Celebrity Sightings

Mike and Tom

Seemingly everywhere lately, the  ubiquitous Tom, was sighted at Fenway Park the other night. He an his friend Mike were smiling on the way home from the Park as the Red Sox won

Saturday

It's Saturday and the all predictions for a beautiful weekend have come true. It's close to 80 degrees (F) outside and I think I'll be sparking up the Barbie today...

The color for today is RED for the Red Sox who are headed toward their 2nd game against the Crappy New York Yankees

The Red Sox won last night with a walk off home run by Kevin Youkilis.

Today is the NFL Draft and so I'll be checking to see how the New England Patriots do. We have been pretty lucky over the past few years getting high quality picks, but one never knows if what you get in the 1st round will out perform someone you get in the 6th round...

Example, Tom Brady was a 6th round pick, the 199th pick overall, by the Patriots and he's won 3 Super Bowl rings as starting quarterback on the other hand #1 Pick in the 2001 Draft was Michael Vick who was this time last year, playing football for Leavenworth Penitentiary while serving his time behind bars for sponsoring an illegal dog fighting ring.

So NFL Draft, Red Sox Yankee's, Warm breezy day, BBQ, cold beer and then tomorrow...well let's just enjoy today

CARPE DIEM

NICE JOB Everyone

The Celts stomped all over the Bull last night, I am not sure if I can carry over the good luck spell that Dawtch was so nice to bestow on the Celtics last night, but if you compare last night's game to the previous 2 very close games, it's obvious the spell and all the green MOJO worked !!

Sunday, 1pm... get your green ready let's stomp the Bulls AGAIN !!

It seemed everyone I saw yesterday had green on and I guess it just shows you how much everyone is reading my blog...Thanks everyone

PS : Color for today is RED, The Yankees will then have no choice but to lose to the RED SOX

GO SOX!!!

Finally, if you can take the time to comment, let's wish Joe, one of Team Hideaway's many photo contributors,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!

Red Sox 04/09/09

April 9, 2009 Dice K took the mound at Fenway Park yesterday for the first day game of the season.



But no matter what he said to the ball,



No matter how much effort he put in his pitch,


Nothing worked, the Red Sox lost.


It was still a beautiful day at the park !!

Red Sox vs Devil Rays.........continued GAME 7 !!

RED SOX WON!!

RED SOX WON!!

Hopefully TBS will have the complete broadcast as we had to listen to the first inning and a half due to technical difficulties.

Also I was worried when the announcers again started to concede the win to the SOX before the game was even over as they did during Game 5 at Fenway where the SOX made their historic come back ... I thought OH NO !! Now they are jinxing the SOX !!

But NO, we had theRed Sox MOJO all over the family room, old tickets, Red Sox Hats, Team Photos....Clearly the MOJO Magic is with the SOX

John Lester will pitch for the Red Sox in front of all the Tampa Bay Devil Ray fans that are now looking just a little sad and very worried.

GO SOX !!!

T.B.S. stands for Total Boston Success

7:30 Red Sox vs Rays

Steve is watching the game
He can't close his eyes!!

After an unbelievable comeback in the American League Championship Series, the Boston Red Sox are in St Petersburg to play the young Tampa Bay Devil Ray team with a chance to tie the 7 game series 3-3.

The Red Sox were all done, at least I thought so, as did many others that I spoke with, watching the game Thursday night in Fenway , the Red Sox down by 7 runs in the 7th inning, TBS running the credits , the announcers wondering how the Devil Rays will do against the Phillies , people filing out of Fenway.......

I went to bed !!

When I woke up the miracle had happened. The Red Sox pulled of the biggest comeback in ALCS history since 1929 !!

It's game time tonight at 7:30, I want to watch but being superstitious and all I am wondering if I should just go to bed early, for luck !!

GO SOX

Baseball, The HBO Series ROME, and Look Alikes

The Red Sox and The Devil Rays are set to start the American League Championship Series on Friday in Tampa Bay...

