This year, unlike last year, Red Sox Nation will have to wait until next year.
A good, young Tampa team beat the Sox in game 7 allowing the Hotdogman to start getting to bed earlier (barring tonight's Monday Night Football Game which features the Patriots).
Oh well, Red Sox fans should know you can't win the World Series every year.
Showing posts with label red sox nation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label red sox nation. Show all posts
Next Year
Red Sox Truck Day
While this might just look like an ordinary moving truck to most people, it signifies a landmark early right of Spring to members of Red Sox Nation. This is the truck that leaves Fenway Park with all the Red Sox equipment every February for Fort Meyers, Florida. The truck left this morning, signaling the first spring training ritual.
ONLY 59 days until OPENING DAY!!!!
Sox take 2-0 Series Lead
Four short years ago, Red Sox nation was awash in misery. The Yankees had beaten us once again as Grady Little left Pedro in one inning too long.
Now, Red Sox fans expect to win it all. These are not your father's Red Sox. These Red Sox are winners. There is no more curse, there is no more morose self loathing.
Our team is going to win the World Series for the second time in my lifetime.
For the second time in three years!
In the most tightly played game of the post season so far, the Sox prevailed again. Schilling pitched crafty ball, Okajema was lights out in relief and Papelbon slammed the door, thanks in part to a baserunning brain fart by Matt Holiday.
"Hey Matt, wanna get away?"
Mike Lowell scored after he hustled to third on a JD (he doesn't suck anymore) Drew hit and scored on a sacrifice fly and also drove in the winning run with a sharp hit down the leaft field line.
Sox win, Rox lose.
SOX IN 4!!!!
Sox Talk
The hot topic of the day at the Hot Dog Truck isn't all the construction, it's the Red Sox. The Sox versus the Rox starts tomorrow and Red Sox Nation is buzzing.
I'm personally still psyched they won it back in 2004. To have them back in the World Series only three years later is almost surreal. They are going to win too. This is a team of destiny, I've been saying it all season.
Everyone is upbeat and smiling at the Hot Dog Truck when they talk about the Sox. Even the grumpy old bastard types (the ones who still think these are the "old" Sox who'll break your heart every time) are almost giddy with anticipation about tomorrow night's Game 1.
I don't know what to tell my kids. When I was growing up, the Sox always choked and the Patriots were a joke. My kids have seen three Super Bowl victories and a World Series Championship in their short lives. They think their teams are supposed to win!
I just keep telling them, "these are not your father's Red Sox!"
Alexander Falk
As a Red Sox fan, I can identify with the many members of Red Sox Nation. One such member is Alexander Falk, founder of Altova. He is your basic computer genius and he has a blog called the XML Aficionado blog where he shares his vast knowledge.
Like me he writes about the Red Sox (as well as XML related stuff). I am sure he thinks JD Drew sucks and Eric Gagne sucks. He is probably on pins and needles (like me) as the Red Sox are 3 wins (or Yankee losses) away from their first division title in ages.
So if you want to share the joy/agony of being a Red Sox fan and you want to learn more about cool XML developer tools, check out the XML Aficionado blog. He can even reccommend a good restaurant!
Le Menu
Some customers have asked for a menu on the site. Here it is.
Hot Dog............$1.50
Chili Dog...........$2.00
Tuna Roll..........$1.50
Cranberry Walnut
Chicken Salad
Roll....................$2.00
Sausage............$3.00
Hamburger......$2.25
Cheeseburger..$2.50
Bowl of Chili.....$3.00
COMBO SPECIALS:
2 dogs, soda & chips..................$4.00
2 Tuna Rolls, soda & chips............$4.00
Sausage, soda & chips.................$4.00
2 Chili Dogs, soda & chips............$5.00
2 Chicken Salad Rolls, soda & chips...$5.00
Surf and Turf, soda & chips...........$4.00
TOPPINGS: Gulden's Mustard, French's Mustard, Honey Mustard, Grey Poupon, Relish, Onions, Cheese, Kraut, Barbeque Sauce, Ketchup, Mayonaise, Chili, Sauteed Peppers and Onions, Tabasco Sauce, Red Pepper, celery salt
OTHER STUFF: Soda, Water, Gatorade, Chips, Snacks and Cookies
I used Kayhem Old Time, natural casing franks, expertly steamed in water, beer and onions. Buns are grilled to order-ITS ALL ABOUT THE BUNS
Soggy Sox
I wait and wait and wait all winter for the baseball season to start and what happens?
