August 03, 2006

An Evening at Fenway Park

There's something about the exuberance of 36,000 Red Sox fans that has you rooting for the team, even if you know that you secretly should be rooting against them. That's the situation I found myself in this evening, as my wife and I shared a visit to the historic venue for the first time together. I had previously made  a stop at Fenway Park in May of 2005 on a business trip, but this was her first time.

The Red Sox led early, taking a 3-1 margin into the 3rd, when Cleveland struck back with a solo shot. In the fourth, Travis Hafner clubbed a homer around Pesky Pole, and tied it up. That was not to be the end of the scoring, however, as little-heralded Shin Soo Choo stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded in the 5th, and hit a grand slam, clearing the bases, and drawing a hush over the sellout crowd. With a 7-3 lead now, the Indians held on to win, even with David "Big Papi" Ortiz and Manny Ramirez coming up in the bottom half of the ninth. Though both sent soaring shots into the outfield, that's as far as the balls went, staying in the yard and extinguishing the team's hopes.

Being a baseball nut, it's hard to play the role of tourist, but we took a few pictures of the park, adding to the dozen or so I took last May. Below are some from this evening's experience.



 

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Listening to ''Mainline'', by Narcotic (Play Count: 4)