I know I haven't posted much lately, but things have been crazy busy. Last week was especially busy: J. had Little League games Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and a band concert Thursday. R. and I went to the Red Sox-Rangers game on Friday (more on that in a separate post) and we went to the Berkshires for New Camper Day for her at the overnight camp both kids will be attending next summer. Oh, yeah, and I had to work, too...

So, here are a few thoughts as the Sox and Yankees get together again tonight:

• According to Dan Shaughnessey in today's Globe, the Red Sox and Yankees are 75-75 in head-to-head competition since the beginning of the Henry/Werner/Lucchino era in 2002 (including postseason). It's great not being the nail anymore.
  

• The new Yankee Stadium has turned out to be a real launching pad. Through 56 games (28 home, 28 road), the Yankees have hit 53 home runs at home and 35 on the road. Yankees pitchers have given up 47 bombs in the Bronx and only 29 on the road. In total, 100 home runs have been hit in Yankees home games and only 64 in road games. This means it's 56% more likely that a home run will be hit in Yankee Stadium than on the road. Slightly more than 1/3 of the season isn't a huge sample size, but I think it's a good indicator of how the new ballpark is playing. (Thanks to baseball-reference.com for the splits.)

• Back in college, there were two arcade video games I spent lots and lots of quarters on. One, not surprisingly, was Star Wars. You flew an X-Wing with the goal of destroying the Death Star. The game had vector graphics and sounds pulled from the movie soundtrack - Obi-Wan would say "The Force will be with you, always." when you blew up the Death Star. The other game I played a lot of was Punch-Out. It was a boxing game where you fought various cartoon characters, starting with Glass Joe and working your way up. It has been a big hit on various Nintendo consoles over the years, and was just released for the Wii. I'm planning to get it soon, so I can see if I still have the skills to take out the champ. I'm guessing no; my video game reflexes aren't what they used to be...