This was frustrating. A nice, crisp fast moving game dissolves in the 8th inning when Cordero can’t keep the Sox off the board. Dammit. :(

That’s pretty much the bottom line of this game. Yeah, the Rangers scored 17 runs. Yeah, we gave up 10. Yeah, I got sunburned sitting at the game, but it all doesn’t matter. Raffy got his 500th home run, and I was glad to say I was there to see it! It was funny, because when he popped out after the sixth inning, quite a few people left the stadium. Fools! I bet all of them that left will be telling folks that they were there to see it.

This was an odd game for me, because I always score the game. I had gotten comp tickets from my ticket agent, and was sitting in Sec 26 Row 23 – roughly 20 rows right behind home plate. However, I left the scorecard at home, and I can’t score on the one in the program, because I feel the scorecard is too restrictive, I track far more info than the basic stuff. So I didn’t score. I was watching the game, and as been chronicled, when Raffy came up for his final at bat, I had a feeling that he wasn’t going to do it. Even moreso when he was down to two strikes.

But then he did it. It was quite the moment. My wife was jumping up and down, and was all excited. I was trying to be all excited while still taking pictures and making sure I didn’t miss the moment. It was quite cool to be there (unlike the thousands of people that probably will say they were there when they weren’t).

I know I didn’t write a lot, but it’s one of those “moments” that lives in your mind, but you find it hard to describe. I did have two armfuls of goose bumps while it was happening, though. :)

OK, we lost again. Sigh. We lost again against CC Sabathia. As I sit to write this, I’m more interested in writing about Sunday’s game. :)
It was really nice to see Todd Greene’s cousin Ronald Young, the former Iraqi POW out there to throw out the first pitch. That was a great moment.

Getting a bit tiring writing about games with short outings, and crappy pitching performances. I guess I could say that Esteban Yan didn’t give up 20 more runs after he came into the game, I guess that’s something.
My wife & I were watching from home, and she told me that she really did not want Raffy to get #500 on Friday night because I have tickets for Saturday & Sunday – she said if Raffy got it on a day I wasn’t there (I was there on Thu and saw #499), that I’d be moping around about it. She’s probably right. :)
I actually stopped watching the game once we got behind a lot, and just skipped forward on the TiVo to Raffy’s at bats. Hopefully he gets it today (Sat) or tomorrow. I’d like to be there for one of these things for a change. When Raffy got #400, I had tickets for Fri & Sun. He hit it Saturday. When Lynn & I were in Baltimore, we missed Cal Ripken’s 400th HR – he went foul by about 2 or 3 feet. :(

I have a short day today, so I need to get through this as quick as possible – no real commentary. Nice to see a win.
Raffy watch – He got #499 yesterday, and struck out in the bottom of 9th to end the game on possible #500. I was at the game, and took some pics, but I left them at home, I’ll have to update later.

The streak stops at 7 games. Why? We got to within one game of .500. That’s usually when we start losing again. :(
Actually John Thomson pitched well, it’s just at the end he had enough of a meltdown, and the bullpen (Todd Van Poppel) was total crap that we lost. I thought Thomson was great again.
Omar Daal looked surprisingly great – I followed him when he was in Philadelphia, and never thought he was that great of a pitcher.

That was one serious stink coming from the Ballpark. Don’t want to write about it, it was so bad. One thing though – Carlos Delgado’s second home run was some serious crap – it was hit into what looked like Section 251. That’s a SERIOUS distance – was something like 455 feet, if I remember Josh right. Here’s a pic of how far away home plate is looking in from that section.