Youk Can Go Home Again
(AP Photo)
Reds Scare Sox But Welcome Homer
Takes Papelbon Off the Hook
Saturday Box: Boston 6, Cincinnati 4
Sox' Extra Effort Tops Reds
Extra Insurance: Coco Hits One, Ball Charges the Stands
Encarnaci-gone: Papelblown Coughs One Up in Cincinnati
Hansen Gets First Save: Will Pap Think About Starting Again?
The Slumpbuster: Is Dustin Pedroia Finally Getting His Groove Back?
One for the Road: The Good Wake Pitched a Gem, Deserved a Win
Manny Being Money: Griffey Had 600 Reasons to Swing on 3-and-0
No Manny, No David, No Problem
J.D. On Fire
"Definitely a good thrill to hit one in that situation. To hit it in Cincinnati is a great honor and a great thrill, because who knows, after tomorrow I may not have another chance to play here."
-- 6.14.08, Cin city native son Kevin Youkilis
Friday Night, No Fight
(AP Photo)
Justin the Win? Nope. It's an Offday for the Offense.
Friday Night Box: Cincinnati 3, Boston 1
Travel Travails: Sox Trip Again
Let the Record Show, Sox Have Lost 11 of Last 15 Away from Home
The Accidental Tourist in Cleveland: 'Tek Takes the Long Way Out
On the First Leg of the Trip, Manny Comes Up with Hamstring Problems
Bruce on the Loose: The Cincinnati Kid Clubs One Out
Upside: It Was All Over in 2:21
"Overall, I was happy," Masterson said. "I just threw three pitches I kind of hung. They made me pay." -- 6.13.08, Justin Masterson, who wasn't lucky enough to get a win on Friday the 13th
Hammer Time
(Getty Images Photo / Elsa)
Bang, Bang, Bang ... Lowell, Youkilis, and
J.D. Who Knew? Drew Go Deep as Sox Drill O's
Thursday Night Box: Boston 9, Baltimore 2
No Place Like Home: It's a Blast -- Sox Roll
Lowell Blows It Open with the 4-Run Homer
The Lefty Was All Right: Jon Stays in Control and Throws an Easy 7 Hitter
No Pressure, No Problem: Delcarmen and Timlin Shine with a Big Lead
Let the J.D. Drew Contract Extension Talks Begin
"Ultimately, if we want to get to where we want to go, we're going to have to play better on the road, but it sure has been fun being home."
-- 6.12.08, Terry Francona on the home (28-7) and away (14-20) Sox
Father Time
From Gary Jacobs, BDD contributor
PAWTUCKET, RI | June 13, 2008 � It is, like most days here, a beautiful day for baseball. The players are playing in bright sun, though their shadows dance long in front of them. The gametime temperature is 77 degrees and the gentlest of breezes cools the foreheads of the near-capacity crowd of over 9,000. The day couldn�t possibly be better suited to baseball.
Baseball was the game I learned on my father�s knee, the first game I gave my love to. And though I learned to love hockey with almost the same ferocity, baseball is what connects me with my youth, with memories of glorious summer days with nothing to do, and with my father.
We could always count on baseball and the Boston Red Sox to provide common ground, Dad and me. In 1986 I was a willful 17-year-old know-it-all with a full-on case of cranio-rectal inversion. You couldn�t talk to me without me flying into an adolescent rage, no matter the subject. My parents were idiots and worse yet, major crampers of my style. We went nose to nose many more times than once; we came to the brink of a fistfight on at least one occasion. But we both had the Red Sox that magic season � expectations were so low for that squad that they took the city completely by surprise. And when neither of us had much to say to each other, we could always talk about baseball.
Years later, when time started taking its inevitable toll on the old man, and he complained constantly about being cold, I bought him a satin lined Red Sox jacket. He wore it constantly.
Right up until the day he died, which was last month.
And today, as I sit in the PawSox pressbox squinting from the lowering sun, trying hard to concentrate on a baseball game that I�m supposed to be covering, all I find myself thinking about is my dad, and how he absolutely adored sunny dry days like this, when baseball in the evening was a given, and the only question was radio or TV.
Like most men of his generation, my dad was far from materialistic. He wasn�t much for jewelry or trinkets of any kind. After the funeral my mother bade us take what mementoes we wished to remember him by. I took two things: an International League baseball that I got for my dad (a friend of mine actually got it for me; it�s bad form for a reporter to ask for a baseball), and his Red Sox jacket. When I took it home I discovered quite poignantly that it still smelled like him.
Much has been said about the generational nature of baseball, of how it binds father to son. And every morning when I wake up and I see Dad�s jacket hanging up, I find that it binds us still.
Happy Father�s Day, everybody. If you�re lucky enough to still have your Dad, give him a call or head over the house on Sunday � maybe talk a little baseball. -- In Memoriam, Cyril R Jacobs, 1933-2008
