Good Times Never Felt So Good

Good times never felt so good,

so good,

so good.

- Neil Diamond

&

Red Sox Nation

I didn’t think that anything would ever compare to my last trip to Fenway Park.  

Then I went to game 6 of the ALCS.

I mentioned in my last post that Andy ran into an old friend at his meeting in San Francisco who offered us ALCS tickets if we made our way up to Boston for it. As soon as we were guaranteed a game 6, we booked some cheap last minute flights, got in touch with a dog-sitter and packed our bags.

Who says spontaneity is dead once you become a parent?!

We only had 3 days at home after we got back from the west coast and we were off again.  Andy, Tess and I woke up at 4am for our flight and landed at the Hartford airport just before 10am on Saturday.  We then headed to my mom’s house in Western Mass to get Tess settled there before heading to Boston. The Sox game had been moved to 8pm because the night before the Cardinals beat the Dodgers, ending the NLCS.  Because the networks like to have a primetime game, our game was moved to 8pm.   We were dreading the late night that was ahead of us, but were also glad to have plenty of time to make our way to Boston.

Jenkinses "shipping up to Boston!"

Flying in during peak foliage!

Side story: While we were getting Tess’ pack n’ play set up and handing over the bottles of breastmilk, some woman called and asked my Mom if she had a dog named Rylee.  My mom’s first thought was that she must have won a doggy beauty pageant or something, but unfortunately Rylee had apparently escaped from the fenced-in yard. She was at the local police station with this good samaritan that rescued her from the busy street where she was wondering around.

Mom and I drove up to get Rylee who was sitting in the front seat of this woman’s BMW having just finished an orange coolata from Dunkin Donuts! She gave us a look like, “This is my new family. We drive beemers.” She  definitely looked disappointed to see us.

Sorry, Rylee.

After that little bit of excitement, we put Tess down for a nap and decided to head right out.  The game wouldn’t start for 8 hours, but I was anxious about finding a parking spot and was desperate to get out there to feel the magic! 

We got to Boston, got stuck in some serious Head of the Charles traffic going to Cambridge – or maybe just typical Saturday afternoon Boston traffic, not quite sure – and drove down to Fenway to look for parking. We usually park outside of town and take the T in to Kenmore, but I was nervous about the game running late and needing to leave early to get the last train. Couldn’t bear the thought of risking that, so we needed to have the car close-by.  We stopped at a Shell station right next to Fenway where it would cost $60 to get a spot where we would be blocked in by other vehicles.  No thanks. We drove around to find a better option and parked in a garage at the Boston Symphony, a short walk through the fens for less than half the cost.  Lady Luck was already with us!

Me & Yaz.

Andy & Ted.

And some kid.

Fisk is my mom's favorite player.

Red Sox history!

Hopefully gonna add another one of these bad boys this week!

Yawkee Way wasn't even closed off to traffic when we got there.

We were a bit overeager to get there!

We walked to Fenway, took some pics with the Yaz and Ted Williams statues, looked at the overpriced t-shirts at the pro-shop, decided to buy them on Amazon instead, and headed to our favorite bar, Boston Beer Works, by around 3:30pm. With each sip we would toast to Ken, the man with the tickets.

Boston Beer Works fine brew.

Beard Beer 'Stash.

Ken.

A scholar and a gentleman.

My mom made sure to text me frequently with Tess updates.  I noticed she was wearing a new outfit in some of the pics – apparently mom caved and gave Tess an early Christmas present (my mom is the queen of early Christmas presents!)

My parents live right on this lake.

I spent ALL my time here as a kid. 

Swimming, fishing and boating in the summers, ice skating in the winter.

Mom took Tess there while we were in Boston.

They also spent some time in what 

remains of my mom's summer garden!

We finally made our way over to Fenway around 7pm and it was, in a word, electric. There was just an energy in that place – we knew something big was going to happen that night.  As we walked out to our seats, they were playing Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, an odd choice for a sporting event we thought, but it was actually perfect. It provided this perfectly eerie atmosphere that almost gave you goosebumps.  The stadium was actually a little quiet, despite being packed. It was like everyone was just soaking it all in, not talking, not cheering, just… soaking it all in!

Approaching our seats.

The Dropkick Murphys sang the National Anthem and played their Fenway Anthem, “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” as well.  I was hoping they’d play “Tessie,” but you can’t have everything I guess.

Murphys!

Bill Mueller threw out the first pitch of the game.  Bill Mueller is a Red Sox hero. In 2004, when the Sox were down 3 games to 0 against the Yankees in the ALCS, and an out away from losing the pennant, Bill Mueller singled to get Dave Roberts home to tie the game, forcing extra innings where the Sox eventually won.  They then went on to win the next 3 games to go on to the World Series. Which they also won.

The mellow atmosphere we walked into was long gone by the time the game started. You could barely hear yourself think for the screaming.

Having this red sox legend throw out the first pitch was cool enough, but what was EVEN MORE cool, is that right before we left Atlanta for the game I was given a Sox jersey with #11 on the back – Bill Mueller was #11. Coincidence?  Or a sign?

On top of that, Clay Buckholtz was pitching. Also #11.

Finally, the number 11 also had some major significance to my brother. 

