Bethel Alum makes it to the Show

Big news yesterday for all of you who are Red Sox fans and somehow attached to Bethel. One of our alums made it to the big leagues. Justin Masterson was drafted in the second round a couple of years ago and has been dominating AA ball. With Dice-K and Beckett ailing on the mother team, they needed some help, and Justin got the call.

He pitched six innings at Fenway against the Angels, giving up only two hits and one run. In my office at school I had purchased the internet broadcast for my computer, and at different times there was a Dean, the Director of Financial Aid, another VP, a Board of Trustees member, and the President in checking on the progress. Lots of fun (too bad the bullpen blew the win for Justin!).

Pictured here is the ball Justin signed for me. It sits on the shelf next to my autographed balls by Bob Gibson and Phil Niekro (no pressure, Justin).

When I got home, in the mail my official membership materials had come from Red Sox Nation. I'm no fair weather fan, and it's even more exciting to be a big fan of a team when someone you know is playing with them.

Play ball!

There is still snow in piles in northern Indiana, but they're playing baseball in Japan. My family and I arose at 6am local time today to see the season opener for Major League Baseball which featured my beloved Red Sox beating the Oakland A's in extra innings in the Tokyo Dome. Evidently this is part of some marketing scheme to bring in more international dollars to MLB.

I have to admit that it seems a bit early for baseball to be going entering the official season. And I haven't decided yet how devoted of a fan I'm going to be this summer (though I'm not sure that we are always the agents of such decisions... more often we find ourselves engaged at various levels apart from any intentional choice). On the one hand, I won't be administrating any more this summer (which means I won't have to put on long pants every day and go to work), so there should be some time to devote to sport. But on the other hand, a writing deadline looms pretty large at the end of the summer, and there's not much of a margin for tomfoolery.

I'm also anxious to see how the whole world-champions-twice-in-four-years thing fits with being a Red Sox fan. Winning the World Series once was the incredible and unbelievable climax to the collective suffering of generations. But now it's almost old hat. The DNA of Red Sox Nation is changing. I haven't decided yet if I like it. It makes me feel pretentious... almost like a Yankee fan.

See you tomorrow morning at 6am for game two.

Red Sox - Yankees

So I've been a pretty big Red Sox fan since the spring of 1996 when we moved to Boston so I could go to graduate school. I wasn't really a very big baseball fan at the time, but I walked past Fenway Park almost every day on my way to BU, and there's something that gets in your blood out there.

Then the next season was Nomar Garciaparra's Rookie of the Year season. When my parents were out visiting, we were walking around Faneuil Hall, we bumped into Nomar and his family. He let us get a picture with him (sorry, can't post it here, it was before digital cameras--but the blown up, framed copy is hanging on my wall). After that, our oldest son (who was 4 at the time) started imitating Nomar's batting glove ritual.

When we first moved back to Indiana, we got Directv with the baseball package just so we could see a few games a week (the withdrawals were pretty bad). Needless to say, 2004 was a good year for us, and I was pretty obnoxious about it.

The last couple of years, though, I've significantly reduced the amount of time I spend watching and tracking baseball. And now we not only don't have Directv and the baseball package, we don't even have cable any more. And the first two times that Boston was on Fox Saturday baseball, our local station showed the Cubs.

Today, then, is the first chance I've had to see a Red Sox game on TV. It's June. Red Sox are in first place. Yankees are in last (or close to it). They're playing each other on TV. I'm watching it. Pull out the Yankee Hater hat. Life is good.