“Nothing to broadcast yesterday except soaked reporters.”
Published 01:43, April the 7th, 2009
Not the day we expected at
The marquee outside the House of Blues on Lansdowne Street hadn’t changed two hours before what was supposed to be gametime.
“Welcome Red Sox,” it read in its electronic lettering. Welcome baseball ... welcome another year at the ballpark ... welcome spring.
Welcome one more day of waiting.
Talk about an anticlimax. Yesterday’s rainout was the cruelest kind of cosmic torture after last year’s so-close, so-far ending. And, for the most part, Fenway looked the part around noon.
A group of a dozen or so hardy fans stood near the corner of Yawkey Way and Van Ness Street, staking out the players’ parking lot, hooting and waving whenever a luxury vehicle moved.
Farther down Van Ness, the usual row of television trucks idled, empty. Nothing to broadcast yesterday except soaked reporters looking downcast.
Two hours before what was supposed to be the start of the 2009 season — and some two hours after the game was postponed — no crowd was gathered near the Ted Williams statue next to Gate B. Huge green shutters closed off the park’s nearby doors.
Behind the Green Monster, a few discarded lawn chairs and dozens of trashed coffee cups and chip bags were all that was left from a line to purchase tickets.
The bars, of course, seemed jovial — 5 o’clock somewhere, naturally. And the scalpers still pestered on the walk to and from Kenmore Station. (Helpful hint from recent personal experience: Pestering scalpers get testy when you point out there’s no game that day.) But that
Opening Day excitement we’d been feeling? Not at Fenway.
It was an ugly, gray day at the park — and, come to think of it, probably not that hard to predict when Major League Baseball’s schedule-makers decided to start the season in New England. Still, it could have been worse. We could be in Chicago; there, the White Sox had to push back yesterday’s opener against the Royals because of a forecast of snow, frigid temperatures and chilly winds.
It’s depressing, but waiting one more day isn’t so bad. No matter how anticlimactic, we’ll all get our close-to-home baseball fix soon enough.
“Welcome Red Sox.” They’ll try again today.
Adam Smartschan is the Metro Boston sports editor. Contact him at adam.smartschan@metro.us.
Metro does not endorse the opinions of the author or any opinions expressed on its pages. Opposing viewpoints are welcome. Please send 400-word submissions to letters@metro.us.