Empyreal Environs

Game 76: June 28, 2005
Indians (41-34), 12
Red Sox (44-32), 8
BS: Arthur Rhodes (3)
W: Matt Miller (1-0)
H: Mike Timlin (14)
BS, L: Keith Foulke (3, 5-4)

After the huge 5-run 7th inning, this recap was going to be a paean to comebacks and applesauce. Ramon Vazquez spoonfed Manny Ramirez applesauce, who had just driven in the go-ahead run. After getting his treat, Manny hugged Vazquez, and it appeared the much maligned and deservedly so utility infielder actually had a job he was capable of completing. This year’s Crespo could have gone down the line feeding Payton, Youkilis, Bellhorn, Damon, Renteria, Ortiz, and Milllar, who all contributed to the rally.

Disclaimer: I am not qualified to be an umpire at any level of competition and I have extremely bad vision. I’m rather short, so I probably wouldn’t be able to have a good view over a crouching catcher. (And from that vantage point, it’s not likely I’d be very interested in calling balls and strikes, but that’s another story for another time.) That said, I probably could have done a better job at the plate than Larry Young did last night. Foulke could have pulled a full-on Pedro; remember that night when he angrily gesticulated to the umpire the demarcations of the strike zone? He could have even done a more restrained Wade Miller, with a subtle hand gesture of a squeeze that we saw this past weekend. Instead, he took the blame upon himself.

Manny almost had another assist in the 9th inning when he played the carom of Jody Gerut’s fly ball with perfection and threw accurately to second base hose the Cleveland left fielder. Bellhorn muffed the backhand sweep, and instead of 2 out and nobody on, Foulke faced 1 out with a man in scoring position. Then, carnage. Not to mention mayhem. Havoc, devastation, ruination. Did I mention the boos and jeering?

The local morning news had a brief feature on Leo Fitzgerald from Raymond, New Hampshire. The name isn’t familiar to you, but his underwear should be. The man that Fox exposed retrieving a foul ball in Philadelphia is making his rounds. He’s more personable than Angry Bill or Boston Dirt Dog, and unlike them, the fame hasn’t gone to his head yet. I demand a segment hosted by on the NESN pre-game show, something like “Leo’s Briefs,” “Our Guy in Tie Dye,” or “Fitzgerald’s Flash.” Those aren’t any better or worse than “Inside Your Sox,” right?

As I mentioned before, some of the people of the Native American nations that used to inhabit Ohio were of the Iroquois language group. The current Iroquois Confederacy, or more correctly Haudenosaunee, is the oldest living participatory democracy. The nations in the confederacy are the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and the Tuscarora. The Iroquoian language from Ohio, Wyandot, appears to be extinct. The Mingo of Ohio were also most likely Iroquoian speakers, but did not have a distinct language of their own.