Everytime I have walked into Fenway Park when I saw the grass my eyes would get VERY big!! It was amazing the very first time when I was a small boy back in the 1970's when our best players made $200,000 a year. There's a lot of people on this site who werent even born yet when I was sitting in the $2 bleacher seats at Fenway. This doesnt mean I think I am better or a more loyal fan or anything equally self-consuming...But the fact remains that the bandwagon influence running rampant on this site and their asinine comments on blogs and elsewhere is something that has become painfully obvious.  I dont necessarily care what these clownshoes have to say, but they should have more respect when some of us have been here our whole lives.

Each and everytime I have been to Fenway Park I felt like I was a part of something bigger.  Like going to Yawkey Way was always a homecoming of sorts, and to this day from the time I walk up on the ballpark to the time I sit down in my hard seat it was as if it was history in the making.  It didnt matter to me in 1977 that we didnt make the playoffs. We nearly won 100 games that year, and the team was great. Yeah, I suppose it was disheartening to once again come up short. But there was always next year. Hell, I was just happy to come along for the ride.  I was always just happy to be there. WIN OR LOSE...It didnt necessarily matter to me.  Much of life is about just "showing up".  Sometimes its all about just showing up.  Yaz always showed up.  Fisk, Lynn, Rice, Burleson, Hobson..these guys generally "showed up".....A lot of times I cut and paste things about these players and their stats and pictures because I know some of you werent there to remember one of the best genres in RED SOX history......I will continue to do so even if some of the crybabies on here will say "thats not original..dont write anything if its not 100% your own"...to those proverbial mosquitos buzzing their incessant annoyance....I got a bug zapper!!

But this blog isnt about that...this blog isnt to complain or vent...This blog is to tell you about the way Fenway Park has mesmerized me with all its history since I was a young kid....and about the time I got to walk on the centerfield grass.

It was June of 2003 and the Red Sox were out of town playing an away series....I was in BOSTON  for a New Balance training with my pal Joe Martin.  Joe is a Yankee fan (boo!) but has much repsect for baseball and knows the historical significance of Fenway Park....He had never been to Fenway and I had forced him to listen to my many tales of going to the games with my Pops and how my grandfather used to take me out of school to go to the day games..and blah blah blah......But anyway we found our way to Fenway Park..it always kind of sneaks up on me no matter what direction I am coming from..its like youre in the city...youre in the city and then all of a sudden BAM! theres FENWAY!....There was a good amount of construction going on in the park that year and so there were construction workers coming and going.  We had the afternoon off of work so we had jeans and sneakers on.  We walked through the park entrance behind the centerfield wall past about 2 or 3 signs that said "NO ENTRY" and "WORKERS ONLY" and the like....we walked past a security guard who fell for the old "these are not the droids youre looking for" JEDI mind trick.....I gave him the universal code...A SMILE AND A NOD and walked right past down on to the warning track.

Chills were running up and down my spine like Rocky Sullivan on his way to the electric chair....I got that deer in headlights feeling as my feet touched the magical outfield grass...It was thick and spongy...I didnt look back for fear of being found out as I was entirely out of my element.  For decades I had dreamed of playing ball on this grass, and although I wasnt in a SOX uniform I WAS IN FACT WALKING ON THE OUTFIELD GRASS!!!! Mind you this was still before the CURSE REVERSAL of 2004 and I remember thinking to myself...Now, I can die in peace....I had made it to about the spot where FRED LYNN used to reside and fell victim to the daydreams.  I turned around in circles looking up and smiling...taking it all in.....

"HEY YOU!! YOU CANT BE DOWN HERE!!!" the voice of the same security guard I had just minutes earlier walked right past.  He told us we had to leave. I didnt stop smiling for hours....Joe and I walked over to the CASK n FLAGON and had a few Harpoon UFO's with lemon slices and proceeded to talk baseball into the Boston night.......

THAT WAS THE TIME I STEPPED ON THE CENTERFIELD GRASS AT FENWAY PARK!

LONG LIVE THE BOSTON RED SOX!! HEROES ARE REMEMBERED...LEGENDS NEVER DIE!!!

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