seabeachfred

Except for last year's Home Opening Series when I froze my ass off sitting up by that damn Coke bottle and watch our team get swept by the Brewers, I've always loved going to Fenway. It seems where I sat everyone was a real baseball fan and knew the game---no pink hats that I came in contact with--/ That was a key. The Red Sox fans knew the game the way they could never do out here in pink hat country. My most significant day was that August, 2000, afternoon when I was converted on the spot, but my biggest thrills was watching the Red Sox take care of the Yankees in that three game sweep in June of 2009, and above all, being there that sixth game of the 2013 ALCS when we won the pennant over Detroit on Shane granny.

It's true that when I go to Fenway it is as a tourist staying in a nice hotel about a mile plus from the ballpark and it is nice walk to Fenway to burn some calories and build up an appetite, but when I stayed in Cambridge during the ALCS and WS in '13, I had no trouble getting the "T" and making it to the ballpark in plenty of time. Perhaps if I lived in Boston I might get passed off like mvp with the hassle, but I've never had anything but a great time going to games there. I also think there is something to be said for public transportation that can put right at the park or very near it.......like at YS, Mets Park, Wrigley, AT&T and Fenway. Just my opinion.

A beef? How about just a difference of opinion. To get to Fenway Park, you can walk if you live nearby, or you can take the "T" and get off a block and a half from the ballpark. To get to your Dodger Stadium you have to battle the freeway(s), pay $20.00 for parking and get a seat in the nosebleed section of a ballpark that is highly overrated and couldn't touch AT&T for ambience or even Angels Stadium for convenience and comfort. And that is only half the story. Try getting out of that damn place after a game. You either have to leave in the seventh or eighth (and half the fans usually do that out of boredom or habit) or run your ass off as the game ends and hope you can get out of that damn parking lot before you get in traffic jam. Of course getting back on the Freeway is a real bed of roses. I've been to that place only once since 2008 and that was only because of a rumor we might trade for Adrian Gonzales and I wanted to see him play. Haven't been there since and don't think I'll ever step foot in there again unless the Red Sox are playing those s*** heelers in the WS.

In LA that's what mostly what they have. In Brooklyn, not at all. As far as Red Sox fans are concerned, yes, we have some pink hats because it has become fashionable for some people to root for the Red Sox. This started after we won the WS in 2004. Unfortunately some of these pinkos have money and or connections and they now can get seats in Fenway, but there is still a helluva lot more ardent and passionate Red Sox fans than the other kind and we can be thankful for that. We have the most rabid fans in baseball and I would argue that with anybody.

Fenway reminds me so much of Ebbets Field---small ballpark, neighborhood field, thousands of fans milling around before the game, rabid fans, and a hangout for hours after the game. You could get there by the subway. However, I like Fenway better.

CP--OTOH, you could be living out here in LA and be a Dodger fan and sit in an old stadium that they say is still modern and isn't and pay $20.00 just to park. Of course you could stay home and watch that team on TV.....NOT. 70% of the fans out here can't get the Bums' super station because the other cable outlets don't want to pay holdup prices to get the outlet. Time Warner and those Dodger owners are a pack of greedy bastards and the Dodger fans are a pack of fools for still going to the ballpark and getting screwed. At least in Boston you can get the games on TV and I can get them too out here on my computer. Fenway may not be as comfortable as some of our friends here might want but it's a nice park, good fans, and at least an ownership that tries to get as many people interested in the team as possible. They make the money, they might ever be greedy but the fans aren't getting screwed from watching our team on TV.

Nah Ogden....I got over that years ago when I became a Red Sox fan. I know go your way and call it the most dramatic moment in baseball history and feel no pain anymore. However, what is your favorite old dump, the Polo Grounds or Ebbets Field?

Agreed, and five will get you ten that it will be done.....Pedey very soon and Papi soon after he retires.

Rant????? Cut the crap Ogden. Your post was well written and right on the mark. Besides, living in then hostile territory and becoming a Red Sox fan speaks highly of your positive character. Besides, I like reading your posts. This is one thing I hope the Red Sox don't do. Any player whose number is retired must have been a star of the first magnitude to get that honor from our team as it appears to be right now. I think the Yankees could learn something from us on that score.

You know, that brings back a memory.....a very bad one. Before your time in 1951, the old Brooklyn Dodgers were romping through the National League with a lead going from ten to thirteen games back and forth to the end of the second week of August. The Giants were getting skewered by the Dodgers, losing 12 of 15 games to them when Leo Durocher moved Bobby Thomson from the outfield to third base. The guy took off like a bat out of hell, hitting for power, average and fielding well enough to help lead his team into a sudden death three game playoff that he won with that dramatic three run homer in the ninth inning that October 3. I don't think I got over it until I found the Red Sox almost 15 years ago. The moral mvp? Sometimes it can work the other way.

