Thursday in Boston brought us to the oldest university in the United States and the oldest ballpark in use in Major League Baseball. I guess one might say the overall theme for Boston is old. From our wonderful location in the South End, we hopped on the orange line of the “T” at Mass Ave and connected to the Red Line across the Charles River to Harvard Square. We started the morning by walking around Harvard for a little bit trying to take in the academia amongst the other tourists. The students had already finished exams, so the only real action on Harvard Yard was the facilities crews preparing for graduation and us tourists walking around snapping pictures.
This stone is just outside the main gate and tells the story of how Harvard and the city of Cambridge were founded. And just because it’s Harvard, it has to be in goofy Olde English.
This statue is of John Harvard, who was one of the University’s first donors. Brandi said that I shouldn’t touch the statue's shoe because the Harvard kids pee on it at night.
Cream of the crop indeed.
I do have to say that the Library was pretty impressive to see.
After having lunch at Au Bon Pain (which means Place of Good Bread in French, Au Bon Pain is a Boston based café and was a delicious and fancy version of Panera Bread) in Harvard Yard, we headed back to the South End to take a nap before the Red Sox Game.
After Brandi took a nap and I went for a jog in the South End, we walked toward Fenway Park in rainy conditions. Thankfully, the skies cleared just as we approached Fenway, and the game would go on without any rain delays.
The pre-game atmosphere around Fenway was pretty cool to see and featured a lot of people having beers and sausage dogs. There were bands outside the stadium on Yawkey Way, and people were excited to see Josh Beckett and Justin Verlander pitch that night in Fenway.
First pitch of the game from Josh Beckett. Beckett pitched well before leaving the game in the 7th inning with an injury. Justin Verlander pitched better than Beckett did that day, but the Red Sox came through with more clutch hits.
Despite the modern touches of the mega videoboards and marketing genius of $8 beer nights, Fenway still has the charm of days gone by, and we really got to see Bostonians in their element at Fenway. Whether they were calling J.D. Drew a bum or belting out Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" in the 8th inning, everyone was excited to be at the ballpark.
After Neil in the 8th, it was Papelbon time in the 9th. I am not sure how many other closers have entrance videos, but Papelbon’s video is awesome and the crowd went crazy for his entrance to the Dropkick Murphy’s hit “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.” He made it interesting by loading up the bases in the 9th, but he got out of the inning with the score 3-3.
In the bottom of the 9th, Carl Crawford earned his monster 7 year $142 million paycheck by hiting a bases loaded single to win the game for the Red Sox. It was an awesome scene at Fenway, and we are so lucky that Jack and Emily were able to get us tickets to a game while we were in town.
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