Royalty celebrates Patriot's Day at Fenway Park!

Dice-K delivers first pitch at 11:06AM at Fenway Park

In case you didn't know the third Monday in April in the state of Massachusetts and Maine is known as Patriot's Day. It's a legal holiday that commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord back in 1775.
To celebrate the holiday in Boston they have an annual race called the Boston Marathon. In addition, the Boston Red Sox always play a morning baseball game at 11:05AM too.

As for the Red Sox, the King and I have now gone to six different Patriot Day games together at Fenway Park, America's Most Beloved Ballpark which is now 99 years old.

We were there in 1993, 1994, 2003, 2004 and 2006.

In matter of fact, Monday morning was my 92nd game I saw there. I've now seen at least one game there every year since 1986.

As for the King, that game was his 6,700th baseball game that he's seen in person live.

I'm closing in on my 4,000th baseball game which should take place this weekend at Citi Field.

Ironically back on April 18, 1994, the King and I saw the Red Sox play the Chicago White Sox on Patriot's Day. The Red Sox lost that day, 12-1. After the game, we decided on the spur of the moment to drive to Philadelphia for the Phillie game at 7:35PM that night. We drove 310 miles and we parked the car in Philadelphia at 7:45PM. We ran into some traffic when we got to the Bronx. If not, we would have gotten to Philadelphia on time that night. What a day of adventure that was for us.

17 years later to the day, we were in Fenway Park for another Patriot's Day game. This time the Red Sox played the Toronto Blue Jays and this time they won, 9-1. Daisuke Matsuzaka aka "Dice-K" pitched a gem for 7 innings. He struggled for the first few innings giving his only hit and walk of the game then he went on to retire the last 16 Blue Jays he faced. He left with a shutout but the Blue Jays got a run in the ninth inning when Yunel Escobar took knuckleballer Tim Wakefield deep for a solo home run to break the shutout.

It should be noted before and after the game, the King and I visited our favorite vendor outside the left field gate right by the Monster seats, the Sausage Connection. Stay tuned for the special post I'm going to do about these special people.

After the game, we took a quick peak of the marathon that runs right near Fenway Park, we got to the car and drove towards New Britain, Connecticut for another game before we headed home. We saw the New Britain Rock Cats, the Minnesota Twins affiliate of the Eastern League play the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Blue Jays farm team. The Fisher Cats won this one, 7-3.

Before the game we made a special stop in nearby Bristol, Connecticut which happens to be the home of ESPN.

We didn't go to ESPN but we did past one of its buildings. We did go to a place called the Clam Digger to have dinner though.

Stay tuned for the special post I'm going to write about this place and how we find out about it. Trust me it's going to be a great story to read.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman