Death threats!

Beefed-up security!

FBI protection!

Boy, a trip to the Trop sure ain’t what it used to be!

But this is why baseball is so much fun. No, not the lurking danger of creepy racist psychopaths; we got knocked out of first place yesterday. And the only way to crawl our way back up there is to go mano-a-mano with a divisional rival that, for most of its existence, has been abysmally bad.

Here’s a little trick I’ve discovered, which works more often than you might expect.

When you’re at a Red Sox game and the team is losing — the offense is anemic, say, and/or the pitching is mediocre — simply move. Get up from your seat and relocate to another part of the park. (If standing-room is the best you can do, big deal; consider it taking one for the team.

And that’s that.

There will be no post-season heroics this year. No shot at salvaging a lost season.

Just lots and lots of time to call into WEEI, blog, and develop video games.

Weird that he was just throwing off a mound less than 10 days ago, but I guess the guy’s in pain, and there’s no use chasing after something he knows isn’t gonna happen.

I spent the morning at the preview for "Baseball As America," the traveling Hall of Fame exhibit on display at the Museum of Science from June 15 through September 1.

And I cannot recommend it enough. Go see it this weekend.

Aiming to show how baseball serves “as both a public reflection of, and catalyst for, the evolution of American culture and society,” the exhibit comprises 500 or so artifacts — about two percent of Cooperstown’s total collection.