through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered . . .

Yesterday I watched the Red Sox-Yankees game with my grandmother. I haven't seriously watched baseball in a long time - my attention span finally gave out, plus I probably burned myself out on it a little. I was reading some of my old entries last night, some of them are pretty intense. While baseball had my attention, it had ALL my attention, and some of the teams I followed (of COURSE I followed more than one at a time, see above in re: attention span) were absolutely insane and exhausting. I'm not sure how I didn't lose my damn mind. Actually, I think I did a few times.

But anyway, I still get game score alerts for my teams, and since my grandmother has become an ardent Red Sox fan in the last couple of years, watching a game with her is a lot of fun. Except I still don't pay much attention overall, and you know what? Baseball may still be kind of static in my head, but it's moved on.

A lot of guys are in the wrong damn uniforms these days. The Yankees need to stop signing/trading for players I still love, what the hell. Curtis Granderson got a homerun yesterday and I couldn't decide whether to cheer or swear. And I see you in those pinstripes, Lance Berkman, don't you think for a second that you can hide.

But anyway. Seeing some familiar faces got me all nostalgic, and I ended up spending entirely too much time reading a slew of entries from some certain old RP journals. (Hey, americanleaguer, did we ever talk about this in any depth? It seems like we should have, but I can't remember!) So out of curiosity, I Googled Bondo.

And I . . . I really picked the right day to do that.

When potential free agent Jeremy Bonderman was asked if he feels he'll be back, he replied "honestly, probably not."

Brandon Inge hopes Jeremy Bonderman won't call it a career. (I see Inge is still the go-to guy for a few quotes. Heh.)

This is probably old news to everyone else, but I am WTFing. Jeremy Bonderman, if you end up in pinstripes, I am going to be so mad at you.

A Tigers/Yankees observation:

We are in the eleventh at quarter past three in a game that STARTED at eleven.

Fuck the HECK, you guys?!

Edit: CARLOS GUILLEN WITH THE WALKOFF HOMERUN.

That was totally worth being so tired I could puke. I love you Carlos.

FOX may suck ass when it comes to everything baseball broadcast, but I have to say I enjoyed this past half-inning's installation of the A-Rod is a Douche Show. Because, A-Rod is a douche.

FOX or not, though, I love having baseball on my TV. MLBTV is really handy, but the blackout restrictions make it really hard to keep up with the Red Sox as well as I can keep up with the Tigers, Astros, Yankees (in theory, anyway), or even the A's. I live right smack in Red Sox Nation territory and I know more about what the Tigers have been doing lately. Sheesh. I miss having cable during the baseball season.

But! Speaking of the Red Sox Nation, check out this baby name popularity tracker. Go through the 2004 team roster and plug in some of their names. A lot of them have a nice little spike or a bump at around 2005. It doesn't really work for the names that are popular anyway, like David or Jason, but names like Bronson and Pedro have a noticeable spike at around the time that Red Sox fans would be giving birth after the World Series. Red Sox fans are crazy people.

And while we're on the topic, does anyone have any idea why the name Huston would have been popular from about 1900 to 1920ish? Was there a famous politician or writer or someone by that name in that time? Because it comes almost out of nowhere to spike for about twenty years, and then drops off the charts never to be seen again. At least not until A's fangirls start giving birth.

Ooh, now my TV has Astros on it. This was supposed to be a short post, so I'm gonna go watch them now. Go Astros!

Rain, rain, go away, because not only did you deprive me of the opportunity to boo Farnsworth last night, you are also killing my chances of seeing a Sea Dogs game this week. You suck.

On the plus side, though, since I've spent the last two nights in a bar to catch these games, the rainout meant that the bartender was able to put the Tigers game on a big huge flat screen TV for me. So I drank Sam Adams and watched giant Tigers. It was pretty awesome, especially the part where we completed our second sweep in a row and are half a game behind the White Sox for first place in the division. And really, it might only be May third, but being that close to first or actually in it is never, ever not awesome. The Tigers are exciting me to death this season, and I freely admit that I've been following them more closely than the Red Sox or the Astros - a perennially sucky team having its first winning April in a decade and its best April record since 1984, when they won the World Series, is quite the attention grabber. Our pitching has been madness and we can't seem to stop hitting homers (Jim Leyland would like to see the Tigers win a few without any homers, and while I have to say I agree, since we're not going to be hitting them all season, I also say why mess with a good thing while you've got it? I ain't complainin'!). And may I add that the three game sweep of the Twinkies featured a run total of 33-1?

The Red Sox were first place in my brain the other night, though, in that first game against the Yankees. (Nice segue, eh? Worthy of Tom Caron, that was.) I will say up front that I expected the Yankees to take both games, since they'd been winning and the Red Sox had been playing like shit, but I forgot two things and did not foresee two others.

