I had most of the day on Saturday to myself. I decided to start the day at the Kennedy Presidential Library. It didn't have as much as I the other presidential libraries that I've been to. There was not much on the economy. The recreation of the Oval Office seemed to be a miniature version (whereas the others seemed to have full size Oval Offices). The stuff on the Cuban Missile Crisis was out of commission. It looked like there was a small section in the regular exhibits that was closed and then there was also a bigger temporary exhibit that was also closed. I definitely would have wanted to see those. And there was very little on the assassination. There was just a dark hallway toward the end that said "November 22, 1963" on one wall and TVs showing some of the news coverage from that day and the following days on the other wall. I walked through it at first and expected there to be more past the hallway, but you just get to the section on his legacy then. But I did go to the museum at Dealey Plaza, so that was probably as good as it's going to get in terms of the assassination. And I did appreciate the fact that the museum is not overwhelming. At the others I've been to there's so much to read that you can't take it all in. I did learn some good stuff. Like how carving a message into a coconut saved Kennedy's life during World War II and how he was in Europe right before World War II started. At the end, I tried to sign the electronic guestbook and quote the South Park Kids by saying "You know, I learned something today," but I kept getting an error message.
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| Kennedy's Oval Office |
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| One of Kennedy's golf clubs that wasn't bought by J. Peterman |
So here are the power rankings of the presidential libraries that I've been to:
5. Jimmy Carter- It's really not a bad museum, but it's Jimmy Carter.
4. John F. Kennedy- It left me wanting more.
3. Harry Truman- It's a very solid library.
2. George W. Bush- I might have Truman ahead of Bush, but I enjoyed this more because I lived through his presidency and you can walk around the Oval Office and sit at his desk.
1. Ronald Reagan- The setting, Air Force 1, the Berlin Wall (the Kennedy Library also had a piece of the Berlin Wall), Reagan's grave, it's awesome.
After that, I headed north to check out some things along the Freedom Trail. Some of them I had seen with John back in 2009 or 2010. First I walked past the Boston Tea Party Museum. I didn't go in because I was a little pressed for time and I didn't really feel like paying to see it. You can see people going on boats and reenacting throwing the tea into the harbor. I went to the graveyard where Benjamin Franklin's parents, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and the victims of the Boston Massacre are buried. Next I went to the site of the Boston Massacre. From there, I stopped at the Union Oyster House on John's suggestion, which is America's oldest restaurant. It only goes back to 1826, so it wasn't around during the Revolution, but Daniel Webster used to drink brandy there. It has a weird, really old downward slanting bar. If you order chowder, they set up coasters to keep your bowl from sliding down the bar and into your lap. There is a flat section of the bar on the edge closer to the bartenders that you can use to keep your drinks on. I had a Sam Adams Colonial Ale, which is apparently not available anywhere else. It was pretty good. My last stop was the Old North Church, which is famous because of Paul Revere's ride. It's a weird looking church on the inside. The pews are all in little boxes that look like penalty boxes.
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| Sam Adams |
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| Sam Adams Colonial Ale at the Union Oyster House |
I went back to my hotel to watch a little football and charge my phone. I went a 4:00 mass at St. Francis Chapel in the Prudential Center. I definitely don't prefer night games, but being able to go to mass before the game is definitely a benefit. Speaking of that, what's the best start time? I like to do two things besides watch football on Saturdays: go to mass (so I don't have to worry about getting up and going on Sunday morning) and drink beer. I prefer to drink beer while watching other football games after Notre Dame has won. By that logic, noon games are the best. The home 3:30 games work when I go to the game because I can go to mass after the game, but I don't really drink much after those because I don't have a place to stay on campus anymore. The night games allow me to go to mass, but there isn't much football left after the Notre Dame game is over (you might get lucky and get a good Pac 12 game at 10:30). If I had to pick a start time, I'd want our games to start at 1:00. Back in 2005 (my first year there), we didn't have all our home games at either 3:30 or 7:30. They started at 2:30, 1:30, and 1:00. Now I think those 2:30 games were really 3:30 because South Bend didn't know what time zone it was in back then, but I think the 1:00 game really was at 1:00 (the Navy game was in November when South Bend was on Eastern time). A 1:00 start would also mean that there wasn't total overlap with the noon games or the 3:30 games. But alas, we're stuck with all 3:30 or 7:30 home games and mostly night road games.
