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Photo lifted from The Phoenix 

This week is huge.  HUGE.  I don’t have to tell Sox fans that.  I’m not sure how many games I’ll get to see, but I’m hoping to get a few innings in on each one.  I told someone yesterday that the Sox being in the playoffs is basically the one positive thing I have to look forward to for the time being.  My insistence on the division is waning just because I don’t have the time or energy to focus on it.  But, thankfully, the Yankees and Blue Jays helped us out in that area yesterday.  So even though I’m not honed in on it, it’s good to know baseball is.

🙂

Great article in the Globe today (I haven’t written THAT sentence very often, have I?) about Red Sox fans.  It’s nice to read what the players have to say about us.  Sadly, there’s a few bad apples in every bunch.  If you’re a fan who has actually bothered a player while he’s eating or while he’s with his family, well, then you deserve any crankiness you might get. As passionate  fan as I am, I feel like, unless it’s at a show or something structured like that, off the field is off limits.  I’m not comfortable, at all, approaching players when they aren’t ‘on’ and haven’t ever done it.  Regardless of their job or their pay, they’re people too and deserve as much respect and privacy as any of us would want or expect.

Mike Timlin loves the support at home and doesn’t think fans are out of control. But on the road, he says, some fans don’t understand that game day is very structured.

 

"It’s not like we’re trying to be rude to people, but we have our routines during the day," says Timlin. "We go out to eat in small groups. We go to the field in small groups. We’re not trying to be rude. We’re in the opposing city and we’re trying to get our mind right so you can go into an opposing arena and play right.

"I know some people will take that as rude and blowing them off but you take that as sharpening your mind as much as you can in an opposing city.

"Probably the worst is when you’re eating. You’re sitting there with your family or your teammates and somebody says, ‘I don’t want to bug you but . . .’

"You’re taking a bite and they ask you to sign something."

There’s positive stuff as well, which is nice to read.  The fans love their team and the team appreciates it.  Doesn’t mean they can’t use some space some times, folks.

Gagne is staying as my ‘player of the week’.  I think it’s fitting that the player I’ve been most critical of this season gets the positive vibes to end the regular season.

Schilling on the mound tonight…here’s hoping he can get the job done and the team supports him with runs!  

Pile it on boys – make us proud(er)!