My collective impressions of the new controls.

The Comment feature on my blog site appears to suck. Use it at your own risk.

I love these guys in the Red Sox front office! See ya Manny! Who's next? Who wants a piece?

I love the message they're sending: You think because you put up good offensive numbers every year and make millions of dollars that you can play this game with less devotion than the lower paid guys, but guess what? We're not having it. If you expected to get away with not running out base hits, skipping doctor appointments when you claim to be sick, and saying you'd love to play for the Yankees someday, you were gravely mistaken. Have fun in New York or wherever you and your $100 million salary end up.

Do you realize what we could do with the $$ we save by not over-paying Manny Ramirez for the next 5 years?? We could resign a bunch of the lower paid but harder working dirt dogs already in the lineup AND still go get a solid starting pitcher or a solid left fielder that is more than a one dimensional player.

I hope he goes somewhere else, but I don't even care if he goes to the Yankees. They can have him.

...Grady Little's going...going...he's...gone!

Still no word from Red Sox management on the status of Grady Little.

From today's Boston Herald:

...Reports also have begun to trickle in about the scene in the stands at Yankee Stadium in Game 7, when the Red Sox lost their lead in the eighth inning. As the lead evaporated, several eyewitnesses reported seeing and hearing team president Larry Lucchino saying, to paraphrase, "What is (Little) doing, what is he doing?" And general manager Theo Epstein was spotted shaking his head repeatedly as the inning dragged on with the Yankees continuing to score runs.

"I don't think anyone wants to prolong this," a Red Sox official said yesterday. "It's going (to be announced) sooner than later."

It's Saturday morning, again. I'm at work, again. Lately I've been mulling over the notion that I could build a really cool fort with all the cardboard boxes lying around this place. I could call it FORT AL and it would be impenetrable. When construction is completed I will retire to my underground kitchen and make bacon pancakes. Mmmm…bacon pancakes.

Red Sox management says it could make its decision about the fate of Grady Little as early as this Monday. Oh yeah. Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track, He's gone, gone, and nothin's gonna bring him back...He's gone.

I just got an E-Z Pass transponder for my car, it is so sweet! No more waiting in line at the Tobin Bridge Toll Booth for me.

It was snowing on my way to work this morning.

Lori has hidden my winter gloves somewhere in our apartment. She won't tell me where.

The Boston Globe has finally worn out its welcome in our household, we are now officially 7-day a week Boston Herald subscribers. Contrary to the belief of some, the Herald is not a rag. The people who slam the Herald have not read it lately. Believe it or not, both papers cover the same local and national stories. One major difference is that one costs $65 a year, one almost $200. It's done, so deal with it. (We still get the Globe on Sundays.)

Well butter my biscuits: Now Grady Little says even if he is given the opportunity, he may not want to manage the Red Sox next season.

Do you like the new color scheme? I felt like the look needed to be recast in order to reflect the change in the seasons.

Live by Pedro, Die by Pedro.

Grady Little has got to be the only person in Red Sox Nation who doesn’t know the fact that Pedro Martinez will NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER pull himself out of a game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can’t run out to the mound and ask Pedro if he wants to be relieved, he’s gonna say “I’m OK” even if his arm is falling off!!!

It is ABSOLUTELY Grady Little’s job to make the hard decisions about who pitches and who doesn’t, you can’t leave that decision to the ego-maniacal over-paid players! That’s why there are Managers in Major League Baseball!!!

Why oh why did Pedro have to come out for the 8th inning??????!!!!!!!!!! It was obvious that he was tired!!! And to be allowed to give up 4 straight hits and three runs before getting the hook…oh man.

To me this is the worst Red Sox loss to the Yankees in franchise history. Worse than 1978. Forget Bucky F***ing Dent, now it’s Aaron F***ing Boone.

We had that game WON………………………………………I rank this as the #2 All-Time Worst Red Sox Loss. Game 6 of the ’86 World Series is still #1 in my opinion.

The “Curse of Bad Red Sox Pitching” continues……..

Tonight's Red Sox game is their biggest one since 1986.

It's bigger than the one at the end of that unspoken year that falls between ’77 and ’79. That game was for a spot in the Divisional Series.

You know what’s on the line in this game.

Charlie, I forgot to tell you. I've discovered a Charlie-cloning operation taking place in a not-so-secret Lab deep in the bowels of south-eastern Massachusetts. I should have taken some photos, because I saw several baby Charlies in various stages of development, some almost ready for deployment. They were all living in pots at the feet of the Mother Charlie, safe under the protective umbrella of her vast leaf canopy.

I swear, it felt like that scene in Aliens when Ripley finds the lair of the Queen Alien and all over the floor, surrounding her, were those egg pods filled with little Alien babies.

I think I've heard that joke from you before, Charlie me boy...

