Clay pitched well even if they didn't win! (Photo taken by me last night.)
If regular readers of my blog have learned anything about me it’s that I tend to get attached to certain players, regardless of their performances, and sometimes put my hopes for them above the outcome of individual games. Many was the night when my heart would ache watching Mike Timlin blow a lead or give up a crucial run – not just because of the loss but because of the pain I assumed Timlin was going through.  I don’t think I slept the night that the Red Sox dfa’d Kyle Snyder just thinking about how devastating that must have been for him. (I know I get too emotionally involved – it’s just who I am.) The snarky jerks I’ve been in contact with here would make jokes about my “crushes” on these guys (and maybe they are crushes of a sort but not the kind some idiots think. If you invest enough time into a hobby that involves living beings and DON’T take some kind of personal interest in their well-being, then I’m not understanding what the attraction is. I know that some folks can watch the games and not care about the people playing them – I’m not like that.  I don’t want to marry any of these guys…I just genuinely want them to do well, to succeed – some more than others) but caring about the people playing the game I love is part of the enjoyment of the game for me. I’m not going to apologize for that.
So leaving the game last night had an odd feel to it. I wanted that win for Clay. I mean, I wanted it for the team too but Clay really gets beaten up in the press and by the fans and last night he pitched his ass off. Last night was the first night in a very long time when I left the park thinking about how I felt like Tito did a player (in this case, Clay) wrong.  So I wasn’t mad about the loss (I rarely get “mad” over the team losing a game) but I was a little mad the Clay was left hanging out there. This is one of the reasons I waited so long today before writing. I needed a little break away from the frustrations of last night.
Of course, Tito leaving in Clay well past 100 pitches to give up those 3 runs didn’t lose the game. The offense being totally shut down did. Still, I wish Clay had left having given up no runs. BUT I was encouraged when, after the boos rained down on Fenway (after the two errors), cheers rattled through the stands as Clay left the field. The Fenway Faithful did Clay good last night and for that I was very happy.
Hearing about Tim Wakefield being sent (after he starts Sunday’s game) to the bullpen left me feeling very nostalgic for the players I’m most fond of and are no longer playing. I know bringing the ‘new’ guys in and slowly weeding the ‘old’ guys out is an important part of baseball but it still bums me out. I know Clay deserves his chance to shine but I hate that it comes at the expense of Wake.
I was given the seats to the game last night as a gift. The seats were really good. Unfortunately, the people behind us either left or moved halfway through the game and we were stuck with seat jumpers who spent more time screaming insults at Wake, Papi (who wasn’t even playing), Tito, Victor, and most often, Bill Hall. Let’s say this…if it’s late in the game and my cup of beer is still full, you don’t want to be around me and pull this crap. Because the seats weren’t mine and I didn’t want to risk the person who owned them getting in trouble with the Red Sox, I made it look like an accident, but at least one of the four idiots making the last couple of innings of the game rather unbearable went home covered in Bud Light. Whoops. (My only regret is not being able to own up to having done it on purpose. But I have to admit that next to stabbing a beach ball being bounced around the stands with the pen I happened to be holding when it made it to me, dousing this guy with beer was one of my proudest Fenway moments.)
I get being frustrated with the team. I don’t get hurling personal insults at these guys whose freaking job it is to perform well and win. If anyone thinks these guys are happy about struggling or that they just don’t care, quite frankly, they’re ignorant. And if I can get just a little satisfaction by wasting $7 worth of beer, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Anyone who would spend the money you have to spend to go to Fenway and then spend the evening insulting the team really needs to find a less expensive and less obnoxious hobby.
They start again tonight with the Mad Bobcat Killer pitching against Jeremy Guthrie (he of the “Mother’s Day Miracle”). I had invites to both tonight’s game and Saturday’s game but had to refuse them. Maybe karma will be kind and this will bode well for the Sox in those games? (My record this year, so far, is 2-3!)
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