Fenway Park!!!

(Posted by Charlie)

I had another training for one day the past week - this time in Boston on Wednesday morning. Luckily, the Red Sox were in town, so I took an early morning train the train there. This was my first time riding a train of any sort since I moved here, and it was definitely a good experience. I drove from our house to the Stamford, Connecticut station. I took the Amtrak business class train, which was great - a fair amount of space (more than air travel) and free wireless internet. A co-worker drove to Boston for the training, and said the drive was fine - until he arrived in the city. If you've ever been to Boston, the streets aren't exactly a grid. So I was glad I took this option.

After working Tuesday from the Boston office - I took a cab to the best park of all - Fenway! The description I tell people - "this is where God wanted baseball to be played". And I do not like the Red Sox - though I root for the home team whenever I go to a park. The city blocks off most of the streets directly surrounding the park (Yawkey Way and Lansdowne), and there are vendors selling various ballpark fare. I got an Italian Sausage on Yawkey Way - this is hands down thge best ballpark food you can have!!!

My seat was in the outfield - about as far as possible from home plate as you can be. But that's OK; Fenway is relatively small and you get good views from out there. The Sox were playing the Tampa Bay Rays, so it was a matchup of two good teams. David Ortiz hit a 3-run homer for the first runs, and they almost blew it open, taking an 8-1 lead. The Rays came back though, and the Red Sox surprisingly had to bring in their closer, Papelbon, to protect the 8-5 lead with runners on in the 9th.

The Green Monster is definitely the most unique feature in any park - and a Red Sox player (Billy Hall) actually homered over the famous 37-foot left field wall. All in all - it was awesome to take advantage of the trip for work and be able to see a game at Fenway. This was the 2nd game I'd ever seen there, and, good or bad, the Red Sox have won both...