And the Winner is….

First off…congratulations to everyone who took the time to find any of the items in the hunt. There are no losers here. Well, actually, everyone’s a loser here except for:

Adam from Candia, NH!

Congratulations Adam on being the first annual Section 36 Scavenger Hunt Champion! While you didn’t find all the items on the list, you found more than anyone else. We greatly appreciate your dedication to the activity. You have earned the grand prize of worldwide fame and adoration. People across the globe are looking at your achievement with all due admiration.

For everyone else, there’s always next year.

Scavenger Hunt Items

OK everyone. I hope you all enjoyed looking for things on this year’s list. Since the pitchers and catchers have reported, the hunt has ended. Here are the items you should have found…

1. The number of commitments in the Red Sox Mission Statement: 5
2. The first number mentioned in Chapter 1 of Mike Lupica’s book Wild Pitch: 11
3. The uniform number of the Cardinals player sliding into Mark Bellhorn on the November 1, 2004 cover of “Sports Illustrated”: 22
4. The postal zip code for Fenway Park: 02215
5. The number of games played by Jim Rice during the 1978 regular season: 163
6. The number of deleted scenes included on the “curse reversed” edition of the Fever Pitch DVD: 13
7. The number of cups of “large curd sour cream” that are needed for Darren Lewis’s Potato Romanoff recipe, featured in the 2001 Red Sox Wives Cookbook, Crowding the Plate: 2
8. In W.P. Kinsella’s book Shoeless Joe, Ray Kinsella takes J.D. Salinger to Fenway Park in order to “ease his pain.” The section in which he gets tickets: 17
9. The number of runs scored by the Red Sox in the bottom of the seventh inning of the game chronicled in Steve Kettermann’s book One Day at Fenway: 0
10. The lot number of the Mookie-Buckner baseball in Leyland’s Charlie Sheen auction of April 2000: 698
11. The lowest section number of the Fenway Park bleachers: 34
12. The number of stars on the state flag of the state in which Curt Schilling was born: 8
13. The number of fans whose stories are chronicled in the movie Still, We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie: 8
14. The number of Calories that were in one quart of “Curse Reversed!” flavor Brigham’s Ice Cream: 1760
15. The number the player liked by Trisha’s brother Pete, in Stephen King’s book The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, usually wore: 42
16. The number of Red Sox players pictured on the cover of the April 11-17, 2004 issue of TV Guide: 2
17. The number of runs scored by the Red Sox in the first night game at Fenway Park: 5
18. The number of pitches Manny Ramirez saw in his first at bat in Fenway Park as a member of the Red Sox: 1
19. The approximate running time, in minutes, of the 2001 DVD: Boston Red Sox, 100 Years of Baseball History presented by Verizon: 210
20. The number of grams of sugar in a 2 oz box of Necco Sweet Hits Baseball Classic Candy, featuring John Valentin: 53
21. Cost, in dollars, of the raffle ticket sold in Fenway Park that gave you a chance to win an official 2004 Red Sox World Series Championship ring: 10
22. The row number in which Joseph Boucher was sitting during the June 9, 1946 Sox game against Detroit at Fenway: 37
23. Number of US Senators from the home state of Jon Lester: 2
24. The year in which the movie Fear Strikes Out was released: 1957
25. The number of ounces of Wheaties in the 2007 World Series commemorative box, featuring Josh Beckett: 15.6
26. The number of times Kevin Youkilis is pictured on the front of his 2003 Topps baseball card: 2
27. The number of Chapters in Mike Vaccaro’s book, Emperors and Idiots: 12
28. The 2008 Fenway Park seating capacity for a day game: 36984
29. The number of dogs Shea Hillenbrand is pictured with for the month of May in the 2003 “Pups in the Park” Red Sox Calendar: 4
30. The batting average of Nomar Garciapara shown on the front of card number 391 of the 2001 Upper Deck Vintage baseball card set: .372
31. The number found in the name of the Wade Boggs candy bar circa 1990: .352
32. Mike Timlin’s lifetime TPI, as listed in the sixth edition of Total Baseball: 8.7
33. The card number of Frank Viola’s 1993 Topps Stadium Club baseball card: 147
34. The property value, in dollars, of Fenway Park in the Red Sox Collectors Edition Monopoly game: 400
35. The number of players lost to Colorado in the 1992 expansion draft: 2
36. The number of people to whom Tony Massarotti dedicated his book A Tale of Two Cities (written with John Harper): 2

So, how did you do? Winner to be announced tomorrow.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I Love Ya, tomorrow!

