International Dateline

Bill:
Of course it's the yoga-practicing, zen-daddy Manny Ramirez who steps off the 18 hour trans-Pacific flight looking fresh as a cherry blossom.

 

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Mike:
Yeah, did you check out Manny bowing to the Japanese media contingent?

 

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Bill:
That supplants the image of Manny running onto the field waving a tiny flag after getting his US Citizenship on the list of my fave Manny Momments.

 

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Mike:
Not everyone looked as happy as Manny did at Haneda international though.

 

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Bill:
Seriously, Youkilis looks like he wants to kill a puppy.

 

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Mike:
I know Bruce ovah at BSMW pooh-poohs the tiredness factah on a trip to Japan, saying business people do it all the time, but it's gotta take some toll on the mind and body.

 

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Bill:
Are you kidding me? I'm still frigged up trying to get used to the switch to Daylight Savings a week before last.

 

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Mike:
Of course, you're not exactly in the MLB playah demographic.

 

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Bill:
Too true. Not only was I born with an inability to hit a curve ball …

 

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Bill:
I was also born with bowels requiring a regularity only a fascist train conductor in Mussolini's Italy could admiah.

 

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Comments

[louclinton]

Yay, hb has it nailed.

Keep the pace baybee.

As a person who has made the trip more than a few times, it's not a bad as it might appear to be. But on a short turnaround like the boys have, I doubt if they will get right before they have to come back.

lc

[yazbread]

I see the bad moon arising.

Specifically, those three games against the Dodgers on the return trip. Most of the team will probably be sleeping on the bench. How about an MLB exemption for greenies after coming back from Japan?

[ParkerStPete]

My wife wonders why I noticed, but it looks like Manny's jeans aren't all buttoned up. Is that why he looks so happy? Mile high club, anyone?

[Follower of Tito]

I'm with Bill, that picture of Manny is classic...these folks who make inane Manny jokes just don't get it - Manny is just a different kind of cat. Seriously, I think it explains his focus at the plate...clear your mind, grasshopper!

[Bob]

"Let all effort flow out of your body. All heat flow from your body. The weight of your body becomes less and less. Until the body becomes one with the spirit which is as light as a feather, as a breath, as nothing at all." - Caine

"Okay, bra." -Manny

[Colin]

I gotta say, when I was visiting my girlfriend on the island of Saipan, I had to fly to Nagoya from Detroit which was a good 13+ hours. The actual wait on the flight was more tortuous than the jet lag that was supposed to come even after the 3 hour flight to Saipan.

It's really a person to person case with jet lag and all that. Hopefully it didn't wear down our Sox but seeing Manny happy as a clam certainly gives me the aura of confidence.

[Jeffrey]

People forget that the season is a grind. And this is quite a hiccup to start that grind.

They're supposed to go into the season with a little nervousness, but a little excitement. A spring in their step, but remembering to pace themselves, you know, because it's a marathon.

But this marathon starts with a mad dash sprint; and don;t forget their first quarter of the schedule isn't going to be easy road.

[Bob]

Where is sdu-son?

We need updates, Esquire.

[louclinton]

I was thinking the title of the strip was a way for me to hit that Korean chick on Lost.

Oh well.

[not a lawyer, nor do I play one on television]

lc

[Bob]

BTW, anybody else going to the second home game of the season (Wednesday, April 9, 7:05 -v- the Tigers)?

[Steve in MD]

Having made the trip a few times myself, as well as the Singapore to London marathon, let me just say that it is entirely discouraging to glace at your watch after 8 hours in the air and realize that you STILL have 5 hours to go. Whatever Manny's secret is, I want in on it.

[iwanttobealion]

Did anyone else hear that the Library of Congress is posting a bunch of its public domain photos up to Flickr? There are 3K+ of them up now but this is one of my favorites (obviously): http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2349964456/sizes/o/

[Bob]

Okay, outta here.

Best of luck to H.B. and Mrs. H.B.

