Red Sox Road Trip

The weekend before the start of ticket sales for the 2012 season, the Red Sox held their annual road trip, taking the World Series trophies and ticket vouchers to locations around New England.  This year the schedule worked well for me so that I didn’t have to drive to New Hampshire or Maine, heading instead to the Solomon Pond Mall in Marlborough, MA.  In past years, the event gave us the chance to have our picture taken with one of the World Series trophies and get a voucher for a pair of tickets in a pre-sale during the coming week.  This year the vouchers allowed up to four tickets, and the event also contained a display of Red Sox memorabilia and appearances by players.

I got to meet Mike Aviles.

I got to the mall early, so I was up near the front of the line.  After filling out a form for a raffle of an Opening Day VIP package and picking up my ticket voucher, my first stop was the autograph table where Red Sox infielder Mike Aviles was seated.  While he served in a backup role last year, even seeing some time in the outfield, the news had broken the night before that Marco Scutaro had been traded, meaning unless there was another move soon, Aviles would likely be the team’s starting shortstop.  I brought along a photo I had taken from behind home plate before a game last year.  Before he signed, he paused and said, “This is a really good picture.”  I knew that he had joined the team at the trade deadline last year, and that the picture was from a game in August, so I told him, “That was from the game with the triple play.”  It cracked me up when he answered excitedly, “Oh, the triple play?  I was at that game!”  He had posed with several people in front of me, and the line was moving slowly because it took everyone a while to fill out the raffle form, so I asked if he’d take a picture with me, and he obliged.  I think I’ve got a new favorite player!  (Yes, I know they’re all in my top 25, but he just shot up in the ranks.)

Bill Mueller's Yankee-killing bat.

Next was a table containing Red Sox memorabilia from the Fenway Park Archives display at the ballpark.  Among other things, they had some bowling pins from the bowling alley that used to be under Fenway, the bat used by Bill Mueller when he hit the walk-off home run off Mariano Rivera in the game with the Tek/A-Rod brawl in 2004, the jersey worn by Carl Yastrzemski at the Ted Williams memorial tribute in 2002, and a 1999 All-Star Game ball signed by Pedro Martinez.

The 2007 World Series trophy was on display.

The final table held the 2007 World Series trophy.  (The ‘04 trophy was on a different leg of the road trip.)  The whole time we were going through the line people were singing the National Anthem as an audition for the “Sing your way to Fenway” contest.  After I finished, I went up to the second floor to get some pictures from above.  I waited around a little while longer, because Rich Gedman, the former catcher who’s now a coach in the minors, was also supposed to be appearing, but he didn’t end up showing while I was there.

The Great Fenway Park Yard Sale

This Saturday marked the first wave of ticket sales for the 2012 season.  There was a lot going on, with two invitation-only events at the ballpark – Christmas at Fenway and the Great Fenway Park Yard Sale – plus 4-game ticket packages and individual game tickets going on sale online and over the phone.  It’s important to me to try to get the Opening Day Sox Pax, because that’s really the only way to make sure I’m at the opener (this year will be my 12th straight) even though this year two of the games in the Opening Day Sox Pax conflict with my 10-game Tenth Man Plan package which renews every year.  And the best way to make sure I can get the Opening Day pack would be to win the drawing and get selected to attend Christmas at Fenway in person.  Unfortunately I lost that drawing, just like I do every year, which means I’d have to stay home and try to get my tickets online.

Here are the treasures I managed to find at this year's Fenway Park Yard Sale.

I did, thanks to being a Tenth Man Plan holder, get an invitation to the Yard Sale, where we can rummage through boxes of publications, signage, and other trinkets.  The invitation was for 11:00, but with ticket sales starting at 10 and an hour’s drive to Boston, I knew it would be later in the day, if at all, before I could get there.

They seem to have improved the online ticket process, because I was able to get the tickets I wanted without the drama or trauma of previous years, and then I headed in to Fenway around noon.  The Yard Sale took place in the third base concourse and the Absolut Clubhouse.  There was a lot of memorabilia for sale, including framed photos, game-used jerseys and bats, and autographed balls, but even Wily Mo Peña’s jersey and Jeremy Giambi’s broken bat were out of my price range.  I was more interested in the big boxes in the concourse with old media guides and other publications, all for $1 apiece.  I already have a lot of the ones that were there, but I found a 1995 Media Guide to add to my collection and a “2009 Official Averages” book with the final stats of all players in 2009.  I also grabbed two magnetic concession stand signs.  Then I picked up a pin with an interesting story.  It has the Red Sox logo and says “10th World Series”.  A staffer explained that they were commemorative pins given out to the media who covered the World Series games.  However, they had been made in 2003, in anticipation of the Red Sox making it that year, which (ahem) didn’t exactly work out.  But they were able to use them in 2004, when the team did play in the World Series for the 10th time in franchise history.

My final stop, and the highlight of my trip, was the brick pile to pick out an authentic Fenway Park brick.  After I had chosen the perfect one, I turned around and saw Jon Lester signing autographs for the Christmas at Fenway patrons.  There were barricades up and workers were checking wristbands, so I couldn’t get in the line.  But I was happy just to be at Fenway Park after being away for so long, not to mention with the results of my yearly treasure hunt.

