Oh, and one more thing, Francona remembered, "Watch for the haunted rooms."
It's always about more than baseball when it comes to the Red Sox, and this week the Sox will be staying in a hotel some believe is haunted. It's an old St. Petersburg joint where Babe Ruth stayed back in the days when the Yankees trained in Tampa. Sox righthander Scott Williamson insists a ghost woke him up from a sound sleep when he was at the St. Pete hotel on a trip with the Reds last year.
"I was laying on my stomach and all of a sudden, I couldn't breathe," the reliever recalled yesterday. "It was like something was pushing down on me. I turned around, when there was this guy dressed in a 1920s, '30s-style staring at me. I never believed in ghosts before, but, like I said, I couldn't breathe. I told somebody about it the next day in the clubhouse and then it was all over the news.
"It's just crazy stuff, one of those freaky things. I'm not one for ghosts, but I know I couldn't breathe."
Kevin Millar added: "When we were in Baltimore at the start of this season, I heard another story about one of their infielders, Brian Roberts, when they stayed there. Supposedly he had some dry cleaning delivered to his room and when he came back to the room the clothes were all laid out on the bed."
The hotel has two sections, one old, one new. Williamson's episode took place in the old section and he won't stay there anymore.
Hmmmm. Maybe Grady Little was onto something when he talked about those ghosts last October.
There was nothing supernatural about yesterday's loss (whoa, smooth transition, no?). It was just a third matchup of Cy Young winners, and this time Halladay was slightly better than Martinez. These things even out. Pedro already beat Halladay twice this season, and how often can you expect to beat Roy Halladay on Roy Halladay Bobblehead Doll Day at SkyDome?
"He's probably the best pitcher in the game," said Johnny Damon, who plans to go fishing on his day off.