Speaking of Bays, I have a picture of him still in his Pirates Uniform before being traded to the Red Sox and he really

looks a lot like the actor who plays in the HBO Series Rome:



Kevin McKidd: He plays the part of Lucious Vorenus, in the show but it sure looks like he could easily sub for Jason Bay in left field for the Red Sox ....

I'm picking the the Red Sox and the Dodger's as the teams that will make it to the World Series and the only thing I won't like about it is that we fans will have to endure Tim McCarver as the Color Guy in the Telecast Booth. The fact that FOX Sports insists on McCarver and his sidekick Joe Buck as the announcers for the World series is truly DESPICABLE !!

Here are some of Tim's insights to the Game,

1. Tim: "Something to keep in mind -- it's raining lightly. The infield could be very wet on ground balls.".... errr, you think so Tim???

2. Tim: "Pitching is such a vital part of the game, as far as winning is concerned" ....Oh, and I bet you expect us to believe batting is important too!!

3. 2004 ALCS, Game 5? Red Sox vs. Yankees . David Ortiz hit a home run into right field. Tim: "Mt. Everest erupts again!".....too bad Mt. Everest isn't a volcano!

4. McCarver busted out this bit of brilliance during the Red Sox/Orioles game one Saturday: "The reason we call that pitch up and in is because the arms are attached to the shoulder."..... Ummm what?

Tim has no place in a Television Booth where he can spout is inane, nonsensical "insights" to the millions of viewers who watch the game.

I found these comments and more at Tim McCarver Please Shut Up!!

If you have a minute, Contact Fox Sports with a note and ask them to replace Tim McCarver as the Voice of the World Series before it's too late....

A Birthday and Some other Odds & Ends

A Big Birthday Wish goes out to one of our many Trivia Players...

HAPPY Birthday BUNNY !!

I didn't buy you anything bunny but that's just because I don't want to spoil you.

I mean..YOU are Perfect Already !!

YOU KNOW IT !!

In other news we received a Scenic Picture from another one of our Trivia Player's

JLO went to visit one of the many Natural wonders in Scenic State of New Hampshire over the summer...

The Flume Gorge in Franconia State Park

In Sporting News:

The IQ attended last nights baseball game in San Diego where he was able to see Manny Ramirez hit 2 Home Runs and knock in 4 RBI's to POWER the LA Dodgers over the San Diego Padres to extend there lead to 3 1/2 games and remain in 1st place in their division

Too bad the Sox didn't have any power last night as they lost their game in 14 innings, The heart of the order, Youkilis, Ortiz and the affable Jason Bay combined for an anemic 0 for 14 against the 1st place Tampa Bay Devil Rays !!

And I stayed up to watch!!

Can't Wait For Sunday's Patriots Game

Headlines

Here are some of the Headlines and Stories regarding the Remarkable come from behind victory for the Boston Celtics last night against the Lakers...

Someone give the Lakers a Heimlich ... They are CHOKING!!

BOSTON 97, LAKERS 91

Lakers have a collapse for the ages

By Mike Bresnahan L.A. Times

From exasperation to exclamation in 170 minutes

Bill Simmons, Page 2. ESPN


And below..Even Boston Sports tops the storied New York Times:

Celtics’ Rally Puts Title Within Reach

By HOWARD BECK 2:37 AM ET

or next, From Boston.Com:

Celtics roar back to beat LA

And Finally:

Gotta ‘C’ it to believe it

By Mark Murphy, Boston Herald


Oh and lets not forget....

The Red Sox won another over Baltimore last night and they start an Inter-League Series against the Cincinnati Red today...

I think the last time the Red Sox played the Reds was 1975 World Series....that was a heartbreaker!

Weekly Trivia Winners and Pictures from Fenway

This is the Weekly breakdown for the top 5 Weekly Point getters for Tom's Trivia Challenge for the week ending Saturday 4/19/08.

