With the Red Sox on an almost two week trip to the West Coast this week Fenway Park, Boston’s nonagenarian baseball stadium, is hosting an exhibition soccer game tomorrow – the Fenway Football Challenge.
The two teams playing are Sporting Clube de Portugal from the Portuguese Liga and Celtic FC of the Scottish Premier League.
So which team do you think Bostonians will root for – “Sporting” or “Celtic”?
Those poor Portuguese …
It was 20 years ago today that the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Back Bay Boston was broken into. In total thirteen works were pilfered. The thieves were never captured.
I haven’t been there in years, since sometime in college, but I heard there’s a whole expansion set to open in 2012. That’ll be something.
If you’re in New England and haven’t just woken up, you’ve probably heard the news: “Nomar to retire as a member of the Red Sox today.”
The “Nomar” in question (if there are even multiple “Nomars” out there?) is former Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, who of course was a member of the historic 2004 World Series team – up until the trade deadline in July.
I was in Boston that weekend, and although I didn’t write about it at the time, I did take this photo:
August 01, 2004. The day after Nomar was traded to the Cubs.
Ironic, eh? 'Keep the Faith.'
Anyway, immediately after I heard the news today I got to thinking about retiring his jersey, number five. Rocco had it last season, but now he’s retired, too. So it’s free.
But the Red Sox official policy on retiring uniform numbers is based on the following criteria:
Election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame
At least 10 years played with the Red Sox
He’s a six-time All-Star and was the 1997 American League Rookie of the Year, so the Hall of Fame shouldn’t be a problem, we’ll have to wait five years but that’s no problem.
The second part – problem.
Nomar was only with the Sox from August of 1996 to the aforementioned July of 2004 – nine years.
Hmm.
Guess we do have five years to change that rule …
Check out this neat new building in Boston (okay, okay, Cambridge) that opened on Friday. The new hq for the MIT Media Lab was designed by Fumihiko Maki and Associates.
Photo by Andy Ryan/MIT
When I was at BU one of my buddies was at MIT and the Media Lab. It always sounded like a geek playground. I went over there once, in about 1996 or 1997, to see Bran Ferren speak. Genius.
I wonder how many people in that auditorium are millionaires now?
Anyway, for more on the building (and the lab) check out the Wall Street Journal: “MIT Unveils New Digital Sandbox.”
Josh finally lives in Maine again
after four years at Boston University, a stint in Southern California with
Walt Disney Feature Animation,
and two years in Dubai, UAE,
where he created and wrote
Newlywed in Dubai.
