On Monday April 21st ,
I took a vacation day from work so I could continue the tradition of
seeing a baseball game at Fenway Park on Patriot's Day. By doing so, I
was able to continue my personal streak of seeing at least one baseball
game there every year since 1986 as well. That day the World Champion Red Sox hosted the Baltimore Orioles.
The
King, our friend Phil Butleman who stayed over with us & I woke up
very early that Monday morning. Thankfully our pal Bryan Gilligan came to the house to pick us up.
Bryan then drove us to Dollar Rent A Car by LaGuardia Airport. He
dropped me off & I went inside to pick up a car for the day. I wound
up renting a Hyundai Elantra. Bryan drove his car near Citi Field. I
then drove over to where he parked & I picked them up. I drove us
all to Boston. We did well until I got off the exit closest to Fenway
Park on the Storrow Drive. That's when things took a turn for the worst. As a
result, I wound up losing 45 minutes trying to get around the
area. They closed streets due to the Boston Marathon. It was a
nightmare trying to find my way of the mess. After circling around different neighborhoods, I finally found a parking spot on the street near Boston
University where we usually park. It was 10:30AM when we finally
started walking towards Fenway from where we parked the car. As
we got close to the ballpark, we had to go through a number of bag
checks due to the heightened security after what happened last year.
Before
I went inside I stopped off at the Sausage Connection where I saw my
pal Harry. I asked him where his mother was. He said it was too cold for
her. I got myself a sausage then I went into the ballpark.
Even
though the King & I had standing room tickets we were still able to
luck out after moving a few times in the area we like to sit when we go
there. We wound up sitting in section 24 just to the left of the
screen. It's such an amazing view of the action as you can see in the picture.
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| View from Section 24 at Fenway Park |
As
for the game we saw, the Orioles broke a scoreless tie in the third
inning as they batted around. They wound up scoring six to take a 6-0
lead. The Red Sox fought back as they sliced the lead in half as they
got three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to make it a 6-3 game.
They added another one in the seventh inning to make it 6-4. The Orioles
were able to tack on an insurance run in the top of the eighth inning
to go up, 7-4. The Red Sox scored again in the bottom of the eighth to
cut the lead to 7-5. In the bottom of the ninth inning, they loaded the
bases but they could only get one more run as they fell short, 7-6.
After
the game, we had to take an obstacle course to avoid the Boston
Marathon that runs near Fenway & the surrounding area. After we
went through more bag checks we got to the other side of the street
where we needed to be. We then finished walking to the car. Thankfully
there wasn't a reoccurrence of last year. Even though, we didn't like
the extra security measures, we made the best of the situation. When we
got to the car, I drove us back to Citi Field where we went to see the
Mets open a four game series with the St. Louis Cardinals. It was also
the first Military Monday of the season. With that being said, the Mets
wore special camouflage uniforms. We barely got to the game on time
since coming back from Boston was no bargain because we had to deal with rush hour traffic.
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| View from field level at Citi Field |
As
for the game we saw, the Mets got six & two thirds innings of
shutout ball from starter Jenrry Mejia who got just enough run support
thanks to a run scoring single by David Wright in the third inning &
another one from Travis d'Arnaud as the Mets went on to beat the
Cardinals & starter Tyler Lyons,
2-0.
After
the game, Bryan drove the King & I back to Dollar Rent A Car so I could return the car. I
wound up driving 442 miles safely. After that, he took us back home.
Stay tuned for another special post that will recap a rare NYC doubleheader weekend that we enjoyed.
Thank you for reading & following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
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