Life long for hard Met fan but I've always liked the Red Sox since I was a kid-Yaz, Rico Pettrocelli (sp?), Tony Conigliaro, and being a lifelong Yankee hater it's a nice team to watch when my Mets fall out of it by June every year. Should be fun, guys we work with got us front row seats on the Green Monster. Dinner with Fred Lynn tonite. Hope the rain holds off. _
Have fun, but screw the Red Sox! I do root for Victorino to do well though, since he is from Hawai'i.
Really great day. Like I said, I'm a life-long die hard Met fan but the Red Sox and their fans have something truly great going on. Just the walk to Fenway--seeing thousands of people walking over was really very cool. You don't get that driving to a parking lot in Queens or taking a train up to the Bronx. The banner ceremony and the WS Ring and Trophy ceremony were really inspiring--they had a bunch of survivors from the Boston attack last year bring the rings out to the players, they were all hugging and high fiving and the video tribute was pretty moving. Plus some firefighters had just died in a fire the other night so the whole team raised the American flag and the Championship flag then dropped it to half mast. Big Papi owns that town. Incredible run Boston has been on, they had some ex and current Sox, Bruins, Celtics and Pat bring out their respective trophies (other than the Cup), 8 championships since 2000. Pedro had one of the WS trophies and the fans loved it. Too funny, the Dropkick Murphy's played the National Anthem and of course Shippin Up to Boston. Love Fenway--that's the feel of a true 'ball park' with tons of character. Sitting up on the Green Monster was one of the best seats I've had for a game, but it got a little cold towards the end there. Food was pretty awful though. To be honest, I'd rather have awful food and a classic ball park rather than great food and a palace like Yankee Stadium. I think Citifield is a nice medium between the two. Since the banner unfurling was from our seats on the Monster, they gave us field access for the ceremony. Panorama shot Put my iPhone over the wall for a shot--it's a lot higher than it looks Dinner with Fred Lynn was outstanding. One of the best sports dinners I've ever been to. About 8-9 of us and just him and he held court for about 4 hours. EXTREMELY self-assured guy, really funny, honest, brutal at times, very interesting. Didn't realize he went to USC on a football scholarship--was freshman teammates with Lynn Swann. Gave us his honest no-holds barred opinions on Trout, Clemens, steroids, today's game, Nolan Ryan, where he measured up, Jim Rice, Pete Rose, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, his "trade", the old Sox regime versus the new Sox regime, Boston, the AL versus the NL back in the day, getting thrown at, any question you asked him he answered. Nice guy. _
Looks like you had a good time! Also I'm not surprised that as a Mets fan you root for the Red Sox over the Yankees. Lol. A friend of mine who is an A's fan went to a Yankee/Sox game in the Bronx last year. Said it was awesome, but quite pricey. I'd love to attend a ball game at Fenway, Wrigley, or Busch Field. Great baseball towns with diehard fans. Gotta start saving, all those places are a little bit far from Hawai'i.
Busch Staium is a very pretty park--so much nicer than it's predecesor--and they have a great fan base. Very friendly to out of towners. And it's right in the heart of downtown, you can walk there from pretty much anywhere. And the view from the park is beautiful, the whole city skyline and the Gateway Arch. The design reminds me of Citifield, that 'ballpark' kind of feel. Wrigley is much more like Fenway, but it's not walking distance from downtown so it's a slightly different feel. More like Yankee Stadium, lots of bars and beer gardens right around the stadium, but it's still a cab ride or train back to the city. But it's old like Fenway, with a lot of character. Last time I was there we sat on one of the rooftops across the street on Sheffield (right field) and while it was fun I'd only do it once. You're not getting a lot of the game out there. Of the three, Fenway has always been the best experience. So small, not a bad seat in the house. _
I am glad you enjoyed JS. Excellent pictures. Not a baseball fan but I support both New York teams when it is play off time. No love or hate for Red Sox. After these pics, I decided to go to a Sox game when I am in Boston next time.
