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Red Sox 4, Mariners 1
May 18

John Lennon’s Revolution 9 — the tuneless dirge that drones “Number nine, number nine” — should have been blaring in the visitors’ clubhouse before last Saturday’s game at Fenway Park. The Mariners were facing Pedro Martinez, who in nine career games against them was 9-0 with an 0.91 ERA. Could they break their streak of futility? Pedro quickly made the answer clear: nein. In the first inning he struck out the side on nine pitches, a feat rarer than a no-hitter. Martinez became just the 35th pitcher in major league history to do it.

By the end of the day Martinez had thrown 99 pitches (73 for strikes) and struck out nine…
from the May 27, 2002 issue of Sports Illustrated

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

In destinies sad or merry, True men can but try.

The Paradox of Popularity

I took a class in the Fall of ’94 called Desire and Power in Western Literature. I hated the class and I’m pretty sure the professor, Dr. Snodgrass, didn’t like me very much. I wrote this rambling, terrible excuse for a term paper, in November of that year. It is titled “The Paradox of Popularity: or What does the 1994 MLB strike have to do with being a Tom Petty fan?”