Standing by a parking meter, when I caught a glimpse of Rita.

Hate me if you want, but I was lucky enough to be at the Red Sox/Yankees game last night, the first of a critical 3-game series. Unfortunately Sage wasn't able to come, as I got the ticket from some reps of Swiss Army. The direct mail director and I from America's Test Kitchen set up some premium tests with these guys, offering some Victorinox paring knives in our upcoming direct mail. (Victorinox is owned by Swiss Army. Or Swiss Army is owned by Victorinox. Whatever.) Then a couple of weeks ago, the guy emailed us, asking if we were interested in going to a Sox/Yankees game. "It's a little late", I responded. "The game time is too late?", they asked. "No, it's a little late for DUMB QUESTIONS". So it was going to be me, Adam (the DM director), and Andy & Brian from Swiss Army. The tickets were Andy's father-in-laws seats, 4 box seats down the left field line. The first summer series against the Yankees, plus Big Papi's first game back from the disabled list, PLUS Beckett for Joba the Idiot. How could it get any better than this?

Well, how about playing some golf before the game! Because my office has lazy Fridays during the summer, Adam and I jumped off the clock right at 1:00 pm and headed to Putterham Golf Course in Brookline, a public course right next to The Country Club. We teed off around 1:30, and while I played horribly (I had some weird yips where my wedge shots were shooting right off to the right every time), we got through about 12 holes (it was slow out there) in about 3 hours, and decided it was time to head to Fenway. We called Brian & Andy and they told us they were sitting in a bar called Autobahn on Beacon St. We met up with them around 5:30, and had a few drinks and some food. While there we were chatting it up, and Andy, whose father-in-law's seats these were, was telling us how great they were, right down the left field foul line, 1 seat from the edge of the stands. That one seat, he told us, was the home of an elderly lady called Rita. Rita has been going to the games forever, he told us. Okay, so we'll meet Rita. But how exciting could that be?

As time wore on, I told these guys there was no way I was missing the first pitch, and I had to almost drag them out of the bar by 6:45 to make it to Fenway. We got in around 6:55 and let Andy & Brian buy us beers (we are the clients, after all), and made it to our seat just in time to see Jack Nicklaus throw out the first pitch. With beers in hand I settled down to enjoy one of the better seats I've had at Fenway. (Note: photos taken with my cheap camera phone, so they're not great.)
And then I met Rita. Rita was sitting all by herself, and looked to weigh about 60 pounds soaking wet. I said Hi, she said hello back, and Andy introduced us all to her (he's met her several times, as he's used the tickets quite a bit). Since I was right next to her, I thought I would engage her in some small talk. As it turned out, I spent the next three hours doing nothing but talking to her while we watched the game together. Here's a picture of me and Rita:
In the course of the game, here's just a sampling of the things I learned about Rita:

• Rita is 83 years old; she'll turn 84 next Wednesday.
• She went to her first Red Sox game when she was 14 in 1939 -- Ted Williams rookie season -- and sat in the bleachers. Cost: $0.25.
• She's been sitting in this same seat at Fenway Park since 1968 -- 40 years.
• While she has missed several games during that time, it's very rare for her to not be at the game.
  
• She has always had her own seat by herself. She said when her husband was alive, he wasn't really a sports fan, so he never wanted to come.
• Rita lives in Cambridge; to get to the game, she has to take a bus, then a train. She was a little peeved last night as it took her 45 minutes to get to Fenway. "But that's what happens when the Yankees come to town", she said.
• As far as I could tell, Rita has a total of 4 teeth in her mouth; 2 on the top, 2 on the bottom. Probably why she didn't take any of the peanuts I offered her.
  
• Rita keeps score for every game. I watched her last night, and she has her own way of scoring. A single to center is noted by "S/C"; Instead of using the traditional "K" to notate a strikeout, she simply writes "S/O".
  
• She said keeping score helps her stay focused on the game. I don't think she likes people who go to the game and don't even pay attention to what's happening. It was also very useful when we wanted to know how many strikeouts Beckett had, or how many hits Papi had.
  
