Red Sox Ultras 1901 Speaking...

Hi guys, long time no see, or as the case is, "post". I love the Red Sox and I take an avid interest in pretty much everything related to them, with exception, perhaps, to what brand of toilet paper Fenway Park employs in its public bathrooms.

As a die hard fan, the Red Sox jersey is, to me, well a pretty much sacred object worthy of being displayed on a little pedestal at the center of the room for convenient worship  (I keep mine in the closet under an Arsenal FC flag much to the relief of my girlfriend, but nobody needs to know that). To cut to the point, I'm sort of an enthusiast when it comes to collecting bits and pieces of the hideously expensive Red Sox uniform.

Mostly I can't afford to buy so much as a hat, however, so I confine myself to trying to track down a history of this great uniform. Somewhat understandably, the history of Boston Red Sox uniforms is a somewhat limited field drawing interest from less than a few people. I like it though, and I'm looking for anything or anybody online who can give me the lowdown on BoSox uniforms, from the history of the red sock to the color underpants worn by Jackie Jensen in 1958 (kidding on that last example).

Do any of you guys know a site listing info and stuff about the Red Sox uniform? Specifically, if one of you could drudge up a website with pictures or pictograms of the Red Sox jersey throughout history that might help cure my, err, uniform fetish.

Thanks a lot all, ;) Take care as always.

Red Sox Ultras 1901 Speaking...

My expectations for the Red Sox as voted for in an April RedSox.com poll were for the defending World Series Champions to reach the playoffs again. This was partly logical based on the strong and relatively unchanged lineup we were inheriting from the 2007 season and also part emotional--as a Red Sox fan I believe we have the right to expect a good season from this team, but I abhor the newfound Yankee mentality among many fans that the team should haul in a title every year. Any team reaching the Post Season ranks among the top 8 in all of baseball--that is nothing to be sneered at. We have 2 titles under our belt, chill out.

Still I can hardly contain the my joy at the fact that the Red Sox overcame expectations yet again. The ALCS is probably my favorite event in all of baseball, the dirtiest and most passionate culmination of a loooong and grueling season. A team winning the ALCS seems to rise to an entirely new level...a place above the clouds called World Series Heaven. But first it must fight its way through ALCS Hell. There is only one thing better than the Sox being in the ALCS--the Sox being in the ALCS and facing a rival team. The Rays are arguably our most-hated rivals second only to the Wankees and after a heated run for the AL East crown this series is bound to be a battle reminiscent of the 2004 series against the Wankees. Today, unlike then, we are the team with history on its side facing a band of "idiots" with nothing to lose. Can we consider ourselves the lucky team? How would you compare losing to #2 rivals Rays to losing to #1 rivals Wankees?

Red Sox Ultras 1901 speaking....

Just a quick recap of another stellar Red Sox regular season, or at least stellar to those who remember the pre-2004 days.

MLB OPENING DAY:  

March 25, 2008

Tokyo Dome, Japan  RED SOX - ATHLETICS (W4-3)

Daisuke Matsuzaka opens up the 2008 MLB Opening Series in native Japan, going 5 innings and relinquishing 2 hits and 2 runs.  Fellow Japan native, Okajima eventually earns the Red Sox their first win of the season. Runs come from LF Manny Ramirez (4RBI) and RF Moss (2 RBI).

RED SOX HOME OPENER

April 4, 2008

Fenway Park, MA  RED SOX - TIGERS (W5-0)

The Red Sox collect their 2007 World Series Rings as Matsuzaka is given the honor of opening the season at the home of the Defending Champs, Fenway Park, and doesn't disappoint, earning his second victory of the season, pitching 6.2 innings of shutout ball. Delcarmen and Okajima shut the door in relief for the dominating 5-0 shut-out before a sold-out home crowd.

