Return to the motherland

With trepidation I got on the Amtrak at Penn Station, heading north to the city that had created so much emotions within - the horror of 2003, the enormity of 2004, and the subsequent struggles on so many levels...

Will Boston be the same? Will the good emotions win? As I get in the cab at Back Bay Station, lazy as I am with my bag filled with the bounties from Fifth Ave (and so much more to come from The Souvenir Store later..) and head for the brownstone B&B, the glorious weather takes over, and the prospect of witnessing first hand that very night when the Red Sox win their first AL East title since 1995 scatters any gloomy thoughts....

Dice-K was back on form, fanning 8, allowing only 2 runs, and the rookies continuined to perform, with both Pedroia and Ellsbury showing why they will be mainstays in the Red Sox lineup for years. Heck, even Drew is batting .375 for the last few weeks!

Fenway in the autumn, is there any place better? (Yes, I am English, so I say autumn, fall is a physical action someone takes - see Mets fall from the first place).

Friday night is just one of those magical nights, beer, dog, my old worn Red Sox cap, the crowd is completely behind the team, nobody asking "Why are they booing him" when Youkilis comes up to bat. Perfect weather, tight score until Big Papi (who else) put it away, more or less, with a solo HR in the 8th. (BP went 3-4 with a 2B and a HR, I guess he is really wearing down...:)

We watch the Yankees on the big screen, and by the end of the night, Papelbon is dancing in the infield, and the champagne is spraying as the Yankees lose to give the Red Sox the AL East title...

I spend Saturday with the thoughts if this is really a new mettle of Red Sox? Is this the team with the strength to stand up? Not the Cowboy Up self-proclaimed idiots of 2004, but the next evolution. The team that can grind out the ugly wins, a team where players like Youk, Lowell and Pedroia lift the team when Big Papi and Manny are playing below their own high standards.

With Beckett solving his blister problems and as the only 20 game winner in the majors surpassing even the standards he set as a Yankee Killer in 2003, combined with Okajima and Paps (ok, so I have selective memory recalls, I am for the sake of my own thoughts ignoring Okie's last month and the subsequent shoulder shutdown.) the Red Sox are as close as you can get to a guaranteed 2 wins in a 5 win series, and even possibly 3 starts from Beckett in a 7 game series.

However, unlike Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks, the Red Sox have other options behind Beckett; A 15 game winner in Dice-K, one of the best post-season pitchers of the modern era in Schilling, which both allows the ultimate team pitcher - Wakefield to move to shore up the bullpen. BTW, the interesting stat nugget of the day comes from Wake's post season record. In his first year in the majors, with the Pirates in 1992, he pitched two complete game wins, allowing 6 runs over 18 innings, at the age of 25. Despite this, the Pirates lost the NLDS...

Sunday, and we decide to see if we can get a standing room only tickets, so we get to Landsdowne Road by gate E, and when I get there, on the dot 2 hours before game start (which is when the game day tickets are released), the queue is about 60-70yrds long. After about an hour, with the line stopping a few times, we finally get up to the booth, and I ask "I presume you only have standing room tickets, right?". The ticket seller looks at me and says, "no we have RF boxes, Grand Stand and...

....the Green Monster seats too...

Before my heart (and my bank manager's heart) slowly regains the beat, we're in what essentially is tantamount to heaven....

This is simpy the best seat in sports, an amazing intimacy whilst still giving a widescreen view of the entire playing field at Fenway. I saw every pitch Tavarez pitched, Lugo's fantastic stab and jump throw (a play that would have made Jeter green with envy) and Ellsbury's sliding catch in CF.

Sadly, I have now been corrupted and spoiled. Never again will "normal" seats at Fenway be as good as the experience I had on the Green Monster....oh well, I'll live.