The Yankees. The team that never bailed from New York. I'm personally glad you had a good time JStokes even though you probably patronized those bean-eating bigots with some fraternalizing Yankee-bashing...lol. More to the point, I'm glad you had a good time especially considering the fact that the 'Sawx' lost their home opener to Milwaukee 6 - 2 .......'wicked' : ) Attended a game there many moons ago. Pulled an all-nighter with my brother, drove to Fenway and were first in line to queue up on Landsdown St. (on the exterior side of the green monster--that 'net' was hanging out over our heads) waiting for the box office to open. Got general admission tickets and raced into the ball park and claimed our seats which were that 'triangle' where the centerfield bleachers meet the green monster--you actually looked "back into" the green monster if that makes any sense (being further away from home plate). And yes, it's a fun place to watch a game. Now having said that, as a long-time, die hard NY Yankee fan, pardon me while I (lovingly) take some shots at your romanticized take on Fenway vs. the Bronx below: ^^^ Good grief, will you look at the SIZE of that "LOOK AT US!" showy, ostentatious banner?!!!! I guess that as big as it is, you could still wrap all 7 of their world series banners around Fenway as 'bunting' with no problem. On the other hand, try using that sized banner as 'bunting' around the big stadium in the Bronx with the Yankees' 27 World Championships and you'd run out of "facade space" in short order even as big as the stadium is. That gargantuan pennant of Boston's is kind of like the player that doesn't get into the endzone quite as often and who then makes up for it by making a 'spectacle' of himself when he does....nyuk...nyuk... Kind of like nouveau money going for the big splashy chrome-festooned Escallade with the 22's vs the RRover. Me?...I like the Yankees running their latest up the flagpole--a banner whose 'appropriate size' they can use as bunting around the upper rim frieze during special occassions....along with the TWENTY SIX other ones. You also gave the impression that all 35,000 Sawx fans enjoy a 'wicked' walk down some primrose path en route to Fenway. Not really. Many of them are traveling from distant points as well. And as for da Bronx, from my neck 'o the woods, you can drive down, find a reasonably-priced, secure parking lot, and from there walk down Jerome Avenue underneath the rumbling #4 IRT toward the stadium. And that very festive pre-game landscape hasn't changed in eons and remains a time-honored unique experience in and of itself, including the Yankee bars on the way. Chaotic, hectic, but with a buzz. And even if it involved a "train ride" like you said, it's actually good that you can conveniently take a subway on the relative cheap, transfer if need be and then be dropped off right at the stadium--not to mention the positive impacts of taking mass transit with respect to reducing your carbon footprint. ; ) As for the stadium itself, it's returned the hallmark feature of the original, i.e. the 'real' Yankee Stadium with the frieze on top instead of the cement replica of the 1976 "Rudy May vs. Twins" reincarnation placed along the outfield wall. What the original '23 stadium had was a lot of view-obstructing pillars that were needed to support the roof. Today's version combines the restoration of the original "birthday cake" frieze with enhanced viewer consideration. Lastly, as far as transporaton goes, the Metro North spur direct to the Stadium is a winner. Beautiful glass-enclosed station with some interesting views of what would appear to the casual eye to be a wholly nondescript, rundown area--not exactly so, you get more of a panoramic, elevated view of the area from the stadium's vantage point when exiting and it kind of reminds you of the Pirates' new stadium (with that bridge) except you see a number of bridges all around and you realize just how many bridges there are all around NYC......138th st., 3rd ave., willis ave....besides the big, famous ones. But I digress, ....where wuz I? Oh yeah.... Q: What's the difference between Linda Lovelace and the Red Sox? A: It didn't take Linda Lovelace 86 years to conquer the gag reflex "Hey, thanks for joining us here on opening day from Fenway Park with the final score, the Brewers 6, and the Red Sox 2 .....goodbye everybody!" : )
Not sure what the impetus for this long rambling dissertation is but (i) my hatred for the Yankees has nothing to do with the Sox, I just thoroughly enjoy when anyone beats the Yankees--ESPECIALLY a hated rival--and seeing the Sox lose effects me very little--I'm not a huge FAN, they're just a team I'll root for, (ii) I liked the Sox as a kid--my second team--from the AL as it were--and it had nothing to do with my Yanks hatred--was a huge Yaz and Rico Petrocelli fan but I don't follow them, I'll just root for them to do well--and I don't patronize anyone with my Yankees hate--it's genuine, (iii) if I saw less than 15K people walking to the game I'll be shocked--the streets were flooded--it was awesome, (iv) the banner is the banner--I'd love to have one that big for my Mets, not sure why size matters to you (although I'm sure you enjoyed the hell out of all your Chamapionships from the 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s) (are we really counting championships as something holding some relevance?) and the ceremony WAS truly inspiring given the bombing victims being involved, (v) Fenway has 100x the character of that big bloated antiseptic granite and glass and chrome plated palace in the Bronx (I used to go to games in the OLD Stadium with the steel girders in the way) and the new Stadium has NO likeness to the OLD one--besides I prefer to watch my games in a ballpark--like Citifield-- having said that the last 20 games I've been to at the Stadium I've sat in the Legends Suites and they are pretty sweet , (vi) being able to walk to the ballpark is a uniquely and tremendously enjoyable experience--I don't care how nice you think the subway is getting to Yankee Stadium is simply getting to a stadium--train, car, subway--it's all the same (lol caring about one's carbon footprint in a discussion of walking to a ballpark), (vii) the area around the Stadium is disgusting whislt the area surrounding Fenway is beautiful--those bars are simply gross--the bars around Fenway blow the Bronx bars away--the whole area around Fenway blows the Bronx away and (viii) I find Sox fans so much more genuine than Yank fans-there seems to be a much deeper connection between the Boston fans and that team as opposed to the front-running self-entitled Yankee fan--it's kind of special--all that misery deepened the fans love of that team. _
Rambling dissertion?...........stopped reading right there. Clearly I 'read' you wrong JS.........just as surely as you read the intended spirit of my 'tome'. My bad.
