As the Sox are mired in the middle of a rough patch, I’m heading to Red Sox Nation (south) for the weekend to catch the games.

In other news, the NYT reports Ortiz and Manny both tested positive in 2003. If someone has a hold of this list of people who tested positive, why does it seem they are releasing one name at a time?

Personally, I’m tired of the steroid talk. Nobody seems to bring up the fact that until 2005, taking steroids was not a punishable offense.

For the first time in almost 5 years, Nomar Garciaparra sets foot on the Fenway field as a player tonight.

In my opinion, Nomar seems to be largely forgotten in Red Sox Nation (except for the mouth breathing douchebags…I’m looking at you, Boston Dirt Dogs…who still hold a grudge against him for some reason or another), and really underappreciated. Remember he was one of the ‘Big 3′ shortstops, and it seemed that he was going to end up second only to ARod? Now ARod isn’t a shortstop any longer (for that matter, neither is Nomar), and Jeter has definitely turned out to be a much better player. But for a few years with the Sox, Nomar was special.

I wish I could be there to give him an ovation tonight; I know I’ll make sure I’m watching for his first at-bat. I hope the true fans outrank the mouthbreathers tonight.

With regards to “Jeter made the great play while Nomar sulked” discussion….

1. Nobody remembers that in the same game, Pokey Reese made a superior play in just about the same spot.
2. Nobody remembers that the Sox tied the game in the 7th, and took the lead in the 13th; only to have Leskanic give up 2 runs in the bottom of the 13th.
3. With regards to number 1, the umpire signal here tells you all you need to know about Jeter’s superfluous dive. He’s signaling ‘fair ball’

Nice dispatch of the Yanks; hopefully they can use the broom again with the Phils today.

Maybe I should just post via Twitter…I could come up with 140 characters a day!

Gotta love home cookin’. The red-hot Blue Jays ran into the buzz saw that is the Red Sox at Fenway, and limp out only up 1/2 game. Sox pitching pretty good all the way around, and the hitters benefit from the fact that they didn’t face Halladay.

Jason Bay sure is making himself a ton of money for his next contract, eh?

I’m happy for Ortiz that he finally jacked one; but forgive me if I don’t declare him ‘back’ just yet.

Meanwhile, in the new launching pad in the Bronx, the Yanks remain red hot. Can they keep it up against good teams? We’ll see.

Holy crap. As a Manny lover, I feel like I was just punched in the gut. You knew a Sox name would have to come out eventually…but call me naive; I thought Manny was natural. Initial reports are that it is a banned GNC supplement; announcement to come later today.

The bright side is, Boras gets screwed out of a few bucks…

…be the place where Papi finally gets a dinger?

I’m not the only one who is really starting to worry about Ortiz, I assume?

Kind of a lost weekend in Tampa…lost in the suckitude that is Julio Lugo and Varitek’s arm is the fact that Penny pitched decent last night…I’ll take games like that one from the #5 starter every day and twice on Sunday.

For some reason, Flashchat was unbearably slow today. I’m testing out a new chat; you have to be logged in to use it. Click on ‘chat’ above to go to the room.

4/24 edit: old one seems fixed. Link is back if you refresh.

At least from the Orioles’ standpoint. They seem to be drifting right where everyone thought they would end up. Although Tampa Bay seems to be scuffling a bit early in the campaign. And while the hitting isn’t exactly where most fans would like it to be, a 4 game winning streak with decent pitching (and a very good bullpen thus far) helps assuage panicky feelings beget by a 2-6 start.

The Yankees have a huge Wang problem. (heh, heh). He has been terrible, and unless they invent a malady for him, I don’t think they are able to send him down (something about available options and MLB service time). And everybody they throw out there between the starters and Rivera is really terrible. Regarding the new Stadium; what are homers going to be like in the summer when they have had 20 in the first 4 games (14 to right field…did they make RF even easier than old Yankee Stadium?)?

And don’t look now; but I think the Jays might be good enough to stay in the mix all year. They have good pitching, and if they can keep swinging the bats…it could be an interesting year in the AL East with possibly 4 teams in the mix all year.

Part of the Sox stellar bullpen gets the 11 AM start today…looks like another Slingbox special..

Getaway game today….3:30 EST start. Got the Slingbox going.

So glad I didn’t attempt to stay awake for THAT one. When the Sox got off to the 3-0 start, I thought to myself “Self; you should go to bed right now on a positive note.” Instead I stayed awake for the first 5 innings. When I let the dogs out at 5:45 and saw the game ended around 2:30, I was thankful I got my beauty sleep.

A nut-crushing loss like that reminds me of a couple of west coast games where I DID stay up to late only to endure a loss…A 19 inning affair vs. Seattle in 2000, and an 18 inning jaunt in Texas in 2001. I think after that last one I decided it wasn’t necessary to stay up late for the Red Sox for otherwise meaningless games.

So the positive thing is the bullpen had a nice outing (except for that stiff Lopez). Not much positive to say about Matsuzaka being worn out from the WBC. Or the Red Sox offense being worn out from…well, I don’t know what they are worn out from.

Regarding the Beckett thing…what a load of crap that MLB feels the need to undermine the on-field umpires. Here’s what crew chief Joe West had to say after the game:

“He took too long delivering the ball,” said crew chief Joe West. “Abreu called time, which is normal. Then Beckett, in the middle of throwing the ball, threw the ball. They should throw the ball, rather than risk an injury.

“Did he throw it up and in? Yeah. Do we believe he threw it at Abreu? No. Would we have warned him had both benches not emptied? Probably not, but because both benches emptied, we did issue a warning,” explained West.

But Yankee Bob Watson feels the need to take it a step further. What a douche.