Posts Tagged ‘Truck Day’
Loading stuff onto a truck in the freezing cold. Seriously, that's all it is.
This coming Friday is Truck Day. Still a mystery to a legion of baseball fans, it’s practically a holiday in Boston. There has been a huge detachment for me from baseball this off-season. I tried fueling the desire with the usual activities of the off-season: the New Stars for Young Stars annual event at Jillian’s, the Hot Stove round table at Fenway, the Hot Stove, Cool Music concert at The House of Blues and the Hot Stove party at McCoy Stadium, . all were lots of fun but none really gave me that feeling of baseball being right around the corner.
Which isn’t to say I’m not excited about the season approaching. One of my friends posted this morning on his Facebook profile that there are only 11 days until pitchers and catchers report – and suddenly I started getting that feeling of excitement. That winter would be over soon and we’d be watching our boys playing the game we all love. And now I’m desperate for it to get here!
I’m never one who wishes time away and I often chastise others who do so, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the sooner next Friday gets here (and by extension, p&c reporting) the happier I’ll be! I’ve mentioned to more than one person this week that I had NO plans for next Friday other than to be standing in the cold out by Fenway Park watching them load equipment on to the trucks. Most people who know me get this but I’ve made a few acquaintances over the last year who aren’t fully aware of my passion. Or, as one of them said to me, “How stupid do you have to be to stand out in the cold and watch trucks drive away?”.
In 2008, Evan Richman caught me on film (in the center with the red scarves and with KellyJ to my right) at Truck Day for Boston.com
During MLB’s season, my mind is usually spinning with ideas about what to write here. It takes a little more work for me to get going in the off-season, but Truck Day coming upon us is certainly starting to get me worked up about the 2010 season.
So in an effort to get the writing juices flowing again, I started reading up on a few former players and where they are now – which led me to the official home page of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The moment the page loads the banner greets you with PRIDE. PASSION. PITTSBURGH PIRATES. I suppose, when you’re the Pittsburgh Pirates, you can’t really promote anything with “We’re built to win!” or something similar. All they have to play on is the love the fans have for their team. (Although it’s much too close to “Pride. Power. Pinstripes.” for my liking.) Javier Lopez, briefly rumored to be retiring this off-season, has been signed by the Pirates. So has Brendan Donnelly. Brandon Moss is still on their roster and they’ve also just picked up one of my favorite ex-Mets, Ryan Church. Not exactly names that will be bringing the butts into the seats but the beginnings of a fun team to watch nonetheless. I just dig that they feel like throwing a snappy catchphrase on their website will entice fans. (I checked to see if the Royals had any kind of rally cry on the front of their home page – nope.)
The Red Sox don’t have a slogan either. I don’t often visit their website but there was a time when I spent an awful lot of time over there (so much so that I was involved in a campaign to have Tim Wakefield added to their banner. It worked! But now their banner is a panoramic view of Fenway Park. Acceptable.)
The front page story at Red Sox.com is about Jonathan Papelbon being “fine” with the one-year, $9.35 million deal he just finalized with the team. Nowhere in the article did I see where it said he was just “fine” with it. He seems pleased, though, and eager to start the new season. I received an email yesterday from a Sox fan wondering if I was going to write about Paps “and defend him like you always do”. Apparently, this particular reader was upset that I didn’t want Papelbon drawn and quartered after the final game of the 2009 ALDS. I’m really stunned that there are people who genuinely point to Papelbon as the only reason the Sox didn’t get past 3 games in the playoffs last year.
Blame Papelbon all you want but I’m not buying. In reality, all he did was spare us the anguish of ANOTHER game and ANOTHER loss. Paps didn’t lose those first two games, lack of offense did. So let’s put the past behind us and focus on what could happen in 2010. I DID find it interesting that Paps didn’t let that game go the way a lot of people thought he did:
Papelbon made it clear that there was no exaggeration to his recent comments in an article with ESPNBoston.com that he plays the video of that fateful ninth inning as motivation during his winter workouts. Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, who sat in with Tanguay and Zolak during Thursday’s interview, asked Papelbon why he would subject himself to something so painful.
“Man, I’m a different cat, you should know that by now, Dan. That’s just something that motivates me, man,” Papelbon said. “That was something that was very dear to me and something that I prized and cherished a lot was the postseason scoreless run that I went on. Obviously that came to an end this postseason.
