Day 181: What happens when you get doinked in the head with a punted beer can?

Last Friday night, the Red Sox clinched the AL East for the first time since 2007. And then they celebrated. And celebrated... and celebrated some more. They donned their new "We Own the East" t-shirts, goggles, and in some cases, army helmets, and let their hair (and beards) down. Unfortunately, we left Fenway before the booze-soaked team emerged from the clubhouse, but as with everything, there's a video.

The video showed a group of guys that had come into the 2013 season with something to prove. They had a score to settle... they needed to wash away the disgrace of 2012's finish. And with a team of "good guys" and "clubhouse guys," they did just that. I'm not sure there was Red Sox fan around that didn't question at least one signing over this past off-season. But now... I'm guessing no one is questioning anything.

Part of the celebration included Jonny Gomes, sporting an army helmet and goggles, punting Bud Lights into the stands. Clearly, Jonny has a fondness for punting things. He punted his own helmet during a walk-off home run back in June. I hope his cleats have steel toes.

But the beer can punting went slightly awry. One doinked a 74-year-old fan in the forehead and left a gash that required stitches. This could've been a PR nightmare for the Red Sox... but honestly, if you're hanging around Fenway Park that long after a game to witness the celebratory activities, you must be a big enough fan so that you're not going to slap a lawsuit on your favorite team. Hopefully...

Jonny Gomes felt horrible about the incident and reached out to the fan. Turns out the fan was pretty upset about the whole thing, but not because of the beer boinking episode. WEEI's Rob Bradford caught up with Gomes recently for an update on his conversation with the fan in question, Greg Hanley.

“I’m definitely bummed out that it happened. I reached out and talked the guy, Greg, for a while,” said Gomes. “He was actually mad that it did hit him because he played third base in high school and he played on the grass and he really does have good hands. He doesn’t want people to think he has bad hands. He’s taking it hard. He was like, ‘I used play third base. I used to play on the grass. I never played back.’”

Gomes made sure Hanley was well taken care of. Not only did he give him a jersey signed by a number of the Red Sox players, but he also is hooking him up with some playoff tickets. Crap... if I knew that was in the cards, I might of stuck around and thrown myself in the path of a flying beer can.