Barbara and Jerry treated Andy, Pete, and Steph to a guided tour of Fenway Park last Tuesday. They weren't allowed on the field, of course, or even the dugout (I kind of thought they'd let them in there), but they did get to climb up on the Green Monster. It was a great day:
(Oh, don't worry about me and Julie; we had just as much fun. First we
went to the optician to get her glasses tightened and then we ate
Fritos while playing Clue Jr. They were so jealous when they got home.)
I love John Updike's description of Fenway (from The New Yorker back in 1960):
Fenway Park, in Boston, is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg. It was built in 1912 and rebuilt in 1934, and offers, as do most Boston artifacts, a compromise between Man's Euclidean determinations and Nature's beguiling irregularities. Its right field is one of the deepest in the American League, while its left field is the shortest; the high left-field wall, three hundred and fifteen feet from home plate along the foul line, virtually thrusts its surface at right-handed hitters. On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 28th, as I took a seat behind third base, a uniformed groundkeeper was treading the top of this wall, picking batting-practice home runs out of the screen, like a mushroom gatherer seen in Wordsworthian perspective on the verge of a cliff.
Meanwhile, Pete was supposed to go to the Sox game last night, but Jerry was still getting over a nasty bug, so they gave away the tickets. And just as well, because after a 1½-hour delay, they called the game on account of rain. That would have been such a disappointment. And the rescheduled game is tonight at 8:30, which is really kind of a late start for a kid, plus Barbara and Jerry had already planned to have company over. So, they'll take him in 3 weeks instead, and we'll hope for sunshine.
When we took the tour in 2000 (I remember because I was pregnant) they let you walk the warning track - I have a great picture of us standing in front of the manual scoreboard - they also let you in the visitor dugout - which on the day we were there was practically flooded due to rain the night before. My kids are dying to be on the green monster (everytime my Dad gets monster seats it is never when we are around) We might have to do the tour this summer just for the monster seat tour!
Posted by: Kathy | May 19, 2008 at 09:00 AM