“That’s something that look, when I’m in the gym and I’m sitting there saying, ‘God, I’ve got one more set to do,’ or ‘Man, I’m tired’, and I look up and that game is on one of the three TV’s in my gym and I look at that little tape that keeps rewinding and rewinding the whole time I’m in there. It gives me that little [motivation], that little edge that makes me dig down in my bones and pushes me. It does, it pushes me.”
So his failures motivate him. I can get behind that.
This year, Truck Day falls on Friday, February 12th (less than 25 days away!). The signs are all there that for the third year running I’ll be at Fenway to see the trucks off. It’s a bit of a silly tradition (and both years I’ve been it’s also a really COLD tradition) but I’m looking forward to it. Seeing the equipment being loaded up, watching Wally interact with folks, it’s all become part of how I start off the new season and I can’t wait!
(To get a feel for the ‘excitement’ of Truck Day, you can view my photos from last year at my Flickr account.)
 The money shot. Click here to see the rest of my Truck Day photos. |
It was cold on Friday. So very cold. As a result, in order to stay warm we hit the Brookline Ave trifecta. Game On for lunch, Cask ‘N Flagon for an early dinner and Boston Beer Works for dessert. Oh yeah, and somewhere in the midst of all that, we stood outside Fenway Park and froze our butts off waiting for the equipment truck to leave.
To begin, there were many more fans at Fenway this year than last. But because it took so long for the truck to leave (we got there around 12:30pm since the press release reported the truck leaving at 1pm and the truck didn’t leave until much closer to 3pm than 2pm). There was a handful of us who stuck it out (plus the members of Red Sox Nation who won the opportunity to ride on the flatbed with Wally and the Fenway Ambassadors. This is like Tom Sawyer getting the boys to whitewash the fence, right? It was a privilege to ride on a wide-open, flatbed truck in 15 degree weather? Okay then.)
The media was out in full…and interviewed every person they saw. Which was fine for the fans, heck it’s nice to be acknowledged, right? But since they only points of interest were the truck and what was being put on it, and the fans who were nutty enough to show up, when Johnny Pesky made an appearance (for seemingly no reason – he came out, spoke for a few minutes and went back in) the media attacked him like they were starving and he held the world’s last twinkie.
 The attack on Johnny. Really, was this necessary? |
It was more than a little embarrassing to watch them act that way.
But Johnny went back inside and we all milled around looking for anything interesting to keep our minds off the cold.
Many reporters were heard complaining on cell phones about how long it was taking. Brita Meng Outzen, redsox.com photographer extraordinaire, told us that they were as ready this year as last. Last year they had most of the truck packed before anyone showed up. This year they did most of the packing while everyone was there. She also told us that the separation of items going to the minor league and major league camps was what had taken up a lot of time.
So either they weren’t as prepared this year as last, or they (meaning the Red Sox) just enjoyed prolonging the festivities (such as they were).
Have I mentioned how cold it was? I’m not one to usually complain about the cold. It’s winter, we live in New England, it gets cold. No big deal. But standing around doing nothing but waiting while the wind whipped down Van Ness street? Well, my knees were knocking but couldn’t feel them. That’s how cold it was.
 Johnny Pesky. The best photo I took all day! |
Also, last year they loaded the truck and had everyone standing about on Yawkey Way. There was more room for everyone and less chance of anyone getting hit by a car. On Friday, we annoyed many a driver with the way we packed on to the street. At one point, Wally, the Green Monster, was out there trying to direct traffic. (And at another, a Boston Police officer had to start directing traffic so cars coming toward each other didn’t try to go through each other.) Logistically, it was a nightmare.
But, none of that mattered when they finally closed up the truck. After a photo op with Johnny Pesky in the driver’s seat (a shot or two of that can be seen here), the music started blasting and they were on their way.
Johnny Pesky remarked that he hoped to see us all back at Fenway on Opening Day, and that he hoped he’d be around to see Opening Day. My worries about Johnny’s age and how realistic that thinking might be, bringing the guy out in those temperatures wasn’t exactly the brightest move the Sox have made lately.
After getting pummeled by soft rubber baseballs that the Fenway Ambassadors were chucking, the trucks were gone and we were all on our way. A reporter from WHDH asked me if I was “excited” about Truck Day. The question kind of annoyed me in that it implies that we’re all just loony folks who get excited about watching a truck drive away. I told him I wasn’t “excited” but that I was “encouraged”. It’s been a long, cold, snowy, winter and watching that truck drive down Van Ness Street is a wonderful reminder that it won’t always be like this. Spring is coming and the proof is in that banner on the side of the truck!
