My 2012 Season

When I was a child, maybe every other year or so, my mother would get us tickets on a bus trip to Yankee Stadium. Trips to see that late 1980s Yankees team, the definition of mediocrity, are one of my favorite memories from youth. We sat way up near the top in the outfield, got to the game in time for batting practice and stayed until the end. One time I crept down for batting practice and got a "hey kid" from Steve Sax. Was the highlight of my baseball youth until the late former Orioles bullpen coach Elrod Hendricks told me to have an aneurism at Fenway Park my junior year in high school.

Two decades later, my work involves Major League Baseball it isn't uncommon for me to make two trips to different ballparks in the same week. I've been fortunate in some of the games I've attended in the past - David Cone's perfect game, the clincher of the 2001 ALCS, Cal Ripken's last game at Yankee Stadium, the game where Billy Martin decided to use pitcher Rick Rhoden as his designated hitter (he batted 8th, ahead of Rafael Santana, and Rhoden was 0-1 with a sac fly) - but this year I was spoiled.

My first game of the year was working opening day at Citi Field. I got to walk through the field before the gates open, got a picture of the new walls at Citi Field and sent them off to the handful of Mets' fan friends I have. The following week I worked the opener at Fenway - which, from a work standpoint, was a difficult day. It was my third trip to Fenway that year (had two offseason meetings up there). As a life-long Yankee fan, I don't think I've fully digested the fact that my main working relationship in baseball is with the Red Sox. I think their staff thinks I'm a Mets fan. It's still a surreal feeling when I go through the "authorized personnel only" doors at Fenway.

A month later, during a warm early May Saturday afternoon, I took my two-year old daughter to her first game. Being a younger child, she's an observer - she learns by watching - and she's also very outspoken and uses humor to get attention. I got her to sit in a seat for a couple of innings at Fenway before I finally had to take her out to Yawkee Way to play with the kids activities there. On the way home (we left after the game was official) we stopped and got ice cream and got off the T to play at that playground in that station before Newton. Megan still talks about the day and asks to go again - a great feeling for a dad. Later in the month, my wife and both kids and I went to a Sox game (highlighted by Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt singing the national anthem). Such talent those two have. I also took my father-in-law to his first Yankee game - a win over the Orioles.

I attended the Fenway 100th anniversary game (which I blogged about before). Now that a few months have passed, I get chills thinking that Johnny Pesky and Carl Beane passed away during the season, two major parts of that ceremony. Even the Yankees (who never wear retro-uniforms) were in the 1912 road grays. Mariano Rivera got the final outs - fitting that any memorable game is closed by Mo, whether it's a Yankee memory or any memory. The last player to ever where #42 as their regular number. It fits him. And that would be the last time I saw him in person that year.

We started a tradition which I hope continues - my father, brother and I spent father's day at Nationals Park for the interleague series between the Yanks and Nationals. Friday night we were in the luxury seats and on TV much of the game. I gave Nick Swisher and "O-H" and got an "I-O" back, and got to speak with him for a couple minutes during batting practice. I know he had a rough post-season, but I'm a fan for life. What a great guy.

By the time the regular season was over, I had been to nearly a couple dozen games. Saw the Yanks 7 times, 5 times on the road (they were 6-1 when I saw them in the regular season). Just missed seeing Santana's perfect game (was at Citi Field 3 times that week). Watched the Red Sox flounder as teams like the Orioles and A's came into Boston and surprised them.

Maybe the best game I saw was the post-season. Game 3 of the ALDS (little did I know at the time the Yankees would win only one more game after that all season, while losing 5). Raul Ibanez's 2 HR game. The New Yankee Stadium isn't like the old one. The moated fans are quiet and isolated. The upper deck (where I sat) was alive.

Now the season is nearly over. Even though the World Series teams will be clients of my company, I won't need to travel to assist. This was a memorable year. I took many pictures, filled out a couple scorecards, had a Shake Shack custard shake, watched the Phillies put up 16 runs on the Mets and shared games with most of my immediate family and close friends. I watched my Yankee team look great mid-season, lose Rivera, Pettitte and Jeter to injury during the year at different times, and still managed to get to the ALCS. A memorable season with Mike Trout having one of the best rookie seasons ever, Miggy Cabrera winning the Triple Crown and R.A. Dickey bringing some excitement in an otherwise dull season for the Mets. I don't know if I can keep up this kind of schedule for the 2012 season. I always say that. Then it's three months into the offseason and I can't wait to go back again and again and again.

