I Scored Tickets!

TicketWidget is a handy and portable way of finding tickets available on I Scored Tickets.com without waiting for all those graphics to load. I know you’re busy and have better things to do than to wait for my page to load so I created TicketWidget!

Think of it as a remote, like for your tv only instead of searching for your favorite show on tv, you can search for your favorite MLB team if you’re a baseball fan. If you’re into music, say…Eric Clapton - Eric has his own ticket widget (as if it wasn’t obvious!). We like Clapton too! And finding tickets to a Clapton concert is as easy as going to the remote - I mean TicketWidget - and clicking on the show you’d like to see.

Once a TicketWidget is generated, you can access it whenever you want - just save it to your favorites. You can also get one for your website. We have a Ticketwidget Directory here and you can copy/paste the code for your favorite TicketWidget right into your website. We have also partnered with Widgetbox and you can find a huge list of TicketWidgets there too. And we’re making more every day so if you don’t see a Widget for your favorite artist or team, let us know and we’ll make it!

You may have already seen some in your travels on the internet. There are a few hundred out there on various sites doing their TicketWidget thing and finding tickets for people already.

Getting the latest info is a breeze too. Is the list of tickets outdated? No Problem!…Just click on

just under the date and time and the TicketWidget automatically retrieves a fresh list from I Scored Tickets!

Navigation is easy too! Just click on the IScoredTickets.com link at the bottom of every TicketWidget to go to the main site. You can see more tickets by clicking on the name, ( Eric Clapton in the sample image) Find More Concert TicketWidgets (or MLB, NFL etc.) by clicking on - you guessed it - the More CONCERT TicketWidgets! link at the bottom of the Widget.

TicketWidget exists to make your life easier, save you time and help you find great deals on tickets.

Thanks for visiting I Scored Tickets! and reading about our TicketWidgets. And have a great time at the show!

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Francona refuses gift from Rivera

I have a lot of respect for the baseball savvy of Francona but his apparent loyalty to catcher Jason Varitek cost the Red Sox the game Saturday.

For some reason, Mariano Rivera likes to make things interesting when playing the Sox. He loaded the bases with nobody out in the ninth and a run in and tried to hand the game to Francona on a silver platter. After Coco Crisp struck out with the help of some questionalbe umpiring behind the plate Varitek came to the plate with the bases loaded and down by one run to Joe Girardi’s Yankees.

The arm chair quarterback in me says Francona should have pinch hit for Varitek. I’ve seen him strike out on way too many occasions to have him trying to break out of his humungous slump in such a critical situation. His swings are sometimes feeble. His timing is off, he is often fooled, guessing wrong on what’s coming and it’s probably playing on his mind. Sit him down! Give him time to clear his head. He doesn’t need to prove anything. So he’s not Iron Man - That’s OK! But we will need a healthy Varitek - mind, body and spirit - for the post season.

I don’t care that Francona wants him to keep his confidence level up. He doesn’t look very confident at the plate to me. He looks more like a pitcher who’s forced to hit for himself but knows he can’t. Everybody in Red Sox Nation new Varitek was not the man to have up at the plate in that situation, maybe even Varitek.

varitek, francona, red sox, mariano riveraYankees

Things look good for David Ortiz this week. The cast was removed and replaced with a splint. According to Francona, he’ll begin range of motion exercises soon. With any luck (and a lot of determination), David will avoid surgery and maybe be back within a few weeks. Red Sox Nation will breath a huge sigh of relief if they can get Big Papi back into the lineup.

Thanks to a deep bench and despite a couple uncharacteristic performances by Jonathan “stop throwing the splitter” Papelbon , the Sox have been able to hold their own to date winning 10 of 14 during Ortiz’ absence. With J D, Ellsbury and Pedroia picking up the slack in the power department, the Sox haven’t been hurting in offense although they occasionally struggle against a pitcher who’s on his game.

All I know is I’ll feel better seeing the big guy slapping his gloved hands together in the batters box again.

ortiz, francona, red sox

With Manny and Big Papi out of the lineup, you hope your other big guns can fill in the blanks. And for the most part they have. J. D. Drew has been on fire lately and Mike Lowell, Youkilis (the hero of Saturday’s game with a hometown homer in the top of the tenth to win it for the Sox) and the rest of the muscle has been showing up for work everyday too

But when the how shall we say it…smaller stature players start beltin’ em outa the park..well that’s just BONUS time! Yes thanks to Jacoby and Pedroia, the Red Sox cruised today and shut out the Cincinnatti Reds.

For a while there it looked like batting practice for the Sox and I wondered if the game would be over in time to catch the Celtics (last?) game tonight.

Along with the firepower, Pedroia brought along his usual style of hustle play sucking up everything that was even remotely near him in the infield or in short right field in some cases. And what can you say about Jacoby. Lots but you’d better say it fast because with his speed, he’s like the Flash and will be gone before you know it. Add another couple stolen bases to his credit (two in the first inning) today.

ellsbury,pedroia,reds,youkilis,

If they’re not careful, the Red Sox will have to take out an ad in the Boston Globe:

Help Wanted
-Experience preferred
-Must be willing to travel
-Weekends and nights.