 Woooooooo! |
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I’m a woman of many, as my family calls them, obsessions. If I get interested in something, I submerge myself in it. I don’t just decide I like a particular actor; I have to seek out all of his movies and watch them. Even the really bad ones. (During my Christopher Noth period I actually bought a VHS copy of “Jakarta”. I’m pretty sure this is the film they showed to the inmates at Gitmo during the Bush administration.) I’m that way with whatever catches my attention.
My current obsession seems to be the Joe Torre/Tom Verducci book “The Yankee Years”…and I haven’t even read it yet.
(Side note not related to the book: Rubén Rivera is playing for the Mexican team in the Caribbean World Series. Did you know he is Mariano Rivera’s cousin? Maybe I did, but I didn’t remember it. Google is great, isn’t it? He’s best known for stealing some of Derek Jeter’s equipment and selling it to a sports memorabilia dealer and then getting his butt voted off of Yankee Island. See, it wasn’t related to the book but it was related to the Yankees. All my life’s a circle. Oh, and again a shout-out for the MLB Network’s coverage of the Caribbean World Series. Tom McCarthy and Uri Berenguer are just fabulous. It’s a joy to listen to him.)
But I digress. Back to Joe’s book. Oh, sorry, back to the book Tom Verducci wrote that Joe Torre got his name over Tom’s on the cover but Tom wants everyone to know Joe didn’t write it (unless telling you he DID write it will make you buy more copies).
Unfortunately, I was out and missed Joe’s interview with Bob Costas but I’ll make up for it by cracking open his book and finally deciding if he did, indeed, sell out the team that made him who he is or if his book has been terribly misrepresented in the media. I haven’t even flipped through to look at the photos yet, but let’s take a look at some chapter titles:
Chapter 5: Mystique and Aura. Some of you will be disappointed that this is NOT about any of Slappy’s stripper friends.
Chapter 8: The Issues of Alex. I’m not going to lie. This chapter is the biggest reason I bought this book. Even the chapter title doesn’t disappoint. I just might read this chapter first. I wonder if that will ruin the story for me?
Chapter 10: The End of the Curse. When asked by Regis Philbin the other day what happened to the Yankees over the past 7 years, Joe responded “The Red Sox happened”. That will go down as possibly my favorite Red Sox/Yankee-related quote ever.
Did you all realize that, including the acknowledgements but excluding the index, that this book is 482 pages long? Maybe it was Joe’s hope that the likes of David Wells would lose interest halfway through and not get to the parts where he writes about them?
Chapters 12 and 13 are titled Broken Trust and “We Have a Problem”. So, as you see, I AM going to have to start this book in the middle!
There are 16 chapters in the book. The final chapter fittingly (yet without a thought for originality) is called The End. But the real gem of a title comes in Chapter 15: Attack of the Midges.
Aside from media coverage, I haven’t read one word of this book and already I think it’s my favorite book of the year.
So I’ll either stop mentioning this book until I’ve finished it or you’re going to get random observations as I make my way through it. Either way, this book is taking up a significant part of my life for the next few days.
Could you imagine if Terry Francona wrote a book like this? I’d be torn between being the first one in line to buy it and hitting him over the head with it.
Today is Truck Day. And, yes, it really is as exciting as it sounds. (Hey, I’m going because it’s a great way to mark the beginning of the spring training season, but I don’t pretend that it isn’t close to insane to stand in freezing temperatures to see off a truck carrying the drawers of my favorite team.) At the very least, I can promise some pictures of a truck. So you have that to look forward to.
 My ticket! (Well, part of it anyway.) |
I’m watching the 2009 Caribbean World Series on the MLB Network this week. If you aren’t watching it, you’re missing some really exciting baseball (And Jose Offerman! He looks exactly the same as he did when he played in Boston. Maybe even better. After this incident, Jose actually has a job in baseball? He’s the manager of the Dominican Republic team. Go figure. Well, I guess if Roger Clemens got to keep his job after chucking a bat at Mike Piazza, Offerman deserves another chance). As much as I’m enjoying it, all it’s really doing is making me long for the beginning of the MLB season.
