Sorry For The Delay

Let me begin this blog by apologizing for the delay. From June 23rd to this past Monday, I had been house sitting for my boss. It was an amazing time and I'd do anything to do it again, although it would be nice to at least have internet and a suite of ESPN channels. Sans those requests, it was still great. Andrew, on the other hand, has absolutely no excuse for not posting anything. Shame on you, Andrew! Shame!

Speaking of Andrew, I can't make fun of the guy too much because he did take me to the Phillies game last night. We had awesome seats. The guy walked us to them and wiped them down. Apparently you're supposed to tip him a dollar for doing so, but I wasn't familiar with this "rich seat" tradition so to him I owe an apology as well. Ironically enough, Tarc was at the game too and offered to take me along, but I had already been asked by Andrew. His seats were just two sections over so all I missed was a long car ride without a radio.

I wanted to see at least one of two things going into this game. The first was that I wanted to see Albert Pujols hit a home run. It's not often that a Heclanian gets the chance to see one of the premier players in baseball up close, so I definitely wanted to see him jack one. The second thing I wouldn't mind seeing, although I don't think many in the stadium would agree with me, is the inevitable 10,000th loss of the Phillies. I would consider myself lucky to be in attendance the night the franchise finally reaches this mark. I mean, who doesn't want to see an already depressed fan base celebrate the one thing their city's sports teams truly excel at: losses. Bars beware: you're taps will be flowing full bore whenever this mark is reached.

I only got to see one of those things, and I guess it's the better of the two. Pujols really did whack the ball far. It was estimated at 470 feet, and he hit it off none other than J.C. Romero. I didn't realize who had come into the game until Andrew started getting all excited. J.C. was doing his finest impression of himself, by walking a batter and then giving up the Pujols bomb. This signaled our time to depart, since even the Phillies bullpen couldn't give up the lead the team had at this point. Perhaps the happiest people in the stadium to see us leave were the two older women sitting in front of us. Andrew and I are what you could call bleacher-seat fans. We like to yell and cheer on our team, boo the opponents (and Pat Burrell), and make sure the umps understand that they are completely and totally incapable of doing their jobs. The ladies in front of us did not appreciate the experience of sitting in front of true baseball fans. Thankfully, some of those around us understood who and what we were: true fans of America's past time. My favorite thing to do all night was wait for the older lady to take her fingers our of her ears (because she put them in when the PA announcer said each players name, which was consistently followed by Andrew and I giving them an appropriate welcome) to start cheering again. This is the only bad thing about sitting in the good seats: the people there just don't know how to be fans. Maybe it's better in Fenway. If I ever find a couple thousand bucks in the street, I'll buy myself some good tickets at the Fens and see if the same stuck up, snotty rich folk migrate there as well.

With all this talk of migrating stuck up, snotty rich folk, I can't help but think of A-Rod. The most recent updates of Truth and Rumors have him coming to the Sox. (PREDICTION: If A-Rod is not playing for the Yankees next year, he will be in Boston or San Francisco. You read it here first, folks.) My dad and I just had this conversation about A-Rod.

Dad: Would I root for A-Rod if he played shortstop for the Red Sox? You bet!
Me: So would you move Lugo to third, then?
Dad: We can move him to Tampa Bay.

That doesn't sound like such a bad idea, Dad. And actually, the more I think about it, it does make some sense. Let me put aside how much I hate A-Rod (even though I root for him in the deep dark recesses of my mind, because I know he has to catch Bonds and eclipse whatever home run mark he reaches) and consider this move. Add to it the resigning of Mike Lowell, and this could work out very well. Drew will continue to leadoff, which he's done very well lately at a clip of .346 in his last 52 AB's. Pedroia hits second, followed by A-Rod in the three-hole. This pushes Papi down to fourth, and Manny at fifth, since the guy we hired to bat fifth has now (in a move straight out of the twilight zone) become our leadoff man, that is, when he decides he's healthy enough to play. We can follow this with Youkilis, Lowell, and Varitek in really any order and Crisp batting ninth or leadoff, depending on whichever gods control the health of J.D. Drew.

But thinking about A-Rod in a Sox uniform is even more painful than watching Drew leadoff, so we'll just end this speculation here. You are, however, allowed to dream of Julio Lugo playing in some city far away from Boston.