Sox vs. Mariners

I was unable to unload my Sox tickets and rather than just waste them, I went to the game today. I felt kinda funny about it since it was Mother's Day, but my wife assured me that it was ok. She did not want the tickets to go to waste.

I went to the noon-time game, which was last night's makeup game, and re-joined the Red Sox Nation group-mind collective that seems to exist at Fenway Park. There is something about seeing a Sox game at Fenway that is different from visiting any other arena, stadium or sporting event, for that matter. I always get an odd, but somewhat soothing and enjoyable feeling when I go there of 'one-ness' with all the other Sox fans at the game. We're all there for the same reason. Everyone there has the same objective. We're all on the same page. We all follow the same rituals.

As you sit in the stands you hear other people urging on the players and calling them by name, or by some nickname, just like you do. Everyone 'YOUKS' for Youkolis, when Manny gets up, you hear the scattered variations of the same call all around you, "Come on Manny!", "MAAANNNY!" When a player is at bat, you can hear people supporting the batter, Come on, Man!" "Good eye." "Relax... nice and easy." It's like they are coaching their own kid or something. If a pitcher is behind in the count, you'll hear people saying stuff like, "Come on Kev, you can get this guy, no problem." And as this is happening around you, you are doing all the same things. It's pretty cool.

I imagine it can be an imposing situation for the visiting hitters at Fenway.. Especially when the hitter gets behind in the count and everyone starts clapping as the pitcher is winding up. The clapping starts off slow and then gets faster and faster until the pitcher throws the ball. If the pitch is not a strike, the clapping repeats until there is a strike, and everybody cheers, or until there's a hit and everybody groans. I always love the end of the game, when the Sox go into the 9th and have the lead. Top of the 9th inning, 2 outs, 2 strikes. Everybody at Fenway gets on their feet and claps, throwing all their support behind the Sox pitcher to help get that final strike and the win. The crowd at Fenway really can be like an extra player at times.

Misc from the game:

- Pudge Fisk was there. The did a really cool montage of the great plays he's made set to "Like a Rock" by Bob Seger. Then at the end, the video dissolved to a shot of Mr. Fisk waving to the crowd. He was there at the game. I was at the same game as Pudge Fisk. I thought that was pretty cool.

- I saw Elvis walking around Fenway. Yes, that's right, The King of Rock and Roll was at the game this afternoon. (Actually, it was an Elvis impersonator.) "Soon all will become Elvis..."

- There was a really cute little kid leading the fans with a chant of "Lets go Red Sox!" You could hear her little voice yelling "Lets go Red Sox!" and then everybody would clap. You could tell she loved it. Pretty funny. It made me think about my kids. I can't wait to bring them to a game there someday.

- Damn Ichiro is good. I'm glad I got to see him play in person, even though he wears the wrong uniform.

- Everyone boo's when Brett Boone comes to the plate. The person I was with said, "It's pretty bad when you're getting booed for something your brother did."

"Well, he deserves it," was my reply to that.

- At one point in the game people started chanting, "Yankees Suck! Yankees Suck!" I looked over in the section that was doing the chant and said to my freind, "What's there somebody walking around over there wearing Yankees gear or something?"

"No, they just updated the out of town scoreboard. The Yankees scored a run."

"Bastards..."

- The person working the cash register for hot dogs was drinking a Dunkin's coffee. I asked her, "Is there a Dunkin's in the ball park now?"

"No"

Less than a min later, somebody else noticed her coffee and asked her where the Dunkin's was inside Fenway. She must have been asked about 100 times where you could get a Dunkin's at Fenway. The answer: You cant.

- I consumed 2 Fenway Franks and 1 bag of peanuts. I drank 1 cup of coffee.

- This is the first time I have been to a game at Fenway and not gotten a Sausage and Pepper sandwich at the Sausage King.

- Today was the first time I have ever seen a game at Fenway and not had a beer. I had coffee instead because it was kind of cold (but at least it did not rain, like in the 2nd game today).

- My seats were great. I sat in the Grandstands behind home plate, to the right of the net, just under the roof. I could see everything perfectly but still got some protection from the weather being under the roof.

- I was really impressed with how nice and clean Fenway was, and there were some really cool old-style Red Sox paintings on the brick walls that I had not seen before. It was not that long ago Fenway used to be kind of dumpy but it is not like that at all anymore. I think the new owners of the team are really doing a great job with fixing up Fenway.

- If the wind was not blowing in so strongly today, Kevin Millar would have had a grand-slam. I've heard Kevin's wife recently had twins so cut him some slack on the hitting. He'll be ok. He had a great day today, that's for sure.

- Mike Timmlann has the best 'coming out of the bullpen' music, 'Black Betty' by Ram Jam. Keith Foulke comes in 2nd with 'Mother' from Danzig.

- Sweeeet Caroline... "Bah! Bah! Baaaah!!"

Comments

[ms_brightside]

Glad to hear you got to go to the Red Sox game after all. Sounds like you had a great time. Plus you got to go to the game that they won yesterday. I can only dream of going right now...

Oh and if the offer still exists, I'll take you up on the g-mail invite. :) Thanks a bunch!