"Out of sight...

...out of mind", is how the proverb usually goes, but it is not possible for me to be away from the Red Sox without constantly worrying about how they're getting on.

Generally, when I have limited access to the Internet, my baseball fix is gotten through a quick visit to MLB.com, but today I figued I'd try another approach: see what Beth and Red and Denton have to say about the games, then head over to read the official reports. However, once I'd read this:

I've been trying, lord knows, to keep on an even keel with the Sox this season. But right now, this game is so infuriating it's giving me a nic fit. Some games just push your buttons--this is one of them for me. Twice we've clawed our way back now and twice the Mariners, who are not exactly the goddamn 27 Yankees, keep...

and this:

This one played out like a "worst ways to lose a game" compilation, lowlighted by that bizarre theatre piece of a play by Coco and Manny in which Coco misjudged an Adrian Beltre fly ball by a country mile and Manny, so swept up in the magic, simply flailed around, pointing at the ball as it caromed away from both of them. By the time it all ended -- with Beltre achieving Safeco's first-ever inside-the-park home run -- I almost expected the cast of The Cannonball Run to come blazing onto the field. It was that surreal.

somehow I don't need to go and find out what happened during the rest of the game.

I regained some measure of composure on reading the report of lst night's game, a big-bash 7-3 victory over the A's. But even then, I find it bizarre that reading the name 'Josh Beckett' conjures up scary images of blisters and a billion home runs given up, and yet here he is the first 13-game winner in the Majors.

We have a rotation held together by duct tape and a coiple of dozen Hail Mary's, and yet, on July 25th, we're still in 1st place, 2 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees, with a 7-3 record over our lst ten games. "Go figure" doesn't even cover the half it, so, as of today, I've officially stopped trying to understand what's going on in Red Sox World 2006 and I'm just going to take whatever this season decides to throw at me.