Friday, October 3, 2008

There and Back Again: A Sox Fan's Tale

Since Hyde complained:

So I was sitting at my desk on Tuesday afternoon, on my lunch break, my morning coffee coursing through my veins. I decided to, as a joke, see how much tickets were for the Angels/Sox game. I had jokingly (see: drunkenly) agreed with a fellow New Hampshirite and Sox fan over the weekend that I would go to the game if the tickets were under 100 bucks (alright, a little much, but...). So I find out decent tickets were $60. Sixty Dollars for a playoff game? Surely you jest. I could only figure that this was because A) The Angels don't have any fans (more on this later) and B) Angel Stadium is, in fact, not Fenway Park and can seat more then 100 people. So I call up my friend James, the aforementioned New Hampshirian, break down the situation and with zero convincing he's on board.

Fast forward to Wednesday, October 1 4:00pm. James and I hit the road to Anaheim. Now the game doesn't start until 7pm, and Anaheim is 45 minutes away, but this is Southern Cali a place where traffic controls mere mortals. Two and a quarter hours later we arrive at the enemy HQ aka Angel Stadium. We are greeted by a sea of red, as I blast Dirty Water and Dropkick Murphys and find a place to park. We were decked in blue, I in my Youk shirt, James in a straight up Sox shirt. I was floored by the lack of Sox fan, apparently the nation is not as strong in the West as I had imagined. However, we suffered no insults (well not until the sox were winning). Obviously not something that would happen at Fenway where away fans might as well be Al-Qaida.

A nail biter for the first few innings. Lester looked shaky, the defense holding him up. Then Jay Bay (Manny who?) launches a two run dinger, and the faithful start to make themselves known. Let's go Red Sox chants would spring up, and battle with the halo's fans own chants. We were few, but we were mighty. As I mentioned before Angels fans are weak: 1) They didn't ridicule us (in fact I received more threats about the coming basketball season, and how Kobe was going to embarrass us), 2) They started to leave after the 7th when the game was still only 2-1 Sox. WHAT!? This is the post season people, trying to beat the traffic? 3) The mass exodus only continued as the Sox went up by two more. I know for sure, this wouldn't happen at Fenway.

As Pap was hurling 96 MPH heaters over the plate, The Nation had officially taken over the home of the Halos. Jacobi played like a champ. Youk punked Vlad after duffing a ball. All great moments. Not only was it an experience to be an away fan, it was an experience being able to see the Sox in the post season. As James and I drove back to LA, our hands raw from clapping and our throats soar from cheering, we agreed that this could quite possibly be our only chance to see the Sox in the post season. We then agreed that it was well worth it. 

Here's to a Sox/Dodgers World Series.

1 comment:

jhyde said...

musta been sick dude! good call