Before Friday night, there were 6th graders in Boston who had never seen the Sox win the A.L. East!
Well, I was at Fenway and saw something extraordinary. The team won the game handily, in less than 3 hours. The fans cheered on their way out, and wondered if it was possible that the Orioles might come back from a 6-9 deficit in the 8th inning to win the game.
The remaining fans in Fenway numbered ~2,500 when the jumbotron operator all of a sudden decided to televise the Baltimore vs. New York game for anyone still around. What happened next was nuts.
The Orioles squander the 8th, but rally for 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th off the Yanks closer, Rivera. They fend off a charge from the Yankees in the top of the 10th, and win the game in the bottom of the inning, with a suicide squeeze bunted right at A-Rod. Incredible!
The fans in Fenway were freaking out, realizing that we'd finally won another pennant title. The jumbotron showed our team watching the game in their locker-room, and popping champagne when the title was theirs. We screamed and high fived, and thought the night was over. The poor stadium crew members must have been frustrated with the jumbotron guy for lengthening their workday, but they were far from going home.
A few of the Sox started coming up from their lockers and out onto the field to spray bubbly on the fans who were still there and to thank us for our support all year. The fans loved it, and more and more of the players started running out to party with us. The whole thing was unbelievable and so spontaneous. It almost felt the same way my viewing of the Pacers-Pistons brawl did, where everyone was thinking "What could possibly happen next?"
The players were in various stages of casual wear, ranging from sweats to underwear, but almost all were wearing swimming goggles to protect their eyes from the booze flying everywhere. These guys looked like they may have started drinking before the outcome of the game was known, because they were making total asses of themselves while enjoying the moment... (in a good way)
My personal highlights from the celebration were:
- Seeing Papelbon dance an Irish gig
- Noticing that no idiot fans were running on the field. I'm proud of Boston for keeping this classy. No fans tried to insert themselves into someone else's moment.
- Seeing Youklis perform some ridiculous choreographed number that all his teammates seemed to be familiar with. Must be an inside joke on the squad.
- Seeing Ortiz work to include everybody in the fun, especially members of the media. They doused the women reporters from NESN really well with champagne and beer.
- The moment some brilliant player (not sure who) decided to pour beer down the "mouth" of our mascot, Wally. If there were any kids watching, that must have scarred them for life.
- The 10 minutes where Papelbon was wearing a Coors Light box on his head, but acting otherwise normally.
- The moment where 5 players all teamed up to dump champagne on a cop, who took it really well. That punctuated the lawless feeling of the night.
- Looking around at a virtually empty stadium and thinking, "90% of the people who were at this game are sadly missing this nonsense. I bet they'll later claim they saw it."
That was a night I'll remember the rest of my life. To put the extent of the shenanigans in context: the game ended ~9:40, and we didn't leave the park until almost midnight.
Here's the link to my pics, and below is the video I shot:
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