Boston 8
Houston 3
contributed by NeilT
The first time I went to Boston, and the first time I went to Fenway, I came home with a Boston Red Sox cap. I don’t know why. I was old enough to know better, but I guess I needed a cap, and it was available. It was a nice khaki cap, with a Gothic red B, and it was good looking. I don’t know what happened to it. I didn’t wear it much once I got home and some time or other it got lost.
What I’ve realized though is that there is nothing better looking in baseball than a Boston Red Sox cap. L.A. is as good, with that beautiful blue, Detroit has class but isn’t better, and the Yankees’ NY may be more iconic, but nothing is more popular than Boston. In any crowd containing 100 males in any city not Boston or New York, at least two members of the crowd will be wearing Boston caps, with one of those bill-backwards. Who knew there were so many A.J. Pierzynski fans? In Boston, the ratio is reversed, with 98 males be-capped.
A few years ago I got really curious about why people outside of Boston were wearing Boston caps, so I decided to ask them. I didn’t think that there were that many Boston fans this far south, and inquiring minds want to know. It’s not easy walking up to total strangers and asking them about their cap, but then I can be obnoxiously friendly when I want. Here are some of my notes. Obviously, the descriptions of the hat wearers is pretty subjective.
UT Campus, Austin, 2011, white male, tall, overweight, 18.
“I like your cap, where’d you get it?”
“It’s my roommate’s.”
“Do you know where he got it? I like it.”
“Naw, I just found it on the floor.”
“So what’s it stand for, that B?”
“Harvard I think. He wanted to go to Harvard.”
Common Bond Bakery, Houston, 2014, African American female, pretty, stylish, 25
“I like your cap, where’d you get it?
“ I bought it in the Boston airport. I was thinking about going to Harvard for med school but I came here.”
“So what’s it stand for, that B?”
“Harvard, right? Harvard Bulldogs?”
Love Field, Dallas, 2010, Asian male, casual business attire, 41.
“I like your cap, where’d you get it.”
“Fauk off.”
Note: I’m pretty sure this was a Red Sox fan, but it could have just been someone from Dallas.
Venice Canal Ferry, New Years Day, 2013, British male, late 20s.
“I like your cap, where’d you get it?”
“My mum brought it to me from the States. She was there a couple of years ago visiting her sister.”
“Do you know what it stands for, that B?”
“Britain I think. I’m British.”
Mexico City Zocalo, 2010, Hispanic male, mid-30s.
“Por favor, mi gusta el sombrero.”
“Gracias.”
“Que es el B?”
“Fauk off?”
***
As for last night’s game, it too was iconic. Sometimes with this team I think that if one little thing is off, if one piece is wrong, the whole thing will fall apart. Really, go read Yeats’ The Second Coming with this year’s Astros in mind, and it will work just as well for the baseball team as doomed civilization. Springer was out for a knee twinge, and, well, things fell apart.
I’m going to let Aussie Astro recap the game from the GameZone: “That was lame.”
***
Feldman pitched 5.1 innings, giving up 7 earned runs on 11 hits. He held up his end of the bargain, pitching like a number 4 pitcher on a bad night. Downs came in with 2 inherited runners who both scored, along with one earned run of his own. Martinez did a nice job mopping up, going 3 innings with no hits, one walk, and 2 SO. Lackey went 6 for Boston giving up 2 ER.
Altuve had one hit, and Castro had a double, but the real star of the night was Carter with 2 solo HR, one in the 6th off Lackey and one in the 8th off Breslow, which ties him with Springer at 19. Castro was caught stealing third. The only other run was off a 2-out RBI single by Hernandez in the fifth driving in Singleton.
Hoes had a fielding error in the sixth, and there was an Astros 5-4-3 round-the-horn double play in the 2d.