Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Games 64 through 66 - Red Sox

Mariners 8, Red Sox 0
Red Sox 11, Mariners 4
Red Sox 2, Mariners 1
Record: 40-26

My friend Tom is a long-time Seattleite and staunch Mariners fan. I emailed him Friday evening, exasperated with the Sox' abysmal performance against the woeful M's, saying, "Your boys pick tonight to show a little spine?"
His response, "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while."

While that's a reasonably good explanation, it has a corollary that might fit even better, as I refer back to my collegiate nickname and behavior, to note that even a sighted squirrel gets hammered and pukes on itself every once in a while. Game 64 was $1 jello shot night in the Sox' locker room, as far as I could tell.

Fortunately, sobriety and normalcy reigned on Saturday and Sunday, as the Sox first stomped and then outlasted the M's. The latter game was yet another testament to the Sox' patience at the plate, as they forced uber-tough lefty (and Sox-killer) Erik Bedard from the game after 5 innings and 99 pitches. Not at all coincidentally, J.D. Drew homered in the Sox' first at-bat against Bedard's replacement.

The same J.D. Drew, by the way, who leads the Sox in OPS and paces all regulars in batting average and on-base percentage. Raise your hand if you predicted that before the season.

7 comments:

T.J. said...

Fantastic photo sir.

Whitney said...

I'm pretty sure that on my death bed I'll still list this photo among my all-time Top 10 favorites. In part for the ridiculous memories surrounding the night, but also simply on its face. Annie Leibowitz would struggle to capture such brilliance.

Bonus points to you musically inclined folks out there if you can tell us what album cover appears on Rob's T-shirt.

rob said...

man, i'm bummed i lost that shirt. though it was threadbare at the time, so it's unlikely that it would have survived the two-decade journey to today.

Nick said...

U2 - War.

Derek said...

It's a U2 one - either Boy or War isn't it? I saw them in a pretty small venue (less than 2000) in Glasgow when Boy was out and on a warm up for the War tour. They went downhill after 1984 if you ask me. The sort of sad stuff that I remember which seems to really irritate my wife!

Nick said...

I don't think so Derek, they didn't get worse; I think we just got older.

rob said...

nick's right - it's war. i think they're still the best rock band in the world. i saw them in great big arenas on each of their last two tours, and they were phenomenal. there's stuff on each of their last two studio albums that compares favorably with the best of their earlier work. and that's high praise.