It’s Boston Week on the Four + One Blog! Read Fenway Park: The Real Deal (Game 1) for my breakdown of Thursday night’s game vs. the Blue Jays. Stay tuned for more Boston-related comment coming at you all week.
Since I covered all the great things about Fenway Park in yesterday’s post, I’m going to go ahead and focus on the experience we had at Friday night’s game. You could say it was unique, and here’s why:
That’s right. On Friday night we wore our Dodger Manny t-shirts to the game. This plan had been in place for months, and we actually purchased the t-shirts about a week before his suspension. After exhausting all our options for returning the shirts and getting our money back (or selling them, giving them away, burning them) we decided we might as well wear them. Or more precisely, the guys talked me into wearing them. I’m not big on being the center of attention in public.
When you’re wearing one of these at Fenway there’s no need for a conversation starter. Here’s what I learned in the process:
1. Fenway fans aren’t as rough and tumble as you’ve heard. Maybe the types who would have given us trouble have been left by the wayside as ticket prices went through the roof. But we didn’t have anyone up in our faces telling us what we could do with Manny Ramirez or our t-shirts. Any hostility came from afar in the form of uncreative obscenities. The sort of thing you might get anywhere.
2. The Criticism and banter we did get was decidedly not creative. Very few people kept up with our comebacks, in fact here are a few of our inspired exchanges:
A. As we took our seats one young lady yelled, “Manny uses drugs!” to which Niel responded, “And you don’t?” She was flummoxed.
B. A Mets fan exclaimed, “Is that a man purse?!?” He was talking about my Duluth Pack field bag, but I’m almost sure he thought he had just won an argument about Manny’s merits as a ballplayer. I responded shrewdly with, “Yes.”
C. “Manny sucks!”
It became quickly apparent most of them didn’t have much of an argument. And they were especially subdued when the subject of the two championships he gave them came up. Which leads me to believe…
3. Despite many reports to the contrary, Red Sox fans still love Manny. I’d say this is true for about 95% of the people we talked to. One guy claimed Manny is dead to him (”When the Dodgers come to town, I won’t boo him or nothin’. He won’t be there, he doesn’t exist to me.”). A few people cursed us in passing. But not one person we got into a serious conversation with could deny the fact that Manny had given them a lot. They didn’t hassle us the way I thought they would. They really do love him. They can’t help themselves.
Most Red Sox fans expressed gratitude for his role on the two championship teams. Many said they still had a place in their hearts for him. At a bar after the game one Mets fan even confessed his love and admiration for Manny, and said he couldn’t wait for him to come back. This leads me to believe that the case for loving Manny (whether you’re a Dodger fan or not) is too strong. And the reality of the “PED users are seen as villains” storyline is non-existent.
In the end, wearing our Manny t’s was the best decision we made all trip. We were the life of the party. Everyone within three rows of us was our friend by the end of the game. We had great baseball conversations with some old timers from Philadelphia and a couple from Denver (sitting in front of us). Of course Niel got his flirt on with a couple representatives of Red Sox Nation sitting two rows behind us (including the girl who had previously accused Manny. Niel’s a smooth one).
One final observation about this game. The Mets fans showed up, big time. I assume this wouldn’t happen in a playoff game, but the Red Sox fans were totally outdone by the visiting crowd. When was the last time you heard chants of “Let’s go (baseball team)!” for the away team? Red Sox fans tried to drown them out with boos, but were only partially successful. Then they started their own chant, but the Mets fans snuck in a quick “Let’s go Mets!” during the natural break in the chant. The Red Sox finally resorted to a “Yankeees suck!” chant. It’s not a sign of success when you bring a mutually hated rival into the equation.
I guess the lesson here is if you give the Mets fans a reason to go to Boston for Memorial Day weekend, they’re going to bring the heat. Now if they just had an answer for the Dodgers sweep they’d be in business.
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