Fenway 100 (reprint)

Text of my piece about #Fenway100 from the Shoreline Times 

By Jeff King
Special to the Shore Line

BOSTON – On April 20, 1912, a band-box park in some land that was probably carved out by cow paths (like all roads in Boston), hosted its’ first game as the home Red Sox defeated the future-Yankees (Highlanders).

Anyone who watched the Sox sure-handed MVP, Dustin Pedroia, drop a pop-up to start Boston’s 2012 opener wondered why any game would start at 3:00 p.m., as it did that day 100 years ago.

That was then and this is now.

Much has changed. There’s no one who couldn’t make a grand list of things that have happened in the past 100 years. But at Fenway, it is business as usual in the park Boston fans consider “the heart of Boston.”

The ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary was not too long, not too short, not too loud but was never dull or quiet. At some point, every pair of eyes at Fenway Park on April 20, 2012 was awestruck. From the vendors, to the fans, to the current and retired players (many retired players walked with video cameras or mobile devices, recording their own view of the ceremony).

The former players gathered in hidden pockets throughout the field. Former pitcher and current player’s agent, Joe Sambito, poked his head out with his kids from the ambulance bay in centerfield. The Red Sox greats were allowed to have their families with them before they walked out. Even those in the ceremony weren’t quite sure what to expect. “Wear black pants” was about the only instruction they had received.

Hall of Famer Jim Rice was the first one on the field, walking in from near the Green Monster and the litany of Boston greats each entered the field one-by-one.

Yankees skipper Joe Girardi, his eyes under a pair of mirrored sunglasses, was clinging to the rail of the top step of the visitor’s dugout taking in every moment. The hated Alex Rodriguez and the captain Derek Jeter, who Sox fans begrudgingly respect, were right next to Girardi.

Unlike similar ceremonies at Yankee Stadium that are filled with grandeur and narrative accolade, the Fenway 100 ceremony script could fit on two index cards – each player announced on the centerfield scoreboard with a picture from their playing days and the years they played – those who were members of the 2004 and 2007 title teams with a World Series trophy next to their names.

Simple. Classy.

The noise in the park was from applause, not announcements. Not one player was booed, except, of course for the Yankees when they were announced at their at-bats.

Players from different generations continued to walk out, receiving cheers from every generation of Red Sox fans. Different pockets of fans cheered louder for long past greats and for recent retirees.

Bill Lee came in swinging a bat. Former manager Terry Francona got a monstrous ovation from the fans as thanks for the two World Series titles. It would have lasted longer if the next player wasn’t brought in. Bill Buckner walked in to a loud, apologetic applause. It was as if the Red Sox fans were yelling “we forgive you” in unison. Carlton Fisk looked like he could still play.

Former Red Sox and Olympian Scott Bankhead was taking pictures from the pitcher’s mound of Carl Yastrzemski as Yaz, the last player to hit the Triple Crown, walked from the dugout to the middle of the infield. He earned a prince’s applause.

The highest living royalty of Red Sox lore, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr (both decades beyond their playing years) were wheeled in by the most recently knighted players, Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield.

When they all stood on the field for the national anthem, old players and then the new ones (in vintage, numberless-uniforms), it was a high point in the history of the Red Sox Nation. The shared pause and silence before the Boston Pops (conducted by movie sound track legend and Bostonian John Williams) was a reminder of the quieter time, maybe 100 years ago, when players first took to the grass at Fenway Park.

And for fans that were there – it was a day to bring your father, or grandfather or your kids. Many three, or even four-generation families were in attendance. It is true that the attendees of the game are just as likely to remember who they went with than what they saw on the field. Baseball is like that. Memories trump statistics sometimes.

Pedro Martinez and Kevin Millar capped off the ceremony with a wild toast and a little jab at their hated rival Yankees. Caroline Kennedy threw out the first pitch. And just like that, it was time for “play ball,” as it feels like it’s always been at Fenway: the Red Sox, their hated rivals the Yankees, and all of Boston, New England and America watching baseball at Fenway Park.

As it seems we always have.
Original Article