Road Trip.

While Lowell and Pawtucket were playing at Fenway on minor league Saturday, Portland was taking a road trip down to Norwich, CT to play the CT Defenders. Cheap tickets to Fenway to watch super excited kids play ball seemed like the obvious choice of weekend activity. But then, it was brought to my attention that CT was giving away Mike Lowell bobbleheads. Obviously, this piece of information necessitated a jaunt down I-395.

Although CT is a Giants affiliate, it isn't as random or as exploitative as it might seem. Back in the day, when CT was Norwich, the club was the AA affiliate of the Yankees. Mikey Lowell played there in 1997.

Plastic, nodding Mike Lowell was apparently a big draw. While there were some fans of the home team, the vast majority of the folks there had donned Red Sox apparel for the game. It sort of reminded me of the game I went to in Tampa- a thousand Red Sox fans for every Rays fan (I did see two Rays caps while I was there-although it may have the same hat twice. I was so shocked when I saw it the first time that I didn't note the face beneath it.) What was fun was that the Red Sox fans were cheering for the home team as much as they were cheering for Portland.

And even though Zach Daeges attempted to kill me with a foul ball (Seriously: I have never been that close to a foul ball in my life. Generally, I'm already cowering in fear if one comes within a thirty-foot radius of where I'm sitting-so you can imagine my abject terror when this one landed in the first of four empty seats directly to my right. --It's a good thing I didn't leave Mikey up there.--What's more, I was so shocked that I didn't even get the ball. I just sort of watched it roll of the seat and on to the floor. The guy on the other side of the empty seats ended up grabbing it.), it was a good time. Bob Stanley was there (he's the Defenders pitching coach) so that was neat. I had hoped that Bard might get into the game but it was kind of a blow out so that didn't happen and Argenis Diaz didn't play (I had picked a seat on the first base side so I could get a good look at the kid) so that was kind of a bummer. But it was a fun time all around. And I got home in time to see Daisuke finish off the sixth inning of the White Sox game.

So here he is: Mike Lowell in purple pinstripes. It's probably a good thing that you can't really see them-the uniform is hideous.