* I forgot that the Red Sox are historically "meh" on the road. What do we, end up with a .500 road record if we're lucky? We do the bulk of our winning at Fenway.

* I forgot that the Yankees have no pitching. None. Seriously. They have, like, Mariano Rivera and one of Randy Johnson's knees. I didn't forget this exactly - I have happily used it once or twice to taunt a Yankee fan whose major argument was, "The Red Sox are bums!"; really, it was a waste of good logic - but I did forget that just because their offense can carry them past it sometimes, they still have no pitching, and they were coming up against our offense, and we eat bad pitching for breakfast. I do not especially fear the Yankees this year; they are in an even worse situation pitching-wise than they were last year.

* I did not foresee Doug Mirabelli. Having him come back must have provided a lovely boost in morale, as well as a sense of security - who else in the MLB do we want catching Wake? I know I felt more confident as soon as I learned that we weren't going to have to watch Josh Bard pass a scrillion more balls. That said, however, I have nothing against Bard and I hope he follows in Bronson and Rents's footsteps and plays a million times better than he did with us. Here's to batting .400 and getting a perfect handle on every pitch! *raises coffee mug*

* I did not foresee rain. Can't lose a game you don't play.

I would, by the way, highly recommend the experience of watching a Red Sox/Yankees game in a bar (in Red Sox Nation territory, anyway). When the Sox play any other team, it's a fairly calm atmosphere unless the game gets tense, but when they play the Yankees? It's like we're all in Fenway, charged with energy, cheering every Yankee K and Red Sox hit, booing every piece of defense from the Yankees and stupid call from an ump. Plus, for that particular game, we all got to boo Damon and cheer for Belli. Man, that was fun.

As for the Astros - I understand they've been doing a hell of a lot better than this time last year? Plus, the moratorium on negotiating with Clemens has expired, so hopefully we'll re-sign him soon and I can stop listening to every Boston fan and his mom act like he's coming back here. Sorry, guys, not happening. Clemens has a sweet, sweet deal going in Houston and we'd have to offer him half the Nation and Theo's theoretical daughter's hand in marriage to get him to even consider us seriously for thirty seconds. (I would like to add the caveat that I am always, always wrong when I make a firm baseball prediction, so we can expect the announcement that he's signed with Boston any second now.)

Baseball scorecard thus far: Red Sox beat the Rangers, 6-5. Should have been 6-3, but Foulke isn't quite back to normal yet. Astros got a substantial win over the Cubs 3-9, so you all are spared the complaints about one-run losses, at least for today. And the Yankees lose to the Blue Jays, 8-6.

The Tigers have not, technically, lost yet, but at 8-0 in the ninth with two outs, I'm not holding my breath. Stupid White Sox. Oh, wait, now they've lost. Sigh.

Oh, well. Three out of four is a distinct majority. Also, the Yankees have a 10-15 record. Just saying.

Dear Douglas Adams,

I hope all that spinning in your grave isn't doing to much damage to what's left of you.

Disappointed,
Cathryn



Dear Yankees,

It was very sweet of you to try and make me feel better by getting shut out, but no dice. Well. Maybe one die. Heh.

Still disappointed,
Cathryn



( No, of course it wasn't all bad, or even mostly bad, and there was plenty of good and some amazing too, but the bad? YEESH. Oh yeah, spoilers. )



Man, and it doesn't look like the Sox are gonna pull it out tonight, either. And the Astros are currently doing their best to lose by one run. I should get someone to give me ten bucks every time that happens. I'd never be broke again.

But at least the Tigers are ahead so far. *knocks on wood*

What is with the Tigers relief giving up runs the SECOND they get the ball? I mean, in this case the score is now at 10-3 Tigers in the eighth, so I'm not too worried, but WTF?

Yankees currently behind the Angels 5-1, also in the eighth. Funny how they suck when the Princess only gets the one homer.

I feel much better now. =D

Interesting discussion on Schill's ankle going on at redsox. Heaven knows you want to take anything you read at that community with a grain of salt, but the OP here seems to know what she's talking about, and she's talking possible stress fracture. Which comes with a possible eight weeks out. LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU AND I'M NOT THINKING ABOUT IT.

But I still feel better. It's hard to lift out of a funk at work, and much easier to shake it at home when I'm free to do what I need to do to distract myself and break the circles my mind is going in. I'm not any happier about our pitching situation, but I'm not ready to have a fit either.

Edit: Final Tigers score 10-3. <3 I think I'll go to bed now and trust the Angels to finish things up.

Edit again: Okay, I lie. I futzed around and killed time getting ready for bed until that game was over. Final score: 5-1, Angels. What a difference twenty-four hours makes.