Red Sox Road Trip

Last year the Red Sox started a Red Sox Road Trip on the weekend preceding ticket sales.  They took the 2004 and 2007 World Series trophies across New England giving fans the chance to get their pictures taken and pick up vouchers good for two tickets in a pre-sale this week.  This year, most of the locations close to me were scheduled for weekdays, but Sunday brought the road show to L.L. Bean in Freeport, Maine.  The friend I go to most of my games with and I both grew up in Maine, so we decided to make the trip up for the day, even though it’s a 2½-hour drive from where I now live.

Some things never get old!

My friend brought a bunch of family members along, and we got there early enough to get in line indoors as it snaked up and down aisles between clothing racks, up the stairs, and out the door well before the event started.  The trophies arrived shortly after 4:00.  We got our pre-sale vouchers, plus stickers and a “Fenway Park 500th consecutive sellout” commemorative baseball, before getting our chance to pose with the World Series trophies.

A close-up of the trophies' bases.

The 2007 (in the front) and 2004 World Series trophies.

It’s always fun to see the trophies again, and thanks to the vouchers we’ll be getting a head-start on the ticket sale next weekend.  But one of the best parts was that coupled with yesterday’s trip to Rhode Island for the PawSox Hot Stove Party, it made for a fun, baseball-filled weekend in the middle of winter, even if it did mean about 380 miles of driving!

The final scene of the Fever Pitch movie, where Drew Barrymore runs across the field, was filmed after a game I went to in 2004. (Click the picture for the details of the game.)

Today was that highly-anticipated day when my Tenth Man Plan tickets arrived. It’s always been so stressful! First of all, I live in an apartment building. The front door of the building, where the buzzers are, leads to the street. But I always go in the back door, where the parking lot is. So if a package delivery attempt is made and they leave a sticky-note on the front door, I’ll never think to look for it unless one of my neighbors brings it up and sticks it on my door. That’s how I almost didn’t get my tickets one year.

The first year, one of my neighbors must have signed for it and slid the envelope under my door. The second year, I never saw the delivery note saying that they had left it in the apartment office. When I first moved here, the apartment office didn’t hold packages for residents, so I never thought to look there. I called the Red Sox and they said it had been signed for by some undecipherable name a week ago, and I thought one of my neighbors had stolen it. The Red Sox first told me they’d resend them, c/o one of my friends who’s home during the day. But when I called back a few days later to track that package, and they told me they weren’t resending them until I had a police report saying they were stolen. Luckily I finally found them in the apartment office, but the whole process had freaked me out ever since.

The last few years the Red Sox have been emailing us the tracking info, so I know when they’re coming and where I can pick them up. In the past they’ve used FedEx or DHL, both of which are 20 miles away from me. This year, happily, they came via USPS, which means I only had to go as far as my town’s post office. Easy!

Every year when I rip open the envelope, I re-enact my favorite scene from Fever Pitch. OK, I skip the running-down-the-street-in-my-underwear-and-hugging-the-delivery-guy part, but I mean the part where Jimmy Fallon opens the package and hands the sheet of tickets out to his friends, and they say:

“A new season.”

“A clean slate.”

[sniffs] “Yup, this smells like the year.”

(Watch the clip at IMDb.) The tickets really do come in sheets like that (and I’m always nervous as I separate them that I’ll rip them the wrong way). But I checked out the new batch, and I can assure you… this smells like the year!

Now that all my tickets are in hand, all that’s left is to wait for Opening Day!

It’s frustrating enough to stare at the Virtual Waiting Room windows refreshing over and over on three different computers, but it’s even worse to get in and then spend half an hour getting “Unable to process due to a high volume of transactions. Please try to submit your request again by pressing the Continue button.” Of all the games I was trying to get tickets for, I figured the series against the Mets in May would sell out quickest, so I tried for that first. After fifteen minutes of pressing “Continue… Continue… Continue….” every couple of seconds, I finally got some in the upper bleachers. I added a couple of other games (a few dozen “Continue”s later) and went to check out. But the page where you’re supposed to enter your credit card info never loaded. I waited and waited, afraid to refresh because in the past that has just stuck me back in the VWR again. Eventually I got up the nerve and refreshed, but it was past the 3 minute, 30 second limit, so the tickets were no longer reserved. Argh!

I got through again shortly thereafter, and while I was in the process of pressing “Continue… Continue… Continue…” over and over, I got a popup: “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and is closing. Would you like to tell Microsoft about this problem?” Then all my browser windows shut, including the one I was in the process of selecting tickets in. Stupid Bill Gates! (It’s not even like I was trying to get tickets for Seattle or anything!)

Tried to get in again and went back to the Mets game. This time upper bleacher seats weren’t available anymore, and it kept offering me standing room. Instead I went back to one of the other games I had had in that order, and wound up with the same exact seats (3rd-to-last row) I had had before it dumped my transaction. After selecting those, I went back to the Mets game, and this time it did give me upper bleacher seats. And this time I was able to check out.

