April 16
I asked J.Rho to go with me to game 1, on Saturday, April 16th. Going into that game, the Red Sox were 2-10. It was their worst start to a season in about a hundred years and that day, I wasn't thinking so much about the long-term implications of such an abysmal start. Instead, I was being selfish and thinking, "just win for me. PLEASE win because I'm here." -- What we didn't know when we got there was that it was Fan Appreciation Day (which I interpreted as "Please don't be mad, fans, even though we SUCK right now.") and they lined the field with velvet ropes and allowed fans to form a line around the field to meet players before the game. I didn't meet any players but I did do something I never thought I'd ever be able to do - set foot on the field. They won that game... and since that game, they have the best record in the majors. I like to believe it's because of me.
May 7
My mom's birthday is May 7 and I needed a May game to go to. It just so happened that the Red Sox were on a homestand Mother's Day weekend and I asked her if a game on her birthday was something she'd be interested in and was happy to find she really wanted to go. To her credit, she weathered a two-hour rain delay, that turned a day game into a night game and resulted in another Red Sox win! We were lucky that our seats were under the cover of the roof so we didn't get rained on. Mom decided to go for a walk during the rain delay in on the concourse and came back about 5 minutes later because she said the concourse was so full of people that she couldn't walk. This was also my first time seeing a thunderstorm at Fenway, which was a pretty spectacular sight. 
My cousin, Laura, lives in Milton, which is just outside Boston and since we're both teachers, I knew we'd have approximately the same vacation time. Laura got us bleacher seats and this game was just a part of the awesome weekend I spent with her. We also went to the aquarium, made a fantastic homemade pizza and homemade cookies and took a drive around a really pretty coastal town. We made a lot of fun of the police officer who sat on centerfield wall, with his back to the game, and ate ice cream and drank soda and flirted with the too-old-to-be-as-drunk-as-they-were ladies to our left. This was also the first time I went to the Bleacher Bar, which is an awesome literal-whole-in-the-wall bar that is actually built in the centerfield wall. There's a garage down that you can look out at field level and see the game from there. It was an awesome place that I never knew existed. The Red Sox lost this game but it didn't take away from how awesome the experience was. It was also the first time I'd ever sat in the bleachers and the different view of Fenway Park that I had sitting out there was fantastic.
Rachel and I went to this Saturday game with a little bit of a different goal in mind. The game was at 4 and we wanted to do a Fenway Bar Crawl before the game started so we took the T in about 3 hours early with plans to visit as many bars as we could before the game started. We started at Cask 'N Flagon, where some guys called random names at us to see if we would answer, "SUSAN!!! Susan?" - nope, sorry, you're not even close. We had a spinach and artichoke appetizer and a couple of "Youk Juices" (a really yummy pineapple mixed drink) before going to Game On, where we had one beer and then left because it was SO crowded. For our last stop, I took her to Bleacher Bar so she could see what I saw. The garage door was open so the view to the field was even better than it was the first time I went there. Our seats were incredible and even with John Lackey pitching, the Red Sox won!
August 26
I hadn't seen Allie since the beginning of last summer and though we talk from time to time, I was really longing for some quality visit time with one of my favorite college friends. She lives in South Boston so I decided to be brave and drive myself into the city that scares the crap out of me to drive through. I got us standing room tickets on the third base side, my only standing room experience of the season. Those standing room tickets are fantastic because even though you're standing, your view is generally pretty good and most of the time, later in the game, you can slide into some unoccupied seats if you keep your eyes open. It was fantastic to hang out with Allie for a night and catch up and also squeeze in a surprise visit with Mary, who happened to be right around the corner! Around the 6th inning, we started trolling for empties and found a pair of seats 10 rows back from the visitors' dugout and parked ourselves there for the remainder of the game. While we were sitting in our look-how-lucky-we-are seats, something amazing happened! In between innings, on our feet and absentmindedly dancing to whatever music was playing and chatting with each other, a lady in front of us got our attention and pointed to outfield. JUMBOTRON!! The reaction of someone who catches themselves on the jumbotron is always the same. You're looking at the screen to see what dummy who isn't paying attention gets on there, and then it's YOU and you recognize yourself and then you wave and point and try to find which camera is on you. It was awesome. The Red Sox lost this game miserably but there were way more upsides than downers.
Sept. 3
One of the great things about the "one game a month" provision is that that doesn't exclude those games being only a week apart. After having been at Fenway the week before, I went back just last night for my 6th game of the season with Heather! Heather and I have been doing a lot together lately, going to concerts and going on hikes, that when Alex told me he didn't want to go to a game on his birthday like I'd originally planned, it was easy to find a replacement. Heather had never been to a game before so we figured no time like the present! The Red Sox had gotten walloped, 10-0, the night before so I was hoping they'd return the favor with a vengeance for us the next day. And did they ever! Thanks to an 8-run bottom of the 4th, the game was well in hand when people started to leave around the 7th inning. It takes quite a long time to score that many runs so the game was about 3 hours old when people figured they had it and it was okay to leave. That left whole rows empty so we relocated to better seats. In the bottom of the 8th, another Fenway first. A guy, barefoot, dirty and probably drunk, dropped himself down the left field wall (although I didn't see exactly from where) and ran from the 3rd base line almost all the way to the Red Sox bullpen before he was football-tackled by a security guard, instantly handcuffed and led off the field. I had never seen that before! The Red Sox won this almost-four-hour game handily and it was a great end to a fantastic-game-going season for me! I'm probably going to have to do this every year from now on. :)
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