jodo23

One of my group backed out of our road trip to Boston, so I'm going to have one open seat for the game Friday night. It's up in Conigliaro's Corner (they're like bleachers up on the roof, down the 1st base line). The catch is, these are Will Call tickets only, so whoever wants to use this ticket will have to meet us outside of Fenway, and enter with my group. Face value of the ticket is $25. If anybody out there is interested, email me at jfriese@gmail.com. http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb59/jodo23/fenway_seat_map_ccs.gif Edit: Corrected my "Bizzaro baseball" mistake. Even with a map, I still typed it in wrong!

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb59/jodo23/brewersnotdeadyet.jpg Something I threw together (inspired by seeing Spamalot this last weekend). Feel free to share.

And what was the negative of keeping him in there? Due to the instability in the knee from the loss of the ACL, he may have done further damage to the knee- meniscus tears, MCL tear, etc.

Speaking from experience, you can seriously damage the meniscus after an ACL tear due to the instability of the joint. About 7 years ago, I made the brilliant decision to play tag football 4 hours before standing up in a wedding. My knee blew out , but I didn't miss the wedding; ended up having most of the medial and lateral meniscus removed because of my folly. I believe my orthopaedic surgeon said that not staying off of it after the initial injury was a "very stupid thing to do." But, then again, the Brewers medical staff knew what they were doing. Right?

I know 3 people off-line that tried to use the passwords they received from the Brewers: only 1 out of three had a valid password. It's all really odd. The Brewers are going to have to overhaul this for next year.

I have a "password" for this ticket sale that I'm not going to use. It's free to the first person who sends me a message. Edit: Gone! Good luck.

My gut says that, if William Raasch thought he saw a torn ligament on his MRI, and James Andrews has indicated that surgery may still be necessary, there must be SOME substantial damage in there. I'd guess we don't see Capuano before the All Star break this season, if at all.

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080327&content_id=2461903&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=mil MESA, Ariz. -- The second opinion on Brewers left-hander Chris Capuano's injured elbow was different from the first, so Capuano apparently will opt for rehab instead of surgery. William Raasch, the Brewers' head physician, read an MRI scan on Sunday, diagnosed Capuano with a torn ulnar collateral ligament and recommended that Capuano undergo the second Tommy John surgery of his career, a procedure that replaces the torn ligament with a tendon from a different part of the body and requires about a year of rehabilitation. But James Andrews, the orthopedist who performed Capuano's first Tommy John surgery in 2002, did an MRI scan of his own this week in Birmingham, Ala., and recommended against surgery, at least for now. Andrews recommended that Capuano try rehabbing the elbow for three to four weeks. "If, after that time, he is still experiencing discomfort, [Andrews] would recommend at the very least exploratory surgery," Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash wrote in an e-mail. Capuano will be placed on the disabled list and will report back to Maryvale Baseball Park for rehab with physical therapist Kenny Patterson's staff. On Sunday, a discouraged Capuano met with reporters after receiving Raasch's recommendation and seemed resigned to surgery. The success rate of successfully rehabbing a torn ligament, Ash said, was only 20-25 percent. "I want to have someone else look at it, someone else tell me that I need to do this," Capuano said at the time.

I wrote an email to the Hall of Fame a few years ago asking about the specifics of Simmons' Veterans Committee eligibility. I posted the contents of their response in the Ted Simmons entry over on wikipedia, but below is the same snippet: "In 1993, only 17 baseball writers voted for Ted Simmons to get into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Being less than the 5% required to remain eligible, Simmons was taken off the ballot. Under the rules of the Committee of Baseball Veterans, Simmons will be given another chance to enter the Hall of Fame in the coming years. After 22 seasons from retirement, 1988 being his last, Simmons can be considered by the Veterans Committee. Since the Committee begins the process every two years (and in odd years), 2011 will be the first eligible year for Simmons, meaning he can appear on the ballot in 2013. He will then be eligible for the life of the process." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Simmons I've played with the idea of, in the months leading up to his eligibility, sending flyers to the Veterans Committee voters to promote Simmons' election. At this point, it's just an idea. There's a lot of time between then and now, and a lot of logistics to be figured out beforehand (for instance, how to ensure that the flyers actually reach the voters' hands). But he does belong in the Hall of Fame; a little effort from us common folk couldn't hurt. BTW, how tacky would it be to buy/wear a #9 Simmons jersey? I'm seriously thinking about it.

