Baseball in Boston

This baseball trip planning started when David Ortiz announced that he would be retiring after one last season in 2016. Being the Sox fan that I am I insisted on seeing him play one last time! The problem being I live in Alaska. So I looked at the schedule and saw they would be in Seattle, so I had decided I would make a solo trip to Seattle in August to watch him play one last time. That's when a college friend announced she would be getting married in September in Connecticut. And that changed everything...I had to fly in and out of Boston anyways...and there was no better place to bid goodbye to Papi than at Fenway! 

So of course I called my dad and asked if he wanted to meet me in Boston and go to a game with me! So we got tickets for a game against Baltimore. I also saw that the Yankees were going to be in town  while we were there. So since this has always been a dream of mine, and I wasn't sure when the opportunity would come around again I bought dad and I tickets to the game! So now we would get to see Papi play 2 more times at Fenway and get to see a Sox/Yankees game. 

So back to the trip...on a beautiful Sunny day in Ketchikan I started my long overnight journey to Boston. I flew from Ketchikan to Seattle, then had a 9 hour layover, then flew from Seattle to Chicago where I literally ran across the airport to catch my flight to Boston! And I landed on a beautiful sunny and very humid 86 degree day in Boston, where I literally almost died! My body was so adjusted to living in Ketchikan, that even beach loving me had a hard time adjusting to the heat again! 

Game 1: 

Our first game was against Baltimore. We were set to see Rick Porcello, who hadn't lost at home, pitch against Kevin Gausman, who we had the pleasure to meet a few years ago in Boston. We had thunderstorms all day, but it was a beautiful night for baseball. Before the game we ate at a restaurant underneath the bleacher seats called the Bleacher Bar. You can access it from the street and they have garage doors that they close during the game but are open at other times so you can see onto the field! It was pretty cool! 

View from the Bleacher Bar restaurant 

Trying to decide on a new favorite for a shirt...I went with this years hopefully MVP Mookie Betts 

We got their early as usual and I hung out near the Boston dug out hoping for a few autographs. Batting Practice was canceled due to the rain showers so there wasn't really anybody out on the field. But I did get lucky and get some autographs from some of the Boston Bruins players. It was Bruins night at the ball park so there were a couple of them hanging around on the field before the game. 

View from Our Seats in Game one

The big man himself... number 34 Mr. David Ortiz

The game was a great game! We had great seats near the Boston dugout on the first-base side. The game was a pitchers duel. Both pitchers pitched into the 8th inning. There was only one run given up on a solo homer in the second. Unfortunately it was Porcello who gave it up. It was beautiful game to watch...both pitchers were dominant and in the zone. One mistake resulted in the outcome of the game. It was a great game...it was just a hard one to lose! 

Kevin Gausman when I met him a few years ago at Fenway

Porcello before the game

Game 2:

For game two we had some of my favorite seats. The bleacher seats in the outfield just behind the bullpen so you could see the whole stadium! We got their early and got to watch batting practice from the top of the Green Monster! This is the second time I've done this and its pretty cool!! We didn't catch any balls, but we did just miss a few. 

Batting Practice on top of the Monster

Yankees/Sox games are different, there is so much more energy involved. I'm sure it wasn't as charged as it was in the early 2000's or in the days of Ted Williams. But there is still something special about it! The Yankees were trying to make a playoff push and it was game 1 of a 4 game series. 

My MVP Mookie in Right Field

Jackie Bradley in Center...I watched him play for USC in college

The Yankees got up early. And here we were in the 8th inning and I was thinking I came all the way from Alaska and I am going to watch them lose 2 games at home without any offense. Except no game is over until its over. We sang Sweet Caroline in the middle of the 8th along with the rest of the stadium...its a Fenway tradition! 

But that night I got to see magic happen. 

First David Ortiz hit a home run to the deepest part of the ball park in center field. It was a beautiful swing and you knew it was gone from the moment it left the bat! I've seen him hit a few home runs before, even some at Fenway park. But this one was his 537th career homerun...this one put him past Mickey Mantle on the all time list! This one is the last one that I'll ever see Ortiz hit. And it was a shot! 

When they make a Lego statue out of you...you know you are a big deal! 

But the game got better after that...in the bottom of the 9th, down by two runs, the Red Sox made a comeback. I witnessed Hanley Ramirez hit a walk off 3 run-homer! It was hit almost exactly where Ortiz hit his, deep center field. Now any walk-off is special. But a walk off by the Red Sox against the Yankees in September...that is a once in a lifetime! 

Hanley's interview after the walk-off and Gatorade bath

It was an amazing game to be at. The energy that surges through Fenway park during a comeback is breathtaking even though its one of the smallest parks capacity wise in the league...you'd never know it by the noise you hear! When the team started to come from behind, not a single person was in their seat. And after that ball left the ballpark the mobbing was on at homeplate and Dirty Water was on the speakers...another Fenway tradition. 

I may have missed the Win-Dance-Repeat by our outfield trio, but I got something far more special. I know that some people aren't sports fans and I understand that. But there is magic in baseball. Watching the stadium come alive during a come back...and getting to be apart of the celebration that ensues. Hugging and High-fiving strangers from the employees, to the season ticket holders, to the girl beside me who just like me had traveled along way to watch her favorite team play, was one of the most amazing things I have ever been apart of! 

These two days of baseball were amazing...but of course the best part was getting to do all of it with the man who taught me to love and understand the game. The best part was getting to spend some time with my dad! 

The quote of this blog comes in the form of a picture and quote. This one is from a few years ago at Fenway the first time I made it on the Monster...