Red Sox 12, Rays 2

Opening Day at Fenway Park is always exciting, no matter how the season may start off on the road.  That’s a good thing, because for the second straight year the team got off to a less-than-stellar start, stumbling through a 1-5 opening road trip that left them looking up in the standings at the rest of the teams in the East.  Because of the inglorious end to last year’s season, the off-season felt longer than usual, but it wasn’t just my imagination.  The final home game last season was September 21, and we had to wait until the 13th of April to start up again – making the wait almost seven months instead of the usual six.  Truck Day and Spring Training are nice milestones to help get through the winter (even watching the first week of regular season games on TV feels distant and unreal to me), but getting to Fenway for the first time makes it all real.

Fenway Park, Opening Day 2012.

I left my house early to make sure I was able to get a parking spot at the T station, and arrived at Fenway a couple of hours before the gates would be opening.  Most of the players were already inside, but I waited outside the players’ parking lot and saw John Henry and Luis Tiant come in.  I took a walk to circle around the park and missed seeing Big Papi drive up, but when I got back his Bentley with “ORTIZ 34″ plates was parked on the street.

I went in when the gates opened, got my schedule magnet, and went right out to the stands to see the last few minutes of batting practice.  Then I walked around to see what I could find for changes around the ballpark.  In honor of Fenway’s upcoming 100th anniversary, there are a lot more displays of historical artifacts from various eras.  I found “A Nation’s Home Rebuilt” – a collection of items from the 1930’s – under the stands on the third base side, where the World Series logos were last year.  The World Series logos have been moved onto a wall going up the ramp inside Gate A.  Also on the walls as one heads up the ramp is “Fenway’s 1st Decade… Fenway’s 1st Dynasty,” featuring team photos and newspaper headlines on the Championships of 1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918. At the bottom of the ramp, old ticket windows converted to display cases house artifacts from World Series appearances in 1946, 1967, 1975, 2004, and 2007.  (These have been in place for the past couple of years.)  The bullpen cart that used to drive relievers in from the ‘pen is on display inside Gate A, too, as is a “Filmed at Fenway” display showcasing movies that have filmed here.  Just down the first base line from home plate, near Gate D, is a display with memorabilia from the 1940’s, “Fenway and the Greatest Generation.”  Even the medical room behind the right field grandstand has a “Then and Now” display – complete with an x-ray of Ted Williams’ broken elbow from 1950.  In right field near Gate B is another display that was installed last year, “Fenway in the ’60s: The Dream Takes Hold.”  (Photos of these displays will follow in future posts, and I’m also going to try to track down as many of the 100 bronze plaques and historical displays as I can.)

My seat was in the far left field corner, in Section 33.  It’s not the best place to see the flag draped over the Green Monster, but I had a good view of everything else.  After both teams’ starting lineups were announced, members of the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus performed the National Anthem.  There was an F-16 flyover, and then it was time for the ceremonial first pitch.  Ever since Tim Wakefield announced his retirement, there was speculation that he’d be a good candidate for first-pitch duty.  And the next logical step – even before Jason Varitek had made his decision to retire – was that Tek should join Wake in the honor.  It made perfect sense – both men are gritty, selfless, team-first players who served the Red Sox through the lowest of lows and the highest of highs over the past 15+ years.  And with last season ending with a  fight-to-the-finish road trip, we never had a chance to give them a proper good-bye.  It made so much sense, and I assumed it for so long, that I almost would have been disappointed if it had been anyone else.

Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek return to Fenway Park to throw out the first pitch(es).

But sure enough, Wakefield and Varitek emerged from under the Green Monster flag, and were heralded by the fans as they walked to the infield.  They each threw a pitch – Wake’s caught by Dwight Evans, and Tek’s caught by Jim Rice.  (It’s funny, because every year when they trot out the old-timers I say that if 20 years from now they bring back players from my generation, I’m going to sob like a baby.  But here were two heroes from my era, and I remained remarkably dry-eyed.  I think it’s because I’m still having trouble thinking of them as former players; it wouldn’t have seemed wrong at all if either of them took his usual position on the field to start the game.)  An announcement was also made that they would each be celebrated with their own night later in the season.