Throw my name in, too.

I actually got a letter in the mail this last Friday about the Royals games instead, as they claim they don't have my email address on file. Maybe the same thing happened to you.

I went to quite a few games last year, and was amazed at how many fans, regardless of the day of the week, were wearing the retro uniforms (mostly the home pinstripes, but a few road blues, too). I'd say I saw more retro pinstripes than all three "flavors" of the current uniforms combined. And I'm ok with that. I think the retros are really sharp. I'm glad the team brought them back, and I hope they keep them, and Retro Fridays, around for a while. There's room for well-placed nostalgia while the team continues to create their own legacy. And a deep run into the playoffs would likely make the whole overuse-of-1982 thing moot, anyway.

Just got my consolation letter. Crud.

I just checked Hotels.com- there are still some options around $100-$150 a night for that weekend, but you start getting 10-15+ miles away from Fenway. It's worth checking out for those of you still in need of rooms. Just type in Fenway Park in the destination box.

We have reservations at the Ramada Boston, at about $150 a night. 6 miles from Fenway, 3 miles from downtown. Unfortunately, they appear to be booked up (I made reservations about 3 weeks ago), but if you keep checking their availability, you may get lucky if someone cancels. The info is below: Ramada Boston 800 Morrissey Boulevard Freeport St Boston, MA 02122 US Phone: 617-287-9100 Fax:617-265-9287 http://www.ramada.com/Ramada/control/Booking/property_info?propertyId=13366&brandInfo=RA We really wanted to stay at the Howard Johnson right next to Fenway, but I waited about a week too long to book it. That would have been sweet.

Try calling the box office while you wait online. Worked for me. (617) 482-4769. Good luck! And BTW, there are tickets on ebay right now for about twice face value.

I managed to get through on the phone about an hour in. That had to be the most annoying automated service I've ever dealth with. I was trying to get 4 tickets together for both the Friday and Saturday games. They had 8 available seating options for both games, starting with the $90 Loge Box, all the down to the $12 Upper Bleachers. So, I start with the Friday game, and the $90 tickets, and I'm told that there aren't 4 contiguous tickets available; I'm then asked if I'd be willing to take singles in separate sections. Um, no. So I work my way down all the section options, starting all the way back at the beginning of the system each time, the woman's recorded voice getting more and more annoying as I go, and finally I get 4 together in the Upper Bleachers, Section 43, Row 49. I repeat this same scenario with the Saturday game, with the exact same result. How hard would it be for them to add an option to search out the best available 4 contiguous seats? Guh. So, my question to those of you who've been to Fenway is: exactly how bad are these seats? Everything I've read online indicates that, well, at least I got in the door. And, they're cheaper than SRO.

Looks like the Cardinals are a shoo-in for a W today, as the Pirates have resorted to putting the ball on a tee for them... http://my.execpc.com/~jfriese/n%20available.jpg "Now pitching for the Pirates, #0, N. Available. Available"

Ben (expletive deleted) Hendrickson.

I wrote to the Hall of Fame back in '05 about Simmons' Veterans Committee eligibility. This is part of their response: Dear Friend, Thank you for your recent message. Ted Simmons was eligible for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994. He garnered 17 votes, just shy of the 5% required to remain on the ballot for the next year. Under the rules of the Committee of Baseball Veterans, Simmons will be given another chance in the coming years. After 22 seasons from retirement, 1988 being his last, Simmons can be considered by the Veterans Committee. Since the Committee begins the process every two years (and in odd years), 2011 will be the first eligible year for Simmons, meaning he can appear on the ballot in 2013. He will then be eligible for the life of the process. For a complete list of rules, be sure to visit our web site under the Hall of Famers section at . I'm seriously considering a letter writing campaign to the Veterans Committee voters in behalf of Simmons. Maybe develop some sort of pamphlet with his stat comparisons, snippets from news articles, etc... I plan to get started on this sometime in, oh, say about 2011. Unless I forget.

Not Wil Inman! Well, I guess you have to give to get...

I also have a spare pinstripe Simmons. I'll be looking for a Thomas, if that would work for you (or anyone else out there).

Message sent about the blue.

Our group decided to splurge and stay at the Hilton right at Busch. It's $220 a night, but with 4 of us, it's not so bad. We'll be at both ends of the day/night doubleheader on Saturday... just look for the guy in the Ted Simmons retro jersey!

Throw a lot in for me as well.