Almost Two Weeks and Two Hundred Miles…The End Result, The Same

This goes back several weeks.  Not because the adventures were less than great, only that it has taken time for me to put fingers to keyboard—my version of pen to paper.

Early this past Spring the Employee Activities Group at UMMHC offered employees a raffle opportunity to purchase some Red Sox tickets.  I don’t know how they get them…I don’t ask…I only enter the raffle.  Fortunately, I won the opportunity to purchase four tickets for the game on July 28th versus the Oakland Athletics.  As a result I, along with Dave, Bill and Papa, ended up in Section 92 in what are euphemistically called Field Box Seats.

 

 

 

To visualize these seats, imagine that you are standing at home plate looking down the line to first base with Pesky’s Pole in the distance.  Turning slightly to the right looking into foul ball territory and for the spot where the seats change from red (field box) to blue (grandstand)…that’s about where we were seated…Row WW, where the stadium makes the turn towards the bleachers.  Looking in from the seats you can see that all of the action is in front of you, and even if it’s hard to see the ball movement on the pitches…you’re at a Red Sox Game!

 

 

 

 

As noted, Section 92 is where the field turns from the seats facing the outfield (sitting up and looking straight ahead meant looking at the visitors’ bullpen), to where they look towards home plate.  In order to make this turn, there has to be a place where the outer rows (towards the Grandstand Seats)turn and pinch the inner rows (also known as Field Box Seats).  This phenomena just happened to take place in Section 92, Row WW, seats 11 – 14; any other rows in the Section had adequate leg room (at least by Fenway standards).  Contributing to the issue we have Papa, my two brothers and myself…none of us would be described as ‘small’ guys…trying to fit in the seats and then Papa had a rather large (read that as at least my size) women trying to “squeeze” into the seat—this is literally not figuratively—next to him.  When I tucked my legs back under the seat (where the discarded crackerjack boxes and spilt beer goes) then Dave and I could both sit down.  You see the effect in the picture where Dave is to my left and my knees are pressed down below the seat edge; but hey…you’re at a Red Sox Game!

 

 

 

 

One of the great things about the evening—besides spending time with three other guys who enjoy baseball—was this turned out to be the game following Jim Rice’s induction into the Hall of Fame and his number was being retired. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From our seats (standing actually) we were looking right up at the retired numbers area and you can see the red sheet being removed by Johnny Pesky as a part of the ceremony.

 

Following the ceremony we quickly determined that we were not all going to be able to sit and enjoy the game from these seats.  Dave and Bill said they were going to stand in the area behind the grandstand seats so Papa and I spread out a little bit, and at a bit of an angle towards home, over four seats.  It turned out that Dave and Bill found space in the Standing Room Only (SRO) section between home plate and first base so they had a great view of the game and…you’re at a Red Sox Game!

For those of you that somehow missed watching the game—probably washing your hair or doing something else significantly important—let’s do a brief re-cap.  In the second inning Oakland went ahead 2 – 0, but Boston quickly came back with five runs in the bottom of the third.  Boston added another run in the sixth with Oakland doing likewise at the top of the seventh.  So at the seventh inning stretch is was Boston 6, Oakland 3 and fans were starting to leave.  I turned to Papa at this point and said, “This game is far from over and I don’t understand why people are leaving.”

Boston and Oakland then each scored a single run in the eighth so we entered the ninth inning with a 7 to 4 lead and Papelbon coming out of the bullpen…what more could you ask for?  Then Papelbon proceeded to produce his third blown save of the season and Oakland tied it up 7 – 7 in the ninth.  Dave and Bill at this time found some vacated seats down behind home plate, so they moved into an even better position to watch the game.  It took 11 innings, but ultimately Oakland prevailed and won the game 9 to 8.  A tough loss, but at least…you’re at a Red Sox Game!

Fast Forward eleven days…

…we had another opportunity to see the Red Sox in action.  This time the game was to the Southwest of Boston in the new Yankee Stadium.  Jack Gosselin and I drove down to New Haven and caught the Yankee Express train to E 153rd St – Yankee Stadium where we could walk right up to the gate.  We got there early enough to have a foot-long hot dog (with the works) from the Nathan’s street vendor and to enjoy some of the banter (grief) from Yankee’s fans.  Scott and Tim drove in from NJ, and met us outside the gate before the game and we all went in early to look around the new stadium.         You can also see in the photo above and to the right the stadium in most ways looks the same as the old Yankee Stadium, but as Tim pointed out it just doesn’t have the same feeling of history or grandeur.  After Tim said that I too had the feeling that someone had made a replica of the old stadium…only it felt like it was ‘Made in China’.   Not to bore you too much with the game—you may have once again had to clip your toe nails or do something else beside watch—we entered the seventh inning stretch (which you see Scott and Jack standing for in the picture to the right) with the Yankees ahead 2 – 0.  Buchholz pitched fairly well through six innings giving up only 2 earned runs on 6 hits, only Sabathia went 7.2 innings giving up only 2 hits and no runs.  Ramirez managed to “plunk” A-Rod in the bottom of the second—and get ejected as a result—but that was about the only glimmer of any excitement on the part of the Sox.  The end result was a 5 – 0 Yankees win.  It was another tough loss in two weeks and within 200 miles, but we did remember…you’re at a Red Sox Game!

As you enter the gate there is first a concourse that runs behind the seating area.  This is filled with shops and higher end restaurants—places like the Hard Rock Cafe.  From there you enter into a separate loop behind the Field Box Seats that runs around the field.  After finding our seats Tim and I took a tour around the loop and from an area above right field I took a picture of Jack and Scott back in our seats.  You can see they are the only brightly colored individuals in a sea of grey Yankee fans—Scott’s yellow shirt really stands out.   You can see that our seats were similar to the game at Fenway, only a little closer in the field.  Plus you will see in some of the photos that the seats are all theater style with padded seats and plenty of leg room. Here’s a photo shot of Three of the Gang of Four, and below Scott took a shot of Tim and me to round out the group.

We parted ways with Scott and Tim driving back to NJ and Jack and I getting right on to a train and heading for New Haven.  Even with the losses, these were great adventures.  Go Sox!