There was no daylight to tell the Red Sox what time it was when they touched down in the Land of the Rising Sun. It was early Friday morning in Japan, late Thursday morning back in Boston, and infinitely timeless in the minds and bodies of the exhausted world champions.
"Saddle up, partner," said reliever Jonathan Papelbon as he waited in an immigration line after the 20-hour journey from City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Fla., to the team's massive hotel headquarters near the Tokyo Dome. "This is going to be some road trip." -- Dan Shaughnessy, in a well-written ridealong recap
Four days and counting until the games matter. They can't get here soon enough.
Saddle up, indeed.
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Continuing with random picture posting -
Chad Jennings of the Scranton Wilkes Barre blog shows a nice example of sliding into home while the catcher is blocking the plate without breaking the catcher's wrist:
http://emedia.thetimes-tribune.com/Blogs/SWBYankees/tabid/552/Default.aspx
Shelley has always slid weird and awkwardly. That dive into home plate today was certainly in character.
Posted by: AndrewYF | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 03:22 AM
Japanese for "monster season"
I believe its pronounced "A-lexo Rod-riguez"
Posted by: sam-YF | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 08:42 AM
I thought that was Japanese for "returning to earth."
Posted by: Paul SF | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 09:45 AM
I'm really bummed we didn't get pictures from the plane ride, like the photo essay coming back from Colorado last year. I love that behind the scenes stuff.
Although, there are some great photos from the welcome ceremony on boston.com, especially a very sweaty Wakefield eating with chopsticks.
Posted by: LocklandSF | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 10:07 AM
As always, Rob Braford to the rescue, his blog from the trip has some good inside stuff, even a few pictures.
http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sports/rob_bradford/
Posted by: LocklandSF | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 10:43 AM
Timlin's hurt! I knew this trip to Japan was a bad idea.... ;)
Posted by: soxgirl | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Michael Silverman in the print edition of the Herald also has some great in-flight color.
Posted by: Paul SF | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 11:57 AM
Thanks for the heads up Paul, that was good stuff.
Man, the menu on that flight was amazing.
Posted by: LocklandSF | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 12:57 PM
looks like the wanger gets the opening day start for the yanks.
Posted by: sf rod | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 06:12 PM
Last year I probably flew to Asia at least 8 times - granted from San Francisco but Tokyo was a stop over for me on the way to Jakarta or Singapore. And getting there wasn't that bad... for the first 15 hours of the trip. And then I felt like banging my head against the tray table because I wanted to be there NOW, not in two hours, not in 30 minutes but NOW... kinda how I feel today about real baseball games. They need to start NOW... off to bang my head on my desk until the season starts...
Posted by: rootbeerfloat | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 06:51 PM
Some news - Ensberg has been added to the Yankees' 40-man roster, guaranteeing him $1.75 million and a spot on the major league team. Yippee!
Posted by: AndrewYF | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 11:03 PM
the sox just finished their game against the hanshin tigers. they won 6-5. ortiz hit a solo homer, drew hit a three run shot , both in the first. youk went 2-5, ortiz 2-4, lowell 2-3, tek walked 3 times, and lugo 1-2 (with a BB!). coco pinch ran in the eighth and was caught stealing. clay did not fare well while picking up the win. they played sweet caroline in the bottom of the eighth. video of the drew and ortiz homers are up at MLB.
Posted by: sf rod | Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 03:51 AM