Bates Gets The Ball . . . Eventually

Somehow, the oldest trick in the book always seems to work.

 

 

(photos courtesy of Kelly O’Connor)

 

On July 11^th, Aaron Bates recorded his first major league hit – a pinch-hit single in the 8^th inning off of Kansas City’s Ramon Colon in the Red Sox 15-9 win over the Royals.

 

His Boston teammates made sure they saved the ball, and the memento was waiting for Bates after the game in his locker at Fenway Park.

 

Unfortunately, Bates soon realized that the guys didn’t do a very good job of inscribing the details.  The date was wrong . . . the opponent was wrong . . . shoot, they even misspelled his first name, writing “Aron Bates” on the ball.

 

And he bought it hook, line, and sinker.

 

The next day, J.D. Drew asked Bates if he had received the ball from his first big league hit, and Aaron said yes without mentioning any of the errors.  Drew – and others – got a big laugh when they handed over the real thing with all of the proper details.

 

Aaron said the key to the trick was the fact that the fake ball included the major league stamp for authenticity.  He had already added an “A” to his first name to at least get that right.

 

* * * * *

 

Now that the temperature has finally reached the 80′s in New England, it’s ice cream weather. 

 

So how about a few scoops of Rocky Cherry?

 

 

The first time I heard the PawSox reliever’s name, I thought it sounded like a flavor of ice cream, and he agrees.  In fact, Rocky has considered getting a trademark of his name for that purpose.

 

Furthermore, he’s even thought about the ingredients of his eponymous flavor.

 

“I’d have vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered cherries – kind of like chopped up where there would be chunks of hard fudge and real cherries,” Cherry told me.  “I thought I had the perfect mix until I was talking to Javy Lopez and he said, ‘Ben and Jerry already has that flavor – it’s called Cherry Garcia.’  So now my hopes and dreams are dashed.”

 

Not necessarily.  All he has to do it tweak it slightly and I’m sure it would be delicious.

 

* * * * *

 

The official details are in about Dusty and Jordan Brown’s son.  I received this e-mail from Jordan on Saturday:

 

Jude Thomas (middle name after Dusty’s dad) was born on July 17th at 4:42pm weighing in at 8lbs 13 ounces with a full head of Dusty Brown hair : ) Dusty is at the field for a little while today, working out and hitting/throwing and then heading back to the hospital. We’ll be leaving the hospital Sunday morning.

 

I’ll let you know when we make our way to Jude’s first game, so you guys can see him. 

 

* * * * *

 

Michael Bowden (3-4, 3.32 ERA) returns to the mound on Sunday in hopes of snapping the PawSox’ 8-game losing streak.  It’s their longest losing streak since August of 1985.

 

I hope you’ll join us for the radio call beginning with the pre-game show at 12:50 on the PawSox radio network and PawSox.com.

• Posted on July 19, 2009 at 9:31 am
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