Today at Fenway: Celebration of the life of Johnny Pesky

As I'm sure you all know by now, Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky passed away a little over a month ago at the ripe old age of 92.  The Red Sox have planned a formal Celebration of Life for Pesky scheduled for this very evening at Fenway Park, and the event is free and open to the public.

After today's afternoon Orioles game, the park will be reopened at 6pm.  The formal ceremony is from 6-7, but the park will remain open until 9pm, and fans will have the option to walk around the warning track and view exhibits about Pesky's illustrious Red Sox career.

From the Red Sox release about the event:

While the formal portion of the ceremony is set to take place between 6-7 p.m., fans are welcome to stay until the park closes at 9 p.m. Both current and former Red Sox players will be in attendance.

In addition to hearing stories about Pesky’s 70-year career, fans will have the opportunity to walk on the warning track and see displays that illustrate his life as a player, coach, manager, broadcaster, ambassador, patriot, husband, father, and friend. Fans will also have the opportunity to write personal messages that will be given to his family and become part of the Nation’s Archives at Fenway Park.

Will I see any of you there?

A losing season and a rude awakening

It's official. Last night the Red Sox lost their 82nd game (and in spectacular fashion, by a score of 13-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays) to clinch their first losing season since 1997.  That's right, the last time the Red Sox were this bad, I was missing my two front teeth.

I grew up in a generation of lucky fans.  I missed the heartbreak of 1986 by four years, and I was too young during the 1994 strike to really understand what was going on.  Sure, I remember the gut-wrenching end to the 2003 postseason, with Tim Wakefield trudging off the mound dejected, sure he would be the next Bill-Buckner-esque scapegoat, but I remember the euphoria of 2004 and 2007 even more clearly.

The Red Sox of my youth were full of talents like Pedro Martinez and vintage Nomar Garciaparra, pre-traitor Johnny Damon and pre-steroid (at least pre-caught using steroids) Manny Ramirez, original dirt dog Trot Nixon, and pre-Captain Jason Varitek.

I've been spoiled. I got to enjoy this golden era of Boston sports without living through any of the real lean seasons.  Until this year.  I missed watching most of the games this summer while working at a camp, and most days I would check the scores and be more happy than sad that I hadn't seen the carnage live.

And now here we are heading into October.  The Red Sox are about as far from the postseason as I can remember - last year and in 2010 we were still in it at this point.  In 2009, we were swept from the postseason by the Angels.  The Red Sox may not have won a postseason series (or even a postseason game) since 2008, my freshman year in college - but they've been in the hunt every year.

Now that I've graduated, and been dumped into the cold, cruel world, the Red Sox seem to have had the same rude awakening I've had: no one is going to hand you anything.  The AL East is a tough division to survive in, and this year the Red Sox sank.  I'm not sure what kind of moves the front office will be looking at to make next year better than this one, but I have some ideas - starting with taking a long, hard look at Bobby V.

What are your thoughts on the first losing season in fourteen years? Any suggestions for offseason moves? Leave them in the comments.

Hello again!

I've been settling into my new apartment (in Boston!) and my new job, and now that I finally have internet and cable, I thought I should get back to the blog.

Sadly, the best thing that's happened to the Red Sox since I moved down here was the offday yesterday - you can't lose if you don't play.  Honestly, the only possibility of a somewhat happy ending to the season would be if the Sox could play spoiler.

I have a friend from Baltimore, and he posted the following picture to my Facebook last week, along with the caption "How 'bout them apples?"

A discussion ensued with mentions of the possibility of a Baltimore Orioles/Washington Nationals World Series - and I admitted that I would LOVE to watch that.

If the Red Sox have to suck (and apparently they do), I'd like to see a couple of teams who haven't seen the postseason lately (or ever) make a real run for it.  The O's are one game behind the Yankees, and the Red Sox are opening a three game set against the Yankees tonight, and I for one am loving the recent swoon of the Bronx Bombers. Here's hoping we can help them to their own catastrophic collapse.