This game was one that I, and we as a family had really been looking forward to. My youngest, Tate, is now a big Red Sox fan ever since learning that they are his cousin JR's favorite team. And I have always wanted to go to the famous Fenway Park. This was going to be a treat. We stayed the night in the town of Waltham which is just west of Boston. Since it was day 6, we were desperately needing to do some laundry so Tammy decided to go get that taken care of (I did volunteer to do it but I guess she wanted it done right) while I entertained the kids in the indoor pool. It was nice to get to enjoy a leisurely morning. Afterwards we find a Moe's Southwestern Grill nearby for lunch and then head into the city via the light rail.
We arrive in the city and make the short walk to Yawkey Way. We get our tickets and then hit the stores looking for Red Sox souvenirs. By this time it is nearly 4:30 and the gates don't open until 5:20 so we go to a place called Loretta's for supper. This was chosen because it offered southern country cooking and country music as it's theme. By now during the trip I needed and little taste of southern atmosphere.
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| The view outside Fenway Park. |
We finish eating and head across the street to the stadium. The boys and I were giddy with anticipation of what it might be like inside the 100 year old iconic ballpark. It is very difficult to describe it. Simply amazing. Again I felt like I had stepped back in time. It just had that nostalgic feeling of a different era. The park had the smells of the great food and all the vendors selling various items like you would see at any stadium but it just had a different feel to it. It was great. We make our way to our seats which were located in the lower level very close to the right field foul pole that every true baseball fan knows as "Pesky's Pole" named for Johnny Pesky who played for Boston in the 40s and 50s. Immediately the boys are awed by the sights of The Green Monster, Boston's famous 37 foot high left field wall. Trey had even gotten a Green Monster T-shirt before we went inside the stadium. We had great seats for a matchup between the Sox with Clay Bucholz as the starter and the Toronto Blue Jays. I wasn't really excited about seeing the Blue Jays again but after finding out that R.A. Dickey, the famous knuckleballer and former Cy Young Award winner was the starter, the boys and I were pumped. As a bonus we got to see Dickey warm up in right field directly in front of us. It was fun for the boys and I to see his knuckleball in action up close.
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| The boys with the Green Monster in the background. |
Unfortunately, for Tate the game was not even close. R.A. had the Boston hitters off balance all night. He was sharp even striking out David Ortiz (Tate's favorite player and Boston's most feared hitter) twice. The Blue Jays jumped out to an early lead thanks to a Melky Cabrera home run over the "Green Monster", which was pretty exciting for the boys to see. The final score was 14-1. Tate was a little bummed out but was not surprised since the Red Sox had been struggling all year. The outcome of the game was not a big deal. The fact that we were at Fenway Park was all that mattered and to see the permanent grin on Tate's face was priceless. The highlight of the experience was probably hearing all those Boston fans singing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" in the 8th inning which is why I titled this post the way I did. Everything about the experience at Fenway was "So Good"!
I think we were all in agreement that this was our favorite park that we had visited up to this point. Another amazing experience on what had become a most incredible journey.
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| Tate from our seats. That's Pesky's Pole behind him. |
