Monday, August 06, 2007

An apology is not enough

I’m no fan of mascots, but I can see why they exist, and can tolerate them — even if Remy’s Wally shtick has gotten really stale, and that Raymond dude down in Tampa Bay is a total creep.

But this was completely bush league. When a mascot’s antics are interfering with the game — never mind imperiling a player’s safety, things have gone way too far. Luckily, Coco is a quick thinker, and has a good sense of humor about it. But this could have been a disaster. It could have cost us our center fielder.

Other than that — and other than that disappointment on Friday — a pretty good weekend all in all..

Yesterday was nice way to wrap it up. But the highlight of the weekend for me was watching Dice-K’s gem on Saturday night with Kayoto Obata and Nanae Kuwashiro, two Japanese runners who were staying with my folks as they competed in Saturday’s Beach to Beacon 10K up in Maine. (The race was founded ten years ago by Cape Elizabeth native Joan Benoit Samuelson, winner of the inaugural women's marathon at the 1984 Olympics; she also won the Boston Marathon in ’79, then an unknown wearing a Red Sox cap.)

You couldn’t have picked a better game for the circumstances. Not only was Matsuzaka-san pitching, but he was facing Ichiro and Kenji Johjima. The only thing missing was Okajima throwing in the eighth — a task that ended up being given over to Gagne, who hiccupped a bit but got the job done.

Ichiro is a superstar, obviously, since his days with the Orix Blue Wave. And Obata’s team back home is the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, for whom Johjima used to man the plate.

But on this night, Obata and Kuwashiro were Red Sox fans, and Daisuke was there man.

We watched every pitchi. With every sutoraiku we cheered. With every fauro (foul), we exhaled deeply, and with every sanshin (strikeout), daburu pure (double play), or goro (ground out) Dice-K induced, we clapped.

He kept Ichiro quiet (as has the rest of the Sox staff) and we notched our first win in nine tries.

It was fun.

Schilling goes tonight.

Let’s make that one fun, too.