Just another Monster Monday

Some of the most sought-after seats at Fenway Park are the Green Monster seats. These seats were added to the top of the Green Monster in 2003, and ever since they've been a "holy grail" of seats at Fenway. The seats are sold by the Red Sox on a lottery basis every off-season. 2 years ago I won a chance to purchase tickets, but I had a long wait in the "virtual waiting room", and by the time I had a chance to buy some tickets, I could only get standing room tickets. These were still great, but nothing close to a real seat. So when I got an email from the Red Sox in February that I again had a chance to buy tickets, I signed on to the computer in February and hoped for the best. This time I didn't have a long wait at all in the waiting room, and after a few minutes I was trying every game I could to find 2 seats together. (Sage and I had decided that if we couldn't find 2 seats together, we'd get 1 seat and 1 standing room. The Sox have a strict 2-ticket limit on Green Monster tickets.) After putting in some random game requests, all of a sudden I struck gold for 2 seats on Monday, May 30 -- Memorial Day! I almost couldn't believe it, and I made sure I checked out before the computer could knock me off and take my seats away. It wasn't until after the seats were bought when Sage asked where they were. I said, "No clue...it just says M-7, Row 1. Wait....row 1???" Yep, we had 1st row seats. (There are only 3 rows of seats on the Monster, and then a row of Standing Room behind, so getting 1st row really shouldn't be THAT hard.) With the tickets purchased, we only had 3 long months to wait for the game!

When the game day came, we got in line early for the Red Sox Nation Early Entry. With membership to the official Red Sox Nation group, we could enter Fenway 30 minutes before the main gates open, and can go onto the Green Monster to watch the Sox take batting practice. Since this was a 7:10 pm game, we got in line for the early entry around 4:15 pm, and were allowed in at 4:40 pm. We went right up to the seats...only to find that the Red Sox weren't taking batting practice! They had to play a double-header in Detroit the day before, so they were late getting back to Boston, and the players decided to get to the park late. So waiting around for half an hour with nothing to see, the ushers finally kicked out everyone who didn't have Green Monster tickets, leaving a select few of us waiting on the Monster for the White Sox to come out for batting practice, which they did.

So as the White Sox begin to hit, there are only a few other people in the same section as us. A few balls came up into the seats, but far away from where we were. Far more balls seemed to fly way over all of our heads and out onto Landsdowne St., where I started to think we should have stayed instead of coming in to the Monster. Then, at one point, Sage said, "Give me your iPhone, I'll take a photo of you." I said, "Sure...you mean of me catching a ball?" "Absolutely", she replied. So she takes my phone, and I start to stand there like I'm going to catch a ball. And then I see an unknown White Sox player take a swing...and the ball starts to come right toward me. I can't believe it...it keeps coming closer, closer, closer. Before I had time to even think about it, I put up my glove and the ball lands right in it!

Doug shows intense concentration as the ball is hit right at him.

I don't think I had to move more than a foot to catch the ball, as it literally was hit right at me. And it crazily was the exact moment that Sage took a photo of me! So as I caught the ball, a little kid, probably about 10 years old, ran right up to me, as he was running around trying to catch a ball. So right after I caught it, I turned to him, handed him the ball, and said, "Here you go." He said thank you, and ran back to his father who was in the next section over, and he gave me a thumbs up. So I stood there waiting for the next ball to come, and while one did land right above me, I couldn't jump high enough to grab it. So after 10 minutes or so I felt a tap on my back, and I turned around. It was the same 10-year old I gave my ball to. "Here you go", he said. "My father caught a ball, so you can have yours back." I was stunned! I said, "You can keep it if you want", but he said that's okay, and he walked away. What a great kid!

Doug with his prize.

The crowd begins to fill in before the game.

When batting practice got over the crowd began to fill in, and we settled down for the game. A teenager ended up sitting next to Sage. He was Shane, and it was his birthday. His father got him a single ticket for his birthday, while his father got a standing room ticket. Shane was a really nice, smart kid, and he even took this photo for us.

A beautiful night for a photo opp.

Since it was his birthday, Shane made a sign, hoping he'd be on TV. We hoped too, so that maybe we could get on TV. Alas, we don't think we ever were.

Shane with his sign. He admitted himself that it was really lame.

With it being Memorial Day, the Red Sox were going to unfurl their giant US flag on the Green Monster. With us being in the front row, I was worried we'd be put to work and I'd somehow screw it up. Thankfully, they had plenty of guys on the monster to help with the flag.

Doug gets read to help with the giant US flag. Then he was asked to step away.

Papi gets ready to swing for the fences.

The game didn't go the Sox way, losing to the White Sox 7-3. But we had a great time anyway in those seats, and we're hoping we'll be lucky enough to win the lottery again next season!