MLB ALL STAR GAME

July 16, 2008

Yankee Stadium, NY AMERICAN LEAGUE - NATIONAL LEAGUE (W4-3)

The 79th All Star game in MLB history may have taken place in the home of the arch-rival Yankees, but that didn't stop Red Sox players--represented the American League--from making an impact of their own. Three Red Sox players were featured on the starting lineup (Ramirez, Youkilis, and, making his first-ever appearance, the lovable Pedroia). All in all 7 Red Sox players were elected to the game, more than from any other team. J.D. Drew of the Boston Red Sox (2 hits, 2 RBIs, 1R) became the 4th player in Red Sox history to receive the MLB All Star Game MVP Award--and all this on cherished Yankee soil.

GAME #162

September 28, 2008

Fenway Park, MA  RED SOX - YANKEES

In the last game of the regular season, the play-off bound Boston Red Sox defeated their arch-rivals, the already-eliminated Yankees, 4-3 on a dramatic bases loaded walk-off single in the 10th. Tim Wakefield pitched five innings of two-hit, shutout ball and run support came from DH Chris Carter and 1B Sean Casey, until rookie CF Jonathan Van Every delivered the killings blow to the Yankees season with a walk-off season-ender in the 10th.

MILESTONES:

May 19, 2008 RED SOX-KANSAS CITY ROYALS (Fenway Park)

Cancer surviver and WS Game 4 winner John Lester pitches the first no-hitter of his career and the 18th in Red Sox history, giving the Sox the most no-hitters in American League history.

May 31, 2008 RED SOX -BALTIMORE ORIOLES (Fenway Park)

Red Sox legend and future Dodger Manny Ramirez hits his 500th career home run.

SUMMARY:

W:95 L:67 one game worse than in 2007 (W: 96 L:66)

2nd place AL East, AL WILD CARD

2.0GB behind the Tampa Bay Rays

6.0 games ahead of 3rd place New York Yankees

Season began March 25 2008 in Tokyo, Japan @ Oakland (W4-3)

Postseason spot clinched September 23 2008 at Fenway Park, MA, vs. INDIANS (W5-4)

Season ended September 28 2008 at Fenway Park, MA, vs. YANKEES (W5-4)

POST SEASON:

MLB 2008 ALDS II:

Game 1: RED SOX @ ANGELS, Wednesday OCT 1, 2008

Game 2: RED SOX @ ANGELS, Friday OCT 3, 2008

Game 3: RED SOX vs. ANGELS, Sunday OCT 5, 2008

Game 4: RED SOX vs. ANGELS, Monday OCT 6, 2008

Game 5: RED SOX @ ANGELS, Wednesday OCT 8, 2008

At the beginning of this season I voted in a redsox.com poll that my expectations for the Defending Champions Boston Red Sox this year were to reach the Post Season again, and reach it they did. I believe the Red Sox have had a terrific year and I can find very little to complain about. Now I'm gonna lean back and cheer on the most treasured team in all of of wonderful New England for as long as their back-to-back title run lasts.

RED SOX FOREVER RED SOX.

Red Sox Ultras 1901 Speaking...

And so we approach the final series this year against our not-so-friendly arch-rivals from down the coast. I'm sure many of your are overjoyed or at least relieved that for once we are taking on our eternal foes without having our season on the line. Coincidentally, we even get the honor of pounding the limping MFY on home soil, since MLB didn't consider Yankee Stadium near and dear enough to baseball to allow the last Red Sox-Yankees series to take place in New York.

Then why do I want the Sox to pound the living daylights out of the already eliminated Wankees with the regular season virtually over? Well aside from the fact that it's never the wrong time to punish old rivals, my insides churn at the thought that the Wankees might have the honor of pilfering another division title from the Sox, albeit in a somewhat unorthodox fashion by handing the AL East title over to the Rays on a silver platter.

