My Trip To Fenway

Greetings from the Hilton Garden Inn in Springfield, MA. The wife and I are resuming our stadium tour this week and it kicked off tonight in historic Fenway Park, excuse me, Pahk, for the Indians v. Red Sox. Thursday we'll be in Kansas City, Friday in St. Louis.
I'm sure by now everybody knows that Big Papi hit yet another walk-off. I called it. I said to my wife in the top of the 9th that if Cleveland didn't score I better get my camera ready so I can take pictures of Ortiz throwing his helmet into the air and getting mobbed at home plate, and sure enough it happened. The guy is good, there's no doubt about it. I however disagree with those who think he is a great clutch hitter. The fact of the matter is, in order to come up in a big spot, your team has to be losing late in the game, which it seems like the Sox often are. And everyone knows that in most games, the top of the order almost always comes to bat in the 9th inning. Ortiz always seems to be in the position to win or tie the game in the 9th. If you get enough chances at something, you're going to get the outcome you desire every now and then. Does anybody know what his batting average is in these situations? Or even how many times he succeeds compared to how many times he has the opportunity to come up big? I don't know the answer to this but the answer could surprise some people. What if his success rate is only 20%. He comes through 1 in every 5 games say. Maybe everybody thinks he's clutch because we see the highlights of him coming through once or twice a week, but we don't see his failures. It's kind of like with the people that whine and moan about Yankee curtain calls. Every team does it, but the Yankees are seen more often than say the Royals. Know what I'm saying? Don't get me wrong, Papi is good and I'd feel good about my chances with him late in the game. I'm just curious if he's perceived to be good because we see always see the highlights, never see the lowlights, and the Sox always seem to be losing late? I don't know the answer to these questions. I'm just throwing it out there.
As for Fenway, it's pretty nice for an old stadium. Once you get by the God-awful smell, the narrow aisles, the constant amount of people that walk in front of you during the game, and that annoying Boston dialect, it's a pretty good place. What is it with people from New England not knowing how to pronounce the letter "R." I'm not saying this because I'm pre-programmed to dislike the Red Sox and their fans. The accent just drives me nuts. It's "R" not "H." Far, not fah. Car, not cah. Bar, not bah. There was one guy on the streets before the game hawking newspapers for a "Quahter." What the heck is a quahter?? Ah Bostonians, you gotta love 'em. I kid because I care.
Our seats were pretty nice except we were right on the lower level walkway. All game long people were walking by. One guy kept yelling at people in his New England accent to keep moving. It was funny. For those familiar with Fenway, we were on the first base side, sec 16, Box 118, Row AA, right between the lower seats and the next section. Some guy was telling me that every time a left-handed batter was up we were on TV. I took a lot of pictures and hope to put them up when we get back. I think I got some good shots. My home PC is on the fritz so it might take a while but I'll get 'em up there.
The area surrounding Fenway was pretty cool. A very lively area. I didn't really get to experience it all that much as we got there about a 1/2 hour before BP and I wanted to try and get some autographs, which I didn't. I could have gotten Coco Crisp's, but he's Coco Crisp so I didn't waste a ball. Mike Timlin signed a few balls a few feet away. I wanted to get him on a WBC ball I've started and i probably could have except I didn't climb my way over the seats to get it. I also wasn't 100% sure he played in the WBC. I was 99% sure. I thought I'd ask some people figuring they'd be in the know as he's on "their team", but the 5 people I asked either weren't sure or told me that they didn't think he played for Team USA. Way to know your own team guys. Seriously, I was disappointed in their knowledge on their guys. I also thought it was odd that when the Sox finished BP all the people that were trying to get autographs weren't yelling out player's names, unless they were the caliber of Ortiz or Manny. Papelbon strolled by and not a word. Now I can only speculate as to why but the wife and I were thinking that most of them didn't know who they were. It's like when you ask someone who's their favorite team and you know they're a bandwagon fan so you ask them to name 5 guys and they can't. That's the impression I got. If your name wasn't Manny, Papi, or Varitek, they didn't know who you were. Now maybe it was just the people around me but I know most Sox fans there could probably rattle off the whole roster. I still think when most members of the Red Sox Nation pull out their membership cards, it says "member since 2004." You have to admit, since 2004, Sox fans have come out of the woodwork. Cooperstown was infested with them, probably outnumbering Yankee fans 5-1. I'm seeing this everywhere. You can probably make the same case for Yankee fans I'm sure.
Overall, the wife and I had a really great time. Though it didn't end how we had hoped, it was a great game with a great finish. Many thanks to the Red Sox Chick for giving me some info on the park and the area. It was helpful and if anyone would know she would. My advice to anyone going to Fenway for the first time: Bring noseplugs and if you park in the Landsdowne lot, it will take you a good 10 minutes or so to exit the lot because of all the foot traffic.
Tomorrow it's back to Buffalo for the night then Wednesday AM we're back on the road headed to KC. I hope to blog more about the trip and each stadium while I'm in the city. At the completion of this trip, we'll have been to 19 stadiums in 3 years, pretty much everything east of the Mighty Mississippi. After this, it only gets tougher.
I also need to post the details on my trip to Cooperstown. It was great and I was pretty successful with the autographs. Perhaps tomorrow if I can get my PC working. If not, I'll try and go to the in-laws. My apologies to my fellow Yankee bloggers for not visiting their blogs and leaving comments. It's been a pretty hectic last couple of weeks. I'll get on it after the weekend. Oh, and if you're a Yankee fan, you have to love Brian Cashman. I know I'm loving him.
Peace, love and pinstripes.
J-Boogie