My dad and I spent the better part of yesterday at Fenway Park to experience opening day 2005. It was a little colder than this weekend which was too bad because the weather was perfect on Saturday but it is April so I should be glad it wasn’t like it is right now outside – snowing. The day began with a walk from St. Paul down to the park. When we arrived at noon, three and a half hours before game time the lines to go through the gates were already packed with people trying to get in.

My dad and I rarely have seen batting practice because the park isn’t usually open early enough to watch the players hit. We carried a couple of beers from the Irish pub over to the stands and watched the Sox bat balls. Johnny Damon got ushered over to talk to Tom Arnold and he seemed very excited to chat with him. My dad and I pondered whether we could make money building a mock Fenway somewhere in the suburbs and rent it out to people who want to answer the question – Can I hit a homer out of Fenway park and to let corporate groups play baseball on a field with the shape of Fenway. We also considered a pint sized Fenway for the little leaguers. The folks in front of us weren’t big supporters of the fantasy Fenway in the burbs. I guess I’ll have to make friends with Theo Epstein if I want to take batting practice or try to hit homers in the real park. Some times it seems like it would be really nice to have a couple of billion dollars. Apparently, according to MSN – they live longer.

Everyone was snapping their digital pictures of each other, the Sox, and any angle they could find. My dad and I realized it was cold on the first base line so we moved into the sun on the third base line. Then we went for a walk to grab some food. We went to the steak house where we got two steak tips sandwiches and a sausage. The woman at the counter recognized my dad. On the way to our seats the ushers recognized my dad too. It is funny when you go to a sporting event, your team wins the championship, and the staff is all acting like family with the fans. Pretty cool stuff that you don’t find other places.

The pre-game show was what the fuss about opening day was all about. There had been radio talk show banter about the appropriateness of giving the sox their rings in front of the Yankees on opening day. The ceremony included the Boston pops playing in center field with James Taylor, a bunch of banners dropped from the Green monster, and veterans from the Iraq war, some missing limbs, walking the rings in from center field. The flag was at half-mast when they raised the banner and we had a moment of silence for the pope. He wore red a lot so I figure he might have been a Sox fan? It was good that the pope managed to see the sox win a championship before he died.

The old sox heroes were hiding in the outfield to raise the banner along with last years Sox. Pedro was conspicuously missing. Among the heroes were Bill Lee, Loius Tiant, and Jerry Remy. Johnny Pesky got a ring for sticking around and staying alive for so long.

The game was great because we beat the Yankees 8-1 with Wakefield pitching great. We had a good time teasing A-Rod because he made two errors that put the game far out of reach.