A Lovely Day and a Lousy Game

Well the good news was as Opening Days go that one was a humdinger weather wise.  It was absolutely gorgeous in the ballpark which looks fantastic.  Looks like they’ve done some pretty aggressive painting and cleaning and Fenway is in wonderful shape for a 110 year old girl.  When I arrived at the ballpark I made a beeline for the new section above the bleachers in right center field.  I have to say based on a ten minute stroll up there…I am going to make it my business to catch a game from that spot at some point this year.  It is a stunning view and the bar-style seating (similar to the Monster) looks positively cavernous compared to the rest of the um…cozy Fenway Park.

As you may or may not know Fenway has gone fully cashless (for some reason I typed “conscious” there the first time).  There are more than a few issues with cashless options but I will admit it’s pretty convenient.  Having said that I have my concerns.  My 77 year old parents like to go to games and while they are pretty adept with technology and regularly use credit cards they are a lot more likely than most to use cash.  Fenway does provide some kiosks where you can exchange cash for a MasterCard debit card.  It’s not clear to me if the card is just a full on cash card you could use anywhere or only at Fenway.  Also there appears to be a $5 fee for purchasing the card which cannot be reloaded.  So it’s a $5 fee basically every time you go to a game if you want to use that.

The other problem, and I’m not sure if this is a side effect of going cashless or not, but there was a spectacular dearth of hawkers in the aisles.  I was grandstand 31 down the 3rd base line, 4th row so I could see the grandstands and box seats pretty well and there wasn’t much.

That aside the pregame ceremonies were well done.  Mo Vaughn coming out the throw the first pitch then handing over to his 9 year old son (who promptly looked in like he was taking a sign) was great.  I was wondering if maybe we would get a Phoebe Remy appearance but no dice.  Given that this was Jackie Robinson Day Mo was an appropriate move.  That reminds me of something I didn’t like.  It’s a small thing and honoring Jackie is ALWAYS good so I’m too bothered but the players not wearing the regular uniforms with regular numbers on Opening Day feels off.  That said it looked like a few players were wearing some pretty nifty Jackie Robinson socks.  Austin Davis and Kiké Hernandez were definitely two of them.

There was also a drone zipping around the field during the ceremonies.  That was a bit weird but pretty cool also.  They occasionally showed the shots they were getting on the scoreboard and they were definitely impressive.

The game itself, well it was played and I think that’s the best I can say about that.  The Sox were sloppy in the field though it was a high sky, cloudless and bright and the wind looked to be blowing hard so some of the issues on balls in the air seemed at least understandable.  At the plate Raffy is hot, Xander looks lost and everyone else is just kind of doing their thing.

A few other notes:

- I was wearing my Mike Lowell jersey in honor of the 15th anniversary of the 2007 title.  It’s the home jersey so no name.  Before the game I went to the rest room and there was a family trying to do pictures.  It was mom, two kids (6 and 3ish) plus grandma and grandpa.  I jumped in and offered to take one of the group because I’m not a total dick.  I took a few shots, thank yous and no problems were exchanged and as I went to go away grandpa said “oh that’s a great jersey.”  I had a hunch given his age I was about to get a Tony C. reference but he took me aback when he said “their dad wears that number, Plawecki.”  I wasn’t expecting that one.

- Opening Day on a Friday during Lent sucks.  On the plus side, the Fenway pizza and peanuts are great.

- At least one of the two guys sitting next to me got up to replenish their beers every bleeping inning.  I was up and down more than the bullpen catcher.

- There was a review on the HBP of Gary Sanchez.  Side benefit of the umpire announcing to the field.  That’s kind of useless but now they don’t waste their time running over to the third base dugout to put on the headset.  That alone is a time saver.

- Pictures from the day at Fenway