Currently, I only have one ticket to a game this season. There are at least three other games I’ll probably be going to but right now there’s only the one ticket. And even then, I know I’ll be picking up many more tickets this year, it’s just odd that I have so few tickets going into the season. The current economic mess has hit close to home so I need to be a little more selective for the time being. No matter, I’m sure I’ll be getting to plenty of games this season. I sense, though, that more of those games will be at minor league parks instead of Fenway. I’m looking forward to the trips to Portland, Pawtucket and Lowell!
So this struck me as really interesting! If you’re anywhere within 30 miles of Pawtucket, PawSox mascots Paws and/or Sox will deliver a dozen roses, a PawSox cap and two tickets good for any regular season PawSox home game this year to your valentine on Valentine’s Day. I don’t have a valentine this year, but if I did I’d print this up and anonymously mail it to him. I’m not usually big on this type of thing (I think if I ever got a singing telegram or a stripper sent to me, I’d die from the embarrassment) but this sounds really cute and the gifts involved are much better than a box of chocolates. According to the PawSox site, the Valentine’s packages are limited…so hit up PawSox.com and order yours today!
Honestly, if anyone does this you have to let me know. I’d love to hear the story!
As a follow up to other entries of mine: Bob Costas (who left HBO to go to the MLB Network – this pleases me greatly) interviewed Joe Torre and it’ll be shown on the MLBN Thursday at 8pm EST. If the brief clips they’ve been showing give an accurate depiction, it should be interesting and maybe even a little enlightening. Of course, it seems a good chunk of it is Joe saying he didn’t betray any trusts and he doesn’t see what the big deal is. I’m waiting on a copy of this book in the mail so I suppose I can’t keep criticizing Joe until I actually read it…which I promise you I will.
With my new work schedule, I’m home on Fridays. This works to my advantage this week as Friday is Truck Day and, for the second year in a row, I’ll be there. I love Truck Day. It’s probably silly to truly celebrate it, but hell, it’s tangible proof that we really will get a baseball season and all this hot stove activity wasn’t in vain. If last year is any indication, there will be Wally, there will be more members of the media than there will be fans, and there will be trucks.
Really, right now, what more can we ask for?
 Bobby Kielty at Spring Training 2008 – courtesy of Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net. |
Randomly:
* Looking for live baseball? Starting tonight the MLB Network will be showing all 12 games of the 2009 Caribbean World Series. Football ended yesterday (no one really counts the Pro-Bowl, do they?) so this will be the natural companion piece to the end of the football season. Bring on the baseball!
* One final note about the Jason Varitek saga: So many writers seem obsessed with the Red Sox “over valuing” Tek, yet I haven’t heard one player, even outside the Red Sox, say that. We might look at Tek and say “He’s a catcher. Anyone trained to BE a catcher can catch in Boston (or anywhere). But if the pitchers on the Red Sox think he’s a difference maker, who are we to say “No, he isn’t?”. Unless you’re out there throwing to the guy, this isn’t really an area where you have any more insight to what he brings to the team than the guys who trust him day after day.
* Add Bobby Kielty to the list of former Sox players from 2007 who have landed safely. Like his teammate Kyle Snyder, Kielty signed a minor-league deal with the New York Mets and received an invite to the Major League Spring Training camp. Bobby had a rough year in 2008 but, hopefully, winning a ring and having the memory of hitting a home run in the World Series helped keep him warm at night. I wish Bobby luck. It might turn out to be a bit of fun, watching the Mets this season.
* Friday is Truck Day for the Red Sox. Due to a schedule that leaves me Fridays to do as I please, I’ll be at Fenway to witness the equipment trucks begin their trip southward. If I’d been working my old, full-time schedule I wouldn’t be going. Last year they planned it best, I think, having the trucks leave on a Saturday. But regardless of when the trucks leave, they ARE leaving and that’s all that matters. And I’ll be there to take pictures of trucks. Don’t everyone get all excited.
* Pitchers and catchers report (for Boston anyway) on February 12th (10 days and three hours from when I was writing this, according to redsox.com). Pitchers and catchers for the Mets report on the 13th and P&C for the Reds on the 14th. My nightmare is almost over. I’ll be high on pitchers and catchers soon enough!
* I had the Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Thus proving, once again, that I have a talent for choosing (outside my wheelhouse of teams I genuinely root for) the loser almost every time. I need to find a way for this to work for me.
