Almost two years without a trip to Fenway is just too long. So when my college roomate called me to let me know that my invitation to his wedding got lost, I figured it was an opportunity to make it back to the mothership.
Everyone knows that tickets to Fenway are difficult if not impossible to obtain. Lucky for Kim and I, they were playing the Orioles. I bought bleacher seats on redsox.com the day before the game.
Since this is probably my only chance to get to Fenway this season, I wanted to spend as much time at the cathedral of baseball as possible. We got there about 1.5 hours before the 6:05 first pitch and made sure to buy our lottery tickets for the World Series Ring raffle. The woman selling the tickets made sure to tell us that you had to be 18 to play. We nodded. Then, as I started to fill out the raffle stub she turns to me and says “you know, it’s a federal law that you have to be 18.” To avoid more subtle hints like this I looked up and said “I’m 25.” She was speechless. And my parents still wonder if I get carded for drinks.
Fenway is beautiful as always, and on an 80 degree day without 2000% humidity I’m not sure of anywhere better to be. Since my last visit, I really like some of the changes they’ve made. There’s a 2007 flag in center, a red 2007 banner outside the stadium and a red 2007 pennant right above the press box. I’d say it’s even more impressive than the State Street Pavilion.
Fenway Franks look so much more disgusting than I remembered them as being back in college. I bought one, looked at it, and realized that my intestines would thank me later if I didn’t eat it. Soft pretzel and a beer are the dinners of champions anyways.
Kim and I didn’t exactly follow the stadium rules. And I’m not talking about the “drink responsibly” or the “don’t curse” rules. This is Fenway after all, some things will never change. Instead of heading for our bleacher seats in the sun, we decided to sit down in a couple of Loge seats in section 112ish. We got bumped about three or four times, but in the 2nd inning we came upon some seats about 20 rows back and were set for the game. I think that may have been the first and only bargain at Fenway Park in it’s 96 year existence.
During the National Anthem you could hear a few scattered screams of “OH!” Scientific proof that Oriole fans aren’t extinct, just endangered.
Lester was sensational. He worked quickly, got out of jams, and pitched to contact. I think this kid could throw a no-hitter one day! The fans, not so much. I was really disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm and knowledge of those around us. One guy was trying to explain to his buddy why the tying run was at the plate when there was a 5-2 game and two runners on. Kim and I also tried to start a clap going when Lester was trying to get out of his 6th inning jam. People wondered why we were clapping. They also thought we were getting up and cheering for the 7th inning stretch when Lester came walking off the field after having throw 7 innings, 101 pitches.
They did manage to get up and cheer when Mikey Lowell hit a grand salami into the Monster seats in the 5th, and again for Yooooooook’s 2-run shot in the 7th and Nancy’s 2-run bomb in the 8th. To their credit they also cheered for a number of nice plays by Lugo at short and groaned very loudly when he committed his 13th error. A classic game from En Fuego.
Luckily Mike Timlin decided not to give everyone a heart attack and everyone got to go home with a lovely 9-2 win — the first one I’ve seen at Fenway since 2004. Too bad the Lakers couldn’t hold their shit together too.
