Watched the Red Sox vs Rockies last night (and the other night too). Having visited and loved Boston I have to admit to have been rooting for them. Congrats Boston on winning the series.

Not a bad game, if a little low scoring. Prompted me to write the following:

1) What is it with baseball players and beards? about 70% of the players seemd to have a beard of some sort, most being the chin fuzz with no moustache, like Mike Cole's.

2) What is it with baseball players and chewing? Most seem to chew away 90 to the dozen, some on big wads of gum ("chewy" as we call it). I doubt if many nowadays still "chaw" on baccy as in the old days but one of teh ugliest sites I've seen in my life was the repeated focusing of the camera on one of Boston's coaches, a mealy-mouthed looking fellah with a huge gob of gum rammed into his cheek, like half a hamster. I saw him cramming more and more gum in the other night.

3) Then there's the incessant spitting. Are they allergic to their own spit or something? They chew like mad, get the saliva going then spit it out. The camera kept zooming in on one after the other, some spitting out their gum too. Man that dug-out must be an unwholesome place, what with all the gum and gobs spat out. It's little wonder our sidewalks are encrusted with the vile stuff if these are the role-models. It's no wonder many of them never make first base - they're slowed down by the chewy stuck to teh soles of their feet

4) Pitchers. Can someone explain why many of them do this ritual of looking the other way for a pause before pitching. I can understand the back-stop's secret hand-signals to him, and his nod of acknowledgement, but I can't see what purpose this serves.

5) Batters - One of them (who was struck out) insisted on just attempting to block EVERY PITCH, with the bat held out in both hands. I can understand this being done occasionally, as opportunity and the picth dictates, but this guy did it all that way.

6) Wides - T'other night (Bit confused here - Boston vs another Colorado team, in black daft shirts - Denver?) I watched the pitcher throw several deliberate and obvious wides to the back-stop, the batter making no attempt to hit them, just watching. It was like a warm-up but was in the middle of teh match. After a few, the batter then proceeded to walk off to the left (of the image). I don't know if he was scoring or out. Wassup with all that?