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 HEADLINES

2004

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2003

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June

May

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2002

2001


Please email for more information or questions.

Contents Copyright 2001-2004 Boston Dirt Dogs, except logos used in accordance with the Fair Use provision (section 107) of U.S. Copyright Act.

Photographic images posted with permission of Associated Press unless otherwise indicated.



Tuesday, November 13,  2001

Dear Taliban and Mr. Bin Laden:

We are pleased to announce that we unequivocally accept your challenge to an old-fashioned game of whoop-ass. Now that we understand the rule that there are no rules, we look forward to playing without them for the first time. Since this game is a winner-take-all, we unfortunately are unable to invite you to join us at the victory celebration. But rest assured that we will toast you -- LITERALLY. While we will admit that you are off to an impressive lead, it is however now our turn at the plate. By the way, we will be playing on your diamond now... Batter up!

Our team line up is as follows: Manager ~ George W. Bush, Ass't Manager ~ Dick Cheney, Head Coach ~ Colin Powell, Assistant Coach ~ Donald Rumsfeld. Starting Pitcher ~ Norman Schwartzkoff, 1st Base ~ U. S. Marine Corps, 2nd Base ~ U. S. Navy, 3rd Base ~ U.S. Air Force, Shortstop and clean up hitter ~ U. S. Army, Outfield ~ Firemen and Policemen, Umpire ~ None Required. *remember - the manager told you there'll be no discussion; no negotiation!

Pinch hitters as needed: U.S. Navy SEALS, U.S. Army Green Berets, U.S. Army Rangers, U.S. Air Force PJs, Delta Force.

And, since there are no rules, we've decided to add: 4th Base ~ United Kingdom, 5th Base ~ Russia, 6th Base ~ China. Other Bases (as desired) ~ Pakistan, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, "Turkistan and lots of other ...stans" and more.

Opening Ceremonies: Vocal 1: Whitney Houston ~ The Star Spangled Banner, Vocal 2: Lee Greenwood ~ God Bless The U.S.A., Vocal 3: Neil Diamond ~ Comin' To America, Vocal 4: Bruce Springstein ~ Born In The U.S.A., Vocal 5: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir ~ Battle Hymn of the Republic.

You may choose whoever you want for your team... it won't really matter, our guys are gonna win.

Sincerely,
On behalf of the 270,000,000 citizens of the United States of America

PLAY BALL!


Our National Symbol

by Charles Evans Hughes

The flag is the symbol of our national unity, our national endeavor, our national aspiration.

The flag tells of the struggle for independence, of union preserved, of liberty and union one and inseparable, of the sacrifices of brave men and women to whom the ideals and honor of this nation have been dearer than life.

It means America first; it means an undivided allegiance.

It means America united, strong and efficient, equal to her tasks.

It means that you cannot be saved by the valor and devotion of your ancestors, that to each generation comes its patriotic duty; and that upon your willingness to sacrifice and endure as those before you have sacrificed and endured rests the national hope.

It speaks of equal rights, of the inspiration of free institutions exemplified and vindicated, of liberty under law intelligently conceived and impartially administrated. There is not a thread in it but scorns self-indulgence, weakness, and rapacity.

It is eloquent of our community interests, outweighing all divergencies of opinion, and of our common destiny.   


The following is a list of resources, information, and some editorial on the events of this week.

Disaster response: How you can help

From donating blood to providing tips and info to the FBI, here are ways you can help.

  • To donate blood, call the Red Cross at 1-800-GIVE-LIFE or America's Blood Centers at
    1-888-BLOOD-88 to schedule an appointment. To find your local American Red Cross, click here.

  • To donate money to the Red Cross for assisting victims of the attacks, call 1-800-HELP-NOW.

  • To donate to the United Way fund to help the victims of Tuesday's attacks and their families, call (212) 251-4035 or click here.

  • Find a wide range of information and phone numbers at FirstGov, the official US government Web site.

  • To make donations to the Salvation Army for helping the victims, call 1-800-SAL-ARMY.

  • Mercy Corps is providing trauma counseling and scholarship funds for children who have lost parents.

  • To provide tips and information to the FBI about these attacks, visit http://www.ifccfbi.gov.

Find Family and Friends

Important Numbers
Hotline for families seeking information about victims and survivors: 1-800-331-0075                                                        Photo by RICKY FLORES, The Journal News (New York). 

