On August 20th, we went to Fenway Park and saw the AAA Binghamton Bees (Blue) and the Portland Sea Dogs (Red Sox Farm Team (White).
Then we saw the AA Syracuse Sky Chiefs and the Pawtucket Red Sox, affectionately known as the Pawsox.
A great, great game. Unfortunately, our boys did not win either game. But the dogs and beer were great, as were the people and the entertainment.
Fenway Park will celebrate its 100th year in 2012 and will be officially designated as a landmark.
The House of Blues club on Landsdowne Street.
The Prudential (Pru) in the background.
This is one of the entrances to Fenway Park. It speaks for itself. The main entrance is on the other side at 4 Yawkey Way.
A classic ball park and the oldest ball park still in use, Fenway Park is one of 3 classic ball parks left in the US, with Chicago's Wrigley Field and the LA Dodger's Stadium the only other two left. In 1991, Chicago's Comiskey Park was demolished and in 2006, new construction began on NY's Yankee Stadium, making the 1912 Fenway Park the oldest ballpark still in use. The term 'Fenway' comes from the neighborhood of 'The Fens', which was the neighborhood on the outskirts of The Back Bay, which had filled in the marshy 'fens' in the late 19th century. Between 1850 and 1880, bags of earth created land on what was formerly part of Boston Harbor, to create The Back Bay and The Fens neighborhoods. | ||
The eats outside Fenway.
Classic old ballpark, one of a very small handful now that the Old Yankee Stadium is gone.
Daughter's red hair in bottom right foreground.
The lineup. Portland Sea Dogs in white, a Boston Red Sox AAA farm team.
The Mets-based Binghamton Bees in blue.
So much activity and we haven't even gotten to the bleachers yet.
Fenway.
A word from one of our sponsors.
The mascot on stilts and the fans in the bleacher looking up at the Jumbotron.
The Bees.
7th Inning Stretch, with son running up the steps with nourishment.
Sweet Caroline, oh oh oh.
If you did not know, Neil Diamond wrote Sweet Caroline about Caroline Kennedy, who was 11 years old when Diamond first performed this song on September 16, 1969.
Diamond also performed this for Carolyn on her 50th birthday.
The song was played in Fenway since 1997 and is a popular song at other MLB games.
Since 2002, Sweet Caroline has been played during the middle of the 8th inning of every Red Sox game (including the minor league Red Sox farm teams).
A production agent noticed this song was played at other sporting events and so she was responsible for having it piped through in Boston.
Opening night in 2010, Diamond performed the song at Fenway.
Other performers have sung this song, including Elvis who performed it in 1970 and Jimmy Buffet, the Dave Matthews Band, Bobby Womack and David Archuleta on American Idol.
The Jonas Brothers have also performed this song and it was also featured on the TV show Glee.
Diamond only revealed in 2007 that it was young Caroline Kennedy who was the inspiration for this song.
The game resumes.
Keep groomin' that field.
About 2 o'clock you can see a very small red seat. Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21. Now sells for $23.
Yes, this is the famous seat where on June 6, 1946, Ted Williams hit the ball -- way into the bleachers.
56-year old Joe Boucher, a construction engineer from Albany, New York sat in that seat on that day and caught the ball Williams hit - after it had traveled 502 feet, making it the longest Red Sox home run ball to ever hit the bleachers.
The ball hit Boucher's straw hat and head.
A close up of the seat.
A word from our sponsor and a look at the wall of retired numbers.
Bobby Doerr #1, Joe Cronin #4, Johnny Pesky #6, Carl Yazstremski #8, ( I was at his retirement game); Ted Williams #9, Jim Rice #14, Carlton Fisk #27, Jackie Robinson #42.
Two brothers from Charlestown participating in the spinning bat contest.
Taken from the Jumbtotron.
Inside this classic ball park.
Where would we be without fine gentlemen like this man guiding us to our seats?
Where would we be without beer and nuts?
Probably less nuts.
Definitely more sober.
Hungry, yet? Bats, Balls, Beer.
What more is there to life?
Sea Dogs catcher warming up.
This used to be a very casual bar, but now it sports some X TVs. The unofficial Fenway watering hole.
View of the Mass Pike (I-90 that begins right here and ends in Seattle.) The Pru in the background.
On the right-hand side you can barely make out the billboard. It is the famous anti-gun billboard from TNT Transnational Travel, who has donated their billboard space for the past 20 or so years for the sole purpose of providing anti-gun messages to drivers as they pass by on the Mass Turnpike.
The new campaign began on May 24, 2011 and featured an ongoing counter to show the number of kids and teens killed every day by guns. The counter started at 1,624 --- the number since the 2010 elections in which the NRA spent $607 million in a GOP takeover of the House of Representatives, according to John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence.
TNT has rented this space to Rosenthal for gun control since 1995.
Every day 8 kids will be killed by guns and the counter rises every day by 8.
200,000 commuters on the Mass Pike see this billboard every day.
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The Surreal Circus.
I just love this ball park. Regular tickets are so hard to come by and so very exp, compared to even 20 years ago, but this at 5 bucks a head for 2 games is an incredible deal.
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