Scattershot Observations

…on a couple of Orioles fans’ first trip to Fenway Park.

Can I tell you a secret?

Maybe even 2 secrets?

Secret #1:

I grew up as a Red Sox fan.

Not many people know this…

I grew up in Massachusetts, about a million miles away from Fenway Park…

At least that’s how it felt as a kid.

My parents had taken my older brother to Fenway, back when it was just the three of them… by the time I came along, my parents were a little done with it…they never took me, tho we did go to the local minor league park often to watch the Pittsfield Cubs: the double A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. They played in the swamp that is known as Wahconah Park, with the hard benches and a grandstand built in the 50’s.

I was crazy about baseball for a good….5 years….from the ‘84 Tigers up to about the ‘88 Dodgers… I played ball in the yard, recording hits and outs…playing whole games…by myself…

And then I just stopped.

Years later I came around to the game again after finding myself in Baltimore, and yadda yadda, Cal Ripken, Orioles Magic, wow oh wow a team that I could go see live. First Major League game was in 1998, Os Vs Chisox… by that time the team had already broken my heart twice via Jeffrey Maier and Tony Fernandez…..

We had 14 losing seasons after that crushing 1-0 Game 6 loss at home…

But during this time I grew into being a fan of this team.

Secret #2

A Red Sox Fan made me a better Orioles fan.

I read Bill Simmons: Now I Can Die in Peace…. which was all about the amazing run of the 2004 World Series champions, the Boston Red Sox… and how his patience was finally rewarded….

And what it meant to be a fan.

I could have claimed the success of the 2004 Red Sox team as my own. I could have claimed my New England roots, put the championship sticker on my car, told everyone about 1986 and how much misery “my people” went thru growing up in the 80’s with the Celtics being the only winning New England Pro sports team…

But I did not.

When a toast was made at the pub where I worked (“to the Boston Red Sox!”) I refused to drink.

“I’ll drink to the Baltimore Orioles when they win!”

Ha ha ha fucking ha…

One day.

Maybe…

Anyway….

That book by Simmons spelled it out: you pick a team, you live and die with them. There are only a few excuses you may have for switching teams (team moving out of town being the big one).

I’m not the fan police. Love who you love. This is just how I roll.

The fact that my team has been ass-awful for more years than not is immaterial. My only choices are to be a fan or stop watching.

Because I am not going to root for another team…

*

We finally made it to Fenway. After 50 years of living and a good 30 years of being a revitalized baseball fan, we made it….

We….made it.

I could get into the obstacles…it was an Odyssey, 2026 style, (minus the suitors and the online hate)… We drove from Baltimore to Boston in an impromptu road trip because we couldn’t get on our flight…

But we made it.

This old park was everything that I thought it would be…it’s old…it’s charming…it has random stairways and passageways and sometimes (in true Massachusetts fashion) you really can’t get there from here. Obstructed views in seats that you hope aren’t yours…sections blocked by sternly worded signs…wood seats, oh so uncomfortable, reminded me of my days at Wahconah Park….

And on the field, there is baseball as it was meant to be…Monday night’s game was one of the most entertaining games I’d ever seen, a back-and-forth contest that we came 400 miles to see….

We came out on the losing end…but I was happy anyway.

The next day was a rainout which led to some soul searching…

We will get to that…

*

Scattershot Observations

The People.

Everyone was nice to us. People asked questions, people talked to us, people were friendly. People were happy to be at the ballpark.

I mean…it helps that the Red Sox had won 13 in a row up to that point. But I think that was probably secondary.

I/We have been treated badly at a park or 2 (looking at you, Toronto). But usually we are just ignored or tolerated as visiting fans.

But At Fenway, they were actually friendly.

Imagine that.

The Organ player…

How’s this for old timey flavor? You can ask him to play any song and he just may do it. Half the fun is trying to identify a popular song that you’ve heard but can’t quite place….