Members of the military carry Fenway's Green Monster flag at the end of the ceremony.

Josh Beckett started the game off on a good note with a scoreless first.  He spotted the Rays a run on two hits in the second, but it wasn’t long before the Red Sox answered.  Kelly Shoppach turned in to a pitch and took one for the team, Jacoby Ellsbury doubled, and Dustin Pedroia walked to load the bases with no outs in the third.  Adrian Gonzalez’s single tied the game, Kevin Youkilis’s sac fly gave the Sox the lead, and David Ortiz’s infield single brought in some insurance.

Big Papi was actually trying to check his swing, but he ended up hitting a dribbler down the left field line. With the shift on, there was no one to make the play, and he reached safely on an RBI single.

The fourth inning looked to be more of the same, when Shoppach doubled and Ellsbury singled him home.  I’m in the habit of focusing my camera on second base anytime Jacoby’s on first.  With a full count to Pedroia, Jacoby took off, and I got a great shot of him as he slid into second.  My camera freezes the picture on the viewfinder for a couple of seconds, so I didn’t see what happened next.  The ball was hit directly to shortstop Reid Brignac, who stepped on the bag for one out, and then leaped to get out of the way of Ellsbury’s break-up slide and threw on to first to complete the inning-ending double play.  But when he landed, he came down directly on Ellsbury’s shoulder – all in a matter of seconds – and by the time I looked up from the camera, Jacoby was on the ground clutching his arm.

Ellsbury slides into second, trying to break up the double play.

The coaches and trainer come out to check on Ellsbury after a collision at second base.

I was still thinking it was a leg injury, because I hadn’t seen the way Brignac had landed right on top of him, but he came out of the game, and when I got home I saw that it was a dislocated shoulder that could keep him out for 6 to 8 weeks.  Losing such a dynamic offensive and defensive player for that long is going to be hard to overcome, and it was a depressing thought for Opening Day, which is supposed to be a festive day full of hope.

Cody Ross moved to center and Ryan Sweeney took over in right.  Ross had already made a great diving catch in right field, and once he got to center he continued to impress by tracking down two more flies to the deepest part of the warning track.  Darnell McDonald got in on the fun with a good sliding catch in the eighth, to help Beckett breeze through another quick inning.  Beckett had only needed 94 pitches for the first 8 innings, so even though I stood up to give him an ovation as he walked off the field after the eighth, I figured he’d be back out for the ninth.

The bottom of the eighth started with a double and two walks to load the bases with no outs.  That brought up Kelly Shoppach, who already was having a great day.  He had been hit by a pitch his first time up, then doubled in the following inning.  In the sixth he singled.  Unlike when Jacoby is the baserunner, it didn’t occur to me to keep my camera fixed on second with the backup catcher who’s never stolen a base in the majors standing on first.  But I should have, and maybe I would have captured the strangest play of the game.  It was a delayed steal – or maybe that’s just him trying to get started – and he slid feet-first several feet short of the bag.  He popped up from the slide, stumbled, and lunged headfirst (face-first, actually) onto the base in a move that was later named the “Shopp, drop, and roll”.  The Rays were so stunned they didn’t even try to tag him out, and he was safe with the first stolen base of his career.  Now Shopp was up again, and he ripped a bases-loaded double to drive in two runs.  The Rays went to the ‘pen, and Sweeney greeted the new reliever with a two-run double.  After Pedroia and Gonzalez singled to re-load the bases – still with no outs – Youk’s single plated two more.  The rout was on, and it was now apparent that there’s no way Beckett would be coming back out for the ninth.  Papi’s double and D-Mac’s walk loaded the bases yet again, and Ross’s sac fly drove in the eighth run of the inning and recorded its first out.  That’s when we noticed the emergency lights flashing in the club level.  It was as if the Red Sox’ smoking offense had tripped the fire alarms.  By the time the inning was over, 14 men had come to the plate and 8 had scored.

With an 11-run lead, it was safe to bring in Mark Melancon to pitch the ninth.  He had been struggling to open the season, so even though he gave up a homer, his ERA actually went down a little.  The important thing was that the Sox were back in Boston, eating the proverbial home cooking and playing in front of the home crowd, and all was once again right with the universe.

