Hello all, and welcome back to an OVERDUE edition of "1918". I've been extremely busy with my daily updates, so my column had to take a back seat. Eventually i'd like to take my self completey out of writing a column as most of my thoughts are put up on the main page on a daily basis. Hopefully we'll have a few more contibuting columnists in the near future.

So here we are two weeks into the season and Carl Everett has done nothing but pick up where he left off last year in Houston. So far he's been the biggest offensive bright spot for the team.

I was at Opening Day on Tuesday, and Carl did not disapoint. He proceded to not only launch two out of the park, but he did it from each side of the plate. Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg for him in Boston, the fans certainly took a likeing to him right away. After he had hit his 2nd homer of the day, and then came up in the order again, he received a standing O.

Now we all know that Boston fans are very quick to turn on a guy if he starts to take a nose dive, a la John Valentin. But Val became our best friend again after the 1999 post-season. So when Carl goes into his slump this year, something EVERY player does, please be gentle.

Warning: Ramdom thoughts below.

I think there may be a conspiracy in Boston with the schedule makers. Ever notice how our home opener is always aginst a team that complutely sucks? It's always against a team that would never sell-out during any other day. hmmm...

I'm also starting to get ticked with the Boston Management putting all the sasuage guys infront of gate A. What about all us bleacher bums? It's always been a tradition of mine to get one sasuage before evey game outside the gate. Now if I want one, I have to walk all the way around the stadium, buy a sasuage, then walk all the way back again because they won't let me in the front entrance. Management says: "It's for the saftey of the fans." So I guess they didn't care the previous 80+ years. It's all about the $$.

Ever notice the amount of free stuff you can get outside of fenway before and after the game? If your a college student you'll appreciate this more, but nonetheless. As I walked out from Kenmore station there was a Nantucket Nectars truck giving away FREE SAMPLES. Usually it's just a small paper cup, but this time it was a full bottle. Now you know they don't look at your face as you go by, so you could just keep going back and load up for the week. Woo Hoo, free drinks for a week!

I walk a litter further and there is the Red Sox program guy. Ok, so the programs aren't free. But anything you can get for a buck these days sould be considerd free, so chalk another one up for the college kids.

Then not even 10 feet away, is a guy handing out free 2000 schedules. I grabbed a handfull, one for the wallet, one for my car, one for the coffe table, one for the fridge, and fifty others for all the blank space on the walls of my room. Free wallpaper!

Beyond that were a whole slew of people handing out carbaord signs. One was a big "K" for Citizen's Bank, another was "Let's go Sox" from WEEI Radio, and another from Kozmo.com, "Curve the curse" or something like that, I though it was kind of stupid. Now you have pictures for the walls to nicely complimet the 2000 schedule wallpaper.

So now I go into the game, and the free stuff keeps coming. Ok so I knew someone on the inside and got the hook-up on food. Good for me, not for you I guess. If you see me at a game i'll be sure to spread the wealth.

Time to leave, I walk outside, and look, more free stuff. There was a guy with a huge ESPN advertisement on his truck, and he was giving away bubble pens. To the average fan it's junk, but to the student or recent graduate (me), it's hours of leisure time. Granted that leisure time will probably be liquid induced, but fun anyway.

Then to top it all off, since the crowd was slowing down traffic so much, the T was free (that's the train to those who don't know the T). In all, for a $14 ticket I got about $100 in free stuff. In my world it was about $100, see ya next time.