All most likely true Pal and I won't bother to argue the point, but for a fan used to the sterile atmosphere of Dodger and Angel Stadiums, Fenway Park reminds me of old Ebbets Field of my youth in Queens, a neighborhood ballpark where excitement comes as soon as you get near the ball park with the bars, restaurants, outdoor sausage stands and the Red Sox shops waving their wares. Hell, before Christmas in 2010, I took my wife to a House of Windsor store where she buys some knik naks, purses and jewelry, and happened to chance upon a section that had some of the late Thomas Kinkade's paintings. You guessed it....one was so Fenway Park depicting the second game of the 2007 World Series. I must have stared at it for an hour and decided I had to have it. It was priced at $2,700 but the sales lady saw me in my Red Sox regalia and gave me a real Christmas break......sold it to me for $2,000, including taxes. It hangs in my living room. Fenway is priceless to me, no other ballpark compares with it in my opinion, but, then again, I have been accused of being slightly eccentric.

Thanks yeszir...For awhile I thought I had pulled a Dutchy or a Crespo Blows and got my rear end ran off the board. Good that things are back running.

I'll send you a congratulations and then you send me one......and then my friend mvp sends us both one.....Kimmi and Spud too.

Here's something mvp that does worry me a little. I know you know about all the cold and snow you're getting in Massachusetts, right? There's more to come I'm told on Wednesday and it looks like it's not going to let up any time soon. If this cold weather carries into April it could impact some of our hitters. Keep in mind that Bogaerts, Castillo, Ramirez, Sandoval, Vasquez, and even the Flyin Hawaiian are either Latin, West Indian or warm weather people. Would it take them an inordinate amount of time to get their bats warmed up before it gets warm in Boston? Sure, I could be worrying about something that might not be a worry at all but it is still a possibility and with our average pitching staff as it stands right now it stands to reason that our offense has to start clicking just about when the season opens. I see it as a potential concern. What say you?

Party pooper!!!

Kimmi, I might be sending you another SOS because I want to change my avatar. The old Sea World one I have is getting passé.

Strange as it may sound Kimmi, I grew to really like the old Yankee Stadium. Strange you say. Not when you hear I saw five Red Sox-Yankee games there and the good guys won all five of them.

My good friend, I knew you would understand.......and I wonder if some of our friends on this board knew what we were talking about. As corny as it may sound to some, but when I turn the corner and head up the street towards Yawkey Way and see that ballpark I am not only transported back in time but feel about 30 or so years younger. It's almost as if I have to run for all I'm worth to get there and not think I'm seeing a mirage when I see Fenway. My God Ted, I often think that some long time Red Sox fans have no idea of what they have in Fenway.

On August 19th, 2000, I walked into Fenway Park on the tail end of a Sports Travel Tour as a non enthusiastic Mets fan and walked out three hours later as the beginning of a Red Sox fanatic that lives, breathes and often literally dies for that team. What is it they say, that converts are true believers? No, I love Fenway and I can take the uncomfortable seats (can't stand the cold up by the Coke bottle where RSD seats us), and in fact I don't feel that uncomfortable at all. Fenway reminds me so much of when I was a kid living in Queens and going to another neighborhood ballpark and feeling like it was a second home. Not only do I don't want to see Fenway torn down but would love to see baseball played there into the next century.

Tell it to our friend mvp. He still seems to have trouble comprehending what I post. Earth to mvp.....I said I would NOT bitch and moan now that I have predicted an AL East title for the Red Sox. Comprende now?????

Well that means I can't bitch and moan now that I've made that prediction. I wanted to be the first one to do it but just couldn't bring myself to do it, so my pal Elk set the tone. And if they go South, I've changed my mind.....I won't bitch and moan........just tell everyone how disappointed I am. Then we'll all be. Now get over your shock.

Maurice Richard (pronounced ReeShard)---Long time star of Montreal.

Good for you Elk and once more you beat me to the punch. I'm now out on a limb myself and predicting the Red Sox will the AL East, something I've been mulling over the past two weeks, but apparently lacked a little courage of my convictions and needed someone to lead the charge. This prediction will shock the hell out of Kimmi, befuddle mvp, made User scream, make 700 hitter desert me as a friend and make iortiz call me a traitor. But there you have it.....The Red Sox go 89-73 and win the East by two games.

Kimmi, for those who haven't complained about the Sox not getting two solid starters along with what they got this winter, you're right.....They have no right to complain if they went along with the program. Those who have complained about not signing these needed pitchers will have every right to gripe, bitch and moan if this thing goes south because they warned about this very questionable move by the front office. I hope none of us have reason to, but if it happens that way there will be a number of us who will and you know one of them.....perhaps two, three or ten.