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This week marks the ten-year anniversary of Cal Ripken’s breaking of Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games record, which happened on September 6, 1995.  For a look at the happiest guy in the world whom Scott and I both admired at the record-breaking game, click here.  You can’t be any happier than this orange-capped peanut vendor. 

Itchie and his Skipjacks continue to rule the roost, remarkably if not unbelievably.  Livan Hernandez now is sporting a 15 and 6 record, even with his unimpressive 3.80 ERA, which should be contrasted with Roger Clemens’ record with his 1.57 ERA.  Sometimes, baseball, like life, just isn’t fair.  Andruw Jones is poised to set a career mark in home runs as a Skipjack, and the resurgence of Chipper Jones is also attributable only to one thing, his membership on the Skipjacks team. 

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Last night I had the privilege and pleasure of another visit to Fenway Park, where the Red Sox took on the visiting Los Angeles Angels.  Surprisingly, since we are talking about the defending World Champions, there were plenty of tickets available from the scalpers, and we were able to get very good seats (Section 19, behind home plate) for five bucks less than the $45 per ducat list price.  Although the hometown Red Sox lost to the Angels by the score of 3-0, it was one of the most exciting games that I have seen in a while, with Scott Shields striking out the side in the bottom of the 8th, including the last two hitters with the bases loaded, and F-Rod loading the bases in the 9th before pitching his way out of the jam.  We also saw Angels manager Mike Scioscia ejected for the second night in a row, after taking up the cudgel for coach Mickey Hatcher, who came absolutely unglued after a base runner was called out for not tagging up on a foul out to right field in the 9th inning.  Scioscia has a little bit of Lou Piniella and Billy Martin in him, and he put on quite a show for the opposing fans. 

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One thing I noticed about Fenway that I hadn’t noticed before in my previous trips there is that the on-deck batters don’t stand anywhere near the on-deck circle when they take their cuts.  The reason for this is that the on-deck circles on each side are immediately adjacent to the baselines, and any player standing in the designated on-deck circle would be risking life and limb by standing there.  I don’t know if the circles are located where they are at for historical reasons or aesthetics, but it is a queer arrangement.  No offense intended, Itchie. 

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That’s it for this (last) week.