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| Lots of Notre Dame fans at this mass. |
Anyway, I walked from mass to Fenway. I wanted to get in early because I didn't have a ticket. John told me what gate to go to. The first guy working there stopped me and asked for my ticket. When I went to a Red Sox game with John over the summer, I just went in with him when he showed up for work. This time was different. I had to be like, "Um, I'm with that guy" as I pointed to John and his mustache. But I was allowed in. I applied in the lottery for tickets and didn't win. The week before the game, I got an email from Notre Dame saying that some tickets had become available. I texted John to see if it was going to be any issue for him to get me in (especially after the attack at the soccer stadium in Paris) and he said it wouldn't be a problem. So this was the second major sporting event that I went to without a ticket and both times were thanks to John. It was also his last event working at Fenway, so the timing of this game was perfect.
I was one of the first fans in the stadium so I had plenty of time to walk around and check out the set up for football. The field was going kind of from the third base side out to right field (as opposed to Yankee Stadium where the field goes out to center field). After walking around, I decided that standing on the right field roof was as good of a view as I was going to get. But I hung out for a little bit right behind the end zone in right field where I had some good views of the Notre Dame offensive skill players warming up.
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| After all the wide receivers went out for a pass, DeShone Kizer would go out and make a catch himself before doing it again going the other way. |
I got myself a Sam Adams Octoberfest before heading up to the right field roof. By the way, I very much underrated Octoberfest on my Beer Power Rankings. My friend Bobby once said, "I love Summer Ale and everything it stands for." I totally agree. I don't love everything Octoberfest stands for (even though my appreciation of the fall has grown greatly in the last ten years), but it is an excellent beer. Anyway, I broke one of my rules this day. I had three beers that were all very spaced out. If I'm going to have three beers in a day, I'd rather have them in a short period of time. That way I'll start feeling a little something from the alcohol. But when I space it out, I just drank a decent amount of alcohol without feeling anything from it. But how often do you get to drink a Sam Adams beer that's only offered in one place in Boston? And how often do you get to drink an Octoberfest at a football game at Fenway Park in late November? The third beer would be a victory beer after the game. By the way, I think my last Summer Ale on tap this summer was at Fenway in August.
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| Octoberfest at Fenway |
Anyway, I'm not going to spend much time talking about the game. If you saw it, you know why. Before the game started, I heard a big roar coming from the bar that was a couple hundred feet from where I was standing. I knew right away that it must have been because Michigan State beat Ohio State. During the game, I was paying attention to Baylor-Oklahoma State on the scoreboard. Thankfully, Baylor won. What didn't work out for us was Oklahoma holding on by one point against TCU. TCU went for two at the end to win an didn't get it. What I learned a couple days later was that they also went for two and didn't get it early in the third quarter. Two extra points and they win. If that's what keeps Notre Dame out of the playoff, that's going to hurt. By the way, it was really cool how they set up the scoreboard on the Green Monster. They had the score for our game, out of town scores, and they also had the scores of all previous Shamrock Series games. The picture of Brian Kelly on the Green Monster was a little ridiculous, though.
We won 19-16 while losing the turnover battle 5-1. And turnovers weren't even the reason it was so close. The two touchdowns that Boston College scored late weren't off turnovers (although we probably would have scored a lot more if not for the turnovers). I watched most of the first quarter by myself. Then John got done working and joined me. I got on the scoreboard at one point during the first half. Neither John or I reacted quickly enough to take a picture of it, but John can verify that I was in fact shown on the Fenway Park scoreboard. I think the camera that showed me was at least 200 feet away by the bar I mentioned earlier. At halftime Wilhelm and his father met up with us. The band saluted the Boston Celtics and the Boston Red Sox. They made a basket and hit a home run over the Green Monster as part of the halftime show. John was entertained by the performance. John took us over to the Green Monster for a little bit in the third quarter. I've seen Wilhelm a lot lately. I went back to after I graduated for the Navy game in the season that must not be discussed. The next time I saw him was more than five years later at the National Championship Game. Our next game after that was Oklahoma in 2013 (which I didn't blog about apparently, understandable). At that point, I said we needed to stop going to games together if we were going to lose every time. The Shamrock Series in Dallas got things turned around. Since then, we've been to wins against Navy (also no blog post), Stanford, and now Boston College (plus I visited him in Texas for a Ranger game). Late in the game they announced the attendance and John said something like, "It's a little more than that." This one wasn't pretty, but whatever, we won. After the game, John and I went to a barbecue place for some delicious food and victory beers.