This wasn’t a coincidence. Magic was about to happen!!!

However, the first few innings were relatively uneventful, a single there, some walks, a few strikeouts.  No score after 5 innings. 

Finally, in typical Meag-visits-Fenway fashion, I had to go to express some breastmilk in the ladies room in the 5^th inning. While I was in there, I could hear Joe Buck’s play-by-play over the loud speaker and the sox got their first run! And I missed it!  I quickly finished up to get back to see some additional runs, and I got back just in time to see the third out. 

Then, the next inning, the Tigers got 2 runs!  Of course I was there for that.

I couldn’t decide if I had to swear off any more trips to the bathrooms so I wouldn’t miss any more excitement, or if I should hide out in a stall for the remainder of the game because clearly things were going better for us when I was in there.

But suddenly we started to rally.

Gomes double. Bogaerts walks. Ellsbury gets on base from an error. Bases loaded, 1 out. People were on their feet, it was time for some magic.

Then Victorino gets up.  Andy leans over and mentions how this is the guy who has been hit by more pitches than anyone else in the major leagues… hinting that we might get lucky and get someone home on a hit pitch. 

But I honestly thought to myself, “But that would suck.” There is already so much criticism of Victorino for getting hit by pitches, that he leans in on purpose. And that’s kind of shitty. I didn’t want to tie up the game or win on something shitty. I wanted a hit!

As I was thinking, “just don’t hit into a double play, Victorino” I hear the crack of the bat. I see the ball soaring out towards the monster. When you are actually at the game and not watching on TV, it’s hard to see where a fly ball is exactly. There isn’t a camera man zooming in on the ball, highlighting its trajectory through the sky. At first I couldn’t tell, is it fair? Did it go over? Pedtroia just had a hit a few innings prior that was literally inches away from being a homer over the monster so I was afraid the same thing happened.

But then the crowd erupted. It went over! Homerun!!! GRANDFUCKINGSLAM!!!!!!!

I have never experienced anything like it!  Andy, Ken and Ken’s friend whose name I can’t even tell you right now threw our arms around each other and jumped up and down in our row in a solid mass. We were high fiving and hugging everyone around us. People were shouting “THIS IS THE GREATEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!” Actually, that might have just been me. It was electric.

Everyone was on their feet for the remainder of the game. The energy in that ballpark was like nothing else. I’ve never been to a playoff game, maybe they are all that way, but it was amazing.

Mom texted me this pic during the game.
Tess woke up because she needed to see the magic happen too.

There were a few times where I really felt that my brother Ron was there with us. I’ve mentioned many times how Ron was a serious sox fan – there was the #11 thing and a few others.Then they played Chariots of Fire – Ron was a runner and that was one of his songs and favorite movies. I guess maybe it’s not that weird that they played Chariots of Fire at a sporting event, it’s a sporty song… but it’s not really a “psych up” song.  It seemed oddly out of place, but it made me feel very close to my brother. What he wouldn’t have given to be there at that game! It was an emotional moment.

The game ended with Uehara’s incredible MVP-worthy pitching and exuberant celebrations.  We stuck around to watch the trophies being handed out, and we went right down to the field level. The guys came back out and were spraying champagne on the crowd. It was surreal honestly.

Tessie!

Ellsbury! So close!!!

Drool...

What was equally as surreal was leaving Boston at 2am to drive back to Western Mass. O.M.G. I have literally never been so tired. I was practically hallucinating I was so tired. I had to pull over at the Charlton Rest Stop on the pike to sleep for 20 minutes! The real mindf&*k was when the alarm on our phones went off at 4. Because that’s what time we woke up the day before.  Gross.

We got back to my Mom’s at 4:30 in the morning. It was very nice, at 6:30 when Tess woke up, to be able to call out “Moooooom! Help!” And after feeding her, handing her off to Gramma so I could sleep in.

The rest of our short trip consisted of visiting with family, doing a corn maze, taking a drive up to Historic Deerfield and even going to the place where Andy and I got married 6 years ago! Our anniversary was October 26, so it was nice to be there at the same time of year. 

Lurking in the corn maze.

Stuff like this makes my mom nervous.

We made her go in with us though.

She was pretty terrified.

You can take the girl out of the country, but can't take the country out of the girl.

We got married here in 2007!

Nothing is prettier than New England in the fall.

3 generations!

The Pioneer Valley

Tess in her Halloween costume at Historic Deerfield

Leaves!

About 2 hours before our flight on Monday Andy’s friend asked if we wanted to go to game 1 of the World Series.   

Um. What?

Unfortunately, Andy had a couple of important meetings, we had to get back to our dogs, and we just couldn’t cancel our flights and face another long drive back from Boston at 2am so soon. 

We turned them down and flew home.

Beard up!

Then we got home and were like, “WHAT THE F DID WE JUST DO?!??!”

We spent game 1 on the couch, practically in tears that we missed the 8-1 blowout.

This morning we got another text from Ken.

"Game 6?"

We learned our lesson last week. We're going.

Besides, we brought them good luck in the ALCS. They need us.

We burned some Delta skymiles and are sitting in the bleachers Wednesday night.

TO BE CONTINUED…

GO SOX!!!!