Home Plate

Q. Hot dogs are what you usually sell. Why? A. Everyone picks based on seniority and when they get to the park. The eight beer slots go first. There is less running around with beer than other foods, because of checking IDs, and at Fenway you can only sell in the lower boxes, so you don’t have to walk so many steps. On a hot day, it’s a good gig. After beer, the hot dogs go next, but right now it’s 90 degrees out, and if it’s a day game, you might rather take water or something cold, a slush or lemonade.

The next time Sean Rodriguez and Mike Napoli run into each other, it might be over a meal and the former Angels teammates may joke about what happened. Nothing funny about their body-jarring crash this week. But these are the playoffs, and home-plate smashups are part of the game. "There have been collisions in this postseason, they've been ringing a few bells," Major League Baseball executive Joe Torre said. Two, in particular. On Sunday night, Jon Jay of the St. Louis Cardinals plowed his forearm into the mask of Philadelphia catcher Carlos Ruiz, sending a shudder...

Salem State awarded honorary doctorates to Dennis Drinkwater, founder and president of Giant Glass, and Molly Baldwin, founder and executive director of Roca during the university's 2012 graduate school commencement Thursday night. From left to right: Drinkwater, valedictorian Whitney Nelson - who received her master of education in school counseling - Baldwin, and Salem State President Patricia Meservey. Photo by Ryan Mooney By Ryan Mooney, Globe Correspondent The most common place to find Dennis Drinkwater this time of year is at Fenway Park, sitting...

Q. Hot dogs are what you usually sell. Why? A. Everyone picks based on seniority and when they get to the park. The eight beer slots go first. There is less running around with beer than other foods, because of checking IDs, and at Fenway you can only sell in the lower boxes, so you don’t have to walk so many steps. On a hot day, it’s a good gig. After beer, the hot dogs go next, but right now it’s 90 degrees out, and if it’s a day game, you might rather take water or something cold, a slush or lemonade.

PHILADELPHIA - Cody Ross was limping when he entered the visitors' clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday afternoon and went immediately to the trainer's room. Ross did not play in a 7-5 victory against the Phillies and it could be a few days before he returns after fouling a ball off his left foot in the eighth inning on Friday night. "I'm not going to say I'm going to play tomorrow. I don't know how it's going to feel," said Ross, who doesn't feel he will need to go on the disabled list.

The home team will definitely win Sunday as some 2,000 heroes will cross the plate at the venerable ballpark in the 2012 Run-Walk to Home Base, including veterans of the Iraq/ Afghanistan wars who suffered combat stress or a traumatic brain injury. Proceeds will benefit the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program, which provides help to the veterans and their families. The Globe profiles four courageous veterans who bare their souls in the hopes that others may get help.

Going to Fenway Park for Red Sox-Mariners Saturday? Bring a box of tissue. Bring your checkbook, too. Boston’s ancient baseball theater will be one of 15 major league parks honoring the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech (“I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth’’) and raising funds to support ALS research. It’s called “4ALS Awareness’’ Nice going, MLB. In 1939, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis took Gehrig off the field after 2,130 consecutive games and now baseball is joining the fight against the deadly disease.

NEW YORK -- Care to wager where Big Papi and Manny are hanging while the Red Sox are in New York this weekend? You could look for them at the Copa or Crobar, I suppose, but your best bet may be to take the A train uptown to 190th St., then amble one bustling block north. There, at 1618 St. Nicholas Ave., you'll find El Nuevo Caridad, a Dominican restaurant that's favored by many of Major League Baseball's best Latin ballplayers, from the two Sox sluggers to Albert Pujols and Vladimir Guerrero.

The next time Sean Rodriguez and Mike Napoli run into each other, it might be over a meal and the former Angels teammates may joke about what happened. Nothing funny about their body-jarring crash this week. But these are the playoffs, and home-plate smashups are part of the game. "There have been collisions in this postseason, they've been ringing a few bells," Major League Baseball executive Joe Torre said. Two, in particular. On Sunday night, Jon Jay of the St. Louis Cardinals plowed his forearm into the mask of Philadelphia catcher Carlos...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Red Sox now lead the major leagues with six balks. That may not seem like much, but when these lapses in concentration cost you a game, you have to start wondering what the heck is going on. Clay Buchholz balked in Tampa Bay's first run in a 2-1 loss to the Rays Wednesday night at Tropicana Field. And Franklin Morales committed a pair of balks in back-to-back innings, but he was able to get out of both situations unscathed. Buchholz, Morales, and Daniel Bard have two balks apiece.

Going to Fenway Park for Red Sox-Mariners Saturday? Bring a box of tissue. Bring your checkbook, too. Boston’s ancient baseball theater will be one of 15 major league parks honoring the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech (“I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth’’) and raising funds to support ALS research. It’s called “4ALS Awareness’’ Nice going, MLB. In 1939, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis took Gehrig off the field after 2,130 consecutive games and now baseball is joining the fight against the deadly disease.

NEW YORK -- Care to wager where Big Papi and Manny are hanging while the Red Sox are in New York this weekend? You could look for them at the Copa or Crobar, I suppose, but your best bet may be to take the A train uptown to 190th St., then amble one bustling block north. There, at 1618 St. Nicholas Ave., you'll find El Nuevo Caridad, a Dominican restaurant that's favored by many of Major League Baseball's best Latin ballplayers, from the two Sox sluggers to Albert Pujols and Vladimir Guerrero.

Tim Wakefield got to throw one more knuckleball at Fenway Park. The Red Sox honored Wakefield on Tuesday afternoon with a ceremony before Boston's game against Seattle. He wiped away a few tears during all the accolades for both his 17 seasons of pitching and his charitable work, which earned him the Roberto Clemente Award in 2010. Boston brought in former catcher Doug Mirabelli to catch the ceremonial first pitch, which was a knuckler that floated to the right of home plate.

Fenway Park celebrates its 100th birthday next month, and it was exactly halfway through that timeline, in the summer of 1962, when I first stepped foot in the place. It was a weekday afternoon game, Los Angeles was in town, and Angels outfielder Leon "Daddy Wags" Wagner ripped a line drive down the right-field line that kicked up a cloud of white dust and ruined an otherwise sensational day of hooky from Miss Kellert's third grade class. I've never been a Strat-O-Matic baseball guy, but it was right around that same time that Hal Richman, born and raised in Great Neck, N.Y.,...