Washed Away
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 – Fenway Park
My next game was two days later, and I had heard it was one of the games where fans could pose for a picture with one of the players beforehand. We had met Daniel Nava that way earlier in the year, and I was excited that I had a ticket for another such game. The photo sessions take place on Yawkey Way at 5:30, so to make sure I was early enough for that, I took the whole day off from work.
The rain never let up, and this was all there was to see.
As the day approached, so did a storm. At first it looked like we’d be OK at gametime with the rain possibly washing out the photo session. But when I looked the morning of the game, it now looked like there might be a break in the rain in the hours before the game, so I still went in early just in case. It ended up raining hard the whole time – as I waited for the T, while I walked up the street from Kenmore Square, and when I entered the park. At 5:30, it was still raining steadily, and there was no sign of any photo session. I asked at the Fan Services booth and was told that it was moved to an area under the bleachers. I waited there for awhile, but there was nothing there either. I walked back around, checking other areas they might be using, like the souvenir store where they hold Autograph Alley, the ramp inside the park where they used to do Autograph Alley, and the third base deck, before finally giving up and deciding that they must have canceled it.
I went up to the stands to wait out the delay, but it didn’t look good. At 6:45 they put up an announcement: “We hope to begin tonight’s game after the rain moves out of the area.” Around 7:00 people started cheering as Terry Francona walked across from the visitors’ dugout to the home dugout. But that was probably a bad sign, with the umpires’ room near the visitors’ dugout. Tito was probably on his way to inform the team that the game was being rained out. At least they didn’t keep us waiting too long. At 7:30, they announced that the game was being rained out. With tomorrow’s game scheduled for the afternoon, this game would be made up as the nightcap of a doubleheader. The good news for me was that I wouldn’t have to take another day off work to go to it.