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| My view for more than half of the game |
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| Part of the band's performance. The pitcher pitches it and the batter hits it over the Green Monster. |
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| John and me |
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| Me and Wilhelm |
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| This was our view from the Green Monster after Chris Brown made a nice touchdown catch. |
I read a lot of negative feedback about the game at Fenway. I think that was entirely because of how poorly we played. If we win this game by four touchdowns, everybody would be talking about how awesome it was. I'm sure there were a lot of seats with bad views and it's way too small to accommodate the demand for tickets so I wouldn't do this often. I would say maybe once ever 20 or 30 years (whereas I'd like to play at Yankee Stadium once or twice every ten years). Here's how I'd rank the Shamrock Series games I've been to:
4. FedEx Field against Maryland in 2011- It's a distant fourth, but these might have been the least offensive uniforms we've worn since we started doing stupid things with the uniforms.
3. JerryWorld against Arizona State in 2013- It was a lot of fun and I'm sure some people would rank this higher. It's the best opponent we've had for a Shamrock Series game (although Miami is historically better).
2. Yankee Stadium against Army in 2010- I love the history of Notre Dame and Army at Yankee Stadium, even if it's not the same Yankee Stadium.
1. Fenway Park against Boston College in 2015- Boston College used to play their home games at Fenway Park until the Red Sox kicked them out. There hadn't been football at Fenway Park since 1968. It took Notre Dame playing a home game there with "Notre Dame" and "Fighting Irish" painted in the end zones to get football and Boston College back to Fenway. This game was just making fun of Boston College. I love Fenway Park and I love Boston.
Surprisingly, this was my first game ever against Boston College. We played them 19 out of 21 years from 1992-2012. The two years we didn't play them was when I was a student there. My record when attending Notre Dame football games is now 29-11. In games I haven't attended since the start of the 2005 season, Notre Dame is 61-37. So Notre Dame has a .725 winning percentage with me and .622 without me. The lesson, as always, I need to go to more games.
Some fans don't like the Shamrock Series in general. I've been to four games and really enjoyed each experience. I would like to get some better opponents. I would be willing to offer schools a more even split in tickets as long as the game stays on NBC (this last one was on NBC Sports Network, I don't know how we let that happen, I don't know if that's the way it's going to be for future Shamrock Series games). I've thought about where I'd like to see the game played. Next year we're going to San Antonio (the first repeat site) to play Army. I have some interest in going to San Antonio, but probably not to see us play Army in a crappy dome. Put me down as doubtful for that one. After that, no other sites have been announced. So here's my wish list of places where we haven't played the Shamrock Series:
St. Louis- But only if it's played in Busch Stadium. The Cardinals have a great franchise and the football stadium there is a crappy dome. We could play a Big 12 or SEC team.
Houston- Playing football in Texas is never bad for recruiting. Again, a Big 12 or SEC team.
Cincinnati- Easy for lots of fans to get to. Maybe play West Virginia or a Big 10 team there.
New Orleans- Again, playing in the South. SEC or Big 12.
Denver- I would want to play BYU or Air Force there.
Toronto- I guess we could play a Big 10 team there.
Seattle- Oregon is the team I'd want to play in Seattle.
Philadelphia- We just played there for a Temple home game. We could probably play an ACC team there.
Those weren't really in any particular order. Here are my top 5:
5. Atlanta- I am fairly convinced that this one will happen some time after Atlanta gets its new stadium. It would have to be a year when we don't play at Georgia (we a series with them coming up) or at Georgia Tech. It's always good for recruiting to play in the South. We could play an SEC team or an ACC team there.
4. Los Angeles- I don't think this will happen since we play in Los Angeles every other year. But I'd want to play at Dodger Stadium (I'm not even sure they could fit a football field in there, but they did play soccer there) against UCLA or any Pac 12 team.
3. Dublin- We did play in Dublin, but that was a Navy home game, not a Shamrock Series game. I'm not in a rush to go back. Maybe 10-15 years from now, but it was awesome. We could probably play anybody there as long as we space it out enough from the last game we played there.
2. Green Bay- Brian Kelly mentioned wanting to play at Lambeau Field in a press conference. I absolutely agree. That's the one NFL Stadium I really want to get to. We could play any Big 10 team there.
1. Rome- The guys on one of the many Notre Dame podcasts I listen to mentioned this one time and they seemed pretty convinced that it's going to happen, but that's the only time I ever heard anything about it. Boston College should definitely be the opponent if it happens.
Of course, New York, Chicago, and Washington could always host Notre Dame. I would say New York (as in Yankee Stadium, not the Meadowlands) and Chicago should both get a game every ten years. And playing in Dallas is always a good idea for recruiting.
Anyway, I hope everybody enjoys my eighth favorite day of the year (although it's probably now behind New Year's Eve/New Year's Day now that college football once again owns New Year's). I'll be drinking Summer Ale with dinner. Saturday is a huge day. Go Oklahoma State! Go Irish!
