My collective impressions of the new controls.

Oh, that's just great. Boston is such a nice town.

Martinez struck by ball thrown during World Series parade

BOSTON (AP) -- Pedro Martinez was hit in the forehead by a baseball thrown from the banks of the Charles River while he was riding on an amphibious vehicle during the World Series victory parade for the Red Sox. He was not seriously injured.

"I have a little headache, but I'm OK," Martinez said after the parade ended Saturday at Fenway Park.

It was not immediately clear who threw the ball or why.

Martinez looked stunned, putting his hand to his forehead. The ball was later seen floating in the water as the vehicle floated down the river for the final leg of the parade.

Jim Averill, 42, of Boston, said the ball was thrown at a high speed from the river bank. He said pitcher Derek Lowe tried to catch it before it struck Martinez.

"I saw the ball hit him in the head," Averill said. "Derek Lowe tried to grab it. It hit him and it flew up about 15 feet and fell into the water."

Didn't someone recognize A-Rod in his Yankee pinstripes on the riverbank?

You know what?

I forgive Bill Buckner for 1986.


That's how much this World Series Championship means to me.

Last night they were showing that infamous clip from Game 6 and I must say, it didn't hurt so much anymore.


By the way, do you notice any similarities between Edgar Renteria (last out for the Red Sox to clinch the 2004 World Series) and Babe Ruth?

Interesting.

IT'S ALL OVER!!

WE DID IT !!

WE DID IT !!

WE DID IT !!

WE DID IT !!

BOSTON RED SOX

2004 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!!

Well I love that dirty water,

Oh, Boston, you're my home!

Curse? WHAT Curse!

The 86-year drought ends!!

Tonight, World Series Game 1 starts at 8pm.

Tomorrow, my parents are coming to visit me around 12 Noon.

Tomorrow, the Patriots-Jets game starts at 4pm.

Tomorrow, World Series Game 2 starts at 8pm.

THANK THE LORD I do not have to work on Monday.

Standing on the sidewalk outside Fenway Park's Green Monster, Red Sox fan and Emerson College student Victoria Snelgrove, 21, was struck in the eye and killed early Thursday morning by one of a number of pepper balls fired by Boston police to quell unruly fans throwing bottles, smashing storefront windows, and over-turning cars.

Call me an old man, but I don’t see the fun in flipping cars and setting fires as a way to celebrate. If people in this city are going to keep dying as a result of fan jubilation, it’s not worth it. City officials, the Red Sox organization, and college and university representatives have got to work together and get this situation under control before another person loses their life in Boston after a big game.

Today’s Boston Globe:

Menino said he may invoke a state law, never before used in Boston, allowing him to ban the sale or distribution of alcohol "in cases of riot or great public excitement." Menino also said that he will ask bar and restaurant operators today to ban live television coverage during games, because it incites fans.

Attributing the mayhem to "thugs," Menino said he also has urged area college and university officials to immediately expel any students identified as taking part in street disturbances.

"Since people won't act responsibly, I, as mayor, will take it into my own hands," he said of measures planned for series games. "The kids out there, they're adults. . . . They have a responsibility to make sure this goes off well."

To wake up one morning and have the front-page of the newspaper be of the Red Sox players celebrating their A.L. Championship and then the next day have the front-page be of a bleeding Red Sox fan dying on the sidewalk outside Fenway Park is an unacceptable turn of events. This cannot happen again.

HERE'S JOHNNY!

RED SOX WIN AL PENNANT!

CURT'S RED SOCK

TV Emits Distress Signal, Triggers Search

EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) - TV hardly gets much better than this.

An Oregon man discovered earlier this month that his year-old Toshiba Corp. flat-screen TV was emitting an international distress signal picked up by a satellite, leading a search and rescue operation to his apartment in Corvallis, Oregon, 70 miles south of Portland.

The signal from Chris van Rossmann's TV was routed by satellite to the Air Force Rescue Center at Langley Air Base in Virginia.

On Oct. 2, the 20 year-old college student was visited at his apartment in the small university town by a contingent of local police, civil air patrol and search and rescue personnel.

"They'd never seen signal come that strong from a home appliance," said van Rossmann. "They were quite surprised. I think we all were."

Authorities had expected to find a boat or small plane with a malfunctioning transponder, the usual culprit in such incidents, emitting the 121.5 MHz frequency of the distress signal used internationally.

Van Rossmann said he was told to keep his TV off to avoid paying a $10,000 fine for "willingly broadcasting a false distress signal."

Toshiba contacted Rossmann and offered to provide him with a replacement set for free, he said.

What can I say about the Red Sox that hasn't been said already?

19-8. They even gave us a glimmer of hope in this game before the bottom fell out.

This series was over before it began.

Sometimes I just don't understand what is going on inside Boston manager Terry Francona's head.

No major league baseball team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series, and 20 of the 25 that lost the first three games went down in four straight.

Every person I run into today wants to talk about the Red Sox.

It gets more painful every time I think about it.

I need a shot of Marcaine in my skull.

Red Sox sweep the Angels!



David Ortiz's 10th-inning, first-pitch, two-out, two-run, walkoff homer sends the Sox to the ALCS.

Go Red Sox! Whammo! Ahh! My skull is fractured!

The Red Sox have a chance to sweep the Anaheim Angels in game 3 of the ALDS this afternoon, and the city of Boston is ready to crack some heads when/if it happens.

I guess the Boston Police have to do something with all that high-tech riot gear they never got to use during the DNC back in July. This makes me think of that line from the movie Spies Like Us: "A weapon unused is a useless weapon".

Every news story in the local media about today’s game ends with some sort of warning like "The Red Sox can close out this series with a win today at Fenway Park. And if you are a Northeastern University student, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino advises that you stay locked in your dorm room because the cops are going to be pummeling you punks on sight after the game."

According to the Boston Globe, "Boston police plan to staff a multiagency command center, use remote cameras to monitor streets near Fenway Park, and enforce a zero tolerance policy for public drinking and rowdy behavior." i.e., Crack Skulls.

I think Northeastern gets a disproportionate percentage of the blame, I’m not so sure that every over-zealous sports fan in this city is a student at Northeastern. I think I read somewhere there are about 50 colleges and universities in and around the Boston area. NU students get most of the bad press about post-win celebratory riots due to the fact that some kid was hit by a car and killed near their campus after the Patriots Super Bowl XXXIII victory last February. Excited fans also flipped cars and set numerous fires in that same vicinity during that little party. OK, maybe they deserve some bad press.

Other schools in the area are doing their part to keep the rioting to a minimum. Boston University officials said that they will offer alternatives to students, "encouraging them to watch the game on campus, where refreshments, hot dogs and apple pies, will be served". Good luck with that.

My job is totally getting in the way of my blogging. That sucks.