note:I don’t have the cable for my camera, I will post pics tonight

for those who haven’t been following, I finally realized a dream last night. My 40th is coming up in January and my best friend, who is a diehard Mets fan wanted to remedy a crime in the world.

Would M@ get to Fenway before his 40th birthday?

Thanks to Alex, that would be a resounding YES!!!

We took off yesterday from our office around noon and headed up to Boston. I LOVE Boston. I love Boston more than I HATE NYC. Yes, I’m sorry, I grew up on Long Island, I live in NJ – I HATE NYC! I’ve never liked being there. “Oh the energy, the pace, the people, they’re amazing, electrifying…blah blah blah” The energy and the pace make me agitated and nervous, no thanks. I go in from time to time because Fae loves it, and I appreciate certain things about it. Given the chance, I’d never go in again:)

Boston? Boston feels like home. I don’t know why, but it always has. Ever been to a city that you have almost no connection to and it just feels right? Yeah, that’s it for me. It was really nice yesterday because my buddy went to college up there and lived there for several years, so I got a tour of places around and in the city that I hadn’t seen before.

So we found a place to park down the street from the park and walked back towards the field. Let me just start by saying this – this is a REALLY small park. I mean REALLY SMALL. I’ve walked all the way around Shea a time or two, but Fenway is REALLY SMALL. I’d say it’s about 4 sq blocks in NYC. Tell you what tho, they pack it in. We walked around for a while, I got a REAL Sox hat, got hats for the kids, grabbed a beer(yes, non-alcoholic) that tasted better than it should, and wandered around outside the game for a while. The weird thing is, I was only 4 blocks away from where I spent a weekend in the early 90′s when visiting a friend at Boston Univ. Should have gone then

Then we went in.

Wow man. Everything I’ve watched for so long, all right there in front of me. Our seats were about MAYBE 40 feet from the field. During the game, i heard Kevin Youklis say SHIT! from almost all the way across the field.

The whole experience seems a little unreal to me. I saw the Ted Williams seat (longest home run hit in Fenway – the seat is Red), went and touched the foul pole, saw Josh Beckett smiling and talking to some fans while he warmed up. Saw the Sox stretching and warming up like 40 feet away. One of the biggest differences – I always knew this, but this totally confirmed it….

Big Papi has that name for a reason. Dude, he’s huge. I mean HUGE. At one point, he and Pedroia were standing next to one another. Wow. Pedroia is a short guy, but DAMN, Papi is Big.

The grass seemed greener, the sounds seemed both more real and unreal at the same time. Hearing the players call for the ball, hearing the SMACK as Papi hit a home run. And I mean SMACK like the instant he hit it, no delay. KNEW as soon as he did, it was gone.

I was finally surrounded by people who understood my love for a team, who waited so long for them to finally make it, and then get lucky enough to do it again. I was surrounded by friends who were complete strangers, by people who listened to me go on and on about this player or that player or anything I wanted to talk about.

This one guy behind us tapped me on the shoulder late in the game and said the most profound thing I’ve heard in a long time – “Welcome to Fenway, Brother.” I felt like I was home, like I was finally sitting in a place where I was supposed to be. Like I had been away for a long time and was finally coming home. I felt like I belonged in a way I hadn’t ever felt before.

Besides my wedding and the births of my kids, on a totally Man/Testosterone laden level – the best day ever. And you know what? They didn’t even win

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 9:48 am and is filed under Baseball, Daily Entry, I am 7, SAWKS!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.