Red Sox 9, Yankees 6

To say the Red Sox hadn’t gotten the season off to a good start would be an understatement.  They had stumbled through Texas and Cleveland and found themselves with a dismal 0-6 record, which was especially stunning considering the improvements they had made over the winter.  Still, my mantra throughout the week became: “When we’re standing on Boylston St. watching the duck boats roll by, we can look back on this week and laugh.”  By the time I was heading in to Friday’s home opener, I saw it as a clean slate, a chance to start over fresh at home with plenty of time left to make up the ground they had lost.  I was excited to be going to my eleventh Fenway Park Opening Day.  I was looking forward to seeing not only the new guys but the return of the players who had been injured last year.  It’s all good on Opening Day!

The gate and ticket windows outside Gate D are new this year.

I went in early to make sure I could get a parking spot at the T station, and walked around the outside of the park when I got there.  At Gate D, on the corner of Yawkey Way and Van Ness St., there was a new set of ticket windows and a new gate at the bottom of the stairs that were added a few years ago.  I turned the corner and stood outside the players’ parking lot for a while, but I assumed most of the players would be inside already.  I did see radio announcer Joe Castiglione drive in, but then I continued down to Lansdowne St.  I got in the Red Sox Nation line, which gets to enter a half-hour early to watch the Red Sox take batting practice from the Green Monster.

The newly renovated food stands in the concourse behind home plate.

By the time we had to come back down, batting practice was over, so I had plenty of time to walk around and check out all the other changes to the ballpark.  The biggest change was the renovation of the concourse inside Gate D.  There were new concession stands and tables with more room to walk around.  The food stands were pretty high-tech, with monitors above them; some showed the prices and some showed the pre-game show on NESN.  Inside Gate A there was a fruit cart selling apples, oranges, nuts, and taffy.  Out on the field, the big addition was three new video boards.  Two were HD replacements of the existing ones, and the third replaced a couple of billboards.  For now, they just had Opening Day logos, but we’d see more later.  I went back out on Yawkey Way, headed into the souvenir store, and picked up a copy of this year’s Media Guide.

Adrian Gonzalez waves to the crowd as he and the rest of the starting lineup (minus Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who was warming up in the 'pen) are introduced.

I made my way to the bleachers early, because it was warm in the sun and the opening ceremony would be starting soon, and met up with my friends.  Our seats were almost all the way back in the centerfield bleachers, up near the back wall.  The festivities began with the unveiling of the new video boards, which was less spectacular for those of us who were right up under them than it must have looked in the rest of the park, but I’ll get plenty of chances to see them in my remaining games.  After introducing the Yankees (giving us a chance to boo everyone* right down to the massage therapist), the Red Sox came out of the dugout as a team to line up for introductions.   The biggest cheers were for fan favorites Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz, newcomers Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, manager Terry Francona, long-time Red Sox Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield, and of course Johnny Pesky, who still gets announced with the rest of the lineup.

* Bleacher comment of the day: As the Yankees introduced one washed up, aging former star after another – like Andruw Jones, Freddy Garcia, and Bartolo Colon – the guy behind me shouted, “Are there any 50- or 60-year-olds they can sign?  Where’s Albert Belle these days?”

Everyone in the front row of the Green Monster seats gets to help hold the giant American flag.

As usual, the giant American flag was unfurled over the Green Monster.  I didn’t have a good angle to photograph it like I have in some years, but I did get a good view of the people on the Monster helping to hold it up.  There was a moment of silence and then Taps for Lou Gorman, the former Red Sox GM who had died a week earlier.  A native New Englander, Gorman built the Red Sox teams of the 1980’s and 90’s, was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2002, and remained a consultant for the team.  The National Anthem was played by the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Band, which to me was much nicer than when some famous person does it with the words all wrong and the tune changed around.

The 2011 Red Sox and Yankees line up for the National Anthem on Opening Day.

