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Take Me Out to the Picnic

The Timlins and the Schilling Family during Picnic in the Park 2004

Coming up this weekend, Sunday June 25th is the annual Red Sox wives Picnic in the Park at Fenway. It is a wonderful charity event that the wives work extremely hard to make a success. I believe the first Picnic in the Park was in 2004. That year several of the wives hand painted jean jackets that were autographed by players and then auctioned off at the picnic. The charity chosen in 2004 was the Diabetes Foundation. Mike Cubage was our third base coach that year and he is a diabetic, so I always figured that is how they decided on that charity.

Proceeds from the 2006 Picnic in the Park benefit the team charity, the Red Sox Foundation, and Room to Grow, a non-profit dedicated to enriching the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their first three years of development.

This year they have some wonderful auction items including: A pitching lesson with Curt Schilling, a hunting trip with Mike Timlin and Doug Mirabelli, a chance to play video games at Fenway with Trot Nixon, an opportunity to spend an evening playing Scrabble with Jonathan Papelbon, personalized jewelry custom designed by David Ortiz, a vacation at a Wyoming ranch donated by Mark and Hilary Loretta, and many more one-of-a-kind Sox items.

I look at that list and think, what a hoot to be able to play Scrabble with Jonathan Papelbon. I say that because man learning to pitch with Curt is obviously out since I wouldn’t be able to even throw it to the plate let alone over the plate. Yes, I throw like a girl. I’m a total failure at video games, just ask my son, and I’m assuming any jewelry designed by David Ortiz would probably be a little too large for all of five feet of me.

Which auction item then really has me swooning? Hunting with Mike Timlin and Doug Mirabelli! Do I hunt? Only for my car keys, but give me a gun, a cross bow, heck I’ll use my bare hands if I have to and kill Bambi, to spend a day with Mike and Doug. I can’t wait to see the Camo Country episode that comes out of this adventure and live vicariously through some wealthy guy and his kid as they get to experience what I consider the ultimate thrill. Spending a
day in the country with two absolutely hunkalicious baseball players.

I hope that the third annual Picnic in the Park is a huge success and the weather is fantastic. I have to admit though, I didn’t write this to actually pitch Picnic in the Park, but to ask what the hell were they thinking when someone selected the picture below to advertise the event last year? Not only that but they are using a cropped form of the picture in this years promotions. Check out how the guys in this picture seem to be cold but the woman seems to be a bit too hot. Is it just me?

Somewhere in Minnesota, gathered in the back room of a little-known bar...

You just say the word, Schill, and the deed is done, brother.
Deed? What deed? Mike, it's one loss, it isn't a big deal.
I'm just saying, I have a bow and I know how to use it.
You should take him up on it, Schill...Tavarez is killing us.
Say that to my face, Perra!
The name's Beckett, genius!
Uh, Josh, perra means bitch.
That does it! Forget the bow, I'll kick his ass myself!
Why are you all getting so bent out of shape? We lost one game. We're tied for first place. Things could be much worse.
You're right. Matty could be pitching tomorrow.
Uh, Mike? I am pitching tomorrow.
Crap!
I don't know why Terry just doesn't let me pitch every game. I can start, I can close...heck, I'm pretty sure there isn't anything I can't do!
Easy there, rook. Season isn't even halfway through.
Schill's right. Let's all just get drunk and tomorrow will take care of itself.
About tomorrow, guys. I've decided that Manny, Papi, Trot, Tek, Mikey Lowell and Mark Loretta all need some rest. Couple of you bullpen guys are going to have to pull infield duty...
Mike, would you consider lending out that bow?

(Note from Beazer: This was, of course, written before the Twins swept the Red Sox. The bow in question has since been removed from the Red Sox clubhouse in the name of safety for everyone.)

WEEI and Pink Hats

When I’m driving, I have a tendency to listen to sports radio. That is until the men just start shouting and talking over each other and it becomes too much noise to bear. Recently, I have heard them talking very disparagingly about the fans in the pink hats. It seems that the guys on WEEI believe that the people that wear pink hats are all new bandwagon fans.

Over the past couple weeks I have heard the pink hats brought up more than once and I never really gave it much thought. Then it struck me. They are actually labeling the new bandwagon fans as only women, since you don’t see men at Fenway wearing pink hats.

As I sat watching the game yesterday, that was delayed by five hours; I noticed many pink hats in the stands. Women and young girls that had toughed out the horrific weather to get a chance to see the Red Sox play. Are these the bandwagon fans that WEEI are referring to? The mothers and grandmothers with their kids and grandchildren, the little girls with their Wally’s clutched in their hands? .

I was born into Red Sox Nation in Hartford, Connecticut. In the early 60’s it certainly wasn’t easy to be a Red Sox fan in Hartford, but I didn’t have a choice. My mother raised her four daughters and one son to be diehard Red Sox fans. Yes, my dad liked baseball and the Sox as well, but it was my mother that instilled us with the baseball bug. I can recall her deciding one nice summer weekday that it would be a great day to see a ball game. As luck would have it, the Red Sox were playing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. She wrote a note for my dad, and piled all the kids into the station wagon and off we went to Yankee Stadium for the day. I mention my mother, because if she was still alive, I can imagine her sitting in the stands sporting a pink Red Sox visor to shade out the sun. Pink hat maybe, but bandwagon fan…NEVER!

Back to the game yesterday, it occurs to me that non-traditional Red Sox head gear seems to be more prevalent than the traditional navy wool regulation caps. I spy many of the St. Patrick’s Day green caps in the home plate area. Now maybe those are acceptable, since the Red Sox do actually wear them on the field one day year. Then there are the locker room World Series caps that come in three different colors, the Wild Card caps and the ever popular light weight navy and denim caps that are so much cooler to wear in the heat of summer. Nope I haven’t heard any of these hats singled out by WEEI so they must all be fine. The bandwagon fans seem to be in the pink hats.

Well the more I think about these pink hat comments the angrier I get as a Red Sox fan and a woman. I personally don’t have a pink hat but I have diehard friends that do have them and they certainly aren’t bandwagon fans. As a matter of fact most of the women I know don’t even like to wear hats, but when you’re at the ball park it is a necessity if one is to be protected from the elements.

WEEI needs to take another look at all the hat styles at Fenway these days and should stop generalizing the bandwagon fans as the females in the pink hats. If they have a problem with non-traditional baseball caps and believe those that wear them are not “real” fans, than say that. It is a ridiculous theory in my book, as we all know you can’t judge a book by its cover or a “real” fan by their hat.