American Airlines
1-800-245-0999

United Airlines
1-800-932-8555

Greater NY Health Organization is helping to locate family members and accepting reports of missing persons.
- status of family members: 212-560-2730
- to report a missing person: 212-560-8029

The Pentagon has asked personnel to call the following numbers to be accounted for:
- Navy & Marine Personnel: 877-663-6772
- Army Personnel: 800-984-8523

Family members of military personnel seeking information should call 1-800-984-8523
(Army), 1-877-663-6772 (Navy and Marine Corps.), 1-800-253-9276 (Air Force).

 

Online Donations

United Way September 11th Fund

American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund

Salvation Army Disaster Relief Effort

Firefighter, EMS, and Rescue Relief Fund

Mercy Corps Trauma Counseling
 


We'll go forward from this moment

The Miami Herald, Leonard Pitts Jr.
Published Wednesday, September 12, 2001

It's my job to have something to say.

They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.

Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.

Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.

Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

IN PAIN

Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before.

But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.

I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.

In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.

THE STEEL IN US

You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold.

As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what we're capable of. You don't know what you just started.

But you're about to learn.


TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES

This, from a Canadian newspaper, it's worth sharing. Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television Commentator. What follows is the full text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:

America:  The Good Neighbor.

"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the
least appreciated people on all the earth. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.

None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States. When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.

When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, war mongering Americans.

I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10?

If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon - not once, but several times - and safely home again.

You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.

When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.

I can name you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."


The following is an open letter from Gordon Edes, Boston Globe baseball writer, which was emailed to boston.com's @bat Insider newsletter subscribers on Friday, September 14, 2001:

To my subscribers and friends,

I apologize for the prolonged delay in responding to your letters and questions. What I thought would be only a brief interruption in our correspondence, triggered by some work-related events last week, obviously has grown longer by the terrible events of this week. Baseball matters - indeed, the usual concerns of our daily lives - seem of so little consequence at this time. Far more important that we reach out to each other and offer comfort, support, strength and the confidence that we will do what is necessary to preserve our way of life, however much that way of life will be forced to change because of the realities that exploded on our TV screens Tuesday.

The Red Sox, as you know, flew Monday night from New York to Tampa after their game with the Yankees was rained out. They remained at their hotel in St. Petersburg until yesterday afternoon, when they took a bus to Orlando, then boarded a train headed north. They didn't know at the time whether their ultimate destination was Baltimore, where they were scheduled to play this weekend, or home. Then Bud Selig made his announcement that weekend games were canceled - the only appropriate action, in my view - and the Sox made plans to head home. This morning, they were still on a train and expected to arrive early this afternoon. Clearly, they have been affected by the tragedy. Club spokesman Kevin Shea was unwilling to tell us what the team's plans for the weekend are, refusing to disclose when and where the club was working out. The anxiety is understandable, though if baseball has mandated the games will go on, I think they have to approach things with a little more confidence. The reporters who cover them and the fans who follow them are not the enemy, and being secretive will not help in restoring public confidence that we will carry on in the face of evil. Many other teams have been working out already and made their intentions clear what they will be doing in the next few days.

While most clubs travel on charters, I am certain that some players will be anxious about traveling. And the thought of playing in a stadium filled with thousands of people is troubling to many who worry that such a gathering would make an easy target.

As for me, I was on a New York-to-Tampa flight that departed LaGuardia at 8:10 a.m. We passed over the World Trade Center less than a half-hour before the terrorists struck. At around 10, our pilot came on the intercom and said he had a special announcement. He said it did not involve the safety of our plane, but involved a "serious situation for the United States.'' He then explained to us what had happened, and announced we were landing in Atlanta. I called my dad from the airphone, and he informed me of the horrors of the scene we had left behind. As word spread on the plane, most passengers sat stunned, uncomprehending, but no one became hysterical.

Five reporters from Boston-area newspapers were on my flight, which was unusual, since we all make our own arrangements and often travel separately. On this occasion, Tony Massarotti and Jeff Horrigan of the Herald, Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal, Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram, and myself were all on board. With other passengers, we were taken by van to a Holiday Inn in Jonesboro, Ga., where American Airlines put us up for the night. It was impossible to rent a car, so getting to Tampa was out of the question, and frankly, I had very little stomach for doing so. We, like you, sat transfixed in front of our TV sets, shattered by the scenes rolling across the screen, grieving for the victims, raging at the perpetrators, and troubled by the implications for all of us.

