Then there were the things you might only see here. The Hare Krishnas in cowboy hats, entertaining the lunch crowd on Main Street. The Doggie Dive in a swimming pool outside the ballpark, a mutt named Kiki launched off a springboard over 22 feet before making a triumphant splashdown in front of dozens of onlookers. The "Eat Mor Fowl" signs hanging from the foul poles, with free chicken sandwiches for all if an Astro clanks a ball off the poles.
The locomotive chugging 800 feet along the glass wall above the decorative arches evocative of old Union Station, and the retractable roof that remained closed last night because it was too hot outside. Eighty-four degrees or lower, and the sky comes into play. Anything higher - and last night it was 89 at the 7:05 first pitch - and the roof closes and the AC is turned on.
Familiar, bizarre, the Sox looked as comfortable here as the pair of new cowboy boots perched in front of the locker of Josh Beckett, who was a high school phenom growing up in nearby Springs and will be pitching in front of the home folks tomorrow afternoon.
J.D. Drew broke his mini-slump with a three-run home run, the torrid Dustin Pedroia had another three-hit game and Kevin Youkilis had the first four-hit game of his career, Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-1) struck out the side in the first of five scoreless innings, and the bullpen did the rest before a sellout gathering of 42,327 in Minute Maid Park.
The victory, which served as a successful launch to this three-city, 10-game trip, kept the Sox a half-game ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, who will provide the opposition on the next stop of a tour that ends on Fourth of July weekend in New York with a four-game set against the Yankees.
Drew spent much of June doing a passable impression of Roy Hobbs, hitting home runs at an unprecedented pace. But the end of the team's homestand was more out of the Thomas Hobbes catalogue - he's the English philosopher who described life as "nasty, brutish, and short."
