October 14, 2007
ALCS Game 2
Many thanks to Bill James who graciously allowed Jim Storer and I to use his family employee tickets to game 2. It was a long night, with Cleveland scoring seven runs in the top of the eleventh inning to win the game 13-6. A long night, but a lot of fun and well worth the five hour game time!
The seats were quite good, with this view:
Jim Lonborg threw out the first pitch, as the Red Sox celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Impossible Dream season. Dr. Lonborg still generates a great still of excitement among the fans, although he can no longer reach home plate from the mound.
The managers and umpires pose for an official home plate meeting photo after they go over the ground rules.
Here's Jim Storer and Susan McCarthy, Bill's wife. Susan scores the games like a pro. She was not interested in baseball before she met Bill, but now she's well versed in the game, players and strategy.
And Baseball Tonight was well represented at game. The white haired man in the middle of the picture is Peter Gammons. I ran into him pre-game, and he asked me if this meant I wasn't writing during the game. I pointed to my Q and told him I would be blogging.
Peter's seats are eleven rows behind home plate and afford a great view of the pitches. The first game I attended with my daughter were in those seats, and it was a great matchup as Pedro Martinez faced Bartolo Colon, both with their good stuff that day.
Karl Ravech brought his oldest son. That's Karl in the yellow cap.
One reason I had asked Bill for the tickets is we had a Japanese exchange student, Eri Uehara. Eri loves baseball, and originally I thought she and my daughter Melinda could go to the game. Unfortunately, the schedule didn't work out. But she taught me a few Japanese baseball terms and drew these tablets.
The middle one says "Red Sox Pitcher, Matsuzaka Daisuke." The word for pitcher, toushu, means throw hand. At the bottom are the Japanese symbols for all the positions.
The crowd was great last night, although to a person no one wants to see Gagne pitch again for the Red Sox. The Cleveland pen pitched very well, as did the Red Sox pen until the eleventh. The Indians take back home field advantage, and the Red Sox face their first bit of adversity in the series.
Update: I forgot to mention the quote of the night came from Bill James, who came by our seats in the bottom of the eleventh. By this time 90% of the crowd left. J.D. Drew led off the inning with a single, and Bill remarked, "The crowd is so tired they forgot to boo J.D. Drew."