It is nigh impossible that the Sox win the Division Title this year, to that I am resigned, but there is no way that any respectable Sox fan can watch the Wankers from New York Shitty have the pleasure of dealing us the killing blow. If the Rays win tonight and thus clinch it, so be it and congratulations on capping off a stellar season in appropriate fashion. But the Red Sox cannot let their arch rivals have the last laugh by losing to them before the Rays officially clinch with a win. The Wankees, who are a dying team, need to be buried in befitting manner--we won't let a dying team have the last laugh will we? Red Sox fans, sing loud sing proud!

Poles on the blog "ORTIZ TRADE: VOTE NOW" are now closed. Thanks for voting all.

The results are as follows:

21% voted to trade Ortiz.

78% voted to keep Papi on the team.

A blow-out victory for Ortiz fans, however it initially looked like the pro-Ortiz camp was going to muster up a perfect or near perfect 100% vote.

Last few days things seem to have evened up somewhat. So statistically, one-in-five Red Sox fans on OTM want to see the back of David Ortiz. Unfortunately none of you ever came forward to explain why you think he should be traded. Step up to the plate, common!

RED SOX ULTRAS 1901 speaking....

The Boston Red Sox have clinched a post-season spot for the 5th time in six years. They are, for the time being, still on track to defend what had once been a lucrative World Series Title. The Wankees have been unequivocally eliminated from the post season, and this without Red Sox fans having to suffer nervous attacks till the very last day of the regular season. Yankee Stadium, that Bronxe Bin, is finally being shut down.

Seems like we Red Sox fans have a lot to be happy about. From the point of a Red Sox fan, the World in late 2008 is the place to be.

But wait a minute. Stop. Push up the bill on that greasy old Red Sox hat and have a look around. Doesn't seem like other people are enjoying the high times as much as you are. Then the answer hits you like a .44 slug--the economy's in a rut, the war's (still) on going, there are problems with the health care system, social security, foreign policy, etc etc. it goes on and it ultimately leaves you feeling kinda sick, unless you're truly stuck in a high heaven of your own dementia.

This is how I, and maybe more Sox fans than you think, felt when I turned on the 'puter today and saw the long desired for pictures of champaign covered Papis and dancing Papelbons. But for some reason I wasn't as ecstatic about it this year as I was other years. Maybe I, like many Red Sox fans, am becoming far too expectant of things we used to cherish (a playoff spot in the late 90s was much appreciated, even if it had to be earned while staring at the Wankees rapidly receding asses in the race for Division Title). Then again, maybe the fact that apprehension stops me feeling all that great about all the great stuff happening to us, Red Sox, is because outside of baseball there's not all that much to feel great about.

Sports has helped me out countless times when life was low. I remember, when parents, teachers and so forth got me down as a kid, I would pick up my glove and a baseball with a faded Red Sox logo on the front and go out into the local parking local and field grounders off a small wall. (don't worry, there were hardly ever any vehicles in that lot anyway, so don't even think of coming to me if you've had a car window smashed in the past). Later, when I simply became too old to be tossing a ball around a parking lot, I found other ways of picking myself up when things weren't so good, and more often than that, I found solace in sports. Some people prefer Chapel...but my chapel's always been Fenway Park and that's that.

I'm sure I'm not the only jock/sports fan/Red Sox fanatic who has sought comfort in the ultimate simplicity and honesty of sports. Heck, even a World War couldn't stop a baseball season. When the whole world seems like it's turning upside down again, it's almost awe-striking that one of the few things certain is that there'll always be...baseball. However, as I discovered to-day when I turned on my computer and should have been overjoyed--but wasn't really--even sports can have it's limits. Have I used the calming effect of Boston Red Sox baseball so much that, like a drug, it's effect has become too watered down to make an impression?

How important are the Red Sox/sports in your lives? Is there a limit to how much the simplicity, unity and apparent fairness of sports can outweigh the walrus of national and world affairs?

RED SOX ULTRAS 1901 Speaking...

