May 15. Are YOU ready?

DURHAM, NC – The Can-Am League announced today the following dates and times for the 2007 exhibition games (as of March 2nd). The regular season opens May 24 with spring training starting May 12 in the member cities.

Tuesday, May 15th - Brockton Rox at North Shore Spirit [7:00 PM]

Wednesday, May 16th – New Jersey Jackals at Sussex Skyhawks [7:00 PM]

Friday, May 18th – North Shore Spirit at Brockton Rox [6:00 PM]
Sussex Skyhawks at New Jersey Jackals [7:05 PM]

Sunday, May 20th – Worcester Tornadoes at Brockton Rox [6:00 PM]

Tuesday, May 22nd – Brockton Rox at Worcester Tornadoes [6:00 PM]

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Who wants to roadtrip the @Brockton game? ;)

BTW, the BC Lady Eagles were bizzounced by Providence on Saturday in NH, but they still earned a berth in the NCAA tournament, and will be playing @ #3 Dartmouth on Saturday. UNH won the conference tournament (again). BC men had an amazing sweep over UNH. It was a pretty fun weekend overall. I strongly recommend attending a hockey game at the Whittemore Center.

3rd day of spring games..

It's the 6th inning in Ft. Myers and the Red Sox trail the 'Jays, 6-4. The important stuff: In Manny's first appearance he went 0-1 with a walk before being lifted for a pinch runner in the 3rd, Runelvys Hernandez gave up every single run (all of them earned) in an atrocious 3rd inning, allowing 6 hits. Snyder pitched two shutout innings, Donnelly pitched another shutout inning, and Okajima, in his first action, pitched a perfect inning.

Did I mention the other night that I LOVE Brendan Donnelly? And as for RunElvis -- IDK what the Sox were thinking with that signing - I hope he continues to get lit up in Grapefruit action so we let him go before the real season starts.

BC vs. Dice-K tonight is the main event on NESN. I'll be in Durham, NH watching the BC men's hockey team take on UNH (look for me on NESN starting at 7:30) but I'll probably be listening on the radio at some point. GO EAGLES! Don't beat up Dice-K too badly, now, y'hear - he's kind of important :)

I'll be in New Hampshire all weekend, but if I get internet access (doubtful - I hear the state of New Hampshire has 3 computers and Spike has exclusive access to 1 of them) I'll blog about BC's victory over the Red Sox.

Ta ta and happy spring! (Even if it doesn't feel like it w/ the sideways freezing rain)

Sox Spring Training Continues...

Kason Gabbard, Josh Beckett, and J.D. Drew make their '07 spring debuts today in Sox split-squad games against NU and Toronto, both of which are underway.

Toronto leads the Sox 1-0 in the 2nd. No idea about the NU game. It's probably 55-0 Red Sox by now. Most of the major leaguers are in Ft. Myers playing the Huskies.

Wooden: who's the Sox new advanced-A affiliate if the Blue Rocks aren't anymore?

LiveBlog: Minnesota Twins @ Boston Red Sox, Grapefruit League Game #1

Minnesota Twins (0-0) @ Boston Red Sox (0-0)
City of Palms Park, Ft. Myers, FL

Score
MIN 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0--- 4
BOS 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0--- 4
Final/10

Sox Lineup
Julio Lugo, SS : 1-2, E, RBI
Kevin Youkilis, 1B
David Ortiz, DH 1-2, RBI
Jason Varitek, C
Mike Lowell, 3B
Wily Mo Pena, RF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
David Murphy, LF
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF 1-2, 2 RBI
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Sox Pitchers
Curt Schilling SP 2.0 IP 2 H 0 ER
Joel Pinero RP 1.0 IP 2 H 0 ER
Brendan Donnely RP 1.0 IP 0 H 0 ER
Julian Tavarez RP 1.0 IP 3 H 3 ER
Manny Delcarmen RP 1.0 IP 2 H 0 ER
JC Romero RP 1.0 IP 1 H 0 ER
Brian Corey RP 1.0 IP 0 H 0 ER
Runelvys Hernandez RP 1.0 IP 1 H 0 ER

-Well, here we go - Spring training opener. Comment away. Go Sox.
-Terrible error in the 3rd by Lugo leads to Twins unearned run
-Lugo with the Ribbie single in the bottom of 3 makes it Lugo 1, Lugo 1
-PAPI with an RBI..zzzzz
-DONNELY! the former indyballer! in the game for Boston
-Tavarez gives up a 3 run blast, anyone surprised?
-The no-name parade ends with nothin - tie.

Baseball's Back!

In a mere 32 hours or so, the Boston Red Sox (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) will take the field against the Minnesota Twins in the first Grapefruit League game of the season. How sweet is that? Even if you hate spring training baseball and don't like to watch it, it's just a good feeling knowing that the team will be playing games again.

I tend to get very into the spring games for the first week and a half, before getting bored with it then jumping back in maybe 3 days before the regular season. It'll just be really nice to be able to listen to the Sox on the radio while doing homework, check box scores in the morning, and do all of those other cool baseball things.

I'm pretty pumped that Daisuke Matsuzaka's first appearance will come against the Boston College Eagles in the annual exhibition between the two teams. C'mon BC - do you believe in miracles? ;)

On a related note, College baseball's been underway for over a week now. BC started the year 0-3 with 3 ludicrously heartbreaking one run losses against three very good southern teams. On Sunday, they led #1 Vanderbilt 6-5 in the 9th with 2 outs and nobody on before the closer walked a man then gave up a walkoff two run blast for his 2nd blown save of the young season. It would have been a monumental win for the Eagles, probably one of the biggest in program history.

Even though they're not expected to do that well in the tough ACC, I'm looking forward to checking out a number of games at Shea Field since 1) it's baseball and 2) it's free. I encourage any of you to come join me for some BC baseball games. ACC baseball is superb.

There are some Spirit connections, too: ex-Spirit Joe Hastings is the assistant coach of the baseball team. I'll also be going to a few softball games - Jenna Macchi, Brian's sister, is one of the better players on the lady Eagles softball team, and Brian apparently serves as an assistant coach / advisor.

Should be a fun spring/summer/fall. Play ball!