My brother and I decided to take our annual Sox road trip 8/24 and 8/25 in Boston.  The results were not pretty as the Sox won both games. Unfortunately for yours truly, it was the Sox of the Red variety.  

The trip started out great.  No issues on the plane, got into Boston at about 9 AM and proceeded to check in and actually have the room ready by 10.  We took the bags up and decided to go site seeing.  We walked out of the Westin Copley Place and to my surprise, there was the Podsednik cruiser outside of the hotel!!!!

via image32.webshots.com

After a day of walking the Freedom Trail, visiting Paul Revere's home, the Old North Church and Old Ironsides, we walked to Fenway.  What a mistake.  After Gordon Beckham put one over the monster, the Right Sox had a 4-1 lead.  Of course, this is a perfect time to start yelling "Rookie of the Year" and "Lets Go White Sox".  Unfortunately, our excitement didn't last that much longer as Contreras booted an easy grounder, walked a guy with the bases loaded, threw a wild pitch and gave up a 3 run shot.  My brother, who was wearing a Contreras jersey, caught some heat from the home crowd.  Konerko got us back into the game with a 3 run bomb, but Octavio Dotel ended all of our hopes with a terrible outing out of the pen.  It was a long walk back down Boylston Street as every Red Sox fan took turns giving us static.  

We didn't have a good feeling about Tuesday's affair, which featured Freddy Garcia vs. Jon Lester.  We got to the park very early to watch batting practice.  The only guy who looked like he was working on anything was Beckham, who was taking pitches the other way, and only aired it out the last couple rounds.  Ramon Castro was the All Star of batting practice as he was absolutely abusing the Green Monster.  He really put on a power show.  What disturbed me was the lack of fielding practice going on.  Alexei Ramirez and Paul Konerko were putting in some work, but that was about it.  Scott Podsednik was the biggest abuser of this.  He stood just outside of the shortstop position, not even making an attempt to catch balls that were in arms reach of him.  I yelled "Hey Scotty how 'bout taking some fielding practice.... you need it!".   He acknowledged what I said by peering at me and nodding his head.  Ozzie was nowhere to be found on the field.  Monday they had Kevin Hickey (a lefty) throwing BP, when we were facing Clay Buchholz (a righty).  Tuesday Don Cooper (and someone else, not sure who) threw BP.  They were both righties and they were facing a lefty (Lester).  I suppose Bobby Thigpen will be throwing 100 MPH BP today since we are facing Tim Wakefield.  Harold Baines and Joey Cora stood with fungo bats in hand not doing anything.  It really was a sad sight to see a team that is playing under their expectations do absolutely nothing but stand around and talk for an hour.

Freddy pitched surprisingly well.  Our seats were straight away center field (which are pretty good seats). You could see his curve breaking well and late.  Jayson Nix hit a shot that hasn't landed yet into deep left center field.  I personally felt that Alex Rios could have had the double that ended up tying the game.  I don't think he went at it 100 percent, which isn't the first time I have thought this since we have acquired him.  After Linebrink got Youkilis, I almost fainted.  However, when we couldn't score the next inning and Linebrink was sent back out with a tie game, you knew it wouldn't last long.  My brother asked "who do you think will hit the homer"?.... I guessed Ortiz and he guessed Lowell, but it was Jason Bay who did the honors.   The Red Sox tried so hard to give us the game and we still couldn't win it.  Jermaine Dye, Gordon Beckham, AJ Pierzynski, Alex Rios and Alexei Ramirez all had chances to give us a nice lead, yet nobody could get the hit.  Needless to say, we took a cab ride back to the Hotel after game 2 to avoid more scrutiny on the streets of Beantown.  

Boston is a great, clean city.  I suggest that each of you get there if you haven't yet.  Go see a game at Fenway.  Don't make the same mistake I did though. Go watch them play the Angels or something. You will feel a lot better about your trip.