Weekly Rank	Player	Total Points for week	Overall Rank
1	Operator9	79	1
2	Sally	75	4
3	Fatback	69	5
4	Tom	68	3
5	bunny	65	7

Operator 9 has for the 2nd consecutive week been the Weekly Point Getter and as I predicted last week has climbed to the top spot in overall scoring...Operator 9 is Number 1. I hope Operator 9's Favorite Red Sox player, Jason Varitek, starts hitting!!

SALLY, from Yeah What Of It!? finished 2nd in points for the week and moved from 8th overall to 4th overall ...Way to go Sally...Did you see Manny last night??

3rd in points for the week was FATBACK, Alarmingly she has dropped from 4th to 5th overall and needs to step up on her game this week!!

Tom, yes, TOM.....the man, the myth , the legend...At least that's what it says on his coffee cup, was 4th in points for the week but has moved into 3rd overall...AND he got to go to the Red Sox game last night..Well Done Tom if I don't say so myself, hmmm, I have been known to talk to myself but now I am typing to myself...crazy, Yes!

The No. 5 point getter from the week is BUNNY, it is her first time in the top 5 and she hopped all the way up from 12th overall last week to 7th this week. If she eats more carrots and plays more consistently we may see Bunny in the top 5 before the end of the mont. Nice going Bunny

Thanks to everyone...All 30 of you for playing the past week and remember you don't have to win every day to make it into the Top 5 Weekly Point Getters..Just play, be accurate and as fast as you can and you can make it up there with the other winners!! Also if you have a blog I'll link you up when you make the Weekly Top 5!!

Join the Challenge

If at all possible I'd love to have a baby picture of our contetestents that they would not mind me posting, PixiePants was nice enough to provide me one for the last post and of course I will do anything I can to provide anonymity if that's what you want..Everyone knows what Tom looks like anyway.. Handsome of course!!

Pictures of my Fenway Park Excursion last night..



Parked "FREE" by the tracks on Beacon Street and walked to the park



Grabbed a Hot Dog outside beneath the Green Monster before going inside



Lance Armstrong threw the first pitch.



Manny won the game, did I say 2008 MVP, with a 2 run blast in the bottom of the 8th...He powered the ball out of the park!!

More pics later this week!!

I'm better off than the Cougar

Yesterday it looked like the entire Chicago Police department surrounded a cougar on the North Side of the city and shot it to death....There had been reports of "Cougar Sightings" around the city but I guess no=one thought about coming up with a plan with regard to capturing the animal, maybe using a tranquilizer or involving any experts from a local zoo or anything.

Find it, Kill it seemed to be the action plan of the day, to bad for the cougar he didn't bring his Uzi with him.

Personally I feel bad for the animal.

Moving on...I am watching the Red Sox vs Yankees right now and it's ugly 11-9 Yankees in the 6th Inning.

I listed my blog on the Million Blog List on the 15th and at the time I was at the bottom of the list at #202...Just 24 hours later there are already up to 456 blog listings... If you haven't listed you blog visit the site and do it...I'll be updating the count with my post but things seem to be moving fairly fast there..

Tom's Trivia Challenge is still open for new players, so if you actually think you can match wits with some of the players we have there now...Bring Your Best Game.

The weather here in Sunny Massachusetts is turning spring like...I'm feeling the urge for BBQ and Cold Beer more than usual.

GO SOX

The Million Blog List and other news

In an experiment to see how long it will take to get 1 Million blogs listed in a single place, The Million List has been created..

I'm # 202

If you would like to be part of this experiment, just click on the logo above and join in!!

OTHER NEWS !!!

Manny Ramirez hit a 2 run homer in the 9th inning to power the Red Sox over the Cleveland Indians last night at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio.

I want to be on record in April of 2008 saying Manny Ramirez will be the leagues Most Valuable Player in baseball this year!!

It's Tax Day here in the USA so if you haven't already, file your taxes!

By paying your taxes you help the United States

Wage War
Build Bombs
Provide Full Medical Coverage For all your Senators and Congressmen !!