Unlike some years, I hadn’t heard any rumors about who would be throwing out the first pitch, so it wasn’t until Joe Castiglione announced, “It was 50 years ago that this outfielder made his debut…” that I knew it would be Carl Yastrzemski.  Yaz came out from behind the flag to a loud ovation.  These moments make me emotional when I start thinking about what it would be like if 30 years from now Big Papi comes out to throw out the first pitch.  Captain Carl threw the first pitch to current captain Jason Varitek, and then Pesky came out again to say “Play Ball.”

Captain Carl throws to Captain Tek.

It didn’t look good when the Yankees got two runs off John Lackey in the first, on a double over the head of Fenway newbie Carl Crawford in left.  But a certain sparkplug of a second baseman wouldn’t  let the game get out of hand if he had anything to say about it.  Dustin Pedroia came up for his first at-bat since last August (and only his third game since last June) to a big ovation, and launched a laser into the front row of the Green Monster seats, just inside the “Fisk pole.”  I remembered him homering in the first game last year and in the first game of the 2007 World Series, and noted how he has a knack for setting the tone.  (It wasn’t until I got home that I realized he had also homered in the 2009 home opener, making this his third straight Opening Day with a home run.)  It was as if he was saying, “OK, guys, we can get started now.”

And they did.  In the second inning, three straight singles loaded the bases and then Pedey himself drove in two more with another big hit.  Adrian Gonzalez and Big Papi also added RBI singles, as the Red Sox built a 6-2 lead.

Dustin Pedroia - the heart and soul (and mouth) of the Red Sox - is greeted by David Ortiz after his first inning home run.

Lackey labored through his outing, and by the time he left after 5 innings, the Yankees had tied it back up.  But in the bottom of the fifth, Jarrod Saltalamacchia banged a big double off The Wall to put the Red Sox back on top, and J.D. Drew padded the lead with a 2-run single in the seventh.  The bullpen was lights-out, the way it’s supposed to work, with Alfredo Aceves, Bobby Jenks, and Daniel Bard throwing scoreless innings and Jonathan Papelbon breezing through a 1-2-3 ninth.

The best thing about the new scoreboards is when they announce a Red Sox win.

Once we heard the first few notes of “Dirty Water,” we knew all was once again right with the universe.  With so much time left in the season, that one win over the Yankees had wiped out the pain of the first 6 losses.  There’s a long way to go, but as Terry Francona mused after the game, “You’ve gotta start somewhere.”

Red Sox 9, Yankees 7

Easter Sunday wouldn’t have been my first preference for an Opening Day game.  It was weird to have it at night, and I’d rather ease into the season a little bit before diving right in to a Red Sox/Yankees matchup.  But I love when they open at home, and was excited to have survived the Virtual Waiting Room back in December and actually be able to get tickets.  Plus the resurrection theme does fit nicely with the Opening Day concept of beginning a new season (although maybe not quite so well with the equally-important theme of kicking some Yankee, um… posterior).

There’s a commercial for Kingsford charcoal that’s been airing lately.  A guy dressed in pajamas and a big winter coat stumbles in a daze into his friend’s backyard cookout.  His concerned friends rush to his aid:

Friend #1:  Where have you been?

Guy:  I was inside.  There was nothing.  There was no yard, no grill…  it was just white… and cold…

Friend #1:  It was winter, buddy, just winter.

Guy:  [face brightens] Hmm.

Friend #2:  Somebody get this man a burger!

Announcer:  Winter’s over.  It’s time to come out and grill.

That’s how I felt when I emerged from the T station and walked up the hill to Fenway for the first time this summer.  The last time I had made my way here was a freezing cold night in January for the Hot Stove Cool Music concert, but now the long, cold winter was gone.  Yawkey Way sparkled in the full sun of a cloudless 75° day.  Not only was it easily the warmest Opening Day I’ve ever been to, but it was warmer than the Spring Training games I went to last month – and even a couple of June games from last year.

Yawkey Way on Opening Day.

My first stop was the souvenir store to pick up the new Media Guide.  I waited briefly outside the player’s parking lot as I made my way around the outside of the park, but I figured most of the guys were already inside.  Then it was around to Lansdowne, where I got in the line for Red Sox Nation members to enter early and watch batting practice from the Green Monster.  (They didn’t have the traditional schedule magnets ready for us when we went in early, so I had to remember to ask for one when we came back down after the gates opened.)

