My son's Red Sox bliss
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So, my 9 year old son and I get to Boston Common and we secure a nice bench by the lake. A lovely family is sitting on a blanket even closer to the water. The mom has long hair in a pony tail, the baby is napping in his (or her?) carrier, the dad is giving me his back, and the little bull dog is roaming close to them. My son decides to go take pictures of the ducklings on the other side of the lake. I read my Boston guide. At some point, the lovely family is ready to leave. They are packing up their blanket. The mom smiles at someone’s dog who is engaging the bulldog in some play. I take a look at the dad. He really looks like Jonathan Papelbon, the closing pitcher of the red sox. Wait a minute, he really really, REALLY looks like him. As the family steps beyond me I yell for my son to come back. He is not sure. I sound angry. I move my hands frantically and at the same time I look into my bag for a pen and something for him to autograph. I consider the Boston guide, and then I see THE BASEBALL! My son warily arrives. I tell him: “That’s Papelbon, ask him to sign this ball!!!” I could not find a pen though, so I didn’t give him one. I follow him until Papelbon turns towards him and then I turn back fearing I have given my son the wrong information and now he is making an ass of himself. Not really though, cause he comes back holding the ball with his jaw by the pavement. This is what he reported: “I called Jonathan, and he turned around and saw me and said ‘hey buddy!’ and I said ‘could you sign this’ and he said ‘sure, do you have a pen?’ and I said no, so a nice man who was passing by asked a lady who was writing and sitting on a bench nearby if he could borrow her pen and I gave it to him and he signed the ball and I said thank you. I wish I had said more!”
A few hours later we walked to Fenway (the only good thing about our hotel was that it was about a block from the Ballpark) and went through security. A Texas Rangers lady fan very rudely addressed a security person asking her to check her purse: “I am not checking any purse, I am going to bring it with me inside!” so we discovered there is at least another Texas Rangers fan who is both an ass and an idiot. Hopefully she won’t be running for President
. We went all around the park because my husband had the completely unreasonable wish for a Sam Adams, or any kind of real beer at a Ballpark. We finally found him some Guinness
. The game was a little depressing. The right field boxes are the worst possible place to watch a game at Fenway. They made us miss our bleacher seats from last year. Massimo could not fit and had to ask someone to trade for an end of the row seat. Also, you have to seat at a 45 degree angle to follow the game. Although I’d take right field box seats at Fenway over the best seats at Yankees Stadium (money and quality of the team both an issue), they were just terrible.
The highlights:
a. we had gotten our tickets through my husband's conference. This means we were sitting with more than a dozen nerdish economists, mostly from abroad. At the beginning, this was one more reason for missing the bleachers, but after a while the Russian guy behind me started providing endless hilarity:
- Which one is the pitcher?
- Is it always the same player batting?
- (after every cheer): who scored? (NB: the game was scoreless for five innings and he asked this question at least 4 times per inning during the first four)
- commenting on Manny Delcarmen’s first pitches, all strikes: wow, this is a really bad pitcher, isn’t he?! This after I had taken some time during each break to explain to him the rules.
b. One thing we could not appreciate by watching games on tv is the bottomless love of the Fenway faithfuls for David Ortiz. During each at bat, and during one in particular, EVERYONE was standing up and screaming “Let’s go Papi!”. Given the guy’s struggles lately, this was absolutely moving and it made me very proud.
c. I don’t care what you think about Sweet Caroline, it is a fantastic mood booster for the fans and it made the 8th and 9th inning the best part of the game for us.
We made our way back to New York two days later. We were able to get Red Sox radio and the live broadcast of the red sox game right until we saw the “Welcome to the Bronx” sign. Fittingly, perhaps.
A few hours later we walked to Fenway (the only good thing about our hotel was that it was about a block from the Ballpark) and went through security. A Texas Rangers lady fan very rudely addressed a security person asking her to check her purse: “I am not checking any purse, I am going to bring it with me inside!” so we discovered there is at least another Texas Rangers fan who is both an ass and an idiot. Hopefully she won’t be running for President
. We went all around the park because my husband had the completely unreasonable wish for a Sam Adams, or any kind of real beer at a Ballpark. We finally found him some Guinness
. The game was a little depressing. The right field boxes are the worst possible place to watch a game at Fenway. They made us miss our bleacher seats from last year. Massimo could not fit and had to ask someone to trade for an end of the row seat. Also, you have to seat at a 45 degree angle to follow the game. Although I’d take right field box seats at Fenway over the best seats at Yankees Stadium (money and quality of the team both an issue), they were just terrible.
