Thank God for NESN

NESN, the FOX News of Boston Baseball (counterpart to the YES Network's Al Yankzeera), has decided to bathe us in Red Sox programming of an early Sunday afternoon, and I am enjoying all the propaganda, which included footage of Jonathan and Wily Mo with little kids. Jonathan was visiting a hospital of some kind, and was shown grabbing a tiny child and saying, "Lookit all these cameras, kid, c'mon, let's take a picture. You're gonna be a star, now."

Wily Mo, meanwhile, tried without success to speak to another tiny child, who kept turning away bashfully, looking as if at any moment he might run back toward his mother. Then all of a sudden, the teeny, tiny little boy (impossible to overstate his miniscule size) wrapped his arms around Wily Mo's gigantic neck and hugged him tight. On the video you can hear everyone around them gasp and then sigh, "Awww..."

That is some serious Red Sox awesomeness, rather than, say, another rerun of Charlie Moore or paid programming, which I can remember in previous years. Right at this very moment, they're airing a Trot Nixon retrospective on The Ultimate Red Sox Show. Can the long-dreamed-of Dennis Eckersley Hour be far behind?

P.S. All of that reminds me--Amy and I were talking the other night about the finer points of the show suggestion we have for NESN, which I remembered as the Jonathan Papelbon talks about shit for an hour show (working title) but which Amy informed me is now called 90 Seconds With Jonathan Papelbon. At first I was alarmed, thinking the show had been shaved down to 90 seconds total, but Amy explained that the format of the show would be that Jonathan would be given random cue words, like [*announcer voice*] "hot dogs." and "dryer sheets." and then given 90 seconds to hold forth on each subject. That way, rants and rambles would hopefully never exceed the funny stage, and an hour would contain a substantial amount of revelatory statements on as wide a variety of subjects as possible. I thought it was brilliant, personally. My suggestion for a cue word would be "Scrabble."

Oh, and "Josh Beckett." It's just a hunch, but I think you might get some thrillingly catty comments with that one right there.

P.P.S. Curt: "Something I’ve always felt I had, I’m now looking for." Um, yikes.

P.P.P.S. More NESN gloriousness: Pedroia vs. Gagne in selective-color to the theme from the Good, Bad and the Ugly. Oh my good God, yes. They even edited in a clip of commentary from Eckersley: "Gagne's laughing right here on the last pitch he threw out like, 'look at this pesky little guy', allowing himself to get carried away, and then that's the last one before the home run. He won't be smilin' next time. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh." [<---evil cackle]

I'm telling you. Let's get Dennis Eckersley on a set heavily inspired by, if not a complete ripoff of, the design of Love Connection (for some reason, this is what I always picture) and get to some serious pitching talk. Get Josh Beckett as a guest on that show, and the possibilities for hilarity would be infinite.

And yeah, so I've got Josh Beckett on the brain today. Sue me.

Comments

[Boston Fan in Michigan]

You have Josh Beckett on the brain EVERY day, though.