Blue Jays 14, Red Sox 1
July 29, 2014(Randy's Perspective)
Fenway Park. Mark it off the the bucket list.
When I write these travel/baseball stories, I usually don't know where they're going when I start writing. Inevitably, I end up reminiscing about the ballpark and the city - which is kind of silly, since I've never been to most of these places. But still, I have memories and thoughts based on television, radio, newspapers, magazines and first-hand stories from friends.
 |
| Penny and our friend, Kathy Hinkley, who joined us at the park |
On a separate note, I even have a hometown connection to the Red Sox. Hall of Famer Jim (Ed) Rice graduated from my high school: T.L. Hanna in Anderson, S.C. Rice was five years ahead of me in school, but there was one day when I was on a team with him. I ran varsity track as an eighth grader, and our coaches recruited Rice one time for a weekend meet. He didn't have a baseball game that day, so he went with us and ran the 100.
The guy was a legend even then. We expected he would win the 100 and get us some points. He didn't win, but I think he ran on a 440-relay team that did. ... I should mention, though, that Rice was a hellacious wide receiver and likely could have played college football anywhere he chose. But since he could hit a baseball about 425 feet every second or third time he came to bat, he chose baseball - as you or I likely would have done.
(While on the subject of famous people from my high school, here are two more: Chadwick Boseman, who plays Jackie Robinson in "42," and Radio. ... just Radio - made famous by the movie "Radio." Radio attended Hanna with our class, which graduated in 1975. He is still a senior at Hanna.)
But back to Boston.
I had actually seen Fenway Park (live) twice, once outside and once inside. But neither of those days counted, because there were no home games on those two days.
In fact, it was a football game led me to Fenway the first time. So... interruption for a football story.
Slightly more than three decades ago (wow, that sounds like a long time), when I was a sportswriter for the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail, I covered a rather fascinating college football game between Clemson (which two seasons before had won a national championship) and Boston College. It was 1983.
The setting was this. Clemson was tough; I mean "kick ass, take names" tough in the eighties. In fact, from 1981 through 1983, Clemson's record was 30-2-1. The tie, however, came during a 1982 home game with none other than Boston College.
The following season, Clemson visited BC, and that's where one of those two Clemson losses came. I was there at Alumni Stadium, when Clemson's demise came at the hands (and feet) of none other than Doug Flutie, who rallied BC from a 16-3 deficit early in the second half to a 31-16 win. Flutie was a wonder. He had been good the year before when he played at Clemson's "Death Valley," but he was Johnny Manziel at his best on that night in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Funny follow-up to that story.
Later that year, during one of his regular weekly press conferences, Clemson coach Danny Ford was taking general questions. David Davidson, a writer from the Atlanta Constitution, started pelting Danny with questions about schedules, including the future of the Clemson-Georgia football series.
At one point Davidson asked, "Why do you want to play an out-of-conference game against a team as good as Georgia? Surely, there are easier teams to play."
Ford, in his most pronounced Alabama drawl, said, "Well, I don't really know about that. We're oh-and-two against Boston College. I don't want to play those bastards again."
Sorry, enough football. Except to say that on the trip to Boston for the BC-Clemson game, I stayed in the Back Bay Hilton, which was just a little less than a mile from Fenway Park. I had carried my running shoes and shorts, so after I checked in I embarked on a run toward Fenway. After a few lefts and rights, I hit the park. I circled it twice, running on Landsdowne and Van Ness and Yawkey Way. I
 |
| Not crazy about the ads, but the Green Monster is still incredible |
Twenty-one years later, I happened to be in Boston again, this time for a conference. Again, it was in the fall, and this time the Red Sox had just completed an epic comeback against the Yankees in the ALCS, coming back from an 0-3 deficit (trailing in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4, even) to win the American League Pennant.
The club held an open house party at Fenway to celebrate the championship. So that night I got inside. I had about 15 minutes inside the park - but that was enough to breathe it in. I stood there and just stared at the Green Monster for at least five minutes.
While I was in my mesmerized funk, some guy looked at me and said, "I guess you've never seen it before, huh?"
I said, "No. Maiden Voyage inside Fenway."
He said, "Well, too bad there's no game. You should this place on game night."
Which leads me to Penny's and my trip to Fenway to see the Red Sox host the Blue Jays.
Holding a slim, slim chance at moving back into the wild card race, the Red Sox clearly needed to sweep the Jays in this series.
Well ...that plan went awry. Early and often. The Blue Jays had two runs on the board before they recorded an out. And it never got better. In fact, it got really ugly in the top of the sixth inning, which featured 14 Toronto batters and nine runs.
 |
| Penny and I enjoying our cramped centerfield bleacher seats |
Ok, coincidence or irony? Two weeks earlier, the Red Sox had breathed new life into their season when they went to the Rogers Center in Toronto and hammered the then-struggling Blue Jays, 14-1.
On the night in Boston, Toronto, three games out of first place in the AL East, probably nailed the coffin shut on Boston's season by beating the Red Sox - yup, 14-1.
I'd say Fenway was everything I had dreamed - even expected. And in a sense, that's true. Before the game, the feel was great. Energy everywhere. History at every turn.
I could visualize Carlton Fisk waving that home run fair in the 12th inning of the 1975 World Series: Famous Fisk home run. In my mind, I could see Carl Yastrzemski roaming the outfield, and then Fred Lynn and hometown guy, Jim Rice. I could hear the fans in righfield shouting "Daaarryyylll" as they taunted Darryl Strawberry. And, more recently, I understood how Fenway could have felt in 2004 when the Red Sox were coming back to win that first World Series in almost a century.
But on our night in Fenway, reality didn't help. The bad baseball interrupted the memories.
The Red Sox got smacked around and booed by their loyal fans. We had tickets to see the defending champs, hopefully in an important
game in a pennant race. What we got was a lackluster effort from a struggling team.
Except for the boos, the fans were uninvolved. Unless you want to count the thousand or so Blue Jays fans, who were pretty noisy. It's nice to follow a contender.
You have to hand one thing to the Boston fans, though. They hung around until the middle of the eighth, where the stadium mood changed as soon as Neil Diamond and "Sweet Caroline" came through the PA system.
It's only a decade old, but what a cool tradition. We all sang.
One last thing.
Penny was appalled at seeing the Green Monster covered with ads. I agree.
No comments:
Post a Comment