Life's Persistent Questions

April 22, RED SOX GAME!

I spent most of last night and this morning searching for Red Sox tickets. Fenway Park has sold out since I was born, and only recently have the die-hard fans of Sox Nation been rewarded for their faithfulness and perseverance. I ended up paying $120 for a pair of tickets in the infield grandstand by the first base side. As it turned out, these were “choiced” seats, as in I had the choice of watching either the catcher or the batter from the seat but not both as there was one of the ubiquitous buttresses that obstructed my view. That’s life. But the game was by far the best experience I have had on this trip. An hour before first pitch, the stadium, the streets surrounding the stadium (especially Yawkey Way) and the bars nearby were all packed. Despite the obstructed view, everyone in the stadium was hanging on each and every pitch (though the actual witness of any was optional). It may have helped that I broke my self-imposed prohibition on $7 beers. My friend and I lost track after four rounds, or was that the fourth inning? The game was close, back and forth, with plenty of big hits and runs especially from the phenomenal centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury. It was the first time where the fans of the visiting team were invisible and inaudible. Sox win and everyone went home happy.

On a side note, perhaps there is such thing as karma. Sports fan of Boston while knowledgeable have a collective disposition to bipolar attacks. Conversations on sports are full of the word, “ever,” and other words that end in “-est’s” and combination of them, e.g. “Is this year’s Celtics team the great-EST team EVER,” or “will he become the Sox’s b-EST centerfield EVER?” When you live and die by your sports team, and see only black and white in games, anything less than a 86-year long curse would be un-poetic.

posted by hedgehog @ 9:18 AM