Take A Photo Field Trip! (With Me! To A Baseball Game!)

I journeyed a journey to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, yesterday with a few of my pals. We had a great time. I enjoyed it so much that I thought I'd share my experiences with you, the reader, using the technological format I like to call the Infomatic 2000. (You likely refer to it as being "a computer," but I'm pretty confident that my term will catch on. It is italicized, after all.)

Max and I got to the neighborhood a little early and walked around a bit. We found a new bar the Sox have built into the ballpark accessible from the street. The main feature is an open air view of the field. You are sitting at field level in the outfield, with only a metal grate between you and the warning track. It was a great find.

As we were walking in, Mariano Rivera jogged by. I almost had an accident. I wasn't prepared to be 10 feet away from the greatest relief pitcher in the history of the sport. I thought I was just going to get a burger and a beer. So I didn't get a picture of the guy. Sorry.

I promise that the photo portion of the field trip will begin shortly. If you click any of the images, a full-sized version will pop up.

I saw Joba Chamberlain tossing a ball over in right field. I had time to grab the camera.


Over in the opposite corner of the outfield, Andy Pettitte was doing some sprinting alongside the Green Monster.


It was a rainy afternoon, so there wasn't much action to see aside from that.

After meeting up with our friend Sean, we had a couple of beers and made our way to our seats. We had a nice view from the centerfield bleachers.

Mr. Rivera returned to the field to toss a few more. This time I had it together and managed to get one unblurred image of the man.

They removed the tarp from the field and the game got underway. It would end up being the second worst butchering in the area recently. (Second only to this. Wow.)

I took the following picture for Paul and Alicia. (You are welcome.)
This was for Jen.

When a game goes south, you need to find other ways of entertaining yourself. Against my better judgment, I ingested some ballpark pizza, which I believe to consist of cardboard, glue and rat feces. The security guard is giving me the stink eye. He knew what team I was rooting for.

Unless you've been to Fenway, you may not be aware that the crowd has taken to destroying singing the Neil Diamond song "Sweet Caroline" at every game for no apparent reason. And, as if they were determined to make it more annoying than it was, they decided to sing/shout "So Good! So Good! So Good!" in unison, repeatedly, even though it isn't in the song. If Neil Diamond wanted that in there, you can rest assured that Mr. Diamond would have put it there. He's Neil Diamond. Don't mess with his stuff, people.

In an effort to strike a blow against this awful practice, I took it upon myself to sing along with every song that came over the public address system. Loudly. And I was sure to scream "So Good! So Good! So Good!" randomly while doing so. Every time.

As the following picture shows, absolutely everyone around me enjoyed it thoroughly.

Boston has a reputation for being a moderately racist city. There is a history of less-than-ideal relations here. I noticed one remaining incidence of segregation. (See the following photo.)

Yes. I was bored. It was a one-sided game.

There was a guy (there's always one at every game, no matter where it is being played) who kept telling the crowd to start a wave. I kept shouting back that he didn't need to tell me how to enjoy a ballgame. This was the one time that the crowd seemed to be on my side. His efforts never bore fruit.

At one point, I was cursing Jose Veras. It happens. Pretty much every time he takes the mound. As Nick Green came up to bat, I had a bad feeling. I took a photo of Veras' stats on the scoreboard. Note the pitch count and ERA.

He made another pitch and I recorded the results.


It was one of those nights for the Yankees. Oh well.

We'll get 'em next time.