For those of you who criticize me for always bitching about ill-behaved kids at ballparks, today I have a rant about ill-behaved ADULTS. We went up to our seats, which were on the aisle, as I had requested. Mike sat on the aisle seat, but I got stuck sitting next to this big fat gross guy who didn’t understand the concept of PERSONAL SPACE. Yeah, his ass fit in the seat and all, but he was moving himself all around, nudging into me and making me VERY uncomfortable.

The proper way to get something out of your pocket is to stand up and do it in such a way that your arm is not nudging into the boobs of the woman sitting next to you. The idea is to keep yourself in the personal space of the seat that you paid for.

He was there with two other equally gross guys. I thought about saying something, but instead took the easy way out and moved to the empty seats in the row in front of us. But if the place were sold out and there were no other seats, damned straight I’d have said something, and even brought Sea Dogs staff into the matter if needed.

But we were in Portland to celebrate Mike’s birthday, I didn’t want to make a scene, so we moved. And we still got to hear the conversations between the three gross guys, proving that they really were gross. The fat guy who was invading my space started talking about going to some skeevy bar called Ricky’s, because “the girls there will do ANYTHING for a drink”. Anything? With THOSE guys? Geez, these “girls” gotta be freakin’ DESPERATE to go anywhere or do anything with guys like that! Certainly no self-respecting woman would want anything to do with guys who treat women as nothing more than toys!

It’s not that the one guy was fat that made him gross, but his mannerisms. And all three of them were ill-dressed and groomed. Yeah, I know you don’t exactly wear a suit and tie to the ballpark, no one does that anymore; blue jeans and team logo shirts are fine. But geez, couldn’t they at least wash their hair, and comb it?

After hearing that little exchange, I couldn’t help but wonder if the fat guy was getting his rocks off as he nudged his elbow into my boob.  Now I sort of wish I DID complain, knowing now what kind of guy he and his friends are.

I’d take a little kid kicking the back of my seat for nine innings any day, over seeing that guy and his friends again!

The rain is supposed to start on Thursday. It sucks, but at least we don’t have a game to go to that night. Thursday is Mike’s birthday, and we have reservations for dinner at Fore Street, in Portland. At least that can’t get rained out!

But what to do during the day? I was hoping to go out on a boat on Casco Bay, but those aren’t running when it rains. I guess I could read a book…I could pick up a copy of The Appeal by John Grisham and read that; I’ve always liked his stuff. Or maybe we can go and see Iron Man, I saw that it’s playing at the Nickelodeon theatre in downtown Portland.

Anyhoo, at least it looks like our ball game is safe from the weather, and then I can find the answer the burning question - did they REALLY paint the ladies rooms at Hadlock PINK?

I have another pink rant coming up in a bit.  Suffice to say that I don’t think that PINK belongs in baseball AT ALL!

That is all.

Hell, even Julio Lugo got at least one RBI here…that’s GOTTA be a good thing.
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Last night, during the long rain delay, I was listening to the call-in show on WRKO, hosted by Jon Rish. We don’t have cable, nor do we really want it, so radio is the way to go most of the time here.

Anyhoo, this bozo guy called in and started bitching and moaning about how this rain delay was so bad for his KIDS! He was at Fenway with them when he called. It was as if the second they felt a drop, that game should have been automatically re-scheduled to another date; I think he mentioned having it as a day/night double-header today? I don’t quite remember.

This jerk went on and on and on, about how the Red Sox were being greedy for making fans sit there for 2 1/2 hours, for selling beer and letting some people get drunk. His KIDS were getting tired, they can’t be up so late.

Rish told the guy that number one, the Red Sox do not make the decisions about rain delays. No team does, it is the umpires’ decision. Also, the schedule is very tight as it is, with very few off days, so it makes sense to try to get games in whenever possible, rather than try to re-schedule.

The guy asked Rish if he had kids. This is the usual crap that these entitlement asshole parents tend to spew at anyone who disagrees with them. Turns out that Jon Rish has three young kids. Who were home, probably in bed by now, he said. Later on, when another caller brought this up, Rish said that if he were there as a fan, with his seven year old son, he’d have probably taken the boy home. Would he been disappointed? Yes, but sometimes kids need to learn that things don’t always go the way you want them to. Sometimes you get get some bad luck. It happens.