You’re only a day away…

OK. If truck day is the start of spring, the day pitchers and catchers report means summer’s almost here. It also means the start of the longest six weeks in the history of sports reporting. About the only thing interesting that occurs in Florida is an injury. Other than that, nothing really means anything. Spring Training wins and losses have no bearing on the regular season. Maybe if a position is under competition, you can see if the hotshot rookie will eek out the veteran. I guess, seeing if Jed Lowrie or Julio Lugo gets the bulk of the at-bats could be an interesting storyline. But, all in all the Red Sox just hope everyone gets to April 6th without breaking any limbs. So, while the endless reporting will get old, the fact that you can talk about baseball again is enough to keep me going. Finally you can actually discuss the Sox rotation, and compare it to the Yankee line-up, since you may actually know what they are. Let the fun begin.

Of course, tomorrow also means the last day to submit your entries in the Section 36 Scavenger hunt. Have those e-mails in by noon if you want to be the winner. I’ll post the answers tomorrow night so you can all see how well you did. Thanks to everyone who’s giving this a shot to make the off-season a little more entertaining.

One Week left!

This is yet another reminder to get your answers together for the first annual Section 36 Scavenger Hunt!

Red Sox Pitchers and Catchers report next Thursday. So, you need to have until noon eastern on Feb 12th to get your entries submitted. Don’t forget to e-mail them to Section36 at gmail dot com. Nobody has gotten all of the answers yet, so there’s still a chance to finish on top.
Even if you’re not a big researcher, there are a gimmie or two on the list…so go ahead and take a shot. You never know how you’ll do.

If you’ve lost your list, check out the link on the right of this page for the “hunt items” you need to find.

As always, have fun!

100th Post!

This post marks the 100th in the history of Section 36. While it’s not exactly at the same level of Seinfeld’s 100th episode or anything, it’s pretty cool. For my reader(s?) I want to thank you. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it, and you keep coming back…and bring friends!

Also, with the new year, we’re on the downhill side of time remaining for the Section 36 Scavenger Hunt. The deadline for entries is the day pitchers and catchers report to Red Sox Spring Training. So, we’re down to a couple months. If you’ve lost you list of items to find, check the link on the right. We’ve had some interest in the hunt, but nobody’s found all 36 items so far.
Keep looking!

2008 Section 36 Scavenger Hunt

So, here we are. The season is over, and it’s three long months before we can even think about spring training. The Sox aren’t expected to make any hot stove headlines. There’s no more Manny to try to trade. There are no huge free agents the Sox are expected the chase. (I think that the pitchers are too expensive for their liking. The Teixeira love affair is a bit too complicated, expensive and unnecessary for my taste) The only news we can hope for is a signing of a middle reliever. How are we ever going to make it through the long winter? Luckily, I have the solution. I present the First Annual Section 36 Scavenger Hunt. I’ve always liked this kind of thing. A chance to look around and find obscure stuff. Now, since this is web-based, I obviously can’t have actual items needing to be found. So, this year I’ll do it with words. (Maybe next time we’ll try pictures.) Here’s how it works. Below you’ll find a list of 36 items (or answers?) to find. Since baseball is becoming more and more a game of numbers, I’ve made everything you need to find a number of some kind. Hopefully, most of these things aren’t things you’ll just know. They’re something you’ll have to hunt down and look for…which makes it a “scavenger hunt” and not a “Google search”. When you find all the items, list them out and send them along to me in an e-mail. Whoever sends me a list with the most items found correctly wins. We’ll make the end of the hunt be noon (Fort Myers time) on the day pitchers and catchers report for the Red Sox 2009 spring training, so e-mail me before then. This provides enough time to find the stuff, and fills all the time leading up to more baseball. Sound like fun? What do you win if you’re the best? Worldwide fame and adoration. I will post the winner’s name (and picture if one is provided) on this very site and hail them as the 2008 Section 36 Scavenger Hunt Champion!