I went down behind the dugout first, but there were so many cameras and media people that I wasn’t going to be able to get many good pictures of B.P.  Looking at all the media, I spied the ESPN desk, where new analysts Nomar Garciaparra and Curt Schilling were preparing to film segments on Baseball Tonight.

It was great to see my old friends Nomie and Schill at the ESPN desk.

That started getting me nostalgic for the  glory days of years past.  And when I met up with my brother and he looked up the lineups on his phone, we found out that the first pitch was being thrown out by another hero from Opening Days of yore – the Best Pitcher on the Planet and my favorite player of all-time, Pedro Martinez.  I’ve said for years that if they decide to trot out the 2004 players on Opening Day of 2024 to celebrate their 20th anniversary, I’m going to sob like a baby seeing them all again, and I get choked up just thinking about it.  This was a great moment to hold me over until then.

My next stop was to check out the renovated concession stand behind home plate, which was larger and looked easier to navigate.  (My pictures came out a little blurry, so I’ll try to get some better ones next time.)  I was excited to see the new ladies’ room, too, because that one was always so awful and had never been redone when they improved the other ones.  It’s been moved to a new level under the new concession area and above the concourse, but when I got all the way down there, I was told it was closed because it “wasn’t ready yet”.  (The old one was so bad, I’d imagine that even in an unfinished state this one would be better, but I guess I’ll have to check it out later.)

I went around to my seat in the bleachers in time for the opening ceremony.  It started with an F-16 flyover, and then the lineups were introduced.  Mike Lowell got the biggest cheers, with honorable mention to the ovations for Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Terry Francona, Dustin Pedroia, and Johnny Pesky.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2010 Boston Red Sox.

With the game at night, the National Anthem featured pyrotechnic special effects during “the rockets’ red glare” and “the bombs bursting in air” and more fireworks at the end.

The rockets' red glare lit up the sky over the Fenway façade.

Then it was time for the ceremonial first pitch.  Have I mentioned I really like Pedro?  I’ve seen a lot of good pitching performances over the years, including a no-hitter and a playoff shutout, and we’ve got a great pitching staff this year, but nothing compares to the electric atmosphere at Fenway during Pedro’s prime.  People hung on every pitch, and even waited until the Red Sox came to the plate to make their bathroom and food runs.  Tonight, we welcomed him warmly, and he returned the affection.  We even got a “Pedro, Pedro, Pedro” chant going.  He threw the pitch to Tek, then hugged Pesky, Big Papi, and Youk.

Pedro returns to Fenway to throw out the first pitch.

When the game started, it marked my 10th straight home opener at Fenway.  Here’s what I wrote in 2001, my first Opening Day:

This was our first chance to see the 2001 Red Sox … and I was going to be there to personally welcome them, along with 33,524 of my closest friends.  The people who attend Opening Day are the true diehards, people who go to great lengths to get tickets.  People who think nothing of sitting for hours in the cold.  And I didn’t see a single hat, jersey, or jacket with an interlocking N and Y.

That wasn’t exactly the case this year, when the place was crawling with people from New York.  (And I know they didn’t put any effort into getting tickets the first day they went on sale; they just cheated and went to scalpers or agencies, but that’s a rant for another day.)  One thing’s for sure – there was certainly no easing into the season this year!  We were thrown right into the intensity of Red Sox/Yankees from the first pitch (which Derek Jeter grounded to short for out #1, much to our delight).  It was the second home opener night game I’ve been to.  My first was 2003, when the game was rained out twice, on a Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon, before finally being played on Saturday night.  That game also had a more intense feel, much like tonight.

Josh Beckett breezed through the first inning on 7 pitches, and the Red Sox went down in order in their half.  A guy behind me mused, “Is this actually going to be a 3-hour game?”  But he spoke too soon.  In the second, Beckett gave up a cheapie homer to Jorge Posada which hit off Pesky’s Pole but would have been a foul ball in any other ballpark, and a not-so-cheap homer to Curtis Granderson in deep center, for a 2-0 Yankee lead.  Adrian Beltre made a good first impression by driving in the first Red Sox run in with a sac fly.  Beckett labored a bit in the fourth, and the Yankees scored 3 more runs, including one on a double steal.

