Globe Corner Blogs

I-Concepts Prints

Yes, it’s that time again folks: Opening Day for the Red Sox!!! Cue wild cheering, followed by mild to moderate hyperventilation, and finally, breathing into a paper bag. Get ready for Ulla the Dog’s prancing around in her seasonal sports collar. Then, Lisa‘s bewilderment at my completely appropriate behavior. (She is a Mariner’s fan and, thus, is not really used to watching a winning and/or actual major league team. Minus the Griffey years.)

I-Concepts Prints

On Friday April 1st begins that long annual descent into the madness that Bostonians call Red Sox Fandom. Let me explain Red Sox Fandom: The Sox will inevitably disappoint at least once this season, causing you to throw things at your television, radio, and/or computer. (I suggest prepositioning something small and soft near you before a game begins to prevent the smashing of important and expensive things. Personally, I use a rolled up ball of dress socks for lightness.) Although Opening Day in Texas is Friday, we do have to wait for April 8th before the Home Opener at Fenway when the Sox will play the satanic Yankees. (Just kidding, I’m sure all the Yankees are wonderful to their mothers and small dogs. Children, not so much . . . .) You can get started on the season by picking up one of our new photo prints of classic Red Sox moments from I-Concepts. Whether it’s Ted Williams posing with Bobby Doerr or Mickey Mantle, the 2nd Fisk-Munson fight, or Luis Tiant at the plate in the ’78 World Series.* All purchases of  Red Sox books and prints in the store will be 10% off from April 1st through the 8th.

*Note to hipsters: El Tiante sports what is known as a MUSTACHE, please try to emulate!

I am generally not a big sports fan…which can be a bit of a problem living in Boston. I grew up on Pac-10 football and golf, but every four years I do catch World Cup Fever.

During the last World Cup I was spending the month of July in Sarajevo, Bosnia. I had rented a small room from my beloved “adopted” Bosnian Grandma, Tecvida. She soon began to treat me as family and not just as a traveler that she had taken in to help support her meager pension. She is a Bosnian Muslim, but explained to me that I could eat all the pork and drink all the alcohol I wanted in her house; she just asked that I please not disturb her during her prayers.

During my stay, I learned many things from her. She taught me how to cook some dishes -  including some vegetarian dishes, a lot of Bosnian vocabulary, how to properly cover my head so I could enter the non-touristy mosques, but maybe most importantly she taught me about football and the importance of the World Cup. Continue Reading »

101 Baseball Places by Josh Pahigian

In less than two weeks the Boys of Summer will have reached the halfway point of the season. That’s right — you have only about 5,000 more games til the season is over. Or so it may seem to a (seriously un-American) non-enthusiast. But for the rest of us, especially those of us who grew up with and continue to root for one of the worst baseball clubs in the league, it is a time of renewed hope and enthusiasm: hope that we will not continue to mire in last place; enthusiasm at the outside chance of wearing our jerseys and hats well into September or even in the snow.

By now you may have guessed that, although living in Boston, I am actually a fan of the beleaguered Cleveland Indians, my hometown team. When I was young, before they took a wild whiff at greatness in the early 90s, my family and I often took a quick trip up to “The Big City” and bought tickets minutes before the game started.
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