Nirvana exists in Fenway
I've posted from time to time about being a Red Sox fan, but here's something to top it all. Let me start with a brief history.
A LOOOOOOOOONG time ago, I sat in my grandparents house in Braintree, MA, just south of Boston, and watched a guy hit a home run over a huge wall in left field. The guy was Jim Rice, the wall was the Green Monster, and the park was Fenway. It was 1976, I was 7. Did I become a diehard fan and watch all the time and spend most of my waking hours trying to be like Carlton Fisk? No, I just thought the Red Sox were pretty cool and I always rooted for them. Even in 1986 when my friends in NY threatened to beat me up, and then heckled the crap out of me because of Buckner. (Dude, you're forgiven).
Fast forward to 2001, started watching more closely to who was playing, who was doing what, some guy named Ramirez hitting well after coming over from the Indians, admiring the crap out of a scrappy catcher named Varitek (I was a catcher as a kid - Fisk and Bench were my idols). Watched more and more as they started adding players and playing well and got the ultimate reward in 2004 when Keith Foulke tossed the last guy out to Doug Mientkiewicz and the stadium went freakin crazy.
Getting more into baseball, knowing stats now, hopefully not seen as a fairweather fan as a lot of people were becoming and got the job I have now. Being heckled for being a Sox fan in an office full of Yankee fans and having the ability at the end of the season to heckle the crap out of my manager, most of the partners and the CEO of our company? Yeah, that felt pretty good. I still did managed to get a bunch of incredulous looks from people about the fact that I've been a fan for about 30 years now, and I'VE NEVER BEEN TO FENWAY.
So what could be better than being able to heckle people?
Tickets to the September 22nd game against the Cleveland Indians, sitting in Loge Box Section 12, Box 102, Row A, seats 3 & 4 with my best friend. Now that's priceless.
Alex my friend? Thank you.