feels like home to me

photos from the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald

the 2007 home opener kicked off with a ceremony honoring the 1967 Impossible Dream team & may we honor them further by bringing home a championship on the 40th anniversary of the Impossible Dream.


there were the familiar faces...



and some new ones too. (seriously, who let Julian out of his cage?? i can't tell if 10K is into this overdisplay of man-affection or if he is trying to defend himself!)


Joshy blew the doors off Fenway. and let me say: i don't care if he started the season against the Royals & the Mariners. did we forget so soon that the Royals have a nasty habit of embarrassing my boys, even if those are the only games they win all season? and don't cry to me about Seattle "feeling rusty" after their snow days in Cleveland because (unfortunately for the Angels =( who i have officially adopted as my #2 AL team), the Indians didn't seem too adversely affected, and they sat out the same number of games as the Mariners did. maybe they just took advantage of the snow & made throwing practice both fun *and* resourceful by using snowballs? i don't know. whatever the case, Joshy threw 84 pitches over seven innings, giving up only one run on two hits. he didn't walk a single batter, and made a bid at Matsu's ten Ks with eight of his own. 2-o with a 1.50ERA -- can we keep *this* Beckett? please?


the bats behaved. they more than behaved. they had a celebration of their own. every. single. one of the Boston starters made it on base, and all of them but Coco & Itty Bitty Dustin came across home plate at least once (plus another two for Eric Hinkse, still love his name) at some point to add up to a 14-3 thrashing of the Mariners. you see that photo? Cap'n went 3-for-4 and a walk, pushing in 3 RBI. never doubt your Captain.


i just hope we saved some of that offensive awesomeness for this tonight

and this on Thursday


oh yeah. and then there was the triple toss. apparently there is little, ok, *no* love lost between Jose Guillen on Seattle

and our very own Brendan Donnelly

which i guess has has some history to it. both teams were warned about any "shenanigans" prior to the game, but after Donnelly Kd Guillen, there was an exchange of some sort, which led to Guillen being ejected.

the benches cleared. Donnelly even took off his glasses to show he meant business. but no punches were thrown. Wake -- who it seems is not only our #4 starter, but also defuses "situations?" do not mistake the featherlight fingertips of the knuckler to mean he's a softie! -- got him settled down again, glasses replaced & back on the mound.

unfortunately for Donnelly, he hit the next batter, apparently by accident, but the umps had had enough, which led to Brendan *and* Tito getting tossed as well. (maybe Terry took him out to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard after that to make it all better.)

the weirdest part of the whole incident? you shouldn't even have to look. you *know* it involves Julian. notice how 10K isn't even looking in Julian's direction. probably afraid he'll get hugged again.


7:05 tonight. Fenway. (or in my case, ESPN2.) Matsu in home whites for the first time. take two for the Mariners. if they watched his outing in KC, they probably feel a little sick.