Gone Fishing

*Picture from the Boston Globe*

Went fishing the past couple of days with my brother-in-law's Scott and Keith, joined today by my brother Matt. I came to a few conclusions.

First, there is no way the four of us should EVER, under any circumstances, go fishing on a boat together. There were more instances of hooks almost taking out somebodies eye than I could count: Scott, in particular is a little, well, nonchalant about who is nearby when he let's it fly.

Second, we are 4 of the biggest wusses in fishing history when it comes to taking catfish off a hook. The two small ones I caught were bad enough, what with all the stepping on the fish and grabbing it with a paper bag to keep from getting stung. Forget about the two Keith and Scott caught: Keith's looked like some pre-historic dinosaur fish with the head the size of a small child. Fortunately for three of us, and bad for Keith, his line broke as he was pulling it up the bank of the pond. Biggest catfish I've ever seen.

Scott's actually made it out of the water: it took him reeling it in, me with a bucket to catch it in, and Matt, Scott, and myself taking turns stepping on it and yanking at the hook at the same time to get it back in the water. Meanwhile, Keith has turned into some fish obsessed paparazzi person, snapping pictures with his telephone camera of this fish that is a legit 2 feet long and weighing about 10 lbs.

Which leads me to my final observation: the combined IQ of the 4 of us would come about 50 points shy of your average 3rd grader. We have this GREAT fishing story, and we take all the pictures with a phone that you can't download, email, or send by pony express any of the pictures on it. Oh well, it makes for a good story that I'm sure will reach whale like proportions in the coming years.

As far as the Red Sox are concerned, today went as well as last night did: following a 10-3 victory that featured a Julio Lugo grand slam last night, all the boys did today was win 11-2. Led by 7 innings of 3 hit, 1 ER ball by Kason Gabbard, and 5 RBI's by formerly embattled CF Coco Crisp, Fenway Park was a happy place to be this afternoon.

After all the doom and gloom about leaving runners on base, and not coming through when it counted, the offense has shown the last 2 days that, when running on all cylinders, they can score with the best of 'em.

Tomorrow, it's Wake vs. John Garland: My pick? Much like todays fishing trip, I'm betting on the old man to win.