Spring has sprung...and so have the Sox
With the arrival of the spring sports season, my mind constantly thinking about whether this warm weather will be enough to clear the bucket-loads of snow off Reformerland schools' baseball and softball fields and render them playable, comes the return of the Reformer sports blog.
Although the original creators and contributors are no longer with the paper, it's been resurrected in the form of me, Kerri Fleming, current sports editor, with occasional additions from our staff sports writer, Mike Farrell.
Now, this blog is absolutely going to be focused on high school sports and this weekend, I plan on posting schedules, with all of the postponements and rescheduled games from this past week, for all teams, but as I had a remarkably unique experience (at least for me) this week, I just wanted to share.
As someone that grew up in Massachusetts, I've been to my fair share of Red Sox games. I'm not there every week or anything, but I average a few times a season, and with the cost of ticket prices, that suits me just fine. But this year, thanks to the ticket lottery raffle winning ability of my boyfriend, I was able to attend Opening Day 2008 on Tuesday.
It was insane. While Fenway Park always seems to sell out, there are always countless of no-shows that leave open seats for people like me that buy Standing Room Only tickets. Not Tuesday. Nobody was going to miss this ring ceremony.
We walked in, fighting through the crowd to get to....well, the crowd we were standing with. As we waited for everything to begin, all anyone around us could talk about was who would be throwing out the first pitch. Would it be Johnny Pesky? Another former champion from Boston, like the Patriots have done in years past? Would they unfreeze Ted Williams? Then my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a text message from my father that read, "I heard Buckner is throwing the first pitch!"
I laughed, not sure if he was joking or serious. A couple minutes later, my boyfriend got a phone call from a friend that said the same thing. We shared this nugget of information with the people around us, all of whom gushed happily at the idea.
Then the ceremonies started. And while most people would be far more thrilled at the idea of seeing the rings handed out or of seeing the reunion of Bill Buckner and the Red Sox, I got my treat early -- Brian Daubach representing the Red Sox with the 2004 World Series trophy. I have no idea who decided that David Murphy, Curtis Leskanic and Brian Daubach were the proper representatives of that team (where any of them even on the postseason roster?) but as a youngster, I had a minor obsession with our old pal Daubber and thought he might have just fallen off the face of the earth. Apparently not.
The ceremony was touching, seeing everyone get their rings. Well, hearing it. At this point, everyone was standing and applauding, which was nice unless you were standing in the back of the grandstands taking turns with the people around you to stand on the railings. But I made sure it was my turn when they announced the first pitch and Buckner made his triumphant return to Fenway.
As someone who was a toddler in 1986, I probably don't have the authority of older fans to talk about that game. But I know some things, like the fact that, even if Buckner did make The Play, the game still wasn't over. The fact that there still would have been a Game 7 to play. That stuff seems to be forgotten, judging by the guy next to me explaining to his young daughter that Buckner "watched a ball go through his legs and cost the Red Sox the World Series." Not quite. Some seemed to think that Red Sox fans were forgiving Buckner Tuesday. I think it was something of the opposite.
Anyway, after the ceremony, a lot of people who couldn't get the day off of work, left the ballpark and allowed us to squat some seats for the later innings.
On the way back home, we stopped for dinner at a restaurant that has personal TVs at each booth and each set was turned to a replay of the pregame ceremonies. As if the day wasn't good enough, all the stuff we missed by being so far away and blocked by several heads and shoulders was right there, including Jonathan Papelbon trying on his ring like a fiancee that just got proposed to.
Who knows what the 2008 season holds for the Red Sox? After their time-traveling trip around the world, the Sox are struggling a bit, but it's a long season.
And hopefully, so will this spring.
~Kerri