Day 20 - Boston, MASSACHUSETTS # 2

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Breakfast was in house here with a modern breakfast facility and was really big. Only a light breakfast of yoghurt, banana and OJ today. We had planned to get a Taxi down to Fenway Park the famous home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to start the day and we asked reception around 9.00am to call a Taxi for us to make sure we arrived in time for our 10.00am tour and he said don’t pay $70- catch the train instead for only $2.40 ! So we bought what they call here a Charlie Card to get us around.

We got the instructions from him on how to get there using a combination of the Red Line from the Andrew T-Line station which was about 900 metres walk away from our hotel. What a coincidence that Andrew T-Line station was located on Southampton Street named after my birthplace town ? We then changed 4 stops later at the Park Street station to the Green Line. It was pretty easy and we did not have to wait very long connecting to the new train and we arrived at Kenmore Station at 9.45am but we had some issues from there !

The information we had read online about the tour (including travel reviews) referred to a very strict bag policy at Fenway Park and as we were going to be out for the whole day we needed to take the backpack with some drinks, snacks, umbrellas etc. as it was forecast to rain and we needed extra layers in case it got windy again. Forecast is cloudy and cold around 12 degrees and possible rain in the afternoon. So I knew I could not take it inside Fenway Park for the tour and all the information guided me to using their storage facility at nearby Lansdowne Parking Garage.

So as we make the short walk from the train station to the ball park I am trying to find the parking garage and to avoid wasting time I sent Kerry off to Gate D where the tour starts and I tried to hunt down these storage lockers on the opposite side of Fenway Park only to find out the lockers are portable and only arrive on game days around 2 hours before the game starts. It’s now 9.55am and game time is 7.10pm so Houston, I have a problem. I head around to meet Kerry at Gate D and there is a big line up of people about to start the tour and I found someone working there and asked about the bags and he kindly sent me off to the Fenway Beer Shop on Van Ness Street where I was able to leave my backpack for $5- and I ran back to Gate D (Run Forrest Run!!) and made it back as the last person was entering the security gates.

Well now for the tour and let me say this place is steeped in history and the tour guide we had was very passionate about baseball and the Red Sox. He talked a lot about the past players and came up with some funny stories including one about a guy called Lawrence Berra more commonly known as Yogi Berra who had a long career playing for the Yankees before finishing with the Mets and later being a manager and coach. In fact Yogi Berra has the record for winning the most World Series titles with 10 between 1946-1965. Yogi Berra came up with a lot of famous quotes and one of these related to a question he was asked about going to a popular restaurant in Boston and he said “no-one goes there any more as it is too crowded !” How can it be crowded if no-one goes there ? It just does not make any sense and he has many more quotes like this people often refer to in baseball folklore as Yogi quotes.

Some of baseball’s most famous players have played here such as Babe Ruth, Joe De Maggio, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson to name a few that I had heard of. The ball park opened in 1912 and is not a perfect shape which gives it some distinct characteristics which add to the beauty of this place. We were taken to several different parts of the ground which started with the Green Monster seats which are considered one of the best seats to watch baseball and sit high above a 37 foot tall wall which is high enough to make it a challenge for players to hit over 3rd base to score a home run. We also went into the Press Box and other parts of the park to see different views of the field. We also saw the famous red seat marking the place where Ted Williams hit the ball an amazing 502 feet in 1946. It looks like a small ball park but it’s overall capacity of 37,000- surprised me.

We heard the story where they changed the baseball rules about the minimum length of the field one year. At Fenway, the right field line to the yellow foul pole is only 297 feet and was below the new distance required. They would have needed to remove several rows of seats and the yellow foul pole (Pesky’s pole) to accommodate the new rule but instead the groundsman instead just repainted the sign as 312 feet (problem solved). It is still today 297 feet and below the official minimum requirements but no-one cares !