What are you waiting for???

New Weekly Ranks / New Blogroll Widget

Hello , fellow trivia players and also a big wave to those who haven't joined yet but should. Aren't you tired of people telling you that your stupid??..Join in on Tom's Trivia Challenge and show off that brain of yours!!

Every Sunday I take a look at the Standings on the Trivia Page and pull out the Top 5 Weekly point getters. Also we had 7 new players that tried their luck in the past week. The important thing for everyone to remember is that if you play 5 - 7 times a week you too could be a weekly winner, at least in the top 5...and then you will be Immortalized in my Sunday Post. If you have a blog it will be linked to the Sunday Post as well.

Here is my breakdown for the Top 5 Point getters over the last 7 days:

Weekly Rank	Player	Total Points for week	Overall Rank
1	Operator9	79	2
2	PG	75	1
3	Tom	69	4
4	Kathlock	68	3
5	The Jackster	65	5

Operator 9 was the #1 point getter for the week and #2 overall for the month of April 2008!! A real smooth operator and certainly right on the heels of our current leader and number 2 point getter for the past week, PG from Annoyingly Boring , watch out Pat looks like you got Operator 9 on your heels. Somehow TOM has been able to hang in, earning 69 points over the week, and placing 3rd for the week 4th overall. Kathlock, our Aussie Genius and author of the Blog Blurb From the Burbs has 4th for the week and remains 3rd overall in the standings and the biggest splash in the TOP 5 rankings was The Jackster who last week place 13th out of a field of 21 players and is now both the # 5 point getter for the week and is also ranked 5th overall in a field of 28 players!! Nice Job Jackster!!

BLOG NEWS:

I have installed a new widget for my Blogroll and those on it will notice that along with their blogs is the time and title of their last update. It's a new tool from Blogger that is pretty cool. So those on my list or those who make it there in the future..The more recent your post the higher you are on the list..

If you have Blogger you can check out there latest gadgets at Blogger In Draft

OTHER NEWS:

The Red Sox beat the Yankees yesterday at Fenway Park...Manny Ramirez, my pick for 2008 MVP, was "The Man" with 3 RBI's a 2 run Double and a Monster Home Run. He also scored another run from 2nd base. That Manny he's running hard this year!! Did I mention a great catch taking a hit away from Johnny Damon...Oh Yeah..

Sox and Yankees match up tonight at 8PM... Go SOX!!

Baseball in Tokyo !

This morning I watched the Boston Red Sox open their 2008 season against the Oakland A's in Tokyo, Japan of all places. The Red Sox won in 10 innings and Manny was Manny hitting in 4 runs with 2 doubles. My sister called me after Manny's second double and was lamenting the fact that Manny didn't run...Sis, even IF he had run with the hit, Manny would never make it to third safe!! Look at how happy he is playing the game and how well he's received by his teammates, Manny being Manny is what makes him so special!

But back to the game or rather, what occurred to me while watching it this morning!! I wonder if we will ever see the Red Sox play a game in Iraq??

Almost 67 years ago the Japanese Military attacked US Naval Forces in Pearl Harbor, a few years after that the USA dropped 2 nuclear bombs on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima...

Now we are playing baseball there and the fans, 44,628 in the stadium , are cheering for the Red Sox whose starting pitcher is from Japan!!

Since the war Japan has become a leader in the world auto and electronics fields. While we may still be competetors in the world of finance and industry the love of baseball has brought the 2 countries together.

I couldn't believe I was hearing Neil Diamond on there stadium sound system singing "Sweet Caroline" and then hearing the crowd sing along "Na NA NAaa"

It was awesome, of course where did we get the word Karaoke??
Karaoke (カラオケ, Karaoke^? from Japanese kara(空), "empty," and ōkesutora, "orchestra") (pronounced /kɑːrɑːˌoʊkɛ/; in Japanese IPA: [karaoke]; listen (help·info)) is a form of entertainment in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song in which the voice of the original singer is removed or reduced in volume. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol or changing color, to guide the singer. In some countries, karaoke with video lyrics display capabilities is called KTV. It is very commonly pronounced /kæriːoʊkiː/, leading people to also spell it "kareoke". from wikipedia

Yes baseball has brought our two cultures together in ways business and politics just cannot. Maybe one day in Iraq we can get along at this level too. Certainly it was a long road from the destruction that was part of WWII to American Baseball being played in Tokyo, Japan..

