OB1og

Mr. Clutch, Manny and The Kid

I pretty much spent the weekend at or around Fenway Park. I had tickets to both games of Saturday’s day-night doubleheader against the Texas Rangers. Of course, Mother Nature had other plans for me, because so far this Spring she has Boston confused for the Pacific Northwest.

Mother wanted me to spend half my day at Boston Beer Works getting reaquainted with their excellent Haymarket Hefeweizen and menu. I guess this was fine for me, but it threw other people’s plans into a blender. I had Ed lined up for the night game and Noelle was gracious enough to go to the day game after Joe and Jay couldn’t do it. Thanks to Noelle and her beer choice, I noticed for the first time that BBW’s excellent blueberry beer is actually named Bunker Hill Bluebeery Ale. I have probably been going there for around eight years now and I just noticed that. There’s fun in the minutae of a day I guess.

Anyway, the day game was to start at 1.20 and the nightcap at 8.00. Well, the start of the day game kept getting delayed — thankfully we are smart enough not to enter the park until a pitch is thrown — and it was looking like the night game wouldn’t be played. Meanwhile, everyone packed into the local bars keeps drinking and drinking, so if they do get the game off, the entire park might be three sheets to the wind.

So, yeah, the night game was called off and the day game was to start at 6.15. Meanwhile, Noelle graciously gave up the game so that her brother could still attend with me, especially after having gone thru the trouble of getting Jeanne and her son Eddie to babysit his kids and they have a long drive. Ed showed at just about six and after a short chat amongst the three of us, he and I made our way into the park. By the time we got to our seats, Jon Lester had already given up three runs in his major league debut.

It would seem the Sox were smart enough to realize that everyone had been drinking all day because when we entered the park all the beer stands were closed down. It was either that or the folks that stuck it out in the park drank it all. I think one of those guys was sitting next to us because he spent more time calling everyone he knew to tell them how his spare change bottle had been messed with by someone and he was determined to find out who done it from his seat in the bleachers. According to Ed, the guy claimed to have a thousand dollars in change within it. Must have been a big bottle.

Right about the third inning the hippy PA guy announced that the Red Sox wished to “reward our patience and fortitude” by declaring the night a “Free Dog Night.” That’s right, for every trip to a concession stand you could have a free Fenway Frank while supplies lasted. Well, he hadn’t even finished the announcement before a 1/3 of the 20,000 fans (that might be generous) still in attendence made a B-line for the tunnels. Folks had the mad munchies after a day of heavy drinking. I joked that they were just trying to clear out the dogs that had been floating in the bins since noon. Yum!

Of course, seeing Lester’s first start was a huge selling point for sticking out this whole thing. Overall, the kid looked pretty good. He didn’t give up any more runs and left part way thru the 5th after throwing 102 pitches with the game tied 3-3. The Sox would go on to lose the game 7-4 and Ed and I were glad to get out of there.

After the fifth inning, the game slowed down bigtime and the rain had started back up again, so we were getting wet and it was getting colder. Manny Ramirez warmed us up a bit by knocking one out in the eighth for his 450th career home run to make it 5-4, so that was pretty cool, but Foulke came in and gave up a 2-run bomb to Hammerin Hank Blalock.

Ed and I warmed up by heading back to BBW for a couple burgers and pints. Ironically we were seated at the table I had dubbed Evil earlier in the day. It was next to the one Noelle and I sat at and we watched as glasses were broken two clean-ups in a row at that table. The curse must have been broken during the game as nothing evil happened while we were there, unless you count Ed getting Fiery Fries instead of Chive Fries.

The Sox and Rangers would try their day-night doubleheader again with good weather in the forecast and the night game was rescheduled for today at noon. I was able to convince Noelle to blow off doing laundry and go to the game with me. After all, she wanted to see a day game and it was going to be a nice day, so why not reward yourself with a Sox game instead of laundry!

Beckett was pitching this one, so it was my first time seeing him start too. For the most part, he pitched well given his last two had been huge stinkers. He gave up 2 runs over the first five after throwing something like 101 pitches. Unfortunately for us, Tito thought it was a good idea that Josh come out and pitch the sixth so he could save his pen for the night game. Beckett gave up a 2-run blast over the Monster seats to Mench and his day was done with the Sox now down 4-2. At this point, the game slowed down, just like the night before.

Fast forward to the bottom of the ninth with Nixon and Crisp on base with 2 outs and David Ortiz at the plate. Big Papi is Mr. Clutch, but the Yankee game Noelle and I were at in May had us see him in the same situation in the 8th and watch strike three from Farnsworth to end the inning. Papi was even at 2-2 and I thought to myself maybe he wasn’t Mr. Clutch anymore, well he certainly wouldn’t be if he didn’t come thru here. He was heroic last year, but I don’t think he’s done it yet this year.

Otsuka delivered the 2-2 pitch and Papi put an effortless swing on it. He hit it so smoothly I thought he didn’t quite get enough of it, but as it reached the edge of the infield and kept rising, I could tell it was gone. Boy was it gone! He crushed that ball five or six rows deep in the bleachers past the bullpen. He did it again. Papi is Mr. Clutch and the Sox won the game with one sweet swing and suddenly the entire weekend spent at Fenway was worth it. It was so much more than worth it.

The bonus to that walk-off jack, local pitcher Manny Delcarmen got his first major league win. Noelle got to see her favorite player — Hmm, I think that is right, although it could be Wakefield or Tek instead — hit a walk-off HR because she gave up her ticket the day before.

So, yeah, I had a great weekend at Fenway. I saw an Oritz walk-off, Manny’s 450th (and 451), Lester’s MLB debut and Delcarmen’s first MLB win. I also had a great two days with my two best friends. I hadn’t planned on spending a weekend there, but I’m glad I did.

CYA Note: The photos are AP Photos taken by Winslow Townson and I’m sure I’m not supposed to use them, but at least I gave credit. I didn’t bring my camera and I wanted to commemorate with some pictures.

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