn't win a game. Go TLM!

Game scores from the two sets:

TLM	40	40	40	40	40	40	->  6  <-
opponent	0	15	0	0	0	40	->  0  <-

TLM	40	40	40	40	40	40	->  6  <-
opponent	0	15	15	40	40	15	->  0  <-

St. Patrick's Day Parade

As I look down and see I'm wearing my Celtics tee and my once-a-year green pants (TMT might get a kick out of these; they are Marithé et François Girbaud and were in fashion back in the early 90's!), I realize that today could only be one day: St. Patrick's Day.

Many things come to mind (besides the green pants) for those who celebrate this holiday commemorating the death of the patron saint of Ireland. There are the plastic green derbys, the bad Irish brogues, Darby O'Gill, the consumption of LOTS of Guinness and green beer (usually starting around 10:00am), and, of course, the St. Patrick's Day parade.

I was surprised to learn that the very first St. Patrick's Day parade was held here in Boston, not in Ireland, by the Irish immigrants back in 1737 (a general concession, though there seems to be some debate about this), marking the first time the holiday was celebrated publicly. To put that in a different perspective, we've been having St. Patrick's Day parades and celebrations almost four decades longer than we've been a country.

For Bostonians, the parade is a rite of passage, albeit usually in a drunken mess kind of way. Boston PD basically surrounds Southie (South Boston) and lets no one neither in nor out until most of the day is done. There is a better chance of seeing more fights in a five hour period in Southie on St. Patrick's Day than in the bleachers at Fenway at all Red Sox-Yankees games in a season combined (which is, needless to say, not a small number thanks to Yankee Yahoos). The actual parade is full of marching bands, dancing troops, and at least three people dressed as leprechauns (of the Lucky Charms variety, not the kind from the 1993 horror flick).

Whether you are one to brave the chaos that is Southie today or one to stay and watch from home, have a Happy St. Patrick's Day today!

Pi Day 2007

Another 3-14, another Pi Day. Last year's post featured that Zoom! parody about wizards, womanizing, and of course, pi.

This year's Pi Day post will feature none other than Pi. That number, again? Nay, I speak of none other than Piao Sam, a.k.a. Pi from the CW's third installment of "Beauty and the Geek". Billed as the "only kissed one girl" geek, he and his partner Sheree (the "former Hooters waitress" beauty) were promptly the second couple sent home.

Oh, if only we could have seen more of you throwing down your Pi-like gang sign, Pi.

"Internet surfing, karaoke and poker. I almost got trampled standing in line for Playstation 3." - Paio Sam

Happy (Belated) Birthday Dave

Sorry for the slight delay...hope Tuesday was a good time.

F the Colts

What a waste of a Super Bowl. Besides the opening kickoff run back for a TD by Hester, the Bears blew. Ah, well...at least The Lovely Mary won some money on the squares.