Glove affair gone terribly wrong

I don't know if I even want to watch the rest of this Red Sox-Yankees series. So far this year, the Red Sox have given up an extraordinary 58 unearned runs and have committed 65 errors. I think maybe they need to conduct a full-scale exorcism on all their gloves, such as described in this great article, “Glove stories,” that I found via Poetry Hut (yes, the poetry of the leather):

Another superb defender, Omar Vizquel, had such uncharacteristic fielding problems early this season that his teammates took it upon themselves to “sacrifice” the offending glove, which Omar had borrowed from teammate Zach Sorensen. In a scene inspired by the movie “Major League,” they constructed an altar containing the glove, a bottle of wine, a hanging roast chicken, a Buddha-like figure, 14 candles, incense, two rosaries and a baseball with “the curse is killed” written on it.

I also liked that after discussing how gnawing dogs are the culprits in most glove repairs, the article goes on to describe Nomar on the field: “No one has ever called Nomar Garciaparra a dog, but he can be seen between pitches ritualistically chewing on the extra-long laces of his glove as he stands at shortstop.” Ritualistic? Nomar? Nah.

12:52:11 PM      trackback [] 

Summer means... work?

We are lapping up a delicious serving of sunny, breezy weather right now. Yesterday I slathered on sunscreen and walked one of the longer circuits from my house: passing daisy-peppered pastures, overgrown stone walls, forested conservation land, and then swinging back through town with its graceful 200-year-old homes and quaint cottages. The orange day-lilies have opened up everywhere.

I’ll try to get a short walk in sometime today, but work is finally coming in – just in time for the good weather, of course. I should have a couple of pieces to start today, then tomorrow afternoon I’m going down to Rhode Island to my friend’s house to discuss the big project she landed and that I’m going to work on over the next month or so. That will be fun, though – we’ll get some work done and then walk down to this great little bistro in Pawtuxet Village for dinner, and maybe stroll around by the cove.

Work is a good. I woke up this morning fretting about finances and thinking about how all these projects that have been dangled before me all year have mostly evaporated. Now I have two very small solid ones and one sizable bona fide project among the dancing mirages. So now I have to somehow pull myself out of my torpor and return to being a working professional.

11:19:48 AM      trackback []