July 21, 1995- My brothers were looking at colleges in Boston and I went on the trip with them. We did a tour of Boston Garden and we went to the Friday night game at Fenway Park. The Celtics and Bruins had just finished their last year at Boston Garden. It was pretty cool to see where Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Larry Bird, and a bunch of other Hall of Famers played and won championships for the Celtics. For the game, we just drove to Fenway and bought tickets at the box office before the game. I'm pretty sure I remember my dad asking a police officer where we could park and he suggested that we could park our car at the Star Market in a thick Boston accent. Attendance was 31,124 so there were still some seats available. I'm pretty sure we sat in fair territory in the Outfield Grandstand. If you know Fenway, some of the seats in right field are ridiculously far from home plate, but it actually wasn't a bad view because you look out and you have the infield and the Green Monster in your view. We just sat wherever they had tickets, but for the other two games I've been to since then, I've made a point of sitting on the first base side so that I'd have the Green Monster in my view. Usually I like to sit high up behind home plate (what I think is the best view for a reasonable price), but at Fenway there aren't many seats high up and they're ridiculously expensive. As for the game, the Red Sox won 13-5. I remembered Mo Vaughn hitting a grand slam (which made it easy to look up), but they also had home runs from Troy O'Leary, John Valentin, and Mike Greenwell. So all of their 1-5 hitters had a home run except for Jose Canseco. Pat Meares hit a home run for the Twins, but the Red Sox were in control the whole time. What's weird about this game is that despite the score of 13-5, there was a save. Zane Smith started and went five and a third. Joe Hudson pitched the last three and two thirds to get the save.
July 25, 2009- After that game, it took me 13 and a half years to get back to Boston. I went up there for John's Christmas party in December 2008. I had such a good time in Boston that I needed to get back to Fenway Park. So I took an early Saturday bus up and stayed with John. He took me on a Freedom Trail drinking tour. I remember we went to a bar where you could drink a cold Sam Adams across the street from a cold Sam Adams (the cemetery where he was buried was across the street from the bar). I had some New England clam chowder to go with my Sam Adams. We checked out the cemetery. I'm pretty sure Paul Revere and some members of Benjamin Franklin's family were buried there as well. We also saw a memorial for the Irish potato famine and I think the site of the Boston Massacre. John took my picture next to a statue of Red Auerbach. For the game, I think it was John, Liz, one of John's friends from Boston, and me. It was Jon Lester for the Red Sox against Jeremy Guthrie for the Orioles. The Red Sox led 4-0 after two and enver looked back. They won 7-2 with home runs by David Ortiz and Adam LaRoche.
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| Our view for the game in 2009 |
June 19, 2010- For the first 21 years that I went to baseball games, I never saw the Dodgers play a team other than the Mets. I changed that in April of 2010 by seeing them beat the Nationals in Washington. And in June, I went to see them play the Red Sox. It was two days after the Celtics lost Game 7 of the Finals against the Lakers. It would have been so much more fun if the Celtics had won that game. (By the way, that game still hurts. They Celtics were up by 13 in the second half (I think that was their biggest lead in the second half). I can't imagine how much it would hurt if the Celtics had lost in 2008. They need to win another championship before the Lakers do.) I think it was just John and me for this game. Manny Ramirez was in Boston for the first time since he was traded to the Dodgers. It was Tim Wakefield against Vicente Padilla (what's crazy is that Wakefield was on the Red Sox when I first went to Fenway in 1995). I didn't remember how good of a game this was. The Red Sox won 5-4, but they never led by more than two. The Dodgers scored two in the seventh to tie it 4-4. Maybe I didn't think it was that good of a game because the Dodgers had six hits and five of them came from Manny Ramirez (who hit a home run) and Garret Anderson. Victor Martinez and Kevin Youkilis hit home runs for the Red Sox. The Red Sox won it in the bottom of the ninth (I didn't remember that). Ronald Belisario got two outs, but left with runners on first and second. Dustin Pedroia hit the game winning single off of Jonathan Broxton (one of my least favorite Dodgers ever). If I remember correctly, this game also had the two guys that dress up like umpires and sit behind the plate and mimic everything that the home plate umpire does (I've seen them on TV at other places as well).
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| Our view in 2010 |
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| Me and John with the Green Monster in the background after the game. |
We have two classic stadiums left. It's really hard to compare them to the new stadiums because they have nothing in common with the new stadiums other than the sport that's played there. Fenway and Wrigley are both over 100 years old now. They both have something that makes them unique (the Green Monster and really weird dimensions for Fenway and the ivy for Wrigley). I went to Wrigley in 2009. I did like it, but I give Fenway the edge for the atmosphere. It's almost always full and the fans really care about what happens. I might get to a game there in August (not sure yet). But Notre Dame plays Boston College in football at Fenway in November. I applied in the lottery and lost, but I still plan on going. My hotel room is already booked.
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