Yes, the injury bug has hit the team - and hard - and Francona is juggling faster and harder than a sideshow act at a Ringling Brothers Circus to put healthy bodies on the field.

Mike Lowell, J. D. Drew, Julio Lugo, Sean Casey and Alex Cora are just some of the latest casualties.

More recently Big Papi hears an ominous popping sound in his wrist after swinging and fouling off a pitch. Now he’s in a cast to immobilize his wrist and is probably out for at least a month (maybe longer?).

Manny’s hamstring is acting up and will no doubt slow down his homerun trot even more! Ellsbury usual hustle play landed him some bench time on a day to day basis after he rolled his wrist underneath his body making yet another spectacular play.

Granted, other than Ellsbury, the Sox won’t miss much defensively from either David or Manny but those are three bats that they can ill-afford to lose from the lineup.

But it isn’t as if there isn’t a silver lining to all this mess. Chris Carter, a recent Triple-A Pawtucket callup was thrust into a game the other night when the Sox and Rays swung at each other rather than the ball. Carter’s performance that night was fun to watch. It’s great that the Red Sox can rely on their home-grown talent when needed and it looks as if they’ll be need’n them soon!

big+papi,manny,ellsbury,red+sox

The way the crowd reacted, you’d have thought Manny had hit #500 at Fenway Park. Throughout the whole game it was hard to tell if there were many Oriole fans there.

Manny, as he has done many times in the past, meandered around the plate to enjoy the moment and the majestic flight of the ball as it cruised out over the right field wall into Row P (about 15 rows back) to who else?…a Red Sox Fan! Red Sox Nation was there in big numbers and I think I would have been surprised had an Orioles fan caught it.

So, a day after his 36th birthday, Manny joins an exclusive club of only 24 players, the same number on the back of his jersey, who have reached the lofty mark. And he’s in some pretty impressive company with names like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, Frank Thomas and Ted Williams.

“As soon as I hit it, I knew it was gone. I was happy to move on,” said Ramirez. “It was great. I’ve been trying so hard the past three weeks just to get it done. It finally came, and I’m happy. I’m proud of myself and all the things that I accomplished. So now I can go and have fun.”

His teammates were just as excited as the fans… Mike Lowell, the on-deck hitter met Manny at the plate and gave him a big hug - Big Papi and Julio Lugo met Manny at the top of the dugout and all three hugged and hopped up and down like kids. It was almost as much fun to watch as the homerun…almost. The rest of the team greeted Manny with the same excitement and enthusiasm. They were both happy for Manny and like the rest of us, impressed with his accomplishment.

When asked what’s next on his agenda? Manny responded #501! …what else right?

manny,home+run

We’ve all seen it.

A game where there was a close play and instant replay showed that the umpire got it wrong? Whether you saw it on TV or live at the game, it seems more prevalant nowadays than ever. Maybe because we’re paying closer attention. In the past week alone, I’ve seen 2 homeruns called doubles (by the umpires), two close plays at first base where each runner was called out and again, instant replay showed them as safe.

I could go on but you get the idea. I like the human element of the game but clearly something has to be done. A 5th umpire in a booth with access to today’s technology, maybe a challenge system like the NFL has with specific criteria on possible challenge situations.

Should balls and strikes be subject?…probably not - it would slow down the game too much and the cost to implement the technology across the league would be enormous and in all likelihood passed on to the already overburdened fans. And if we’re being honest about it, the arguments at the plate over a close pitch are an integral part of the game and sometimes damned entertaining!

How about close plays on the basepaths or even home plate? - Again even the replays we have today aren’t 100% definitive. The best judge of a play’s outcome is the guy standing directly over it and not the person looking at a monitor with 8 different camera angles to view.

The most obvious application I can envision is to judge homeruns, fair or foul. This is the one case where the umpire can’t be on top of the play and becomes a spectator like the rest of us. Even the closest umpire is sometimes a couple hundred feet away from the ball as it passes the foul poles or richochettes off the back wall of the park (above the yellow line or below it???).

Then, if an umpire makes a call he’s not 100% comfortable with, he can call in his crew as is the case now and if they still can’t get on the same page, give a shout up to the 5th umpire in the booth who can end the discussion with a thumbs up or thumbs down. The entire ball park has access to instant replay, usually on a gigantic board somewhere in the outfield, why not take advantage of it? When and if an ump makes a “less than correct” call, he doesn’t have to endure the rest of the game knowing he muffed it and could do nothing about it.

instant replay, umpire,

I’m all for a player spending his entire career with a team and am sometimes shocked at the players who’ve moved on. (Johnny Damon comes to mind) But with all due respect to Mrs. Wakefield, both his wife and his Mom, the Red Sox are doing no one any favors by holding onto the knuckleballer. No one that is except for opposing teams.

I know it can’t be as easy as the A’s and the Twins made it seem, but Geez it just doesn’t look that hard to hit!

We’re talking about Major League hitters here, the majority of which wouldn’t be in the Bigs if they weren’t good. Alright, so they have to make an adjustment after seeing Wakefield in their first at bat. Once that’s done it’s Let The Fireworks Begin!

