Victory!

Globe photo

This is how I felt at 12:53 pm today. After almost three hours of watching eight different screens refresh every 30 seconds, I saw it. The Red Sox ticketing screen!! I quickly whipped out my list of proposed games, and ran through the proposed places to sit. Within five minutes, I was out - poorer, but on my way to five games this year at Fenway: May 22 & 24th vs. the New York Mets, and July 24, 25 & 26th vs. the Baltimore Orioles. I think I got pretty good seats - mostly in Loge Boxes. Weirdly, I'm sitting in the same seat I did for one game in 2006! And last year, I sat in the LBs on the 1st base side (that's what came up); this year, it's two games on the 3rd base side. Their computerized ticketing process is so strange.

Of course, it's going to be interesting to see who is actually on that team. Jonathan Papelbon (the crazed guy above) signed a one year contract this week, helping Theo Epstein keep his no-arbitration record intact. Paps got himself a sweet deal - well-deserved, IMHO. Also signed to a one-year was my pal Javier Lopez

I heard an interesting stat on the MLB Network this morning. There are only 25 spots left on the 40-man rosters in the Major Leagues this year. And there are currently 90 free agents sitting out there, waiting for an offer. Many pundits are saying we'll see a bunch of "names" opting for retirement soon, rather than being left off any rosters come spring training. So we could see Tom Glavine, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, and even our captain, Jason Varitek, joining the group that already includes Greg Maddox, Jeff Kent, and (?) Curt Schilling.

Of course, we still need a catcher....