Red Sox / Blue Jays - Game 13

Patriots Day at Fenway. Four of the most beautiful words in the English language.

Yesterday was a great day to be at the park.

Our seats were up along the first base side about 30 rows back. This meant that we were in shadow all day and that where we were sitting was about 25 degrees cooler than the field. I should have brought a jacket.

The seats were about the same as the ones Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones sat in for Field of Dreams. I kept glancing out to the scoreboard hoping to catch something about Moonlight Graham.

There are some things you get from being at the park that you just don't get from watching on TV. For example:

- when they drop down that giant American flag - they had about 30-40 Air Force personnel at the base of the Green Monster to properly roll up and fold the flag after the anthem is played. I had never thought about how they fold the flag back up but after seeing it in person - I was impressed with the care the owners show for all the little details.

- there are only Coke bottles on one set of light stands. I thought the Coke bottles were on both light stands in left field but I was wrong. Were they on both last year?

- Fenway is one of the few places where the crowd still does "the wave". I know this bothers some purists but to me its great. It is only because the crowd is so involved and aware of what is going that the wave is possible. No crowd is more aware of what is going on than the crowd at Fenway.

- this brings me to the booing of umpires who don't give Sox pitchers the close calls on strikes. The fan reaction HAS TO be a factor on umpire calls. A true home field advantage. The fans also force the umpires to be more consistent because the fans have a great memory. If he gives the opposing team the call on a pitch - he better be prepared to give the same location call to the Sox pitcher or face a ton of boos.

Maybe the funniest thing that happened yesterday was something that Baseball Tonight tried to touch on last night.

In the fourth - the sun got in Manny's eyes on two plays. He was given an error for one but the second was later judged to be a hit. A third ball was hit to Manny that he caught for the second out. When Manny made this catch he was given a huge ovation by the crowd. The ovation was universal throughout the park and it was good natured. Manny responded good naturedly because he knows the crowd loves him.

Last night on Baseball Tonight John Kruk spoke about the incident and how he was at first upset at Manny's reaction to the crowd but then called a pitcher on the Sox to see if the pitchers were bothered by the way Manny acts in the field. Of course the pitcher Kruk reached out to was David Wells who is an expert on Manny because he has started three games for the Sox [sarcasm off].

Remember when Mariano Rivera smiled and waved his cap to the crowd after getting a big ovation at the Fenway opener? I don't recall anyone saying "that's just Mariano being Mariano". Yesterday I also don't recall anyone asking the Blue Jay pitchers how they felt about Frank Catalanotto's miscue in left (exact same situation as Manny but different set of rules on reporting I guess).

John Kruk is a buffoon who really doesn't bring anything to the table. Dennis Eckersley and Gary DiSarcina on NESN are so much better at analysis than Kruk who increasingly only serves as the butt end of slob jokes.

Manny had two home runs and five RBI's. That would have been a career day for Kruk but just another day at the office for Manny.

OK enough about Manny and about what a fool John Kruk is. Let's turn our gaze to the other story of the day - Curt Schilling.

Schilling struck out the side in the first and five of the first six outs came via the strikeout. I admit that after the second I started thinking about 20 strikeouts and was bemoaning the fact that I wasn't keeping score. I was also wondering about Curt's pitch count because it was over 50 after 2 innings. Schilling ended up going 5 innings, giving up 3 earned runs, striking out 10 while throwing 118 pitches.

Two quick things about Schilling. TV does not do justice to how slowly he walks off the mound at the end of an inning. Curt definitely has some Fred G Sanford going there. Secondly, I'm pretty sure Schilling hit Shea Hillenbrand on purpose. Was there some history between those two? Did Schilling hitting Shea cause Dave Bush to hit Bill Mueller?

Anyway - great day! Lots of fun and a Red Sox 12-7 victory.

13 down - 149 to go.