Day 8 - Boston!!!

Day 8 - Boston!!!

Song of the Day: Shipping up to Boston - Dropkick Murphys

We're going to Boston!!! We had a pretty uneventful night in the tent, just very close to collapsing as usual. We got up really early as we all really really wanted to get to the city as fast as possible. After a stop for some McGriddles, we made the drive into the city. When we got there, we just drove straight to Fenway Park to go buy our tour tickets for the afternoon and to park our car for the day. After parking in a garage right behind the Green Monster, we got our tour tickets and made our way to the subway to meet Brennan at Haymarket, right next to the Boston Garden. Brennan came over to meet us and took us over to the North Market for some lunch. I personally got some amazing pizza with Gray, while Jason and Kyle got some giant bowls of Macaroni and Cheese. After lunch, we started over to some of the historic sites in Boston. First we went to the North Church where Paul Revere hung one lamp to signal the British were coming by land. While we were outside the church, Gray noticed a shop selling Italian Soccer Team T-Shirts, so he had to stop and buy a couple. After that, we trekked up to Bunker Hill to climb the 294 step obelisk there. It provided an amazing view of the city. Then we started making our way back over to Fenway Park for our 3 pm tour. We made our way over to the Red Sox team store, which was absolutely humongous by the way. After looking around for a few minutes, we heard the tour guide calling us over. After telling us the rules, we made our way into the park. Our first mini-stop was on the ramp right next to the players' parking lot. Nobody famous was out in the parking lot, but there sure were some damn nice cars! After that we made our way to the old wooden seats behind home, 13 inches wide and damn uncomfortable, but definitely worth it. We got some great pictures down near the field before heading up to the Budweiser Right Field Deck. To get tickets up there, you have to buy a table with 4 seats. Food is brought to the table, and the view is great. Our next stop was the front row of the 2nd story in left field, another good view of the field. Finally, we headed up to the Green Monster seats. The view from the Monster was amazing, and it was so cool to be on top of a piece of baseball history. The Monster was the final stop of the tour, so we made our way back out of the park. As soon as we got out of the park, I made my way to our gate to stand in line to go into the park at 5:05. Gray and Brennan went to grab some food before Brennan headed back out to his grandparents' house, Kyle went to the Team Store, and Jason went to the car to charge his camera battery. Around 4:40, Gray and Brennan came over and took my place in line so I could go buy a Kevin Youkilis shirt. After buying and changing into my Youk shirt, I went back and joined Gray, Brennan and Kyle in line. At 5:06, they opened our gate and we sprinted into the park and were the first 3 people through the turnstyles that day! We immediately went over by the Red Sox bullpen to get some batting practice homers hit to us. The Red Sox were still taking BP when we got in, and we saw Big Papi taking his hacks before his first start back in the lineup in more than a month. After we saw the last set of the Red Sox BP, we saw the Yankees starters get their batting in. We got a few balls knocked over by the bullpen, but I was starting to get really hacked off because the ball boy that was shagging balls by us refused to throw any into the stands, but the guys that were on every other part of the field threw practically every other ball up into the stands. Finally, some of the position players made their way over next to us and so a few balls got tossed up into the stands. Throughout that 30 minute stretch, we caught five balls. Unfortunately, we are nice young adult men and gave four of the five away to small children who surrounded us. Near the end of the Yankees BP session, Richie Sexson jacked a homer into the bullpen. In the bullpen, they have a water hose to wet the mounds with, and they keep the hose on a big plastic reel. As this homer landed, I kid you not, the ball somehow wedged its way between the bottom of the rolled up hose and the bottom bar of the reel and got stuck under the hose. Now this was obviously a hard struck ball, so I'm guessing that it was pretty much all the way under the hose. Anyway, the bullpen coach and bullpen catcher made their way out to the bullpen after BP was done. When they got there, I told the bullpen coach a couple of times that the ball was wedged under the hose. Now there were a few other balls scattered around the floor of the bullpen, and apparently when he was picking those up, he took a half hearted look under the hose and didn't see the ball in the front. I told him to look under the hose, and his response was, "There's no ball under there. You can stare at that hose all game, but there's not gonna be a ball under there." Jerk. All of us saw the ball go under the hose, so he failed at trying to make me feel stupid. I'm hoping the grounds crew found the ball while he was still out there and that he felt like a Grade-A a-hole. Anyway, we finally made our way up to our seats after snapping a few pictures of Joba Chamberlain and Josh Beckett, the two opposing starting pitchers. Pretty soon, it got to be game time, and the stadium was absolutely packed. The lineups for the Evil Empire and for the Red Sox were announced, and then the game got started. I had been down getting Fenway Franks during the pregame and National Anthem, but I made it back up to my seat just in time for the first pitch. The first few innings progressed without much action in the game. We were sitting behind four ladies who, of course, were die hard Red Sox fans. They were the type of fan I like though, because they were the type that refused to join in the chants of "Yankees Suck" and actually knew what was going on in the game. We had a good time talking with them throughout the game, they had some good Sox stories and were very interested in our road trip, so we talked with them pretty much the entire game. Anyway, in I believe the bottom of the 4th inning, the Red Sox were batting, but the Yankees were flashing some leather. After a leadoff single, the Yankees center fielder Melky Cabrera made a full extension diving catch in the right center field gap for the first out of the inning. The next batter hit a hard bouncer right up the middle. Second Baseman Robinson Cano sprinted over, made a stretching grab, then backhand flipped the ball to Jeter, who made a barehand grab and the relay throw to first all in the same motion to beat the batter by a hair for the 4-6-3 double play. Even rooting for the Red Sox, we had to give the Yankees credit for that spectacular play. In the third inning, the Yankees pieced together three singles to bring in the a run to make it 1-0. The game continued onward, with not much else happening. Finally, we got to the bottom of the 9th, still with a 1-0 score. Yankee closer Mariano Rivera came in to the tune of many boos. After getting Big Papi to fly out, he gave up a single to Kevin Youkilis and the stadium woke up to try to rally the Red Sox to tie the game. Too bad Rivera had other ideas. He struck out Mike Lowell looking on Ball 3. It was quite possibly the worst call we saw on the entire trip, and Mike Lowell agreed with us. He slammed his bat down and turned on the umpire and was close enough to bite the umpire's mask. I'm sure there were a few choice words thrown in there, because it didn't take long for the umpire to give Lowell the old heave-ho. Lowell stormed off the field as the Red Sox manager continued the argument for another minute or so. Anyway, there were now 2 outs with Youkilis on first and JD Drew up to bat. Well, Drew got 2 quick strikes on him, and after a couple of waste pitches, Rivera painted the outside corner with his infamous cutter for strike three. Game over. Well, even if the Yankees won the game, we sure had a damn good time at the game. After making our way out, observing a couple of near fights on the way, we got over to our garage and I took the wheel. After forcing my way out of our parking space by not allowing myself to be cut off, we got back on the road and began our quest for some rope to hold up the much-maligned tent. After stopping at two Super Stop & Shop's that were out of rope, we finally found a Walgreens that didn't have a single driveway that snuck up on you so you couldn't turn in in time, got our rope, and headed back to the campsite. When, we got there, we used all 50 feet of the rope to tie up the four tent posts, and for once, had enough space in the tent to crawl around a little without getting stabbed by a pole. Finally, we all crashed for the night, tick-free, and after killing the two or three mosquitoes that snuck into our tent, we all fell asleep.