• I asked her what she does with all her scorecards. "Oh, I rip them up and throw them away, unless it's a real good game, like Lester's no hitter."
  
• She was keeping score on an "official" Red Sox score sheet, which she pulled out of the "official" Red Sox program. Brian, one of the guy's I was with, asked her why she pays $5 every game for basically the same program just to get a scorecard when she could just bring her own? "Well, I buy my programs from the same kid every game, and I started buying them from him when he was 16, and now he's 40, so I would just feel bad if I stopped." But she figures that since she never buys food or drink at the ballpark, it's not that much more of an expense.
  
• When Manny plays in left field, he often time stops by to say hi to Rita. (The wall is only about 8 feet high where she sits.) He's often given her balls as well.
  
• She's sat in left field watching some of Boston's great play in front of the Green Monster: Yaz, Jim Rice, Mike Greenwell ("He was a very nice young man"), and of course Manny.
  
• And of course she's seen her fair share of great games. Fisk's walk-off home run in the 1975 World Series; Clemons' 20K performance in 1986; the amazing 2004 postseason. And she's seen some gut wrenching moments too, but I didn't ask her about those.
  
• I asked her if she usually stays to the end of the game, no matter what. "Almost always", she replied. "Unless the weather is really bad...I do get cold rather easily."
• All during the game, people were calling out her name, waving and saying hi to her. She says she always waves back, but she doesn't know who most of them are. "I'm usually pretty good with faces, but I can never remember names." And at the end of the game a couple of Yankees fans came up and said they just wanted to shake her hand, telling her, "I can tell you've seen a lot of games in your day, it's great to see someone with that much dedication."
  
• She doesn't like it when people drink too much around her. A couple of women behind her seemed to be drinking too much, she thought, and kept mentioning that to me (as if I could do something to stop it). When I first sat down she told me I better be careful, she thought there might be some fights happening tonight. "Don't worry about me, I'm a lover, not a fighter", I said. She patted my arm and said, "Oh, good".
  
• She has her favorites and non-favorites on the team. She doesn't like Youklis (she never really explained why), but loves Papi and Pedroia And thinks Papelbon is the best player on the team. (Maybe she only likes players whose last names start with a "P"?) She also doesn't like it when people boo Damon ("He did so much for us in 2004"), hated to say she actually likes Jeter, but booed like a champ when A-Rod came up to bat.
  
• In the very first inning, Rita knew that the umpire was bad news. "This umpire, he's a Yankee favorite, just you watch", she said. Sure enough he was calling some crazy pitches strikes against the Sox all night; enough so that Mike Lowell got thrown out of the game for arguing a particularly horrible pitch that was called a strike. I think this umpire had been on Rita's list from prior games.
  
• She always stands during the 7th inning stretch, but is not a fan of "Sweet Caroline" during the 8th inning. Perhaps she's not into that young-people's music.
• She's met a lot of Red Sox over the years, players and management. She said she met Larry Lucchino once, and asked him to stop raising ticket prices. She said to me that this is probably going to be her last year as a season ticket holder, as it's so expensive for her. "It costs me over $10,000 just for this seat now", she told me. I said the team would never want to lose her, I'm sure they'd give her a price break. She rolled her eyes at me and said, "I don't think so". (Not to worry, though. I mentioned this conversation with Andy after the game, and he said, "Oh, she's been saying that every year for 5 years. She'll never stop coming.")
  
• When the game was over (a tough 1-0 loss to the pinstripers), I stood up to leave. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back down. "No need to stand up yet...it'll be awhile before we can get out." Sure enough, the bottleneck of fans crammed the aisles and tunnels before we could get anywhere. As always, Rita knows best.
  

When Rita told me that her birthday was next week, I said mine was too. "August 1st", I told her. "I'm coming to the game for my birthday, actually. Maybe I'll stop by and say hi". She said that would be fine, and I said, "But will you even remember who I am?" She said, "Oh, I won't remember your name, but I'll probably remember your face." So next Friday, I'll try to find my way back to Box 82, Row H, seat 10, wish Rita a belated happy 84th birthday, and hope that 45 years from now when I'm 84, I'll still be going to Fenway and enjoying a game, just like Rita.