Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Jon Lester's No-No

We're finally writing the Red Sox blog! It all started when Sean got an email from the Remy Report, saying that as a member of RemDawg Nation he won the opportunity to get two tickets to Fenway at face value, not at the insane online scalping prices. We jumped at the opportunity, and a week before the game we got our tickets in the mail: Section 42, Row 37, Seats 12 and 13.

While Sean had lived in Boston for a month, and I had visited many times, neither of us had actually been inside the park, so it seems appropriate that our first game was a memorable one.

On game day, we parked at the Lansdowne Parking Lot: if you've ever seen a home run go over the green monster on television and almost hit or even hit a car, that's where we parked. As soon as Sean turned the engine off, two balls went over almost simultaneously, missing our car by about twenty feet. The Red Sox were having batting practice, and while we don't know who hit the balls, we got and kept one!
After having lunch at the Boston Beer Works, we headed out to Yawkey Way and took in the sights and smells. Here's Lily at lunch:
And Yawkey Way:

We lined up at Gate C on Lansdown Street, and at five o'clock we entered Fenway:


When we got to our seats, Sean realized that we were in the row where one of the seats was marked red because of the longest home run in Fenway history:

On June 9th, 1946, Ted Williams hit a 502-foot home run that to this day has not been equaled. Sean felt a little stupid having brought a glove, as the last time someone hit a ball that far they made a special seat to commemorate the event. Our seats were eight away from the Williams seat.
We watched the batting practice and warmups. Here's Jon Lester warming up:

Jason Varitek:
And David Ortiz getting limber (he's the one on the ground):
Since we got to the park so early and saw so many new things, Lily wore herself out before the game started:

It was fifty-eight degrees when we got to the park, and as the game started it got colder and windier. We had brought a blanket and were glad for it:

The beginning of the game: Manny Ramirez and Jacoby Ellsbury, who had an amazing dive catch that helped Lester get the no-hitter: Lily didn't wake up until the third inning, when the Red Sox scored five runs out of the final seven. All the clapping woke her up! Here's Manny at bat:
Lily entertained everyone around us by sticking out her tongue and blowing raspberries and smiling, but it was so cold that she didn't do her usual clapping routine. Everyone kept commenting on what a good baby she was because she never cried throughout the whole game. She had them all eating out of her hand!
Once we hit the seventh inning, we realized that the Royals had yet to have a hit. By the eighth, we were trying not to jinx the whole thing, but we thought a no-hitter might be possible. The ninth inning came, and everyone in the park was on their feet, tense with every pitch. Every ball caused a collective sigh and worry and every strike brought a feeling of triumph. At the end, the final strikeout caused a shockwave to go through the already energized crowd:


After the game, we waded through the celebrating crowd and returned to our unharmed car. All told, we couldn't have picked a better game for our first game at Fenway! Here's Lansdowne Street from our parking spot:

Lily watched the 2007 World Series with us, and was at Lester's no-hitter, so I guess she's Boston's little lucky charm! Thanks for enduring this looong post! Go Sox!