Well, shit, Boomer. I'm gonna miss him. How long before a month to six weeks is over?

Also, the Astros game tonight has been postponed. Except that it's rain instead of snow. But on the other hand, the Tigers game is merely delayed with no further explanation on the scoreboard. Oh, no, wait, it's rain. Well . . . at least it's not snow?

Ha, at least the Yankees aren't being precipitated on. They're playing the Angels. Which means *snf* Orlando Cabrera. Man, just the thought of seeing his little picture on GameCast for another team makes me sad.

Edit: And A-Rod got a three-run homer. MOTHERFUCKER. Does this mean I can't make fun of him for being useless anymore? (No.)

Edit again: And then A-Rod got a two-run homer. I don't care, I don't care, I'll still make fun of him . . . *foams at mouth*

On the plus side, the Sox are currently ahead 5-2. Very productive second inning. <3

Edit s'more: And he got a GRAND SLAM. Now GameCast is just making this up to TORMENT ME. The Angels need to remember never to let Bartolo Colon pitch to A-Rod again, because he CAN'T and he SUCKS. This is RIDICULOUS. Someone will please have to let me know how the Red Sox game turns out, because I will be busy KILLING MYSELF.

WOOOOO Manny just got a three-run homer! 8-3! Never mind, I guess I choose life after all. <3 <3 <3

And the Sox tied it up. And then the freaking Devil Rays won with a freaking homer. Bleargh. Oh, and Embree gave up the homer. WHAT A FREAKING SURPRISE. Man, I can't even be bothered to swear properly.

Those two runs in the ninth were pretty cool, though, and involved my boy Bellhorn. And Vasquez laid down a sacrifice bunt for the second time in the game, which was a) cool and b) new, because I think the Sox bunted like twice last year. Not so much for bunting, this team.

Ugh, the Yankees just got two runs in the bottom of the ninth, now 5-3. Just you freaking watch. *seethe*

Okay. Deep breath. Happy thoughts. Tigers. Pudge. Homer. And holy shit, the Astros have brought it up to 6-8. Five runs in the sixth inning. Too bad I want to get some sleep. I'll have to wait till tomorrow for the final score. Oh, and Bernie Williams just flied out to end the game, so the Yankees lose after all.

And . . . wait, if the D-Rays won . . . I'll have to check the standings, but I think this makes them tied for last place again.

Yes. Yes, the Yankees and Devil Rays are tied for last place at seven wins and ten losses each.

The Tigers win, the Astros have apparently decided not to suck after all, and the Yankees are in the basement once more. The good definitely outweighs the bad here. I'm so glad I randomly picked up other teams to root for (and against). And I love the Tigers. And I also love the Red Sox. And I love my silly Astros, too.

And the Yankees suck. =D

So. Up against the Orioles tonight. I won't lie, this makes me nervous. The O's owned us last year. And they're currently at top of the division standings, with nine wins and five losses, with the Blue Jays right nearby at nine wins and six losses. Boston is just behind with eight wins and six losses. It would be nice if we could change that whole ownership thing tonight.

Plus, Wells is pitching tonight, which adds to the nerves a bit. 'Cos I don't know if you guys knew this, but I kind of love him and am pulling for him so hard to even his season record out to two-two.

Meanwhile, the Yankees happen to be tied with Tampa Bay for LAST at five-nine. I want the Yankees to lose so badly I can taste it, and I want the Devil Rays to win tonight, just so the Yanks can spend a little time in last place.

However. The Yankees are playing the Blue Jays tonight. And I'm kind of not so keen on the Jays hitting top of the division with ten wins. And the Devil Rays are playing the Texas Rangers, who are just behind us with seven wins, so they could potentially pull even.

So do I really hate the Yankees enough to briefly mess with the Red Sox's place in the standings? Well - yes. Yes, I really do. So I'm not really sure what my point was.

Baseball was a lot simpler when I didn't follow the standings so much. Or, you know, at all. But I'm sure it'll get easier when more games have been played and the gaps have widened a bit.

In other news, the Tigers are playing the Chicago White Sox. I am new to the Tigers love, but I am given to understand that we hate the White Sox lots. So: GRR! Go Tigers!

And the Astros are playing the Milwaukee Brewers. I would like to advance a possible new superstition: Last night, when I was IMing with hoedogg, I said, "I predict the Astros will lose by one run." And amazingly, they did not. They even won.

So:

I predict that the Astros will lose by one run.

There, I think I'm done. And the White Sox have already gotten three runs. Sigh.

Oh wait: Go Boomer!

Edit: Uh. If you can spot the glaring error in my logic, you get a cookie. And not the sympathy kind, but the good kind.