I think the 1st Annual Gansett Point Apple Festival Weekend can be categorized as a success, even with all the different people coming and going, the various sporting events, the rain, and the over-complicated crazy-fancy-pants menu.

I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to describe next year’s event in two words: Pot Luck.

No more of this “Le smoked duck François avec apple stooffing, swiss chard, and blue fish pâté” dinner-for-10 stuff. It was good, but it took 57 hours to prepare. If there had been a Sox game Saturday night we would have missed the first hour of it due to dinner. I would have not been happy. And I have trouble keeping my crankiness about these types of things to myself.

Including all the raw apples, on Sunday we ate turkey sandwiches with apple and cheese, proscuitto with goat cheese and apple bruschetta, swiss chard with apple cider, apple sausage stuffing, and for dessert, baked apples with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. If “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, we’re all good for a while.

I know Le Chef Tom gets off on le menu preparation (I saw the geeky spreadsheets he made that planned out all the dishes on a timeline), and we all know he spends beaucoup (boo-koo) time and effort in the kitchen just to feed us, but I think we can dial it back a bit for the Apple Festivals of the future. The food can be just as good but be less stressful (and less expensive) at the same time.

I also think we need a Gansett Point Apple Festival Weekend theme song. And some type of Opening and Closing ceremonies. Maybe keep a torch fueled by apple schnapps lit throughout the weekend like the Olympics? Jen had an idea for the Closing ceremony: At sunset on the last day of the festival we all stand on the beach by her house and sing the yet-to-be-determined theme song with an apple in our outstretched hands. After the song ends we all take a bite of the apple and then throw it into the ocean.

My word, that’s beautiful.

Unlike the performance of Nomah Gahceeapahrah’s bat during this most recent playoff stretch.

I’ve got Game 3 of the ALCS between the Red Sox and the Stankees at Fenway Park to watch at 4pm, there's a Bruins game on at 7:30pm, a Patriots-Giants game on Sunday afternoon at 1pm, and then ALCS Games 4 & 5 on Sunday and Monday nights respectively. My sports schedule is continuing its frantic and steady pace. It’s such a beautiful thing… The one problem I foresee with my baseball/football/hockey addiction is this: In the midst of this sports orgy I am supposed to be participating in the 1st Annual Gansett Point Apple Festival Weekend that is taking place Saturday thru Monday in Woods Hole. In the past week I have made public comments seen by the events’ Chairperson, Jen Collom, alluding to the fact that I would not ditch her Festival in favor of living in front of the TV behind the bar at the Leeside.

I know I’m not alone among some of the other Festival participants in struggling with this heart-breaking dilemma…

Wow, I can't believe the Sox won 3 in a row to eliminate Oakland. That's pretty impressive.

I'm just glad nobody flipped my car over and set it on fire in the ensuing melee. I did hear a lot of police sirens immediatey following the game.

I see a number of people have been hitting my Blog site today. I guess everyone is hoping to be greeted by tales of ribaldry and excess after a tumultuous weekend of weddings and sporting events.

I just don't know where to start.

And I'm tired.

I guess the crux of my weekend, the affair at the center of the turbulent maelstrom that devoured every other event in its path, was Krissy & Theo's wedding. I was honored to stand with Krissy and be her Man of Honor (it’s about time someone showed a little deference).

Lori, as Maid of Honor, unsurprisingly had her hands full with her official duties toting various barges and lifting sundry bales for the Bride. I tried to do my best and be helpful when needed, but mainly I just tried to stay out of the way.

My favorite part of the wedding was when a window washer began spraying the windows with a hose during the ceremony. He quit spraying when someone told him to knock it off. Was that guy blind or something? Couldn’t he see that there was a wedding going on?? Oh well, everyone got a laugh out of it.

The wedding was at 10:30 am so I was very confused as to what time it was all day long. Those beers before the sun had crossed over the yardarm (12 noon) didn’t help me. Ceremony and reception were all done and over by 4:30pm. Still enough time left to go watch the Sox game at the Leeside! Yee-ha! (after dinner at The Silver Lounge with the Candelieri midgets, that is).

The next day, Sunday, I put the Picture-in-Picture feature on my parents TV through a strenuous workout. The Patriots and the Red Sox were both on at 1pm. Back and forth, baseball then football and back again for the next 3 hours. What a day for Boston sports. The Red Sox and the Patriots both come back to win their games. When they showed Sox highlights at the Patriots game the crowd erupted as if Tom Brady had just thrown a 85-yard TD pass.

All in all, a very good weekend.

There's nothing I can say that isn't obvious or hasn't been said before.

After a 4 1/2 hour game that ended at 2:45am EST, the Red Sox lose game 1 of the ALDS in 12 innings, 5-4.

Why do they have to lose so dramtically EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!???

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!