Rain. Rain is keeping my Little Leaguers off the practice field and its messing with the Major League Schedule as well. Cleveland and Seatle are going to be playing double headers for the entire month of August!
My Red Sox have missed a few games due to the weather, but they are really looking good. The starting pitching is shaping up to be everything as advertised. Schilling has been Schilling after his crappy start on opening day, Beckett is 3-0, Dice-K looks like the real deal and Wakefield is "eating up innings" while confounding opposing batters. Tavares has practically been a non factor due to the weather-he's missed a couple of starts. Papelbon continues to be the 800 pound Gorilla.
The Sox starting pitching has been excellent-the best in the AL with a 2.72 (4.06 AL average) team ERA and a .210 batting average against. Even Dice-K and Wakefield's losses were good efforts 3 and 2 runs given up respectively-the Sox just ran into better pitchers on those nights.
Toronto and New York, the biggest threats to the Sox in the AL East, are banged up. The Sox will face a Blue Jays team this week without B.J. Ryan and Troy Glauss and the Yankees are busy scouring the high schools for pitchers to patch up their battered staff.
The Sox could put some real distance between the Jays and the Yanks this week and that would be a good thing.
The best news is they can't get rained out in Toronto!
And of course......
High Times at The Hot Dog Truck
Today was a gorgeous day, 70 degrees and the hot dog lovers are coming out of the woodwork!
This lovely Red Sox fan was havin' a good day!
Here's another happy Sox fan with "Red Sox" spelled in Japanese on his shirt. (Further translation found the shirt to say "My mother dresses me funny"). This guy's buddy is a former Hot Dog Man from Worcester. I guess that makes me "the Hot Dog Man's Hot Dog Man!"
Fred from Coldwell Banker is a hard core, year 'round regular. Here he is enjoying his standard "two all around brown" dogs. Fred owes me about $320.00 for STRAWS! (Straws are 8 bucks at the Hot Dog Truck and he never pays). Fred is going to be PO'd when he sees this picture!
Here's Fred's lunch: YUMMY!
The good weather means the folks at BOSE finally crawl out of their cubes and come on down for hot dogs. BOSE World HQ is right around the corner from my truck. When the picnic tables are out, they conduct meetings there! This guy bravely takes a bite out of a chili dog for the camera. I must say people look pretty goofy eating hot dogs!
These two guys (also from BOSE) are regulars but they tend not to venture out on the REALLY COLD days. The guy on the right gets two RED and WHITE dogs (Ketchup and Mayo). There really is no good explanation why someone would put ketchup and mayo on a hot dog-there must be some trauma in his childhood manifesting itself by ruining good hot dogs with KETCHUP!
The guy on the left switches it up a lot-sometimes going for a burger, sometimes dogs. Today he got two BLONDS (Chili, Onion and Mustard). This hot dog name is courtesy of a gal from LA who suggested that name here (she's sooo naughty!) Many people who work at BOSE are also musicians and guy on the left is too. He's in a Grateful Dead
Manny Gets Grilled
Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox put his gas grill up for sale yesterday on eBay! Read the story HERE.
At the end of the article is this : "I'm just here to play the game and enjoy it," Ramirez told the Globe. "[I enjoy] my life. All the things that I do I enjoy. I'm not here to talk to [the media]. I'm here to play the game. That's me, you know. The same. Everywhere I go is the same."
The guy takes a lot of heat from the media, largely because he doesn't talk to them so they have to invent stuff.
LAY OFF MANNY! And pass the barbeque sauce....
The Big Schill gets a Blog
As of yesterday, Curt Schilling now has his own blog. There are only a couple of posts but he has over 100 comments on each one! If only I could get that kind of traffic! Check Curt out here.
Spring training
The Red Sox just played their first spring training game. I could rant about spring training games, make witty commentary, provide insightful analysis on player performances etc. but these games don't count. Next to "irrelevent" in the dictionary are the words "spring training baseball games."
