Double Vision
It’s a good thing Jerry Remy likes Eric Frede or last night would have been infinitely more awkward. Frede came off as a geeky high school student trying to impress a girl on their first date. The temporary play-by-play man was constantly checking with Remy to see if he was doing okay, like a guy asking if his date was too warm or cold every five minutes. Most mystifying was Frede’s continual goading of Remy to do the “beat L.A.” chant, which reminded me of teenager trying to get his girl to down some wine coolers.
The Red Sox launched eight doubles, which meant Microsoft donated $6,000 to the Dimock Center through its “Doubles for Dimock” charity program. It also meant that Frede was initiated early in the game to the humiliating duty of intoning, “Safe and secure, New York Life,” accompanied by the cheesy organ flourish. Whatever revenue the Red Sox earn from agreeing to that marketing gimmick had better lead to Boston signing a premiere free agent instead of the Yankees.
The Red Sox scored five runs in the first, then four in the second, and three in the third. In the dream game in my head, the local nine had scored two and then one run in the next two innings and the sound booth played Europe’s “The Final Countdown.” The song would have served double duty: representative of the game’s score and of the clock ticking down to the World Cup, namely, the first match for the United States against the formidable team from England.
| Game 63: June 11, 2010 | ||
| Phillies 31-28 | 2 | L: Jamie Moyer (6-6) |
| 2B: Jayson Werth (24), Ross Gload (1) | ||
 Red Sox36-27 | 12 | W: John Lackey (7-3) |
| 2B: Victor Martinez – 2 (19), David Ortiz – 2 (12), Adrian Beltre (18), Dustin Pedroia (20), Marco Scutaro (16), Jason Varitek (4) HR: Mike Lowell (2) | ||