The Red Sox were actually formed in 1901 and moved to Fenway Park in 1912. Opening game was on April 20th against the New York Highlanders (later became the Yankees). This was the same year that Oreo biscuits and Lifesavers were invented however the press attention to their grand opening of the ball park was a little underwhelming as 5 days earlier a marine accident took place involving an ocean liner and an iceberg (any clues !). We also heard about the “Curse of the Bambino” which relates to Babe Ruth ( aka Bambino) being sold to the Yankees in 1920 as the Red Sox refused to meet his salary request so he put a curse on them and year after year the Yankees would beat the Red Sox and this curse was only beaten in 2004. After the tour we looked at the museum and saw some cool Babe Ruth gear and visited the souvenir shop but everything was pretty expensive there.

Then we got back on the Green Line to Boston Common. Kerry said “look a squirrel” and I looked around and counted like 10 squirrels nearby and they were literary everywhere and so fun to watch especially climbing the trees. Not much sign of any trees changing colour here yet for the fall season. Boston Common was built in 1634 and is considered the oldest public park in the USA. We would walk across Boston Common admiring an amazing statue of George Washington to a visit an old bar that used to be called the Bull and Finch but was made famous by a TV show called Cheers.

When we walked in there was a huge lineup waiting for lunch and we put our name down for a table and Kerry spotted a sign saying upstairs was a gift shop and TV set so off we go and they had an exact replica of the TV set and I got to have a beer with Norm. No-one seemed to know this existed as we had it all to ourselves ! The bar downstairs did not totally represent what you see on TV but the entrance from the street is identical. We scored a booth in the back section and we both had soup Clam Chowder and Beef Chilli and a Cheers glass with Downeast Cider 20 oz which is a Boston brew and was very refreshing. Quite pricy for lunch (soups were $16.99 plus tax) but we had a great time feeling the atmosphere.

We had planned on visiting the Boston Tea Party museum to finish off the day but it closes earlier on Tuesday’s than we realised so maybe we’ll do that tomorrow. We decided to walk to the Visitors Centre on the far end of Boston Common where we are to start the Freedom Heritage Walking Tour booked for tomorrow. It was about 2.40pm and I asked if we would be starting our tour here and and the guy said yep. I then asked what our options were as the weather forecast is for rain tomorrow and he said “do you want to do the tour now @ 3.00pm instead” so we thought OK why not.

This walk only covered a mile in distance but the guide who was dressed in period clothing from the 1770’s was very informative giving us a history lesson of Boston and in particular the events that lead to the USA Declaration of Independence in 1776 , the American Revolutionary War 1775-1783 and the war with Britain in 1812 .

The tour finished at Faneuil Hall and we went to the adjoining Quincy markets to have a look around. Lots of food options here and a quick look at the souvenir shops showed they were pricey with a shop selling classic Boston licence plate for $16- (way too expensive for my liking). I bought a coffee and Kerry had a Hot Chocolate and we sat upstairs giving our feet and backs a rest as we’ve done a lot of standing and walking today. We then decided to start heading back to our Hotel and Kerry suggested I grab something to eat For dinner so I bought a Chipotle / Chicken / Avacado sandwich on a Baguette (similar to Subway) from Bread O’Life and we headed back to the train and it was now raining a little so we took it easy walking back and went to Downtown Crossing station and caught the Red Line back to Andrew station and were back in the room by 6.30pm and tucked into my dinner roll.

It was a very full day as we had not planned the freedom trail walking tour but tomorrow’s weather does not look good so it might have been good to get it done when we had the opportunity.

After dinner we watched another episode of the The Voice and snacked on the cheese we bought a few days ago in Newport with crackers and the 1.5 litre bottle of Rose. Later checked on the Red Sox game and they won against the Tampa Bay team, 6-0 but is was called off after 6 innings due to rain. They play them again tomorrow for their final game of the regular season and the Red Sox have not had a good year (can you believe they play 162 games in their regular season !). A season pass would cost a fortune and consume a lot of one’s time I guess. Well as I said tomorrow’s weather looks like a rainy day and still cold at around 14 degrees so we will adapt the schedule to suit.

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Photos

View from main stand (fancy turf patterns ?)
Also good example of the unusual field shape at the far end.