That night, McAdam was able to rent a car from an agency 30 miles away, and I was able to secure a car, too, but not until 1 p.m. the next day. By that time, Bud Selig already had announced there would be no games on Wednesday and Thursday, and we made plans to head north, uncertain whether we would be going to Baltimore or headed home.

After writing my story Wednesday, we loaded the van and headed north. Throughout our trip, we were gratified by the kindness shown us by countless people - the staff at the Holiday Inn was unbelievably gracious and helpful, and that seemed to be the story everywhere we went. Tuesday night, we had gone to an Applebee's in Jonesboro, where I stood in front of a TV next to the restaurant manager and asked her how she planned to explain to her children - who were doing their homework at a nearby table - what had happened.

We stopped for gas in Greensboro, N.C., where the attendant, discovering we were from Boston, gave us free coffee and wished us the best on our journey. We spent the night in Durham, N.C., sent off by a kindly waitress who loaded us up with good country cooking, then stopped in Baltimore, where the sales manager at the Marriott provided us with a conference room to write our stories, once it had been determined that there would be no games this weekend.

We left Baltimore Thursday night around 7. Our journey, of course, already had taken us past Washington, DC, - we saw helicopters hovering over the Capitol. Within a few hours, as we headed toward the George Washington Bridge on the Jersey Turnpike, we saw the billowing cloud of smoke hovering over a Manhattan skyline that was transformed forever on what had promised to be such a perfect morning.

I'm not sure that I was capable of carrying much more sorrow yesterday, which also was the fifth anniversary of the death of my wife, Yoli. I thought yesterday of how much she had always feared flying, and how she would have wept, along with so many of us, as she saw and heard the pain of the family and friends of those lost on those planes and in those towers.

The guys dropped me off at an exit off the Pike, where my 69-year-old dad, at 1 in the morning, had come to pick up his son. I can't tell you how good it felt to be home, and how deeply I felt when I hugged my nieces and nephew yesterday and wondered what kind of world awaited them.

Soon, of course, the games will resume. I know that the passion you feel for the Sox will not go away, and nor should it. It may not seem so important at the moment, but it nonetheless remains part of the fabric of our lives, part of the freedom we enjoy as citizens of a free and prosperous democratic nation, and it is nothing we should ever feel we have to apologize for. But I know that in these perilous times, we all share a deeper and more profound love of our country and of our fellow American men and women.

You know, as one who has covered sports for 20 years, I have stood thousands of times for the playing of the national anthem (including some renditions that would curl your hair). But I know that when I take my usual place in the pressbox Tuesday night in Fenway Park, and stand and listen with many of you, it will resonate with a new significance and poignancy.

The day will come soon when we can - and must - turn our attention again to Nomar and Pedro, Joe K., and the Duke. The sadness will endure, but the gloom will lift, and we will derive comfort in knowing that yes, we can play ball again.

But for now, I say, God bless America, and God bless all of you.

Gordon



Wild Card Wannabees

AL Wild

W

L

GB

Oakland

46

36

---

Boston

45

37

1.0

Anaheim

44

39

2.5

Chicago

42

38

3.0

Tampa Bay

42

41

4.5

AL East

W

L

GB

New York

51

31

---

Boston

45

37

6.0

Tampa Bay

42

41

9.5

Toronto

38

46

14.0

Baltimore

36

45

15.0


Get Everything Red Sox at The Souvenir Store

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The “Curt’s Pitch for ALS” program is a joint effort by Curt and Shonda Schilling, and The ALS Association Mass Chapter to strike out Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Curt and Shonda will be contributing $25,000 to The ALS Association Massachusetts Chapter, and they are asking fans to contribute as well. All proceeds will benefit research and patient services for those in Massachusetts affected by the disease. Program participants will receive different incentive prizes based on the dollar amount per strikeout that they pledge. Please click here to learn more about the program.

Schilling is Top Good Guy


The SHADE Foundation

The Curt and Shonda Schilling Melanoma Foundation of America welcomes Red Sox Nation to join in their fight to save future generations from melanoma, a potentially preventable skin cancer.


Get a Danny O Fenway Litho, as Seen in the Cooperstown Catalog


Chasing Steinbrenner

Exclusive excerpts on the Kevin Millar signing


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