If anyone's near Pete's Pub/DurtyNelly's this evening, drop in. First beer is on me.

[Bob]

One last thing---just got this email, if anyone's interested:

:: TICKETS FOR FUTURES AT FENWAY GO ON SALE:: MARCH 22 AT 10:00 A.M. ET The third annual "Futures at Fenway, Presented by Filene's Basement" will feature the Lowell Spinners and Pawtucket Red Sox in a minor league doubleheader on Saturday, August 9. Family-friendly prices and kid-friendly activities will highlight this day of minor league fun at "America's Most Beloved Ballpark". The day will begin at 12:05 p.m. when the Lowell Spinners square off against the Hudson Valley Renegades. That game will be followed by the Pawtucket Red Sox battling the Charlotte Knights. In addition to autograph sessions, kids attending the event will be selected randomly throughout the day to participate in a number of activities, such as mascot races and other on-field games. Tickets for this one-of-a-kind event will go on sale Saturday,March 22 beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET. Fans with disabilities may call (877) REDSOX-9 to purchase accessible seating (while supplies last). The Red Sox' TTY number for hearing-impaired fans is (617) 226-6644.

BUY TICKETS >>

http://click.mlb.com/ct/click?q=ea-fjLyQhVANVNGQNzAwWc33UW~tWyR

[meredith]

That photo of Youk perfectly sums up how I felt when I got off my Detroit-to-Osaka flight back in December. I feel for our boys and the jet-lag I'm sure they're all enduring right now.

[soxdownunder]

arrived tokyo - 'more intensity' - no jet lag with only a two hour time difference with Sydney - park hyatt sublime (but not Scarlett) - looking forward to ml baseball

sdu & mrs sdu

[jen in HI]

sdu! I love that scene from Lost in Translation...nice one. does the park hyatt come with women begging you to lip their stockings?

[soxdownunder.com.au]

'Lip them? Lip them?'

No J in HI, but I'm slowly talking Mrs sdu into re-enacting the scene. 'No Mr Harris!'

Another favourite is Bill Murray saying 'I always think of Sean Connery' and the photography saying 'Nooo, Loger Moore'.

[pinstripe thunder]

No Scarlett? No premium fantasy woman? No lip stockings?

At least big Papi hit big fry, no?

Enjoy Tokyo, Mr. and Mrs. SDU. And enjoy Easter, Mr. and Mrs. Brachen. Hopefully you are having a nice quiet holiday together with no bumps on the road to recovery.

[Bob]

Hey there SDU, you and Mrs. SDU have a great time.

We expect great photos. No, we DEMAND them!

[soxdownunder]

Hey Bob - luckily, Mrs sdu thought to bring the Berocca as one of us (not her) drank way to much shochu last night. Felt very warm and fuzzy at midnight. Now (8am Tokyo), not so much.

And pt, I knew the hotel was a winner when there was a hardback edition of Dubliners in our room. Fancy!

[pinstripe thunder]

Now THAT is the mark of a great hotel. One of the greatest passages ever written in the English language...

Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman, but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling.

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

Perfection.

[NYSoxfan]

Soxdownunder, were you the Aussie at the ticket line in front of Tokyo Dome looking to unload A's-Hanshin tickets on Sunday? If so, Soxaholix Nation shout out from Tokyo. 'Yankees Universe'? Puleeze...

[soxdownunder]

No NYSoxfan, not me - I was to be seen staggering about Shinjuku & Kabukicho with some mad Japanese thespians in a http://picasaweb.google.com.au/soxdownunder/ThespiansShochuHaze "> shochu haze

There were very many Red Sox fans at the Meiji shrine and around Omote Sandoyesterday also.

[soxdownunder]

And of course a 'holix shout out right back to you!

[Greater Boston Tickets]

Can somone please explain pinstripe thunders post?

[pinstripe thunder]

Greater Boston Tickets

Passage from The Dead. Dubliner Stories. James Joyce. The book in SDU's hotel room (see post above mine).

Better?