The next day's game wasn't one that I originally had a ticket to, but my friend and I bought them a week in advance. In early August, Red Sox President Larry Lucchino's wife had particpated in a bicycle race to raise money for charity. Red Sox broadcasters had been advertising the event during games, and Jerry Remy said that his Wally the Green Monster beanbag doll would be riding along on her bicycle. Several viewers had sent clothing and helmets in for Wally, including my friend, who had sewn a whole bike-riding outfit. She sent Remy an email afterward, saying that she had additional outfits if he was interested. He replied that she could bring them up to him on the fifth floor the next time she came to a game. I wanted to get in on meeting Jerry Remy, so we picked the August 26 game, because neither one of us already had tickets for this Toronto series, and it was originally lined up to be a Pedro game until he had gotten sick and missed a start.

There had been several running gags between Jerry Remy, Don Orsillo, and Sean McDonough during broadcasts all year. They liked to poke fun at radio broadcaster Jerry Trupiano's loud shirts. They had clothing designer and Red Sox fan Joseph Aboud in the booth. And McDonough teased Remy about his hair, saying, "It's not just a rug, it's a system." Meanwhile, Jerry's Wally doll sat in the booth with them all year and even went on road trips with them. So my friend made Wally a Hawaiian shirt, a Joseph Aboud suit and tie, and a raincoat for rain delays. My contribution was a furry, brown "system" just the right size for Wally. We arrived just as the gates opened, went to the fifth floor, and showed the email to the person at the desk. He disappeared down the hall for a minute, and returned with Jerry Remy. It was really nice of him to take the time to humor us, signing a couple of autographs, posing for pictures, and taking the Hawaiian shirt, raincoat, and "system" back for Wally. We thanked him and went down to our seats to watch the game.

The Blue Jays scored first, on a strange play in the second inning. There was a runner on first and the batter lined a hit to left field. Dave McCarty, in a rare left field start, threw to Nomar Garciaparra, who got the ball home in time to cut the runner down at the plate. But the umpires ruled that Nomar had interfered with the batter as he approached second base (even though replays showed that he never touched him). It was scored an error, and the runner was awarded the plate. It was hard to tell what had happened at the time, so I just wrote an "S" on my scorecard for "stupid" and figured I'd sort it out later. The Red Sox got the run back in the bottom of the inning when McCarty doubled to score Kevin Millar. Unfortunately, in the next inning Bill Mueller's error was followed by a home run by Frank Catalanotto, and Toronto took the lead. Wakefield didn't make it out of the fourth. He gave up two doubles, got a groundout, and then surrendered three more straight doubles, giving the Jays a 7-1 advantage.

I tried to remain confident, telling my friend that they had come back from large deficits before and they were going to do it again, but I knew it would take something big. It didn't take them long to get started. Manny Ramirez led off the bottom of the fourth with a single, Millar walked, and Doug Mirabelli singled Manny home. McCarty followed with a three-run homer, and later in the inning Mueller knocked in another run to make it 7-6. That was enough to knock Toronto starter Mark Hendrickson out of the game, and during the pitching change, the Kevin Millar "Rally Karaoke Guy" video played on the message board. The Red Sox had not lost a game since the video debuted the previous Thursday, and they hoped it would mark another comeback win tonight. Nomar lined into a double play to end the inning, but the Sox were now within a run.

Jeff Suppan pitched the next three innings, holding the Jays scoreless. In the sixth inning, the cell phone rang. It was my parents, who were watching the game on TV, and Jerry Remy had just shown Wally wearing our Hawaiian shirt. Some other viewers had sent in real Hawaiian shirts for Remy and Orsillo, and they were modeling them earlier in the broadcast. When they came back from the next commercial break, Wally was wearing his new shirt too. In the bottom of the seventh, Todd Walker and Millar both hit doubles, and the Red Sox had tied the game back up! I had been horrified when the line-up was first announced and Mirabelli, McCarty, Gabe Kapler, and Damian Jackson were hitting sixth through ninth. But the bench players were proving me wrong, and now that they had tied the game, I thought I could relax a bit. It turned out that was just wishful thinking. After all that work to tie the game up, the Scotts - Sauerbeck and Williamson - blew it all in the eighth, giving up five runs. We got our hopes up again in the bottom of the inning when the Sox scored their eighth run, but they left the bases loaded without getting any more.

It's amazing how quickly the life can be sapped out of the game, but it wasn't over yet. A game that had already featured the good, the bad, and the ugly had one more exciting moment left. Millar led off the ninth with a long drive to the 420-foot mark in the deepest part of center field. It hit off the side of the fence that separates the bleachers from the bullpens, and rolled along the center field wall until it had gone all the way over to the Bob's Stores sign on the Green Monster. By the time it was fielded and thrown back into the infield, Millar had scored standing up - an inside-the-park home run! I had seen Junior Spivey hit one for the Arizona Diamondbacks last year, but this was the first for a Red Sox batter since Darren Lewis's in 1998. Unfortunately, it didn't change the outcome of the game. A wild night that had the potential to be one of the more memorable wins of the season had ended in disaster.