Flying High-Five of Death!

Awesome, that's all I can say, just awesome. Here is the general log of my evening including photos and side comments:

Joe (who, from here on out, will be referred to as David Wells, my traveling buddy for the night) and I have jumped on the Red-Line at Quincy Adams (not Quincy Center, this will be important later) and are inbound to Fenway. Notice how thrilled Wells looks that he's going to another sox game:


Walking with the rest of the crowd on Commonwealth Ave. I kid you not, we had to have passed at least 30 guys trying to scalp/buy tickets, each of a varrying degree of skeeze (ranging from Boston-Tough-Guy to Crazy-homeless-looking-man). I thought about asking how much they'd pay for Green Monster tickets just to find out what their rates were. However, I feared if I even mentioned such a thing they would beat the crap out of me just to get them, so I stayed quiet.


After grabbing a quick bite, we made our way up the Green Monster seats in time to watch TB's batting practice. The view was absolutely incredible (the camera simply cannot do it justice). Regardless of how the game plays out, David Wells and I had already agreed that it was worth the price of admission.


During the batting practice, some of the TB players were doing a pretty good job of peppering the monster with shots. True story: the little girl in the picture below was nearly killed right in front of me. One of the TB players hit a bomb that headed right for us, specifically right for that cute little girl's head. No less than two inches from her head her father caught the ball with his bare hands with his arms on each side of her. The wierdest thing was that she didn't so much as flinch, just smiled and giggled. It was cute and mildly horrifying at the same time. Also notice how thrilled David Wells is to be at the game.


Quick shot taken before the game got underway. It got freakin' freezin' up there by the end of the night (definitely below freezing with wind chill) so I was definitely glad Kerri made me bring along my ($3 at Old Navy) hoodie. With the hood up and my hat on, as David Wells put it: "You look like the Unibomber". There was even a cop hanging around right behind me near the end of the game. I ooze "suspicious".


The picture just cannot capture how close Manny seemed, just imagine this picture covering the majority of your field of view. Manny was awesome throughout the whole game. He ran out to left field with that big goofy smile of his, waved in a friendly fashion to the fans that were calling his name, and just seemed to all around be having a blast.


Speaking of blasts, his first two run shot went right over our heads and into the parking lot behind us (just narrowly missing the jeep in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Despite the fact that the ball was probably ten feet over our head, about five different guys called up their friends on their cell phones and tried to convince them that they'd caught the home run ball. After his grand slam, I decided to revise my "Death From Above" plan of attack on the Devil Rays left fielder. Instead, I decided I would carry out the "Flying High-Five of Death" jumping off the Green Monster to give Manny a big old high five on my way down. Instant sport history for one of those "50 Most Bizarre Moments in Sports" highlight reels.


It was about this point in the night that I noticed the opposite field score board had the following message displayed between innings: "Welcome to Fenway Park, Home of the Boston Red Sox". Now maybe I'm being obtuse, but I have a hard time believing that anyone who made it to the game, and was sitting in Fenway, would be under the impression that it was the home of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I could be mistaken. However, if they'd said home of the "World Champion Boston Red Sox", I would have understood it. I still get little shivers of joy whenever anyone says that phrase.

So it's a freezing cold night in the middle of a pretty strong breeze, what snack would you ask for if you were a spoiled 9 year old boy? Why ice cream of course! While I can understand the desire to have the lovely souvenir plastic helmet, how can you handle eating ice cream without having been warmed by the consumption of vast quantities of alcohol (like the guy wandering around in a polo shirt and flip-flops all night)?


I love fenway park. Standing on top of the green monster made me realize just how much I love it, how proud I am that my team plays in the oldest park in baseball. I don't really care that much about the ticket costs, or the uncomfortable seating, or the lack of extra comforts. I simply cannot imagine the Red Sox playing anywhere else, it just wouldn't be the same team. So Red Sox owners: do whatever you want to increase seating capacity, amenities, or whatever else you want. Just make sure our team continues to play in Fenway for a long long time to come.