The game had all the usual ups and downs of a contest between these two teams.  Down 5-2 in the sixth, Youkilis’s triple into the deepest part of right field scored two to pull the Sox within a run, and Beltre came through again with a single to score Youk and tie the game.  After Ramon Ramirez and Hideki Okajima coughed up two more runs in the seventh, Marco Scutaro led off the bottom of the inning with a single, and Pedroia followed with a giant blast into the Monster seats to tie the game again.  Fenway was rocking now, and an out later Youk hit a double off The Wall, his third extra-base hit of the night.  It soon got even better, when he moved up to third on a wild pitch and scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball.

Marco Scutaro congratulates Dustin Pedroia after his game-tying home run.

Between innings, Neil Diamond came out (wearing a “Keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn” jacket) to sing “Sweet Caroline”.  Steven Tyler had already sung “God Bless America” in the seventh, so I joked, “What are they going to do next?  Have the Dropkick Murphys come out to sing ‘Shippin’ Up to Boston’ when Paps jogs in from the pen?”

Daniel Bard did a good job in the eighth, and the Sox tacked on an insurance run before Papelbon made his way in for the ninth.  The last game that had been played at Fenway Park last October had resulted in heartbreak with him on the mound, so it was great to see him dispense with the first two batters quickly.  There was a harmless two-out single, and then a nice quick grounder to third to seal the hard-fought and dramatic victory.

It was just before midnight when the game went final, and it ended up being everything it was hyped up to be.  The Red Sox have the best record in all of baseball, and the cellar-dwelling Yankees are right where they belong.  All the new guys made a good first impression – Mike Cameron and Scutaro each reached base three times, and Beltre drove in two runs.  Even Scott Schoeneweis pitched a scoreless inning.  Meanwhile mainstays Pedroia, Youk, and Papelbon did their usual thing.

I got home at 1:40, and was glad I had taken Monday off from work.  I had put in for the day back in September when the schedule came out and we were supposed to open on Monday.  When the game got moved to Sunday night, I decided to keep the vacation day on Monday because when a holiday falls on a Sunday, we should get the Monday off, right?  I’ve been calling it Opening Day Observed.  Not to mention I really need to get some rest – after all, we’ve got 161 more of these to go!

Red Sox 5, Rays 3

On Tuesday morning I got up early and went in to work for half a day. I left just after noon, and was happy to be able to find a parking space at the T station without any problem. That got me to Fenway around 1:15, and I walked down Lansdowne St., around the corner to  Ipswitch, down Van Ness, and on to Yawkey Way.

Obligatory shot of Yawkey Way on Opening Day.

It started to drizzle a little while I walked around, but nothing like the downpours from the day before. As we waited for the gates to open, everyone was grinning, despite the rain. The moment we had waited so long for – and for me, the final day felt every bit as long as the first six months – was almost here. The guy standing next to me in line saw a little girl behind him who was wearing a Red Sox hat and holding a glove, and asked if it was her first Opening Day. “Yes,” she answered, and her father said, “Mine too.” The guy next to me told them it was his 35th opener. For me, it was my ninth. It’s always hard to put into words what the excitement of Opening Day means to us diehards. I remembered with a smile Rob Neyer’s explanation in his book, Feeding the Green Monster:

Any other day, and it would be too bloody cold for baseball. But this isn’t any other day, this is the first day. The first Red Sox home game of the season. Opening Day. I’ve read a number of poetic essays over the years, tying Opening Day to such lofty themes as rebirth, and rejuvenation. It’s done quite artfully . . . and it misses the point completely. Opening Day doesn’t have much to do with a mystical rejuvenation, or even something so pedestrian as springtime. No. Opening Day is plenty significant for the simplest of all reasons . . . It’s the first day of the baseball season. Or in this case, the first day of Fenway’s season. That’s quite special enough for 99.9 percent of us.

That’s certainly reason enough for me! Finally the gates opened, I got my annual schedule magnet, and I was in.

