by Ray Bergman Game 18 - Red Sox vs Mariners at Fenway Park
August 24, 1996It was a rainy day in Boston for the Redsox - Mariners tilt. I haven't been rained out yet, so I had no doubt that the rain would stop and the game would go on. After a half-hour rain delay before the first pitch, the sun came out. The baseball gods prevailed and the game was played. More on the game later, but first, this.I took the commuter train in to Boston's North Station from the outskirts and then the (RTA) Green Line to Fenway. The subway was old and dirty. Worse than I can remember in New York. Kenmore Station is in desperate need of a cleaning and paint job. The (RTA) is so old that you can't find a straight run and, therefore, the cars need to be flexible in the middle to bend around the turns. They run no more than four cars to a train. From Kenmore Station, the walk to the park is about a half a mile and it takes you by the street vendors cooking and despensing all and every kind of food and drink. The likes of hot dogs, hamburgers, sausage, kibassa, chicken and pizza were very popular. People just stand in the sidewalks and streets and munch away at the goodies. As I entered Fenway, it remined me more of Tiger Stadium in Detroit than Wrigley in Chicago. It is old and shares the honer of being one of the two oldest parks in the Majors. The other is Tiger Stadium. Fenway has some mystique about it, but not as much as Wrigley, in my opinion. The Green Monster doesn't look like such a looming figure as it appears on TV. But it was good to be at Fenway for day baseball, especially after the sun came out and dried the outfield. The Redsox have been in Boston since the beginning of the franchise in 1901. They have won nine pennants and five world championships. Unfortunately, they have not won a World title since 1918. I guess the curse of the "Bambino" still lives on. That is, of course, the "blunder of a lifetime," their decision to trade Babe Ruth to the Yankees, who will forever be grateful to the Red Sox. Game Time! The Mariners sent Bob Wells to the mound to start and the Sox countered with Vaughan Eshelman. The Mariners got on the board first, with a run scoring after a Red Sox error. The Sox came back in the second with three runs, including a two run blast by Reggie Jefferson into the right field bleachers. Not to be outdone, the Mariners came right back in their half of the third with two and the score was tied after three at three. The Mariners then took the lead with a run in the fifth, but the Sox once again took the lead after a two run shot off the bat of Jeff Frye cleared the Green Monster. The deciding blow was delivered by the Sox in the sixth when Darren Braggs hit a grand slam off of Randy Johnson. The Mariners scratched out a run in the eighth to close out the scoring. Notes:
To Game Nineteen Help us provide a better web site by completing our feedback form Tickets to Red Sox spring training, Boston Red Sox and NCAA Basketball Tournament provided by Ticket Triangle. © 1996 by Ray Bergman. Reproduction of all or any part of "My Baseball Dream" without the written permission of Ray Bergman is prohibited. BALLPARKS © 1996-2014 by Munsey & Suppes.
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