Enough with the introductions. Here are the things you need to find:
1. The number of commitments in the Red Sox Mission Statement:
2. The first number mentioned in Chapter 1 of Mike Lupica’s book Wild Pitch:
3. The uniform number of the Cardinals player sliding into Mark Bellhorn on the November 1, 2004 cover of “Sports Illustrated”:
4. The postal zip code for Fenway Park:
5. The number of games played by Jim Rice during the 1978 regular season:
6. The number of deleted scenes included on the “curse reversed” edition of the Fever Pitch DVD:
7. The number of cups of “large curd sour cream” that are needed for Darren Lewis’s Potato Romanoff recipe, featured in the 2001 Red Sox Wives Cookbook, Crowding the Plate:
8. In W.P. Kinsella’s book Shoeless Joe, Ray Kinsella takes J.D. Salinger to Fenway Park in order to “ease his pain.” The section in which he gets tickets:
9. The number of runs scored by the Red Sox in the bottom of the seventh inning of the game chronicled in Steve Kettermann’s book One Day at Fenway:
10. The lot number of the Mookie-Buckner baseball in Leyland’s Charlie Sheen auction of April 2000:
11. The lowest section number of the Fenway Park bleachers:
12. The number of stars on the state flag of the state in which Curt Schilling was born:
13. The number of fans whose stories are chronicled in the movie Still, We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie:
14. The number of Calories that were in one quart of “Curse Reversed!” flavor Brigham’s Ice Cream:
15. The number the player liked by Trisha’s brother Pete, in Stephen King’s book The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, usually wore:
16. The number of Red Sox players pictured on the cover of the April 11-17, 2004 issue of TV Guide:
17. The number of runs scored by the Red Sox in the first night game at Fenway Park:
18. The number of pitches Manny Ramirez saw in his first at bat in Fenway Park as a member of the Red Sox:
19. The approximate running time, in minutes, of the 2001 DVD: Boston Red Sox, 100 Years of Baseball History presented by Verizon:
20. The number of grams of sugar in a 2 oz box of Necco Sweet Hits Baseball Classic Candy, featuring John Valentin:
21. Cost, in dollars, of the raffle ticket sold in Fenway Park that gave you a chance to win an official 2004 Red Sox World Series Championship ring:
22. The row number in which Joseph Boucher was sitting during the June 9, 1946 Sox game against Detroit at Fenway:
23. Number of US Senators from the home state of Jon Lester:
24. The year in which the movie Fear Strikes Out was released:
25. The number of ounces of Wheaties in the 2007 World Series commemorative box, featuring Josh Beckett:
26. The number of times Kevin Youkilis is pictured on the front of his 2003 Topps baseball card:
27. The number of Chapters in Mike Vaccaro’s book, Emperors and Idiots:
28. The 2008 Fenway Park seating capacity for a day game:
29. The number of dogs Shea Hillenbrand is pictured with for the month of May in the 2003 “Pups in the Park” Red Sox Calendar:
30. The batting average of Nomar Garciapara shown on the front of card number 391 of the 2001 Upper Deck Vintage baseball card set:
31. The number found in the name of the Wade Boggs candy bar circa 1990:
32. Mike Timlin’s lifetime TPI, as listed in the sixth edition of Total Baseball:
33. The card number of Frank Viola’s 1993 Topps Stadium Club baseball card:
34. The property value, in dollars, of Fenway Park in the Red Sox Collectors Edition Monopoly game:
35. The number of players lost to Colorado in the 1992 expansion draft:
36. The number of people to whom Tony Massarotti dedicated his book A Tale of Two Cities (written with John Harper):

There they are, all 36 of them. Those look simple enough, don’t they? So, take your time, look around and find them all. Don’t think too hard. There are no tricks. Just track down the numbers and send them along. If you have any questions, other than what the correct numbers are, ask away.

Most importantly, have fun!