The highlights:
a. we had gotten our tickets through my husband's conference. This means we were sitting with more than a dozen nerdish economists, mostly from abroad. At the beginning, this was one more reason for missing the bleachers, but after a while the Russian guy behind me started providing endless hilarity:
- Which one is the pitcher?
- Is it always the same player batting?
- (after every cheer): who scored? (NB: the game was scoreless for five innings and he asked this question at least 4 times per inning during the first four)
- commenting on Manny Delcarmen’s first pitches, all strikes: wow, this is a really bad pitcher, isn’t he?! This after I had taken some time during each break to explain to him the rules.
b. One thing we could not appreciate by watching games on tv is the bottomless love of the Fenway faithfuls for David Ortiz. During each at bat, and during one in particular, EVERYONE was standing up and screaming “Let’s go Papi!”. Given the guy’s struggles lately, this was absolutely moving and it made me very proud.
c. I don’t care what you think about Sweet Caroline, it is a fantastic mood booster for the fans and it made the 8th and 9th inning the best part of the game for us.
We made our way back to New York two days later. We were able to get Red Sox radio and the live broadcast of the red sox game right until we saw the “Welcome to the Bronx” sign. Fittingly, perhaps.
... and the will to show I will always be better than before.
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Comments
Heard Papelbon is always pretty cool to fans.
yeah, those right field seats are a pain ... literally ... craning your neck to the left for nine innings will make for a stiff neck the next day .... and during those summer night games, the sun is blazing into your eyes for the first 2 - 3 innings to boot ... oooof.
(that said ... man, I miss it.
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
ahah... soon after I sent my son to him I had a vision of him piercing the little boy with the evil glance he gives batters, but yes, he was really kind. It must be great to know you are making a little boy's day/month/year, but I imagine it must be a pain to be interrupted constantly by fans!
He sure as hell looks like a scary, mean bastard on the mound though!
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
I walked over to Fenway without a ticket and bought one outside and I was amazed how easy it was to get one. Not a bad seat even though is was cold and I wore my leather Bruins jacket. I was on the first base side and Roger Clemons was the starter and had a no-hitter for 5 or 6 innings. It would have been the first time a no hitter was pitched on opening day. I drank a lot of beer but I know the Sox played the Tigers and the Sox won the game.
After that I went around the city just trying to recover from the high of being Fenway. So later for dinner I decided to take the train down to Copley Square to take my first visit to a Hard Rock Cafe. To my amazement guess who were guests there Roger Clemons and Wade Boggs. They were doing some comedy sketch and karioke, they weren't very funny. After they finished Wade Boggs walked by and I said hello and he just sat down and we had a sandwich. I was in heaven and took some pictures and I just had to find something for him to sign. I just took the Hard Rock Cafe menu and he signed it and signed it to me. I wished I knew where my negatives are now.
After those opening day highlights I thought the trip could NOT get any better. I decided to try and see a Celtics game at the Gahden. I found a scalper and haggled with him and he sold me a ticket and he told it was a good seat but they ALL say that. I ddn't believe him but I ended up being 4 rows from the court facing the Celtics bench. They played the Miami Heat with Glen Rice and I can remember Larry Bird taking the ball out of bounds right in front of me several times during the game. The Celtics won and it was so good to be back in the old Garden once again. Last time I was there I was a youth seeing Bobby Orr play.
I saw three more Sox games and just had the time of my life being back in Beantown.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
Pearl Jam please play fenway
and then lets make it a museum... or a field for the kids of boston to use
stop the pain!!
- 8/28/98
- 9/2/00
- 4/28/03, 5/3/03, 7/3/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 7/9/03, 7/11/03, 7/12/03, 7/14/03
- 9/28/04, 9/29/04, 10/1/04, 10/2/04
- 9/11/05, 9/12/05, 9/13/05, 9/30/05, 10/1/05, 10/3/05
- 5/12/06, 5/13/06, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 5/30/06, 6/1/06, 6/3/06, 6/23/06, 7/22/06, 7/23/06, 12/2/06, 12/9/06
- 8/2/07, 8/5/07
- 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 6/22/08, 6/24/08, 6/25/08, 6/27/08, 6/28/08, 6/30/08, 7/1/08
- 8/23/09, 8/24/09, 9/21/09, 9/22/09, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09
- 5/15/10, 5/17/10, 5/18/10, 5/20/10, 5/21/10, 10/23/10, 10/24/10
- 9/11/11, 9/12/11
- 10/18/13, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 11/30/13, 12/4/13
Fine, you win
I hear ya, it's only when I take out my photo album and checkout the pictures can I still believe what happened on that visit back to my former hometown.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)