Proof of the irrelevence: a 4-4 10 inning tie. A tie in a baseball game. Wake me in April.
The Big Schil
I am getting sick and tired of professional baseball players talking about "respect." We've heard the term used in free agent negotiations countless times, Pedro Martinez brought the term to new heights when he and his shoulder skipped town. Now another Red Sox ace is using the "R" word: Curt Schilling.
Curt we love you, but shut the bleep up. Curt will be earning a tad north of $13 million this year and is adored by fans for his heroics in 2004. And he complains about a lack of respect? I wish I had that kind of "no respect!" Whenever you negotiate and make ultimatums publicly you are going to create a charged atmosphere.
For those of you who don't know, Schilling let it be known on the Dennis and Callahan Show a few weeks ago that he didn't want to retire after all. When I first heard the words, I was excited-the guy is a gamer-unfortunately he also has a big mouth. He stated he wanted a deal done before Spring Training was done or else. In this case or else was filing for Free Agency after the season. When Theo conveyed ownership's desire to take a "wait and see" approach, Curt had a hissy fit and once again publicly painted the Red Sox into a corner, creating a maelstrom of commentary from Red Sox nation and many Boston scribes.
The media in this town in relation to the Red Sox is bad enough: the lot of them kowtow to the organization and feed Red Sox Nation with a load of "news" that makes some of these daytime soap operas look downright legitimate. The Boston Sports media, particularly when it comes to the Red Sox, has a self importance about them bordering on demagoguery. And Schilling fuels their flame. The media loves this guy because he likes to shoot his mouth off-which is precisely why the Red Sox want to take a wait and see approach.
Schilling came to camp fat and bitchy and lashing out at the Sox (and the media he has such a love/hate relationship with) about the lack of respect he was shown. If he wins 15-20 games on a team that contends for a World Series, the Big Schil will get his dough and his respect. He'll probably still be on the Red Sox too. As a fan, I'd like him to shut up and pitch and please stop whining about a lack of respect.
Harrassing Yankee Fans
A regular came by today I hadn't seen in a while and we were talking about how the Red Sox are out spending the Yankees this year. The evil empire has always outspent every other team and it appears they're scaling back. Who can blame them after Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano and A-Rod. What has it gotten them? Well, they haven't won a World Series this millennium; maybe the Yanks are revisiting how to build a team.
I really believe the Yankees are due for an implosion this year. The Yankees are going to fall victim to their own excesses in 2007. With a string of failed free agent signings and a pitching staff that can't measure up to the Red Sox, they will be lucky to come in second place in 2007. Mariano Rivera is griping about his contract and it isn't even spring training yet, Joe Torre is showing signs of being frustrated, A-Rod is on TV saying the love is gone between him and Jeter and Andy Petit won't live up to his legacy. While the Yankees will have a powerful batting line up, they won't be able to close the deal as in years past.
I predict A-Rod will be dealt by the trading deadline, Joe Torre will be fired and Petit will be on the DL. Red Sox take the AL East by 4 or 5 games.
Back to my customer: He has a son-in-law who is a Yankee fan living in Vermont. Poor deluded man. He apparently gets a lot of grief from just about everyone in his life. I intend to pile on here! We started chatting about how we treat Yankee fans. Personally, I grew up with the "old" Red Sox: break yer heart every time. Yankee fans were a constant source of pain and harassment-their arrogance and superior attitude were exceeded only by the success of their team. Thank God that era is over and my children won't have to grow up with the same inferiority complex that plagued me through my fortieth year.
So I was telling this customer how I treat Yankee fans these days. Customers wearing Yankee apparel must pay a two dollar surcharge for their meals and be subject to any abuse I hurl their way while serving up their delicious dogs. A boy at my daughter's middle school actually trashed his Yankee hat in favor of a Red Sox hat because he got tired of me calling him out when I was picking her up from school; his dad thanked me at a school concert for doing what he had been unable to do! Then there was the kid who wore a Yankee hat to his first practice as a member of my Little League team-after he finished the 5 laps around the field I made him run, he swore he'd never wear the hat to practice again (he didn't). And there's the bag boy at the local market who always wears a Yankee hat-I asked to speak to the manager and the manager said we could take him out back and rough him up a bit. When I see someone wearing a Yankee hat at our beach, I tell them they need to remove it-"club rules." My customer's son in law was told by his boss not to wear his Yankee hat to work if he wanted to keep his job!
