Opening Day 2006

It was an annual holiday in Boston yesterday - Opening Day at Fenway. Somehow I managed to get tickets this year (making it 17 out the last 18 years - missing, of course, the one that REALLY counted....grrrr). The day was beautiful and, after a rough 1st inning, The Sox prevailed over the Blue Jays 5-3. Usually, on opening day I try to make a day of it to take in all the sights and sounds of the first day.

Sadly, my car didn't agree with me.

On the way to bringing my little one to school I got an overheating signal. I pulled over and saw that I didn't lose any coolant. So I restarted the car, dropped her off at school and headed to my local auto repair place hoping it's a quick fix. Sadly, it was my thermostat and they didn't have one in stock and if they did it would take a couple of hours to fix. If I got it fixed, I wouldn't make the game in time. I could still drive it up to the city, but I might "overheat" on the highway a few times. So I ended up taking the train up in the next town that would get me into the city at about 12:45pm, about 75 minutes before game time. The train ride went smooth, but the shuttle from the train station to the park took a bad turn and ended up on a street under construction and we ended up crawling up this side street. In all it took us 45 minutes to travel 1/2 mile and the bus driver would not let us off to walk the rest of the way for "safety reasons". We got there about 1:30 and missed the first part of the opening day ceremonies. Still we got to see the 1946 players throw out the first pitch and saw the heartbreaking rendition of "Star Spangled Banner" performed by five-year-old Jordan Leandre, a cancer patient from the Dana-Farber institute.

After the game I managed to grab the first shuttle out and got to the train station in 5 minutes this time and got on the next train that was leaving 5 minutes later. The game ended at 4:55pm and I was home having dinner at 6:30pm - that's gotta be some kind of record.

I really had a ball and it was a perfect day for Spring baseball, but I truly missed my pre-game walk around the park, but at least I finally got to Opening Day.....again. Let the new streak begin!!