Thanks for everything, Youk.

Thanks for 2004, 2007 and years of gritty, hard play.  Hope you get your old attitude and old swing back in Chicago.  Goodbye, number 20.

xo kate

"New England's parlor, a region's nightclub, and the Olde Towne Team's hearth. To generations of Americans, going to Fenway Park has been like coming home."

There will be baseball at Fenway tonight, and a marathon on Monday.  Boston, I couldn't miss you more.

xo kate

Opening day...

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again."

-Terence Mann

We won't forget.

I'm way sadder than I thought I'd be about Tek's retirement.  He's been a part of so many of my favorite Red Sox memories and the idea of spring coming without him in a catcher's mask is just strange to me.  All the departures on the Sox this year just serve to remind me how special 2004 was.

Thank you, Captain, for everything. For  2004, 2007, and for hundreds of thousands of hours squatting in the dirt for the team and the city I love.

And especially, thank you for getting in A-Rod's face.  I hate that little bitch.

xo kate

In other Boston news, it's Truck day

Happy Truck Day!  I wish I was on my way to Florida, instead of Saturday professional development.

xo kate

It's like when I found out Emily and Daniel from Revenge were dating.

Oh, don't worry Gisele, I still hate you.

I kind of love that Kevin Youkilis is marrying Tom Brady's sister.  It like that delighted feeling you get when two actors from the same TV show or movie make it official in real life.  Generally it's difficult for me to get behind couples who have wildly unbalanced levels of attractiveness (this is just one of the many problems I have with the Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen pairing) but there's something so appealing about Youk.  I guess it's sort of like my oldest sister's weird attraction to Tom Petty -- you know he's ugly, but you just can't seem to shake it.  Also, Julie Brady is a teacher!  I'm a teacher!  I love teachers!  (Have you ever noticed how when writers are trying to endear you to teachers they refer to them as schoolteachers? I'm going to start introducing myself as a schoolteacher in order to come off as just slightly more precious.) Moreover, reading all these articles about what incredibly nice and humble people the Brady's are is just beginning to melt my icy heart toward Tom.

Oh, and by the way, I totally don't watch Revenge. That stuff is trash.  (Except that I totally do, and it's e-mazing.  You should watch too.)

xo kate

Seven years later...

...and I still get chills when I think about it.

xo kate

Don't write a letter when you want to leave, Don't call me at 3 a.m. from a friend's apartment, I'd like to choose how I hear the news, Take me to a park that's covered with trees, Tell me on a Sunday please

xo kate

The Real Housewives of South Boston

Are you (or someone you know) from South Boston?  How do you feel about this video? Offended? Delighted? A little bit of both?  And most importantly, do you know Marky Mark?

This is who you'll always be to me.

I don't blame Theo for leaving the Red Sox for the Cubs.  Honestly, I'm thinking of doing the same thing.  The state of the organization right now is pathetic and an absolute disgrace to the game.  I've been angry at the Red Sox organization before, but I don't know that I've ever been ashamed of it.  Right now, I'm ashamed.

But all that's besides the point, Theo is leaving, and I'll miss him.  To me, he's one of the ultimate icons of the Red Sox success in 2004-2007.  I love him, and I've loved rooting for his team.  And I say that despite the fact that he traded away my favorite player ever.

Thanks for everything, Theo.  Good luck in Chicago.  Go Cubs!

xo kate

Thanks for everything.

Tito,

You helped change everything.  Thank you.

Love,
New England

xo kate

You're only gonna break break break break break my heart

So sad.  So statistically improbable.  I watched the game last night on MLB Game Day during my grad school class (Yep, I'm in grad school again.  Thought I did that already...) while getting texts from Boston.  It reminded me so much of the last time I watched this team through the internet and text messages while sitting in class.  But that was 2004, and the ending was different. (And it was a flip phone so texting was a lot slower.)  Even after all these years, New England sports sure know how to break my heart.

xo kate

Clearly filmed before this weekend...

But I love these guys.



xo kate

Some help...

For the record, we're Red Sox fans.  The tried and true, til we die kind of Red Sox fans, not the pink-hat-wearing, our teams in the play offs and we want to go to the bar kind of Red Sox fans.  But, we know that some members of the wolfpack may not like baseball as much as we do.  We think these individuals just haven't found the team that fits them best.

When you have a team that fits you, it becomes like a family.  Sometimes you like them, sometimes you hate them, sometimes they can't get their pitching together and need to cut their losses with the 6-year, $52 million mistake they made in 2007, but in the end, they're the ones you always come home to.  To that end, here's a helpful guide to picking the right team for your personality.

(Click to enlarge.)


Thank you Intepretation by Design.

 Hope that helps.

xo kate

The Greatest Rivalry

There is nothing that makes Monday easier to face than the Sox beating the Yankees on the Game of the Week. Especially when Beckett pitched a gem. And especially when there's this:



My crush on Jim continues to grow.

xo kate

It's Friday, I'm in love

Well, not really, but I have been doing some serious thinking lately.  Here's where my mind has been.

Between J-Woww, Snooki and DJ Pauly D all having solo projects green-lit for production by MTV, and the entire country of Italy mounting an opposition, I'm starting to get concerned that Jersey Shore: The Italian Years isn't going to happen. 

I just don't understand why Members of Congress still get paid in the event of a government shutdown.  It boggles the mind how jacked up government can get sometimes.  Nicholas Kristof put in much more eloquently than me in his Op-Ed column yesterday.  And by much more eloquently, I mean he doesn't use the term jacked up.

At this point, I'm legitimately worried that the Red Sox aren't going to win a single game this whole season.  Was that whole Best Team Ever stuff meant to be ironic?  I usually have such a finely-honed sense of irony, but I didn't see that coming.  They really should have warned me about that.  In other news, count me among the delighted and terrified that after ninety-nine years, hard liquor is coming to Fenway Park. 

Fenway was peaceful at 5:54am this morning.  But there's nothing that disrupts the peace faster 
than angry Boston fans who now have access toeven more ways to get drunk at a sporting event.

I think the most surprising thing in US Weekly's article about Spencer Pratt's desire to intern for Ryan Seacrest is that VHI is legally allowed to call a show starring Heidi Montag, Jake from The Bachelor and The Real Housewives of New Jersey's Danielle Staub a reality programming.  That show is about as far from reality as things can get.

xo kate

Happy Truck Day!

This arctic freeze makes me wish I could be a stow-away on the truck to Florida.

xo kate