Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Monday Night Fans Break Record

Monday night - Dice K pitching for the Nation. Hungry fans ate and ate and ate - they ate their faces off on Monday night. Fat bastards. Sausage Cook grilled 340 snags - a season record on a tiny grill. And you know what else - Monday night's fans were the season's worst tippers too. They will live long in my memory as the most gluttonous and stingiest fans I've encountered. By contrast, on Tuesday night Sausage Cook grilled 240 sausages - and made double the tips! Who knew?

By the way, kudos to the couple of Finns I met last night - my first set of Fans from Finland; I just thought it was cute the way they asked for a hot dog. Usually the Japanese win the accent award, but this times the Finns win.

As far as the baseball was concerned, I thought the Tigers' manager Jim Leyland was going to pull bullpen guy Rooney in the ninth with one out to get. It almost looked like a shade of the panic shown by the Orioles manager on Sunday night. It turned out Leyland was taking a moment to reassure Rooney to get that last out.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Dice-K Mania in Red Sox Nation

Hello all,

This is my first post concerning this year's edition of the Red Sox. From my position grilling sausages inside the park, I have a good view of the mood of the fans, what's on everybody's mind, a few inside tit-bits from park employees and how things are shaping up in '07. I'll be posting from time to time as I'm inspired to comment on all things Red Sox.

Dice-K mania is definitely on the up and up. It's bringing a lot more Japanese fans to the games, tons of journalists, created a fan-club called the Dice-K Girls ( all very pretty from what I've seen so far), lots of dubious sushi in the bars around the ground, and a cautious sense of optimism from serious baseball people. Red Sox Nation wants to love Dice-K, but there is a sense that he has to earn the love of the Nation - it won't be granted unconditionally until the results are posted. The jury's still out on Dice-K, despite two high quality starts already in (April 15).

The park feels more crowded inside - partly 'cos fans are hanging out below the stands to stay warm, eat and drink - and partly due to the extra seats installed along the right field roof. There's a new little stand up there; the owners try to squeeze more people in each year.

With three washouts already on the books, the latter part of the season looks to be filled with double-headers. You have to feel sorry for Seattle, losing a complete three-series in Cleveland, and then one with the Sox last week. Anaheim is copping it over this weekend. Playing a doubleheader at home must be a huge advantage when it comes time to play.

Alright - that's it for this weekend. There will probably be no game in the morning - and no Marathon either. A good day to stay in bed or head to the warm office job.
Seeya,
Sausage Cook