No word if the loud-mouthed entitlement-asshole father stayed at the ballpark with his tired and probably very cranky by no children. If they did stay, I pity whoever was stuck sitting near them, I know how small children can get when they are tired and bored, and it ain’t pleasant.

The jerk should have thought of this ahead of time, and tried to get tickets to an afternoon game. They do still exist, you know, usually on Sundays. usually, unless ESPN is picking up a Sox game for a national telecast, Sunday Sox games at Fenway start at 2:05 PM.

And what if the game HAD started on time, but went into extra innings? What then, Daddy-O? Who are you going to bitch to about THAT?

In my opinion, very young kids don’t belong at sporting events at all, unless they can sleep or otherwise be quiet. They don’t know what the hell is going on, anyway. When they are old enough to understand, and can sit in their seats without annoying people, great! But I still don’t think that night games are a good idea for young children at all.

Oh, and if the jerk didn’t like the beer-drinking, I think Fenway still has an alcohol-free section someplace. It used to be in section 30-something, at the end of the third base line. Don’t know if it’s still there or not…not that I’d ever want to sit in such a section! In any case, this guy could have checked on that before he bought his tickets.

And since when are baseball games SOLELY events for children, anyway? I’m sick of the growing *kiddification* of this sport. There are some minor league parks we had to stop going to, because they catered too much to kiddie crap, and not enough to adult fans who actually came to watch a game…Lowell…cough…Spinners…cough, cough…
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Tomorrow’s game is set to start at 1:35PM, and perhaps we can complete the sweep and get our revenge. But think about it…the Sox have been through a lot this season. There was the shortened Spring Training, the grueling trip to Japan and then more exhibition games on the west coast, with not much in the way of breaks. A couple of injuries (Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, etc.), and then the whole thing with the damned flu spreading around the clubhouse. Despite all that, the Sox are back in first place and back on track.

For more info on the book, go HERE. If you can’t make it to Hadlock Field, you can always order the book from the Sea Dogs website.

These books are all beautifully done, full of old photos that you’ll probably never see anywhere else, and a must for the true fan!

We went to the Fisher Cats game yesterday. We were running late, and I was almost positive that they’d have run out of the Jonathan Papelbon bobbleheads by the time we got there. But, due to the weather, I guess, they were still giving them out when we got there. They had 2,000 of them to give, and it was easy to see that there were nowhere near that many people in the ballpark.

I think that most of the people who attend Fisher Cats games are Manchester locals, who decide at the last minute to attend, if it’s a nice day. Often, we see long lines at the ticket windows on game day…so most people probably DON’T buy them ahead of time. We kind of have to, because we live about an hour away, and there’s no guarantee as to what might still be available when we arrive. It’s not like I can get a laptop rental, and then check online for tickets on the way up there. Can you even go online in a car? I honestly don’t know.

Besides, we like having the Sunday Funday mini-plan, because we’re guaranteed the same seats for every Sunday home game. Have I told you that I LOVE our new seats this year? They are under what little roof there is over the seating area, which came in handy yesterday, when it was raining for a bit. Our seats weren’t even wet when we got there. I usually carry this old Sea Dogs towel that was a giveaway at Hadlock ages ago. It’s not a very thick beach towel, so it folds up kind of small to fit in my tote bag. It does a better job of drying off wet seats than taking a Hugh Jass wad of napkins, as we’ve seen other people do. But I usually try to be nice and loan out the use of the towel for those sitting nearby who need it.

The seats are also on the aisle, and also kick-proof. If you’ve ever had the back of your seat kicked for nine innings by kids sitting behind you, you know how annoying this is. And 95% of parents act all insulted if you ask them to please make the kid stop. A few even encourage the brats to kick our seats HARDER. Well, now, our problem is solved. There’s nothing but concrete behind out seats, and a bit higher up is a handicapped area, and a metal railing between our heads and said handicapped section. Actually, there’s a garbage can directly behind our seats, then the handicapped seats start to the left of that.