I went right in Gate D and up the ramp to sections 17-20. That’s one of my favorite places to see the field for the first time each year. The Sox were already done with batting practice, and the Rays were in the field. I checked out the new seats the Red Sox put in over the winter. The red plastic box seats were replaced with padded seats with cupholders. (The padding is nice and all, but the cupholders are essential. Would it have killed them to put cup holders in the bleachers, when they redid those seats last year? Then people wouldn’t throw their empty beer cups under other people’s seats, especially people who have bags stowed under their seats.) The blue wooden seats in the grandstand were made so they pop back up if no one’s sitting in them. Personally, I hate that. If no one’s in the seats yet there’s plenty of room to get through, and if someone needs to go past me during a game I have to stand up anyway and juggle all my stuff. But it’s really annoying if I stand up to applaud a third strike, or crane to see if a fly ball was caught in the triangle, and then have to re-arrange everything before sitting back down. (If my bleacher seats were padded and had cupholders, I’d get over it.) Later I noticed that the new seats only go from dugout to dugout; the left field and right field grandstand and box seats are the same as they’ve always been.

The new box seats at Fenway. At least I'll have something nice to sneak down to when the casual fans bail!

I went back down the ramp and walked around the concourse under the seats. In a narrow part of the corridor between the first base and right field grandstand, I found a display case housing a trophy-like cup awarded to manager Jake Stahl when the Red Sox won the World Series in 1912, the year Fenway Park opened. (I didn’t think of it at the time, but I’m going to have to go back and have my picture taken next to it, since I enjoy collecting pictures of myself with the 2004 and 2007 trophies.)

Replica of the cup presented to manager Jake Stahl when the Red Sox won the 1912 World Series.

When I got to the Big Concourse in the outfield, I signed up for a Red Sox Nation card. I always thought of the cards as a gimmick, as if the ability to shell out $15 is what makes someone a fan, rather than the passion and determination that causes someone to invest their heart and soul into following the team. But this year they added a new feature: with a Red Sox Nation card, I can enter the park 1/2 hour before the gates open to the public, to watch batting practice from the Green Monster. That sounds like fun, and I’m going to get a chance to try it out at my next game, this Thursday.

When I got to my seat in the bleachers (502 feet from home plate, in the same row as the red seat, which was in the next section over from me) I checked out the new roof seats in right field. The Red Sox renovated the area and added 200 seats this off-season. The new seats look nice… the obtrusive Cumberland Farms sign looming over them, not as nice.

The new right field roof seats at Fenway.

Finally, it was time for the pregame ceremony. It started with the announcement of the starting lineups. We booed Matt Garza, James Shields, and Joe Maddon, but in between gave returning fan favorite and 2004 Champion Gabe Kapler a warm ovation. The Red Sox players walked through the grandstand, high-fiving fans along their way to the field. Terry Francona, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Jon Lester, Tim Wakefield, Jonathan Papelbon, and of course Johnny Pesky got the biggest cheers. (Think about that for a second. I never thought I’d see the day when the current Red Sox manager received as enthusiastic a reception in Boston as the reigning MVP.) With the giant flag draped over the Green Monster, the Boston Pops played the National Anthem. A military flyover followed, before the first-pitch honorees were introduced. Senator Ted Kennedy, recovering from a brain tumor, and Jim Rice, the Red Sox great who will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame later this summer, were introduced. They entered in a cart driven by Rice, and drove from left field to the Red Sox dugout. We were reminded that it was Kennedy’s grandfather, John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch 97 years ago when Fenway Park opened. Today, the long-serving Senator did the honors, with the newest HOF inductee catching. Johnny Pesky came back out to officially say, “Play ball.”

Ted Kennedy and Jim Rice circle the field before throwing out the first pitch.

And then, finally, the game started, and it was well worth the wait – not to mention the struggle to get the tickets, and the two trips in to Boston, and everything else. Josh Beckett, last seen courageously gutting his way through Game 6 of last year’s ALCS, looked healthy and back to his 2007 form. He blew away the Rays on 11 pitches in the first and needed only 5 pitches for the second. And it didn’t take long for his teammates to give him some support. When Dustin Pedroia came to the plate, some people tried to start an “M-V-P” chant, but it didn’t really catch on. But when he drilled the second pitch of the at-bat into the Monster seats for a 1-0 lead, Fenway rocked with “M-V-P, M-V-P!”