Nooo. However long, it was well-intended ball busting (per the "taking some 'loving' shots" ref. haha). That said, a couple of things: I wasn't championing the subway, keep it in context jun....er, JS, I was simply pointing out the convenience factor. I myself enjoy walking to the ball park as well and I enjoy walking 'neath the IRT to get there. Yes, it's not Rodeo Drive, but at the same time, in beautiful Beantown, if you don't have a better chance of seeing God than getting a parking space, you nevertheless have a not-so-bad chance of getting your car ripped off. As for the fans, yes and no. There are a gazillion Yankee fans who are front running bandwagon jumpers--no doubt. But there are others who were there from day 1 ('moi' e.g.) and to that end and as crazy and disengenuous as this may sound, those "other" championships from past decades do resonate personally when I consider how much time I spent curled up with a book studying the history of the game, the stadiums and the legends generally-speaking as well as the Yankees specifically (I should've been so good a student in school) : ) As for the 'adorable' Red Sox fans, I also recall some of the dark side of their culture as well. No less a writer than Dick Young who was a reactionary bigot who btw hated the Yankees (as well as Joe Willie and Ali hater) even made mention of "the Fenway Experience" when the Red Sox organization went on the cheap and hired Boston College football team rent-a-goons to serve as "added security" when the Bronx Varsity came to town and how 'justice' was meted out by them to visiting Yankee fan, e.g. Yankee fan gets beer dumped on him by local tool, Yankee fan in turn is the one getting strong-armed off the premises. Yes, there are lots of new to the game phony Yankee fans nowadays, but there are a lot more of us who when it came to the Yankees (both then and now) could look up a dairy cow's ass and quote you the price of butter in a manner of speaking. So, do enjoy your Mets and good luck in '14 (saw Kofax/Drysdale pitch a doubleheader against the Mets--had "seats" on a ramp at Shea; they split) and enjoy your Red Sox, and even hate the never-bailed-on-NY New York Yankees. Me, I put up with Celerino Sanchez and Jerry Kenny: I've more than earned my (pin)stipes as a fan. Lastly, why would Boston originally name their baseball team (the "Red Stockings") after an article of clother most associated with a foul-smelling odor?...and then change the name to (again, with the "stinky clothes" obsession) the Red Sox? Ef'fed up if you ask me. Regards.
Fred Lynn actually talked at length about the earlier regime and how cheap it was. He was pretty bitter about it, a number of the old timers were, but is incredibly appreciative that he is now back in the fold. Still, it's a better baseball experience than Yankee Stadium IMHO. Btw, even in my Yankeedom hate, I was a big Bobby Murcer and Roy White fan from back in the day. Also liked Stottlemyre. My hatred didn't become full-blown until probably 73. _
That's awesome you had a good time. As a Yankees fan I can appreciate Fenway Park and the history behind it. I love the idea of milling around the stadium and being able to walk to it. That's a cool feel. The stadium itself is so tiny. The first time I went a few years ago, I was shocked, it just felt so tiny compared to old yankee stadium and shea. It's got a nice feel to it. I've never been in the monster seats though and I hear that is a great experience. No other ballpark gives you that unique view. Now to let my Yankees bias kick in, maybe since I spend the majority of my time on a college campus, but there are a ton of front running Boston fans who aren't aware of the fried chicken and beer collapse a couple years ago. The main core of their fans are diehards I respect, but I think any and every fan base has that. What gets on my nerves are the Red Sox fans I've run into that have some sort of little brother syndrome and still consider themselves the scrappy, lovable underdogs vs the big bad Yankees. There has been a shift from my non Yankee hating friends where Red Sox fans get on their nerves because not only they are obnoxious like most Yankees fans, they try to play the underdog, small team vibe which doesn't fly anymore. Anyway, rant aside, Fenway Park and the area around is beautiful. I've been there for college hockey games and it's an awkward, but fun setup. Overall a great park that has an identity which is cool. And thinking about, nothing tops being able to just walk to a ballpark. Gives it that lazy,simple afternoon feel. No stress about parking, train/subway schedules, etc. Just walk over on a sunny day, sit back, and enjoy.
