04Oct05 - A Trip to watch the World Series Champion Red Sox vs. my Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park


The first picture is from the subway in Boston at the Park Street station. They have a mosaic mural there that is just beautiful and something one doesn't expect to find in the subway!




This is a my view from my seat in right field. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for watching a game.
The entrance to Fenway Park off Yawkey Way. There were people everywhere hawking everything from hotdogs to souvenirs. Over 30,000 people showed up for the game on a Tuesday afternoon at 1:05 pm; doesn't anybody work?

Ah, the reason Fenway is so special, The Green Monster in left field. It's 37 feet 2 inches high and 240 feet long and stands 310 feet from home plate. Apparently back in the old days the ground in front was also sloped up some 10 feet. It still is raised a little today but not nearly 10 feet!


Two trips to Boston and the most expensive sporing event I have ever seen.

While looking at things online (on Monday the 26th of September) I decided to checkout the Craiglist sight for Boston. For those of you who don't know what Craiglist is, it's a free online classified ad site. They have most major cities listed and this is in fact how I found our washer/dryer.

While browsing the tickets, I noticed that there were a number of people selling tickets for the Blue Jays/Red Sox series starting that evening so I decided to call Rayne and see if she was interested in going to Boston for a ball game. It's about 2 hours away from Hartford. Once I spoke to Rayne (and got the budget for tickets) I set about sending off emails to anyone that was selling cheap tickets. There were a few for 25.00-30.00/ticket obo (or best offer) and most were much more expensive. I really wasn't expecting much since Rayne and I had decided our budget was 60.00/pair, the Red Sox were in the midst of a penant race with the Yankees and if you were to get on the waiting list today for season tickets you might actually get them by 2050 (seriously!).

As luck would have it one of the people I emailed was a student from Boston University. She had lsited the tickets at 25.00 obo but said she was hoping to get 42.50/ticket. I called Rayne and we settled on 35.00/ticket. Rayne got off work early, I arranged with the neighbours son to take the dogs for a walk while we were at the game and off we went.

The drive to Boston was pertty uneventful. Most of the drive is on the Massachusetts Turnpike which is pretty straight and boring. I had printed directions to Fenway from Mapquest so we could meet and get the tickets before the game. Now here is the thing. Boston has pathetic directions (even to Fenway Park) and is full of obnoxios/discourteous drivers/pedestrians and an inordinate number of one way streets. While we made it to Boston with an hour to spare it took us more than 1/2 an hour (and plenty of expletives) to eventually find Fenway and get parking.

BTW the parking was 30.00, so between the 2 tickets and parking we're at 100.00 (not bad for a trip to Fenway I figure!). We went into the Golds gym next to Fenway and asked to borrow the phone to arrange to pick up the tickets. In another two minutes the girl showed up with the tickets and took our 70.00, she rushed off in a heartbeat because it had just started to rain...

We entered Fenway and wound our way through the hallowed halls (picking up a beer on the way) to find our seats in the bleachers. We put on our Gortex jackets, marvelled at the lights and the Green Monster and sipped our beer while we waited for the rain to lighten and the game to start. An hour passed and the rain continued to fall until an announcement came over the PA that the game had been cancelled and would be made up the next day at 1:05pm. Dammit! We had half expected the rain out (there was a 56% chance of rain) but I did not expect them to schedule the game for the next day. Apparently neither did the throngs of faithful that loudly booed when they annonced the date and time for the make up game. Like Rayne, I suspect that many of the crowd were at the night game because they had to work and couldn't attend a day game. The only happy people this night would be the scalpers lined up at the front door buying tickets for 15.00/each no matter their value! So we went back to the car and drove home to Hartford in the rain...

the tally for a rainout

Two tickets for the game - 70.00
Gas to and from Boston - 30.00
Parking across the street - 30.00
2 beers to drink in the rain - 13.50

Total 143.50

When we arrived home I asked one of the neighbours if they'd like to come to the game the next day, all they had to do was pay bus fare to the game. They couldn't make it (something about going to college or some rubbish). The next day it went like this.

Cab Fare to the Bus Station - 18.00 (with tip)
Return Bus ticket to Boston - 42.00
return Subway fare to Fenway - 2.50
Massive delicious Hot Dog - 6.75
Water to sit in the 80f bleachers - 4.00

Total for day 2 - 73.25

I sold Rayne's ticket after some haggling for 15.00

Net Total for day 2 - 58.25

Total for me to go see one game at Fenway Park.........201.75 (Ouch!)

The game was great. The Blue Jays lost, which made the fans happy. People all around me were giving me high fives whenever Boston got a strikeout or a hit. I even learned to speak New Englandese! A leadoff hitter (the guy who bats first) is a "table setta", Fenway is a "Ball Pahk", and when you go home you get in your "Cah". Now put it all together, "Pahk yuh cah in Hahvahd Yahd". Apparently the letter R is to be used sparingly if at all in these parts. Speach geeks call this non-rhotic speaking...

We are headed to Ontario to visit Rayne's aunt at her cabin (or cottage if you are from Ontario), this weekend. It should be a good time. The dirve is about 7 1/2 hours non-stop so I expect with puppy watering breaks we should be there in 10 hours or so. It'll be nice to be in Canada again!

I ordered the NHL Centre Ice package from the cable company here. Unfortunately something went haywire on opening night and so I missed my beloved Cancuks game...I was pretty dissapointed after 1 1/2 years of waiting to see hockey again so I went and wrote to nasty reviews of the cable company on Epinions etc. A nice fellow showed up today to resolve the problem so hopefully I can watch some games when we get back! Looking forward to Hockey Night in Canada escapes on Saturday night!

The weather here has still been very warm. Today 07Oct05, the temperature has been in the low 80s (25 -28c) and very humid! Apparently next week things will suddenly drop down to the 60s (15c). It's been too warm for the fall leaves to change so far but we plan to take lots of pictures on the way up and back if we see a magic spot.

Hope you are all keeping well and you enjoy Thanksgiving!

Ciao for Now

Kevin and Rayne

BTW if you leave a comment can you put you name in so we know who's speaking? Cheers