Shortly after Saddam Husein's reign over Iraq crumbled, there were stories of the formation of the Iraqi Baseball and Softball Federation, one such article I found in the International Edition of the New York Times.

But the stories about Iraqi Baseball have dwindled . I am not sure if they are still playing ball in Iraq?? I hope so, maybe one day instead of fighting and killing each other we will be able to turn the battlefields into playing fields.

Hopefully it will be sooner than later.

Did I mention the Red Sox won??

Oh Yea!!

Spring is coming !!

And that means baseball here in the Boston area The Red Sox in spring training now have all 40 players on their roster signed to a contract for 2008. That's good management. Their first regular season game will be in Oakland on April 1st and their Home Opener will be April 8th at historic Fenway Park, pictured below.



That Tuesday afternoon the World Champs will be introduced for the first time in Fenway since beating the Rockies in the 2007 World Champinship Series...

Can they do it again??

Who will win the World Series in 2008 ??

I'm going with the Red Sox...what about you??

Less than a month away and we are supposed to get snow tonight and over the weekend!!

Profile Change

For everyone used to seeing the bunny in my Profile view there has been a change. Because the Boston Red Sox won the World series, our family dog Minnie has asked that she take the place of Harry Bunny, who has done everything asked of him, at least temporarily.

Harry was a little upset, but has agreed to step down for a little while. I've asked him to continue to work with the Hideaway team in other capacities and explained to him that like baseball, there is no I in Team. That's a lesson Alex Roidriguez should learn..

A Quote for the times from Phyllis Diller

"If it weren't for baseball, many kids wouldn't know what a millionaire looked like."

Finally, the Boston Red Sox celebrate with their fans here in Boston today, so I won't be talking so much baseball in the future....but there is always New England Patriot Football

and those Crazy Massachusetts Drivers to blog about!!

Red Sox Win the World Series

Minnie didn't couldn't take her eyes off the game last nigh as she watched the Red Sox win their 2nd World Series in 4 years.

She munched on some green peas and had a little milk during the game but there wasn't a repeat of the crazy party she had the other night.

She hopes to go to the celebratory parade this week.

Congrats Red SoX !!!

What a great catch by the Rookie Ellsbury in the bottom of the ninth!!

MVP Mike Lowell!! Hope we can keep him on the Sox!!

Red Sox Nation let Ownership know that T=there is no place for A-ROD with the Red Sox. Salaries are already too high and as costs go up they are dropped on the fans..

We Don't need no stinkin A-Rod, he's a high priced, self centered player. No player is worth that kind of money

Partying Last Night

Minnie was sporting a little Redness in her eyes and was a bit dehydrated late last night..



She had some friends over last night to watch the Red Sox win again and force a Game 7

Sunday Evening.....

Things got a little out of hand!!

But the Sox did WIN!!, One more and they are in the World Series!!

Go Sox

Smokey Says

Smokey Says the Red Sox will WIN in Cleveland tonight..

The fact that I can hear Smokey when he talks is disturbing...

But I like what I hear and that is what's important

GO SOX !!

It Mikes Fault !!!

I'm a big believer in Karma and last night we had a little party around watching the baseball game, unfortunately, Mike, was a little negative about some of the Red Sox players and I believe his negativity transferred on to the players....

It's either Criminal or I have gone completely bonkers.

It could be both.

Mr Negativity himself..

we call him Mike

I've called the Karma Police and hopefully he will be taken in and have his Chakras aligned...It's playoff time and there's no room for Negativity.