Now that we have these seats, we’re gonna keep renewing them forever!

Fisher Cats beat the Bowie BaySox, 3-2.
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No more ball games to go to, not until our trip to Portland for Mike’s birthday.  We’re driving up on May 7th, and we have tickets to a Sea Dogs game that evening.  May 8th is Mike’s birthday, and we have reservations to his favorite restaurant up there, Fore Street.  It was either that or another Sea Dogs game, but I thought he’d prefer the nice dinner.

We’ll be staying up there for two nights, returning home on the 9th.  I highly recommend a place called the Inn at St. John, as it’s nice, inexpensive, and close to Hadlock Field.  I mean really close, as in you can leave your car parked in the hotel’s parking lot and walk there.

Hopefully, the weather will be warmer than is is now!

I need to get some sleep now, as we’re leaving early.  Jonathan Papelbon bobblehead giveaway to the first 2000 fans through the gates, and I plan to get one!

When I have these minor league games to go to, I don’t have to think about the Red Sox so much.  Perhaps they can salvage one game in this series against the evil Devil Rays.

I really hate to have to do this, but I’ve been inundated with nasty, unwanted comments from fans of other teams. The policy here has always been that it’s okay to disagree with anything I say; but I ask that it be done in a respectful manner. Unacceptable behavior includes, but is not limited to, personal insults and name-calling.

This is MY web space, which I pay for. As such, I am entitled to say what I want, when I want. As a privately owned site, free speech does not apply here; not when it’s rude and insulting.

If you want to say nasty shit about me, go and start your own blog and have at it.  But it will NEVER be allowed here. Ever. I can’t control what others say elsewhere on the ‘net, but I sure as hell can and will control it here.

I apologize to those of you who are good people and comment responsibly. I’m sorry that a relative few have caused me to do what I had to do.

Oh…I guess I’m supposed to be calling them the RAYS now…no more Devil. As if this, and the uniform/logo makeover is going to make them suck any worse than they do.

SO WHY DO THE SOX KEEP LOSING TO THESE GUYS? I just don’t get it.

So now I shall boo, hiss, pout, and stomp my feet in frustration. Better put on my canvas vegan shoes first, don’t want to hurt myself while I’m throwing this little tantrum…LOL!

And yes, I will keep calling them the Devil Rays. Devil Rays, Devil Rays, DEVIL RAYS! HA!

At least the Y*****s lost tonight, though. The Devil Rays win did knock them down to fourth place. That makes me feel a wee bit better!

Some commercials on TV are okay, such as ones urging you to go and get life insurance quotes. But most of them are so obnoxious, even insulting, to some viewers.

The worst ones, though, are not on NESN, they are during Faux Sports Saturday Game of the Week. Faux Sports lives under the impression that all sports fans are mindless buffoons who eat nasty crap like Domino’s Pizza and Taco Hell, and drink Bud Lite. The latter two are major sponsors of Faux Sports’ baseball coverage. And the commercials are very dumbed-down, to cater to the lowest common denominator.

I have far better taste than that. If I want Mexican food, I will either go to a real Mexican style restaurant, or cook my own at home. I made some really tasty pork carnitas last week. Besides, Taco Hell is about as Mexican as I am. And as for Bud Lite, well, that is the worst form of swill ever. Okay, maybe not as bad as Busch Lite, but still pretty bad. Sam Adams or a micro for me, please!

I suspect that most fans are more like me, in that they graduated from swill food and beer years ago, and have the money and taste buds for better stuff. It’s insulting that Faux Sports seems to think that most of their viewers still live in “Animal House”.
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Finally, speaking of stooopid commercials…can someone PLEASE explain to me what the VW ad with the guy with the chainsaw is supposed to mean? If it’s supposed to be some kind of joke, I don’t get it.

Maybe if I gorge myself on greasy crap from Taco Hell and drink lots of Bud Lite, I will be so out of it that I might actually find that ad funny. Right now, I think it’s stupid.