From Ballpark Roadtrip
Fenway Park
Boston, MA
New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox
May 26, 2002
The Road Trip
We had a long trip ahead of us but managed to crawl out of bed fairly early and hit the road after a quick McDonald's pit stop. We had a couple hotel rooms reserved in Boston at the Club Quarters through Hotwire. It was pretty cheap and the accomodations were certainly above average for Ballprakroadtrip standards. Since he got the most sleep the previous night, Vin started out behind the wheel driving the first leg and it wouldn't be long before we were awakened to the flashing lights of the Canadian highway patrol or whatever they're called. We thought about making some sort of english vs. metric type of joke but figured it was more important to make it to our destination. The thing is, apparently Vin saw the cop in time but didn't slow down so we all got into this big argument with Vin about why he didn't hit the brakes but the bottom line is, we received the first ticket in our Ballpark Roadtrip history. What makes it worse is getting nailed by a motorcycle cop! We were all sort of arguing as the cop is writing out the ticket behind us.
Fortunately, he really didn't care about us taking pictures so we were able to capture the incident for our memoirs. You can see Vin's nearly bald head as he get's the lowdown from our buddy. After resolving the speeding ticket issue we were able to head down through New Hampshire and roll into Boston around 5:00. We picked up Lumpy's girlfriend, Kim, at work and headed over to check in at the hotel.
Outside the hotel, Justin thought he'd do his homeless impression using our "Fenway or Bust" cardboard sign. We brought our bags up to our rooms and relaxed a bit before heading down toward Fenway. Much like anytime the Yankees are in town, it was a mob scene down by the park. There were loads of people trying to buy tickets as you come out of theT station (subway). Lumpy had all kinds of friends and family meeting us down at the park because it was his brithday and he a bunch of tickets (we'll get to that later...). We were planning to all meet up at this bar across the street from the stadium but when we got there, the place was so packed they weren't letting anyone else in. So we sort of went our separate ways to get something to eat before the game with the intent of meeting up in our seats. Part of the Fenway experience is Steak Tips. You'll see vendors all over the streets selling them there but not at any other ballpark we've been to. For anyone scratching their head right now, they take sirloing steak, cut it into chunks, BBQ it with some sauce and serve it on a roll. Mike was decked out in Yankee gear and immediately got some flak from the steak tip vendor. The thing with Fenway is, you'll still get a lot of Yankee fans when they're in town, the crowd is sometimes almost 50/50 depending on the season and how each team is doing.
The Park
Whether you love or hate the Red Sox, it's hard to dispute that Fenway Park is among the hallowed grounds in all of sports. There are many similarities to Wrigley Field: built in the middle of the city, low capacity, rabid fans, and a team with a penchant for losing. The outside of the stadium is brick, but as you can see in the photo, "Green Monster green" permeates much of the inside of the stadium. The most notable feature of the stadium is the Green Monster, the wall in left field which makes this park a righty's dream, where long fly outs turn into doubles off the monster. On the flipside, the monster can be a nightmare for visiting left fielders who overplay the wall and allow singles and doubles to become doubles and triples. Fenway has a huge bleacher section running from the edge of the Green Monster, wrapping around to right field. This is where the common folk sit at Fenway as baselineand rooftop seats are very scarce.
Like many parks, the netrance to the bleachers is totally separate from the rest of the stadium and they have their own concessions facilities where you can get the house dog, the "Fenway Frank." One big downer to Fenway: they do not sell beer in the stands. You have to get up and go to the concession stands inside the stadium to get it. This means, after every half inning, half the stadium is getting up to go get beer while the other half watches the game. So, you always have people climbing over you, jamming up the tunnels, and creating long lines at the bathrooms and beer stands. It must be the whole Massachussets puritan nonsense that's responsible for this and detracts
Potsy returns from a beer run
from the ballpark experience. They also have a strict 2 beer minimum so it's not like you can go in a group of 4 and send one guy at a time to get beer for the group. Take note of the photo of Potsy...how many beers is he carrying? That's right, two. Yet, Justin and Dauber are empty handed next to him. How can he get beers for his buddies and still have one for himself? There's just something wrong about baseball without a "beer man". You'd think the International Brotherhood of Beer Men Local 393 union would have put a stop to this by now as beer men all over Mass. are fleeing to other states looking for work.