Hear all you New Englanders and loyal Red Sox fans, the Sox just released their 2009 MLB Regular Season schedule. Not that any of you couldn't have gone right ahead and checked that yourselves, but here are some of the more interesting points:

All of the games listed below are, of course, from the perspective of the Boston Red Sox:

APRIL 2009:

2009 HOME OPENER: Mon. April 6 2009, vs. Tampa Bay Rays

1st Series: April 6-9 vs. Tampa Bay DEVIL RAYS

2nd Series: April 10-12 @ Los Angeles ANGELS

3rd Series: April 13-15 @ Oakland ATHLETICS

4th Series: April 17-20 vs. Baltimore ORIOLES

5th Series: April 21-22 vs. Minnesota TWINS

6th Series: April 24-26 vs. New York WANKEES

7th Series: April 27-29 @ Cleveland INDIANS

AS FAR AS RED SOX vs. NEW YORK WANKEES IS CONCERNED...

1st Series: April 24-26 at FENWAY PARK

2nd Series: May 4-5 at THE NEWLY CURSED WANKEE STADIUM

3rd Series: June 9-11 at FENWAY PARK

4th Series: August 6-9 at THE NEWLY CURSED STADIUM

5th Series: August 21-23 at FENWAY PARK

6th Series: September 25-27 at THE NEWLY CURSED WANKEE STADIUM

RED SOX ULTRAS 1901 Speaking...

Thank you for your comments on the article "Papi Trade: Big Papi Still Your Daddy?". Feel free to keep up the chat in that post with any opinions you might have on the matter.

Now it's time to VOTE! Should David Ortiz be traded or not? Is it time Big Papi left home, or do the Red Sox still need his comforting presence and lethal bat?

VOTE NOW!!!

Just for the record, I personally voted "NO". Please feel free to post reasons for your YES/NO vote at the bottom of this post.

 RED SOX ULTRAS 1901 Speaking....

When Papi forever added the word "Big" to his name during the 2004 playoff campaign with his daily walk-off heroics, he reached the a new level not only as a professional baseball player but, of even greater significance, he reached a new level in the hearts and minds of the Red Sox faithful.

Not an easy accomplishment, considering the fact that, as fans go, back in those bad 'ol days before two World Series trophies found their way into Boston, we could have been considered a pretty conservative bunch: few players came to Boston and earned a Hall Pass to Red Sox Grace with ease. For us it was always harping on the historic--Young, Ted, Yaz, Boggs, Foxx. Pedro had to work for his share of fame and so did Nomar.

Yet Ortiz came from Minnesota a virtual nobody, and in just the space of 24 months, two years spanning two eras in Red Sox history, one might say, he became a phenom amongst Red Sox fans, a player whose jersey's sold like hot-cakes and whose name became a sort of mantra for Sox fans. Combine his 2004 success with his record breaking 2006 season and then another title in 2007 with countess late-game heroics in between, and it seems as if David Ortiz, from the perspective of Red Sox fans, could do nothing wrong.

Yet this seems to be the season of reversals. It's mid-September and the Red Sox are chasing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for the coveted AL East crown, those Bastard Yankees are rotting in 4th (and hopefully 5th?) place and woe-and-behold, our Big Papi has been very quiet since Day 1 of 2008.

So I ask the question, loyal and loving fans as we are we can be tough as nails: our priority is and always has been the RED SOX, and in our history no player however good at one time or other in his career has reached a status above that of the team as a whole. Big Papi, however great, has failed to produce much this season--and the Boston Red Sox seem to be doing fine without him anyway. The media, as well as Sox Nation in general, seems to have become very silent on this arch-headline stealer, Ortiz. Pedroia, Bay, Beckett, Lester these appear to be the new names on the hot plate, possibly affirming that the "old" team of '04 (Ortiz-Pedro-Schilling-Manny) is gone. In deed of the four players mentioned, only one remains: DAVID "BIG PAPI" ORTIZ  Does the lovable but recently unproductive Papi still deserve to have his name on that hotplate? Dare I ask the question: Is it time Papi hits the road? How would you react if Papi were traded?