Last night was a night that I will never forget. Did it physically kill me? In the end, yes as I am still exhausted and my back is in shambles but in the grand scheme of things, it was well worth it.
After numerous stops on the way to Riverside Station just off the Mass Pike and 95, I ran into someone who had been up at Fenway but wasn’t fortunate to have tickets. He had all sorts of stuff that they were giving away on the street plus the official World Series program. A $15 expenditure which I made on the way back after the game. I then made way to the T where I had to inquire when the last T was going to run. The person there said that the last T was at 12 midnight but would run for an hour after the Red Sox game.
After getting off the T, it is a short walk to the Fenway Park area. As you started to get close to the ballpark, you could just feel the excitement. As soon as you got to Yawkey Way, the sounds of a normal Red Sox game were there, “Programs here, Get your scorecard, fresh hot sausages, etc”. While waiting for Texy to arrive, I made a walk around the ballpark.
My first destination was to head down the player’s parking lot where a large crowd had already gathered. You could feel something was special in the Fenway Park air. As I walked down Yawkey Way, which was not closed off at this point, those familiar sounds echoed as long as a lot of familiar faces from the national media. As I was walking, I almost bumped into Jim Caple from ESPN and his camera man. He’s definitely as short as he has looked in any of the video pieces he’s done for ESPN. Just before the player’s parking entrance was the media gate, where all the media was entering. At this point, I didn’t see too many I recognized but instead just took in the whole atmosphere. I made a way a little further down to the player’s lot where I saw J.D. Drew drive his green Hummer into the parking lot. As soon as he went in, I decided I needed to check out the rest of the happenings.
I walked back around to Lansdowne Street and along the way saw a lot of television crews from Colorado and also the Univision sports announcer. There were tons of people passing out placards for the game, the Boston Globe had the Sox logo on one side and Let’s Go Red Sox on the other. WEEI had one with K on one side and There’s only one Beckett. I passed Caple again along the way and then finally got to Lansdowne St and saw a line about 1000 feet deep.
At first I had thought it was the line for the bleachers but then found out quickly that those people were in line for game-day tickets. Some of those people had been camped out since the night before waiting for a chance to get tickets that hadn’t been bought yet. Some of them would end being fortunate to get a ticket to the game, some not so lucky. I finally heard from Texy and we decided to meet in front of the Cask & Flagon.
So while I was awaiting her arrival, I hung out there and just took it all in. By this point, there had to have been thousands upon thousands of people walking the streets. While I was standing there, I saw some more faces I recognized, Woody Paige and Jim Armstrong. I am probably one of the few people who pick out Armstrong since he is on Around the Horn on ESPN. Paige looked miserable like he didn’t want to be there but found his Denver Post buddy Armstrong and they chatted for a few. Then Armstrong went into the Cask & Flagon to order take-out. I guess the Fenway media room wasn’t offering food since that’s usually what the older media types are concerned with.
Texy finally arrived and we got into line for the Cask & Flagon. After a few minutes or two, we decided to just try and get into the ballpark as early as possible. So we made our way back to Yawkey Way and much to our surprise it wasn’t blocked off yet. Wanting an adult beverage, we made our way into Who’s on First for a couple of tasty beverages. We then checked the time and saw it was time to go in. We tried to go out the front entrance but a Boston Policeman said we couldn’t go out this way since the ballpark wasn’t open yet. So we made the walk back around to Yawkey Way where probably 20,000 people were trying to get in.
Not wanting to wait, we walked back over to Lansdowne Street to Gate E to try and get in there. About five minutes of waiting and we were in the ballpark. We were at Game 1 of the World Series. At this point, I decided I wanted to go down to the Rockies side of the ballpark to see if I could find the two players I knew, Brian Fuentes and Todd Helton. The Rockies were on the field taking BP so that was going to be a failed task. Since I am not one to give up easily, we made our way to as close as the field as possible. I was able to get my self right next to the field where the buffer of media kept me from really looking around.
As I scanned the field, it was a who’s who of media members. You name them, they were there. Upon looking through the crowd, I came across familiar face in Marc Gustafson, the trainer when I worked in New Haven. He is currently the Director of Minor League Player Development. I yelled out his nickname “Gus” and he looked around and probably said who the hell is yelling my name. He looked around and then realized it was me. After finishing up his conversation, he made his way over and we chatted for a few minutes. It was nice to see him as I had not seen him since 1998 and had not talked to him since around 1999 or 2000. I asked him to say hi to Clint Hurdle, Helton and Fuentes for me. I did get crap from him for being decked out in Red Sox stuff so I told him my mom will be going to the UConn football game in her Rockies jacket and Red Sox hat. Having worked with the Rockies organization very closely for 4 seasons, I have followed them but wouldn’t call myself a complete fan. Had they not been playing the Red Sox, I’d definitely be rooting for them. We said our goodbyes and in a sign of the times, I got his email address and told him I’d shoot him an email on the off day of the series or at the end.
I decided to stay down there for a while to just take it all in. While I was standing there, I meet the Rockies chaplain Bill Rader, who was at the Fens for his first visit. He was waiting for his wife and son to get down to the field to say hi to them. I ended up talking to all three for a while and they were all the nicest people. They pointed out Helton’s dad who could be Helton’s twin brother if Todd had just the mustache instead of the full-on goatee. Texy pointed out Matt Holliday’s dad, which was pretty much a carbon copy of Holliday. You could mistake own for the other. I am sure there were other parents of the Rockies players but I wouldn’t have known them from a picture on the wall.
At this point, I decided to we should head out to right field so we walked through the thousand’s of fans who were at the game. We ended up in front of the Rockies bullpen and I came across another familiar face in Rockies bullpen coach, Rick Matthews. I yelled down to him to say hi and he came over with a look of like “who the heck are you?” I told him that I was Ian from New Haven and he was like holy shit, how are you doing Ian. We chit-chatted for a bit and he goes have you said hi to Stritty. Stritty is Mark Strittmatter, who is the bullpen catcher for the Rockies. Stritty had played in New Haven in 1994 and 1995. Stritty came over and I talked to him for a minute as he was getting ready for the game.
After leaving the Rockies bullpen, we made our way to the right field concourse to find a spot to stand as we had standing room only tickets. Upon finding a place, we were told by the Boston police we had to move back against the wall because it was a fire hazard. It was finally time for the pre-game festivities to get underway.
Both teams took the field and the announcer announced both team’s starting lineups. Just about every Red Sox starter got a huge ovation. After that, it was time for the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra to perform the National Anthem. It was an absolutely amazing rendition that put an already raucous Fenway Park crowd into a bigger frenzy.
Out in left field there was a blue tarp shielding something that was going to happen after the National Anthem and wouldn’t you know it, out walked the 1967 Impossible Dream team, led by Carl Yastrzemski. It was definitely a bone chilling moment seeing them come out and watching Yaz throw-out the first pitch.
The crowd was loud throughout the game. The first inning with Josh Beckett mowing down hitters, you could barely hear yourself talking. It was actually that way the whole game. The first inning when Dustin Pedroia led off with the home run, you thought that the Fens was going to fall over. I’ve never experienced anything like that in my lifetime and probably never will.
The best chant of the night was when the Fens crowd in unison was chanting “Fran-cis, Fran-cis”. A choir director couldn’t have done a better job. You could definitely tell the crowd played a part in this game.
Overall, there is so much more I could tell you, but I really don’t think I could put it all into words. It was something that I will never forget for the rest of my life. Plus it’s one more thing off the list.
to Texy from Center Field for the Beckett poster photo.
