The Ladies' Dan: Hooray for Opening Day

Of all the Harvard “traditions” in which one should partake before graduation, going to Fenway for Opening Day was the one I coveted most.

Don’t get me wrong; there’s still plenty of room for the stacks, the John Harvard statue and Primal Scream in any young lad’s agenda book. Let’s just say, at this time of year, baseball should have (slightly) more prevalence in one’s mind than Dewey Decimal fornication, University landmark urination or aerobic genitalia demonstration.

And so, when presented with the chance to either (a) go to class yesterday or (b) stay up all night and wait outside in cold, nasty rain in order to get tickets for Opening Day, I hope you can all understand why I chose the latter over the former. Perhaps a bad decision in retrospect given that Pedro sucked, the Red Sox lost and that word on the street was that Mort Horwitz was en fuego in Warren Court lecture.

Then again, despite all of the unpleasantness surrounding Opening Day—the five-hour wait for obstructed view tickets, the horrendously slow pace of the game, the steady evaporation of a drunken euphoric haze before the sun peeked over the horizon—there were many memorable moments to go around.

First of all, the primary company and supporting cast was legendary. With a fellow Crimson sports writer and two of his high school buddies, we arrived at Fenway at 4:30 a.m. and somehow kept ourselves entertained for well over five hours in a constant, drizzling rain.

Perhaps the principle explanation for our early entertainment was a cadre of Oscar-caliber supporting actors. Between sporadic appareances by the new principal owner of the BoSox John Henry (it was either him or an automatronic robot made to look just like him), a photo-op with Channel 4 sports reporter and local legend Bob Lobel, and musical accompaniment by the Hot Tamale Band, we somehow made it to our seats in time for the 1 p.m. start.

But good company aside, the day was really carried by the events on the field. An interesting rendition of “The Star-Spangeled Banner” by local legend Steven Tyler was followed by a fly-over of four F-16 fighter jets and an unfurling of a huge American flag that completely covered Fenway’s infamous Green Monster in left field.

And as if the Boston crowd hadn’t been whipped up into enough of a frenzy, the first pitch(es) were thrown out by the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. Complete with the Lombardi trophy and their football jerseys, 25 Pats threw out pitches simultaneously to the 25 Red Sox players.

A little earlier, the Sox had foreshadowed their solidarity with the Pats’ philosophy by choosing to be introduced as a team rather than as starters and reserves.

The game itself, while it really couldn’t live up to the hype and hyperbole of the opening ceremony, was nonetheless very entertaining as far as baseball games go. Boston fell into an early 7-1 hole as Pedro was quite rusty in his first start of the season. However, four Red Sox home runs later and with poor pitching ushering in a plethora of offense, the score had jumped to 11-11 by the 5th inning.

This must be what being a Rockies fan is like.

Of course, as is almost fitting of the Red Sox, the back-and-forth game ended on a sour note, as the Blue Jays were able to hold on to a 12-11 win. The fans were expectedly dejected after the game, what with Pedro having been shelled and the home team having dropped a game it could have easily won.

But amid the gloom of the game and the cold, biting wind, I heard a familiar refrain that indicated that there was still a fighting hope in the hometown fans.

“This is still the year,” shouted a young kid behind me as we filed out of Fenway and made our way to the T.

“Yeah, right, April Fools’,” came an all-too-appropriate retort from a cynical fan who had probably endured too many disappointing seasons to realistically continue to root and keep the dream alive.

Is this the year for the Red Sox? Well, I don’t know, but more importantly, I don’t care. All I know is that Opening Day at Fenway was definitely an event I will never forget.

And now, because I had to skip class yesterday to attend the game, I have to return to my studies. In the library, of course.