Catching up with old friends

Sometimes when players leave the Red Sox, fans are content; for whatever reason, sometimes it's just time for them to pack up and go. Other times, we wish they could stay, even if what we get in return is incredible.  No matter how players leave town, it's always fun to see where they end up.

As you all know, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez got traded to the Dodgers last season - the laid back style of LA seems to be suiting them, at least based on this photo tweeted from the Dodgers account:

Meanwhile, out in Houston, former Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie, who was always rather more cerebral than his fellows, is making a serious hobby of photography:

Outfielder Josh Reddick, now with the Oakland A's, has reportedly accepted a beard-growing challenge from WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan: 

And perhaps most hilariously of all, Manny Ramirez is currently playing professional baseball in Taiwan, for $25,000 a month.  For comparison's sake, Ramirez made nearly six times that PER GAME in the Red Sox Championship season of 2004.

Cheap seats in April

The Red Sox are absolutely desperate to get fans into Fenway this April. After the home opener on April 8th, ticket prices on Aceticket.com start at $9 for the very next game. Sure, it's for crappy bleacher seats, but you'd pay $3 more to buy them directly from the Red Sox.

The team fully expects the record-setting sellout streak to officially end this month - though, let's be honest, there were swaths of empty seats by the end of 2012.  It's hard enough to entice people to shell out for night games in April when they're optimistic about the team's prospects, but after the disastrous 2012 season, expectations are much more subdued.

Recognizing this, the Red Sox are offering all kinds of incentives to fans who show up to one of their seventeen games in April. To start with, they're offering free meals to children 14 and under (a hotdog, a juicebox, and Goldfish), which is a particularly cunning ploy, because how many parents bring their young kids to midweek night games?

For the adults among us, they're offering 2-for-1 Fenway Franks, half priced hot chocolate, and, perhaps most exciting, $5 beer.  According to the Red Sox website, they haven't sold beer that cheap since the 2004 season, and if you're the sentimental type you might say they're trying to recapture the magic of the Championship run. If you're cynical, you're probably assuming that they're trying to get fans so drunk that we won't notice if the team gets off to a poor start.

Either way, I fully intend to score some bargain-basement seats. It's been a long, cold, snowy winter, and I'll watch the Red Sox for $9 any day.

Congrats, Jeff Locke!

I've mentioned Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jeff Locke before in this space, because he's the first major leaguer that my hometown of North Conway, New Hampshire, has ever produced.

Of course, locals have followed Locke's career closely, from the time he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves, through the trade to Pittsburgh, and every step up the minor league ladder. He made his major league debut as a September call-up in 2011, and his friends and family made the trek to Pittsburgh to see him.

Last season, he made six starts for the Pirates, racking up a 1-3 record.  This year, Jeff Locke has officially been named the fifth starter in the Pirates rotation coming out of spring training, and my Facebook newsfeed has absolutely blown up with hometown pride.

Locke will be one of three southpaws in the Pirates rotation, joining Wandy Rodriguez and Jonathan Sanchez, while the other two spots have been claimed by righthanders James McDonald and AJ Burnett.