But the funny thing is that because at the end of the day we wound up with all the games we wanted (and only one has us scattered in a couple of different rows) I’m excited and consider it a successful – albeit heart-attack-inducing – day.

Now all we need to do is sign a catcher and get the 2009 season started!

This weekend the Sox were doing a Red Sox Road Trip, where they brought the 2004 and 2007 World Series trophies to malls around New England and distributed vouchers for this week’s ticket pre-sale.  My friend and I headed to the Nashua, NH, stop on Sunday afternoon.  It’s about an hour’s drive for me, and we got a bunch of snow on Saturday night, so I allowed extra time for travel.  The highways were actually somewhat clear by the time I left in the afternoon, and we ended up getting there very early, before they were even set up.

When the line formed, there were about 10 people in front of us, so we had no trouble getting the ticket vouchers (good for 2 tickets each).  They also had stickers, posters, and the chance to enter a drawing for a VIP Opening Day package.  The 2007 World Series trophy was available for pictures.  So was Wally, but luckily he was 10 minutes late, so we were able to get our pictures taken without him.  (I can’t stand Wally; the very idea that the Red Sox need a mascot still makes no sense to me.  Leave that for the teams that can’t sell tickets any other way.  The Sox sell out every night and have fans who are willing to drive 50 miles in a snowstorm just for the chance to buy 2 tickets… and it’s certainly not to see Wally!  I just believe that in Boston, it’s supposed to be all about the baseball, not the gimmicks.)

Here are a couple of pictures I took:

A nice front view of the trophy.  I like how the flash makes the word “CHAMPIONS” that’s engraved on the base reflect on the table in front of it.  (Just ignore the tubby green guy in the background.)

Cool top view of the trophy, taken from the second floor.

The trophy-viewing line at Pheasant Lane Mall.  For more on the Road Trip stops in Warwick, RI, and Waterford, CT, see Jere’s pictures at A Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory.

Time for a quick history of Sox Pax…

Back in 1999, the Red Sox sold 6-game “Value Packs”, which were actually discounted from the regular prices, and were spread out with one game a month. I lived in Georgia at the time, but my brother was in New England and he got one. He got to see Opening Day, plus Nomar’s 3-HR (2 of which were grand slams) game with that package. In 2000, I moved back to Massachusetts, but they didn’t offer the packages that year. In 2001, I got 2 different “Value Packs” of 4 games each. There was a form to print off and mail in – pick a package and just say how many seats you want – and then we’d wait a few weeks before they’d arrive in the mail. For the next few years, they’d mail me a form with the current year’s packages before the general announcement. I’d fill it out, mail it in, and wait.

In December 2003, the Red Sox hosted the first “Christmas at Fenway”. They had bagels and coffee for $1 apiece, played the “Cowboy Up” DVD, and had a Q&A with new acquisition Curt Schilling. I had no trouble getting the Opening Day package (which were now called “Sox Pax” instead of “Value Packs” because they weren’t discounted anymore). The 2004 Christmas at Fenway was so chaotic after winning the World Series, that they don’t open it to the public anymore. (They used the excuse that they’d renovated the .406 Club and couldn’t hold as many people as in the past.) Now we have to register for an email lottery to get the chance to attend in person. I’ve never won this lottery.

So now I’m stuck in the Virtual Waiting Room every year. Twice the Opening Day pack sold out before I could get any. (I managed to get in by standing in the day-of-game line for several freezing hours.) Once I got the package, but only one seat, so my friends couldn’t come.

So today when I saw the 3:00 pm update that the Opening Day pack was sold out, my friend and I were prepared to camp out in April. But I never know when to give up, so I hung in there for 3 1/2 more hours. I finally got through at 6:30, and somehow, miraculously, managed to get 3 seats, in the bleachers, just like I wanted! I was able to add some single April and May games, too, and after a 2-hour VWR wait on Sunday, a September game.

So I will be at Opening Day! It was totally worth the 8 1/2 hour effort!

And the best part is I don’t have to go through this again until January…

Spring Training tickets went on sale this morning, which meant I was camped out in front of three different computers, watching the Virtual Waiting Room refresh itself every thirty seconds. Luckily I had some help from my cat, although let’s be honest – she was only watching one computer, so I had to keep an eye on the other two all by myself!

Mo helps me get spring training tickets

I actually got through after only an hour, and my mother and father both got through two hours later. They spend three months in Florida every year, conveniently matching up with Spring Training. We were able to get the games we wanted – three during the week when I go visit, and one game a week for them after I go home. While I was waiting, I watched Game 4 of the 2007 World Series from the commemorative DVD set.

I’m really happy I was able to get everything I wanted. I didn’t even have the computer crash midway through, or lose my internet connection, or have the image verification picture fail to load, or have the “you have 1 minute to complete this page” take more than a minute to load, all of which have messed up potential orders of mine in the past.

But the real test will come next Saturday, when we try for the elusive Sox Pax and games in April and May. The cat’s ready to help out again, but with three computers going, I may need to get a dog.