The spontaneous cheers.

We’ve had some discussions about this online but I will sum it up like this:

Red Sox fans cheer on their team with no prompting from the scoreboard or hype man on the field…

I can’t even tell you how different this is from Oriole Park.

Yes…yes…the Red Sox have been a better team for longer… but there is something very old school and refreshing about a crowd that needs no prompting….

Monster Seats.

Tuesday’s game was a rainout which prompted a day/night doubleheader the next day…the afternoon game was therefore a rescheduled game. We were supposed to leave in the morning but we moved heaven and earth and I promised to get us home safely if we could just stay for this one game…

We sat up in the Monster seats….

Now….this was every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. The views, the seats, the room you have to stretch out a little…

I know these seats are pricey and some may say they are not worth it. But I liked them and I’m glad we took the opportunity to watch this unfortunate loss up here, high above the field and the rest of the crowd….

Speaking of which…..

Crowds.

This was a Tuesday afternoon, for a rescheduled game….

And it was packed.

I mean…not every seat was filled. But it was easily in the 30 thousand territory.

Packed.

On a Tuesday.

Of a rescheduled game.

If this had been back in Baltimore, we would have been lucky to have 10 thousand people here.

Once, the likable journeyman Chuck McElroy got his one and only win as a starter during an afternoon makeup game (I was offered tickets to this one, but I couldn’t go, like most of Baltimore). If memory serves….there were less than 5 thousand fans there to witness it.

I don’t say any of this to slam on Baltimore. I love my city and my team and I only wish them both the very best.

But why can’t this be us?

The Vibe.

This was the thing that I noticed most, especially on that first night.

You can feel the energy around this place…the people…the team…the game….

It’s actually exciting to be here.

This place has smelled success in the last 20 years, a kind of success that has eluded us as Orioles fans. You can feel it. These are smart fans that love their team and aren’t afraid to show it. I was excited to be there as a first time Fenway visitor, for sure. But I was also excited because the game and the energy kept me into it….

And that’s what keeps people coming back.

That is what makes it fun to come to the ballpark.

When the vibe is there, the atmosphere is special…people sitting with other people, enjoying a shared experience. You are hi-fiving strangers…you are laughing with people wearing a different color hat than you…you are enjoying the fresh air and the grass on the field in a park that is 114 years old, sitting in some of the same seats that were there since the beginning…

This is baseball…this is the game we love.

And no ballpark captures that more than Fenway.

I will always love my home ballpark the most.

But Fenway will be my Non-Camden Number one…

*

Bonus time/Soapbox…

I’m back to the question…

Why can’t this be us?

Haters will say, “No one wants to come to Baltimore…it’s unsafe, it’s dirty, the panhandlers, The Wire….”

I call bullshit, for 3 reasons.

1. I have lived in Baltimore for 30 years. The Wire is indeed accurate. I will not deny that. But it’s not everything, it’s not everywhere.

I submit that Baltimore’s problems are not your problem as a visitor. The street crime (which by the way has gone way TF down during the term of our Mayor, Brandon Scott) is statistically a thing that you have a very low chance of experiencing. It is not all drugs and panhandlers, but if you have a heart and want to help, by all means donate to one of the many fine charities (I like this one:

https://www.hchmd.org/ ) and then shut the fuck up.

2. Even if that doesn’t sway you, consider this: your drive into Baltimore will take you to a safe parking lot where you will be walking in and walking out with several thousand baseball fans. Your Light Rail Ride might be crowded, but you are with many, many people and they are mostly excited to be going to a game. You do not need to wander the streets if you don’t want to. But if you do, you may find that we are some pretty nice people here.

I think you’ll be ok.

3. People show up for things when they are important. Big games, Bruce Springsteen concerts, Ravens playoffs….I’m just saying, I really don’t think the city is the problem…

The issue is probably larger than the scope of this post…but maybe with an open mind we can have a conversation….