Wakefield needs to either be more crafty, you know - mix up his pitches or maybe develop something new to add to his arsenal ’cause the knuckball ain’t gettin’ it done.

Wakefield, knuckleball, Oakland Athletics, red sox

It appears that whether or not Roger Clemens has used steroids will be shrouded in mystery, at least for now. With accusations but no real proof on either side. But his reputation has suffered mightily, perhaps because his difficult behavior in the past earned him a reputaion, and now it’s suffering again: the devoted husband, loving father and great family man, Clemens is being accused by a woman of having a decade-long sexual affair with her, starting when the woman, country pop star Mindy McCready, was only fifteen.

There is no denial on either side that Clemens met McCready at a karaoke bar, well before the singer made a name for herself in country music, or that the two became friends and spent a lot of time together, McCready often joining Clemens and his wife on his private plane. There is also no denial, or possibility of denial, that McCready has developed quite a reputation of her own, dabbling in drugs and a wide variety of erratic behavior from crime to attempted suicide.

The question is, did Clemens really have an affair with McCready? According to the New York Daily News, McCready said yes, they did. Clemens is flat out denying it, and the numerous reports implicating him with other women as well. But let’s face it, he’s stood before a panel in congress and flat out denied steroid abuse…would this be much of a stretch for him?

Clemens has retired from baseball (at least, that’s what he says today). So his real concern now is his legacy. He’s weathered plenty of complaints about his behavior in the past, and his fans readily forgave him as long as he still threw strikes. But Clemens may have just racked up two strikes of his own, and is staring an out in the face.

Part of the problem may be his steadfast denial of everything: no affair, no drugs, no no no. In recent steroid and bad-behavior cases, fans have been willing to embrace their heroes who admit to bad choices, apologized, and promised (then delivered) better behavior in the future. Clemens seems to resent even the implication that he might be less than superhuman. He holds himself above all the accusations, despite everything, and expects his fans to take his word, no matter how shaky his foundation appears.

This might have worked in the era of Babe Ruth. But today, fans are a more skeptical and savvy bunch. We’ve weathered too many celebrity and political scandals, seen too many heroes of past and present exposed by the media as less than heroic. This has done two things: first, it makes protestations of innocence immediately suspect.

But second, it makes it easier to be forgiven. Athletes and celebrities are held to a different set of standards than the rest of us. Fans are understanding of the enormous pressure on them, the constant invasion of privacy they undergo, and we ask ourselves: are we really any better, if our lives were to be exposed in such a way?

The one thing they will not forgive: a refusal to see one’s own wrongdoing. Even if Clemens is innocent, it may be better for him in the end to admit to at least some bad behavior and let the whole situation go away by itself. But then, that may not be possible for a personality like Clemens; like Caesar, he may be willing to sacrifice all in the belief that his fans will believe him always.

roger clemens, steroids, brian mcNamee, mike piazza, red sox

Is Roger Clemens’ place in baseball history tainted?

Once, not long ago, Roger Clemens stood in a position to become a baseball legend. In only 2006, he was voted the greatest living pitcher by a panel of ESPN analysts. He had already won 7 Cy Young awards, and had joined the exclusive club of pitchers with more than 4,000 career strikeouts. An illustrious career to say the least.

But there has always been an uncomfortable undertone with Clemens; you couldn’t quite put your finger on it but he was not the squeaky-clean hero newsmen and agents dream of. He’s always been known to be aggressive, even mean at times, and after the 2007 season was declared 9th in the roster of all-time hit-batsmen. From 2000 on, he has regularly been accused of diva-like behavior, from his insistence that he not be forced to travel with the team to his complaints about carrying his own luggage at the airport.

Then there was the broken-bat incident in Game 2 of the 2000 World Series, when a fastball Clemens threw broke Mike Piazza’s bat on impact. The ball went foul, and a shard of the bat came toward Clemens, nearly hitting him. Clemens’ reaction was inexplicable. He ran up, grabbed the bat shard, and then threw it at Piazza, who, still unaware the ball was foul, was running for first base. Clemens dismissed it as nervous energy, but the peculiar behavior lends some credence to Jose Canseco’s 2006 accusations, in his book Juiced, that Clemens was probably a habitual steroid taker.

The steroid accusations came to a head when Clemens’ trainer, , came forward and claimed he’s injected The Rocket with HGH and various steroids over the course of several years, accounting for Clemens’ great improvement when he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays after leaving the Red Sox, a move that many saw as the end of his career instead of its renaissance. Though Clemens has steadfastly denied any use of steroids, there is no real proof on either side. Clemens is attacking the charges with his usual aggressiveness, but McNamee has no clear reason for making untrue allegations (though there are records he’s made false allegations before to investigators and to the media).

It appears that whether or not Roger Clemens has used steroids will be shrouded in mystery, at least for now. But his reputation took a hit, perhaps because his difficult behavior in the past made it easy to believe bad of him, and now it’s taking another hit: the great family man Clemens is being accused by a woman of having a decade-long affair…(continued)

roger clemens, steroids, brian mcNamee, mike piazza, red sox