The inner city location really works for Fenway as it is close to mass transit and there are plenty of great bars and restaurants surrounding the stadium for pre/post game shenanigans. Unfortunately, the future of Fenway is really up in the air right now and baseball might lose one of it's true gems. Though, the latest news is they are planning on building seats on top of the Green Monster! Could you imagine? That has danger written all over it but we'd love to sit there.
The Game
This would easily be the rowdiest crowd any of us outside of Boston have ever experienced. First of all, the years and years of losing (and Bill Buckner) have left such a bitter taste in mouths of Rod Sox fans, they just don't know how to handle it. Mike always tells a story about being at a rock concert day-long festival type thing at Foxboro Stadium. It was probably in May so no where near the Pennant Race time of year. In the concourse area, away from the loudness of the acts on stage, there were constantly goups of guys chanting "Yankees Suck!" over and over again. They would parade through the food vendor area and try and get more fans to join in. Now mind you, there was no game on TV, neither the Sox nor the Yanks were playing at that time, and there was no heated race between the two. What did this have to do with Metallica? This, folks, is the pain that Red Sox fans bear and it was from this point on that, that Mike understood the true sickness that comes with being a Red Sox fan. It was this sickness that would be evident in this game. It was an ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game and the Yanks and Sox were in a heated race near mid-season. Sox and Yanks fans were at each others throats all night long in the bleachers. There were fights breaking out left and
right; the cops patrolling the bleachers were throwing fans out of the park as fast as they could. A fight would break out, they'd drag the culprits out of the stadium, and by the time they got back to their posts, 3 more fights had broken out and they'd have to choose the worst of the bunch to go bust up. Judging from the physique on Boston's finest, they weren't getting the hooligans out of the stadium nearly fast enough. This nonsense lasted through the whole game. Mike had commented that through decades of going to Yankee games, even back in the 70s when things were pretty rough, he had never been to a game where the fans were so rowdy. Potsy and Lumpy, Fenway veterans, said this game was nothing in comparison to others they had been to! Now among our 4 rows of fans who all got tickets from Lumpy, there were several oYanks fans grouped together who had no problem cheering as the Yankees started beating up on the Sox. We got some looks but we were in a group of people who knew each other. Vin, who is a very friendly guy, would cheer and stand up whenever the Yanks would score. The fans behind us were not with us and they weren't too happen about Vin's celebration. As Vin got a few beers in him, he tried to be civil and friendly with the Sox fans behind us but they weren't takiong a linking to the whole thing. Vin was just going on and on, thinking it was all cool but a big fight was in the makin'. Fortunately, someone decided we wanted to stay for the rest of the game and pulled the Sox fans aside and told them that Vin was a little slow in the head, and to take it easy on him. Vin never knew about this and won't until he reads this page...
The game got out of hand quickly as the Yanks just put a hurtin' on the Red Sox pitching staff. That definitely sparked the violence in the crowd. When the home team is winning, it's easy to roll with the crowd but when the visitors have a lot of fans in the house and put a beating on the home team, trouble is about to ensue. The game got boring fast but Mike and Lumpy were in on a secret which would sprak up our gang in the middle of the 8th. Lumpy told his girlfriend Kim to pose with him along the rail so Mike could take their picture together for the website. The truth was he was about to put on a spectacle infront of his friends and family. He dropped to his knee and asked her to marry him in front of 37,000 fans! The first question everyone has is, "Did they got on the jumbotron?", and the answer is, "No." The answer to the other common question is, "She said yes." Potsy was mad that he missed the whole thing, he was probably off getting more beer since they don't sell beer in the stands, did we mention that? Lumpy went on to get married in October, 2003, and be the first of our Ballpark Roadtrip crew to take the plunge. Congratulations, Lumpy and Kim! Fortunately, we all survived the brawls in the bleachers and lived to tell of our experience at Fenway.
(L-R): Bill, Potsy (w/ "Yankees Suck" towel), Justin (holding his sign), Mike, Lumpy, Vin, Dauber