Everything worked for the Sox in the opener. Beckett cruised through seven strong innings, allowing only one run on two hits, and striking out ten. When he struck out Matt Joyce to end the fourth, he made him look silly jumping way out in front of a change-up. I looked at the board and saw “CHANGEUP 88″. The John Burketts and Paul Byrds of the world would be happy to get their fastballs up to 88, but here was Beckett throwing hard enough that an 88-mph change-up kept them completely off-balance. He really dominated.

The K-men post Beckett's strikeouts. If he had had many more, they would have run out of room.

On the offensive side it was all good, too. Everyone besides Jacoby Ellsbury had a hit. Pedroia set the tone, but J.D. Drew, Jason Bay, and Mike Lowell each drove in a run, and Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz both reached base twice. But the capper was Jason Varitek’s long homer beyond Pesky’s Pole in the sixth inning. It came from the left side, which is where he really struggled last year and revamped his swing this spring.

Tek is congratulated by Ellsbury and Pedroia after his 6th inning homer. He's on pace to hit 162 round-trippers this year.

After Hideki Okajima and Justin Masterson gave up two runs in the eighth, it was Papelbon Time in the ninth. Everyone stood, cheered, sang along to “Shippin’ up to Boston,” and snapped photo after photo – and that was just while he took his warm-up pitches between innings. When the game resumed, the closer delivered as promised, blowing through a 1-2-3 inning and topping it off with a strikeout of Gabe Gross to seal the victory.

It was only one game, but it had everything I wanted – especially the strains of “Dirty Water” at the end!

Opening Day, Take 1

I made an Opening Day dry run this morning – emphasis on the word “dry,” because it wasn’t raining when I got to Fenway at 10:00. In past years, I’ve had trouble getting a parking space at a T station for weekday games. One year I was one of the last cars in the lot and wound up with my car half in a mud puddle and half in a snowbank. Another time I had to drive to a couple of different lots before I found a space. So now I always make sure to go in plenty early. Especially on Opening Day I like to walk around outside the park and see the players drive in before going inside as soon as the gates open.

So left my house at 8:15. (I checked online before I left to see if the game had been called already, in which case I would have gone to work.) I had no trouble getting a parking space, but they had raised the parking rate from $3.75 to $5.75. The Charlie cards for the T were a little more this year, too. I got off in Kenmore Square, and it was really quiet. I figured that was because it was still four hours before game time. I did get an official “K” card with “Sting the Rays” on the back. But as I walked toward the park, I heard some scalpers say, “The game’s rained out. Who wants to sell their tickets?” Uh-oh. As I got to Gate E and the start of the day-of-game ticket line, it sounded like the people who were camped out for tickets had just heard the news. I’ve done that before, and I felt bad for them. Those tickets go onsale when the gates open, so if the Red Sox had opened the gates and tried to get the game in, at least the campers would have their tickets. Now they’re going to have to wait around another cold, rainy, miserable day. A guy from the local FOX affiliate was interviewing people about their feelings on the game being rained out. I called my parents, and they confirmed that the game was postponed and rescheduled for 4:06 pm tomorrow.

I took a walk around the park just to see what was going on. As I reached the players’ parking lot, Manny Delcarmen pulled in. A couple of guys called out to him to try to get him to come over and sign autographs, but he said, “Sorry, I can’t. I have to go get ready for the game.” So they told him, “No, it’s tomorrow at 4!” He looked surprised, like he hadn’t heard the news yet, but he didn’t come over and sign. (Nice try, though!)

I ended up going straight home and logging on to work and working the rest of the day. Tomorrow I’ll go in to work in the morning, and take the afternoon off for the game.

It rained pretty hard as I arrived back home around 11:30. Then the downpours started at 2:00, and it’s rained steadily all afternoon. There’s no way they could have gotten the game in, so I’m glad they didn’t make everyone sit around for hours in the cold and rain. My seats are pretty far back in the bleachers, in the territory where it can take 20 minutes for everyone to file down to the concourse, which is not a good place to be during a sudden downpour.

And at least my bag’s already packed for tomorrow!