Yesterday I spent the day meeting with clients. In the evening, however, I got to participate in a Boston tradition (thanks to photographer Stephen Sherman): I went to a ballgame at Fenway Park…

…excuse me, that’s “Fenway Pahk.”

When you first approach the park, the atmosphere is so enthusiastic and exciting you can’t help but get into it. Here’s what it looks like from just outside the park:

The place is like a carnival, with the best barkers ever because of the Boston accent.

Once inside the “pahk” you really do get a sense of its history and age, but not in any negative way. It’s a very small park. I don’t have a telephoto lens, and this sign: is in left-center field. Our seats were in right field, just behind the foul pole (”Pesky’s Pole“). It’s much closer than in Petco or Turner Field. It feels just a bit larger than Cooper Stadium’s (Columbus’ minor league park) dimensions, in fact.

One of the great things about Fenway is the scoreboard at the base of the Green Monster (”monstah”). It’s still just a guy with cards rather than some electronic gizmo. From his perch inside the Monster he changes the game score as needed, by hand, and he activates the ball/strike/out lights. In between half-innings he runs out onto the field (sometimes with a ladder) to change the league scores, as seen here:

One thing I totally forgot about was the odd Fenway tradition of singing Sweet Caroline during the 8th inning switch. I had seen that in Fever Pitch, but to experience it was, well, very odd. It has a bit of the Rocky Horror audience participation to it–for example, after singing the line “Sweet Caroline” the people chant the musical “dah-dah-dah” and they all stand up and do certain movements (like arm swings) at certain times.

Oh, and I did sing along, of course. Beer-free, even. Speaking of beer, by this time in the game, of course, you have more than a few drunken (Irish, especially) Bostonians in the crowd so I think the singing makes cultural sense. The article cited above kind of confirms that. By the way, I’m not being racist with the “Irish” comment–you come here and go to a game and tell me that most of the “fun” crowd members aren’t Irish. I saw them–lots of red hair, very white skin, and beer-laden. We had a visit from one of these folks who sat down in a seat next to us for an inning or so–this guy could barely walk, but he had no problem joining in our conversation (”butting in” would be more like it).

Anyway, it was a great experience. A classic ballpark. And another reason to hate Steinbrenner (for planning on tearing down Yankee Stadium). The classic ballparks are American landmarks and should be preserved. I’m glad I got to see a game in one.