The Sports Bizzo

By Toph…

(Editor’s Note: Photos of the game are located HERE)

There’s a lot of ways I want to start this story, because there’s so much to tell I don’t know where to start. I guess I’ll start by saying I got to witness one of the best baseball games I’ve ever seen in my life, and I got to see it in Fenway Park my first time ever in Boston.

Let’s get into why I was there briefly (as you know, with me, nothing is brief). I was in Boston to attend the Affiliate Summit East convention. I always had plans to attend this game, however, I was about 5 minutes from not going at all. In the beginning, my company was buying a suite to the game, and taking our top clients. Well, that fell through. Next, I was attending the game with some clients of mine who were buying a block of tickets at $300 a piece, but they didn’t want to do that. Finally, I was sitting in my hotel room asking Twitter whether or not I should go to the game.

This was my first time in Boston, and it’s not like getting chance to go to see the Rangers in Fenway on a night that I’m in town happens very often. I’d say the chance of these things coinciding are once in a lifetime. Despite coming from a bachelor party, a wedding, a canceled flight and 5 straight nights of drinking till 2am, I said, “OK, I’m going to the game alone.” Baseball is the only place I don’t mind attending alone. In fact, I prefer to go alone, because it allows me to get lost in the game. Not worrying about anything other than the game is what makes baseball what it is.

I didn’t want to pay $100 for a ticket since I was scalping, so I waited a bit. OK, I waited a half of an inning, and bought my ticket to Fenway for $60. I was headed to Seat 5, Row 11 in the Grandstand.

I’m going to try and describe what it was like walking into the ballpark. It’s going to be hard, because at the conference I learned that adjectives are the devil in the copy writing seminar, but here we go. Have you ever been somewhere so amazing that goose bumps popped up spontaneously? I’ve had them a couple of times, one at my wedding, and another at a Dave Matthews concert when he played 2 Step. Walking through the gate you almost feel like you’ve suddenly become this tremendous part of history. The things that have happened in this ballpark, the joys, pains, beers, the greats and everything that has made Boston baseball what it is suddenly becomes a part of you. And it’s not lost on me that I’m a Yankees fan, either.

I finally make it to my seat with David Ortiz on deck. I get there, with my Rangers hat on, and immediately start hearing it from the fans around me. I’m smack-dab in the middle of an Internet Security company located in Boston, and they’re giving me hell. Not like intimidating I’m-Gonna-Kick-Your-Ass hell, but more along the lines of friendly jabbing. Look, they know they’re Boston. They know what it’s like to support a loser, and they’re very kind with the success they’re having. It almost seemed like they felt bad because they were having so much winning. Like they don’t deserve it. Does that make sense? It’s not just with baseball, but with football, and basketball, too. They seem scared that if they act a certain way everything will change. I even got an apology for all the winning.

David Ortiz officially welcomed me to Fenway Park with a monster 3 run homerun. This was the first hit I’d see in Fenway Park. To see Big Pappi drive a homerun over the wall is like watching Ron Jeremy pound Jenna Jameson. No matter how many times you’ve seen it, it’s still beautiful, and even more so when seen in person.

The crowd went berserk. I’ve seen homeruns before. I was there when Bonds hit 715 to pass Babe Ruth. This crowd made the people in AT&T Park that day look foolish. Again, I’m between all of these hardcore Sox fans, and they’re slapping my back, and putting their Boston hats over my Rangers hat. Everyone is laughing and having so much fun. You would have thought this was to clinch the World Series, not a regular game against a meaningless opponent. I’ve never seen so many fans genuinely happy to be near each other in these cramped, uncomfortable seats. It was almost like everyone was a best friend since birth. I don’t mean just the company I was in the middle of either. Everyone was family.

It didn’t end there, either. Still in the 1st 7 more runs cross the plate, leaving the score at the end of the 1st an unprecedented 10 – 0. 7 runs assisted by another David Ortiz 3 run homerun. The word electrifying gets thrown around a lot, but when Big Pappi walks to the plate every pitch could be another homerun. I wish he wasn’t so damned likeable.

Did I mention that at some point during this 1st inning the guys around me started thinking I was a client? Everyone knew about the conference I was at, because we take over Boston, so I guess that had something to do with it, and why I was sitting where I was. The better part is that Paul, the owner, decided to let me have my night. I corrected Peter the first time he asked me about how much they were making me, but Paul told me to go along with it. So, I did. I paid for nothing during the game, and they offered me everything. They wanted to buy me Sox hats, hotdogs and beers. I had regretting eating pizza at the hotel, but I did take them up on the beers.

Of course, I’m getting jabbed left and right for wearing a Rangers hat. The girls behind me started to have a little pity on me. I told them that when you’re a Rangers fan you know two things: 1. Losing is what happens, and 2. Not even a 10 run lead is safe.

I kept telling them not to get too comfortable with the offense the Rangers have, and I wasn’t wrong. Peter and his wife went to buy a round of beers with the score at 12 – 2. When they came back the Rangers had made it 12-10. I was the only one celebrating. The Sox fans were beside themselves at this point, but it wasn’t crazy, because the bottom of that inning (the 5th), the Sox tacked on 2 more runs. The Rangers have an amazing team, but stop me if you’ve heard this, no pitching.

By now you’ve heard about the rest of game, an unprecedented amount of runs were scored by both teams. The Rangers put together 13 runs in the 5th and 6th innings. The Rangers took the lead at 15 - 14, and the Red Sox took it back with a Youkilis homerun (his second of the game), and you knew the Sox would eventually win this game. I think that’s the difference between this game, and all the others I had attended. Even though the Rangers climbed back from 10 runs, you still knew the Sox would win.

Around the 6th inning, the guy behind me taps me on the shoulder and says, “Have you ever been to Fenway?” I told him no, and he says, “wait till the 8th.” I ask what happens in the 8th and he smiles and says, “All of Boston singing Sweet Caroline. Best thing in the world.”

I couldn’t tell if he was kidding, or serious, because his face seemed a bit deranged as he spoke. But, there it was the middle of the 8th, the music to Sweet Caroline starts up, and everyone stands and sings their hearts out. All my years of watching baseball, and I had no idea they sang Sweet Caroline at Fenway in the 8th. Peter, who apparently hates Sweet Caroline, refused to sing it, until it started playing. He stood up and sang like it was his favorite song.

Yeah, the Rangers lost, but the night was remarkable. After the game I went down to field level to take some photos of the Monster and whatnot. On my way down it seemed like every person I saw congratulated me on a great game. They thanked me for playing so well. That’s when I realized that they are so attached to this team they consider themselves a part of it.

And, that’s the point I realized Red Sox Nation isn’t going anywhere for a very long time, and baseball is better because of them.