Let’s hope so. Because so far this season, this team (and maybe the organization as well?) has done a great job of getting back to being a baseball team – one that promises to be a pleasure to watch throughout the long season.
Last Wednesday night, the game immediately following the home opener (a given sellout at ballparks across the majors, no matter what their level of attendance or fan interest for the rest of the year), the Red Sox home sellout streak of 794 regular season games (820 including playoffs) came to end. The streak, which dated back to May 2003, was the longest in major league history.
It was unbelievably impressive, and undoubtedly a testament to the fanatical baseball following in and around Boston, but I, for one, am happy it’s over. During the past couple of seasons, the streak felt like an obligation rather than an occurrence, a marketing distraction rather than an accomplshment.
It was time to move on.
It’s been nice, in a nostalgic sort of way, to see some empty seats around the ballpark. (Though never behind home plate, unlike the uber-expensive box seats at the new Yankee Stadium.) Just as it is nice to know that, a couple of times this season, I’ll be able to go to a game with a few other people, and we’ll all be able to sit together, and we won’t have to plan it out months in advance.
In the sense of Fenway being there for the casually obsessive fan, baseball is back in Boston. And that is a good thing.
Happy Patriot’s Day / Marathon Monday!
