Trip to Fenway

My brother had bought four tickets to Friday night's Red Sox game against the Twins. They were bleacher seats that he had procured via a Boston engineering society that he was a part of when he lived up there. So he flew up from NYC, my parents drove in from there Boston suburb town, and I drove down from Portsmouth.

I left on Friday at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Shortly after getting on I95, I hit the traffic for the Hampton toll. It was backed up for four miles and took me about an hour to get through. I had been going to meet my parents at their place and drive in, but the traffic put me too far back. On a lark, I decided to come in on Comm Ave and it worked out great. No traffic at all and I found free parking about a quarter mile from Kenmore Square. Every other street looked mobbed, so I guess I got lucky.
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We were meeting at the Cask and Flagon and I had arrived early so I decided to take a walk up the street to kill the half hour or so until my brother and parents were due to arrive. I sat on the grass outside a shopping plaza and just watched the people walk by. Soon after, an army of bicycle riders came down the street, blowing whistles and shouting at the cars in the other lane that they should bike instead and get where they're going faster. Some were pretty militant in their shouting, while others were happy to just to ride along. When that was over, I went over to the meeting spot and we assembled and went on in.

The seats in the bleachers were about as good as they get up there. The talk of the town as the Red Sox approached the trading deadline was Manny Ramirez. Every year, Manny does something bizarre. This year, he requested and trade and refused to play in a game where he was badly needed. He also disappeared into a door in the Green Monster when the pitching coach came out to chat with the pitcher and nearly missed being on the field for the next pitch. Anyway, he decided to play the night we were there and I had the feeling that we would be watching his last game in a Sox uniform.

The game was a great one to watch with a pitching duel going on for the first six innings and then opening up into a string of hitting thereafter. John Olerud, the backup first basemen, hit a grand slam to seal the deal.

The bleachers were rather subdued that night compared to their reputation. We later figured that the reason was that all the fans in our section had also bought their tickets from the engineering society. We did in fact over hear multiple conversations about engineering from various people around us.

The tickets were $23 and the parking was free. You can always find an extra ticket for pretty close to face value if you look around a bit. Take an evening sometime and go see the 2005 World Series Champs. Just watch out for the Hampton toll.