Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Boring travelogue, Part 2: Boston, Fenway Park

For baseball fans like us, Fenway Park is like some kind of mystical Eden...a magical place where baseball is pure and perfect and we all dance in the fields of full-count Elysium or whatever.


This just in: it's not all that great. I know it was built in 1912 and everything, but it is cramped as hell and you would not BELIEVE how close together the seats are. For a tall guy like me, it's kind of a fucking bummer. I guess people were shorter in 1912, but whatever.

And also, Boston fans, you apparently did not get the memo about not going up and down the aisles when there's a batter in the box. I always heard that Boston fans were so canny and so into it but they have no compunction at all about merrily traipsing up and down the aisle during critical moments during the game. SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND SHUT UP.

Maybe it would be different if we were in a different section, i.e., closer to the field, but I spent most of the game standing up to let people through. There were some lusty "Yankees Suck" cheers, but most people didn't seem any more into the game than my Giants fans are into, say, a Giants-Braves game on a Monday night. We paid $130 a ticket for this shit.

I'll tell you this, though. If there were a prize for Most Fans Wearing Team Gear, the Sox would win hands down. Even if the dude in the Sox jersey and Sox hat was more interested in yelling at his friends than watching what happens on the 3-2 count with men at second and third.

Still, it was fun, even if it was freezing (hell, I'm used to that, I'm a Giants fan) and whatever else. I feel about Fenway the same way I felt about going to the Washington Monument when I was 12 - I'm glad I collected that experience, but I wouldn't rush back to do it again.

2 comments:

Stephen said...

Newsflash, mister - no one loves Fenway for the seats, they love it because the *Red Sox* play there. It's about history, not garlic fries and a view of the Bay. Harrumph.

Rachel said...

Glad you had fun even though you didn't love Fenway. You gotta admit though that it has more character than Pac Bell-SBC-AT&T Park, plus its right in the middle of the city, not shunted off to the side.