Thanks for ruining my evening, Keith Foulke.

My mom has always wanted to watch the Macy's New York fireworks show. But nobody ever wanted to go with her. Since I live in New York now, I asked her to come down for it. So she and my dad trained it in, and we headed over to the East River. (My dad was convinced that the yanks had lost, but didn't hear the end of the game. We asked a guy with an O's hat, and he told us the bad news. But at least that kept the O's at least 2 1/2 back.)

We got to the FDR Drive, which runs along the East River. They close off about forty blocks of it for people to stand and watch. Fortunately, we chose a spot where the people in front of us stayed sitting, so we got to sit the whole time. And one of the barges was right in front of us, so we had a perfect view. I normally don't get too excited about actual fireworks--I like being outside at night in the summertime with a bunch of people, but as far as the actual display, well, it's always the same thing. But this show is different. I really felt like I was in the sky among these bombs. I guess it's good to be really close. We actually had ash raining down on us. And loud as an emmer-effer, I tell you.

Oh, and earlier, Chan and I went down to Battery Park, where Steven Malkmus and Yo La Tengo played. I only got to see a few minutes of Malkmus, and Yo La Tengo was about to start, but I really had to get out of there to go meet my parents at Grand Central.

But while we were down there, we looked out at the Statue of Liberty. The whole scene looked so much different than when I'd go there on field trips as a kid. Back then, the corroded woman looked like she was way out in the middle of a huge ocean. Now she just looks like a building on the other side of a lake.

We also checked out Ground Zero, where I hadn't been since early November of 2001. Back then, the smell was the worst I'd ever experienced. Now it's breathable. Although Chan said he read it will take another year for the air quality to get back to normal. They've built a lot of stairwells and platforms in the hole, for future train stations, but that's it. They've also built a new Building 7. It's now a tall, thin, mirrored-window-type building.

When we got back up to my apartment, Chan, who went separately to the fireworks, was already home, and said excitedly, "You're just in time!" I thought, great, the Red Sox are about to win. (The game was on ESPN.) I saw Foulke on the mound, crapping his pants, and the score was tied. Chan filled us in on what had just happened, and from there we watched Foulke give up nothing but a walk, a HBP, and the winning hit. Terrible job, country boy. And after such a frustrating loss yesterday, too.

Side note: Good job by our four All-Star starters. They all deserve it.

Foul. K. E.

Name another player whose name is made up entirely of baseball terms and abbreviations.

How about Emil Batch (BA, TC, H) (batting average, total chances, hit).

For a bigger challenge, name one who pitches worse than Mr. I Don't Like Danzig.

That reminds me, while waiting the two hours for the fireworks tonight, my dad and I played this game: I name a Red Sox player whose last name starts with "A," he names one for "B," etc. We went through the alphabet three times, with my Daryl Irvine answer wowing the crowd that lives inside my head. Of course, Irvine was "I" every time, as no other Sox player ever had a last name that started with "I."

While watching Conan, I just saw an ad for Kevin Millar on Carson Daly tonight. No offense, Kevin, but I'm going to bed.

But not before I tell you that I saw like a hundred Red Sox hats in Manhattan today, and not a bandwagoner among them. And, also, somebody hopped the water plug on our street tonight. I wanted to go run through the "sprinkler," but some guy turned it off before I could. However, it was interesting to watch as every driver who went by slowed down as they went through this jet of water, to get a nice little wash. Even a cop did this. Not "Let me see what's going on with this hydrant," but "Let me get a free car wash!"

Speaking of lines from DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's "Summertime" ("hoppin' the water plug, just for old time's sake"), the other day I said that I'd heard that in Philly, "a place called the Plateau is where everybody go." Thanks to the commenter from Philly for your info, and hopefully now you know what I was talking about. Sorry for the confusion.