The collective consciousness of Red Sox Nation is getting its revenge for years of abuse and we're not shy about letting our feelings be known. I don't intend to let up on Yankee fans-at least not in this millennium.
How a Red Sox Fan Got Religion
I read the news of Keith Foulke's retirement the other day with a wistful feeling. He will forever be remembered by me as the guy who made "THE out." When I heard the news, I began thinking back to those magical, sleep deprived days at the tail end of October, 2004.
Since today is Sunday, I spent about an hour and a half at church this morning; 1 hour for Mass and a half hour munching bagels and sipping coffee in the church basement afterwards. Like many Catholics, I was at one point in my life reluctant to go to Church-I viewed it as a chore or obligation. That all changed on October 17, 2004. You see on October 16, 2004 the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox in game three of the American League Championship Series. Actually, they destroyed them 19 to 8 (and the game wasn't as close as the score indicates). There was no joy in Red Sox Nation on Sunday October 17, 2004. The general mood was one of despair and resignation to the fact that our Sox were breaking our hearts once again. My then 10 year old son kept asking me on the way to church that morning if it was at all possible for the Sox to come back and win it-my answer was yes, it's possible but not probable. I suggested we all pray extra hard for the Red Sox.
I don't know if I was especially reflective or morose, but the Gospel that morning was from Exodus 17 Water From The Rock:
Exodus 17: 8 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands."
10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
Father G. read the Gospel and proceded with his usual interpretations. He noted that in order for the Israelites to defeat the Amalekites, Moses needed to keep his arms raised to preserve victory. Persistence is what allowed Moses to keep his arms raised. He needed to be persistent in the face of his weariness and he required assistance to maintain his persistence. He likened this to being a faithful Catholic in modern times: we need to be persistent in our faith, even when things may appear hopeless around us. I leaned over to my son and whispered in his ear "that's a lot like being a Red Sox fan." We said our silent prayers and mine most definately included a prayer for the Red Sox. I even threw some extra money into the collection basket that morning.
We all know that God is a Red Sox Fan and what happened in the improbable week and a half after that: Dave Roberts' steal, Big Papi, Johnny (Jesus) Damon, The Bloody Sock, and "swing and a ground ball, stabbed by Foulke, he has it, he underhands to first and the Boston Red Sox are World Champions!" We'll miss you Keith-we couldn't have done it without you and you should have been MVP of the 2004 World Series. I don't care what you did after that night on October 27 of 2004. In your own way, you gave this Sox fan a shot of religion.
Snow bank
Well all the plow guys are happy today. Yesterday and last night they all got their "white gold" and they've got money in their pockets. The guys who plowed my lot practically buried my truck, there was quite a bit of digging before the dogs could get cooking. Chalk that up to being a bit inconsiderate. The only thing that made me feel better about that was they buried one of their own cars! Chalk that up to being dumb.
Not much action today. Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow so the Red Sox will creep back into the collective consciousness next week.
Hamburger Day
Today's relatively warm weather brought the return of the Hamburger lover to the old Hot Dog Truck. My burgers are very tasty but they take about 7-8 minutes to cook. People don't want to wait that long when its 6 degrees out! I sold a dozen burgers today, which is a lot for even a sunny day. Hot Dogs and Sausages are the big items every day.
The Red Sox Equipment Truck left for spring training today. Thus begins the countdown to Opening Day-the day the picnic tables go out at the Hot Dog truck!
Ice fishing-without the ice!
If you live in the northern part of the country, you've undoubtedly seen people ice fishing. The hardcore ice fisherman has a hut where they keep from the cold. I often feel like one of these guys in my hot dog truck on a cold day-except I don't have a hole in the floor to reel in fish. No beer either.
I wonder how many ice fishermen like hot dogs? Shanty towns of ice fishing huts spring up on lakes in the winter time. Maybe I should park out on one of these places during the winter.....
Pitchers and catchers in 6 days....
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