First 2011 pic inside Fenway. I blew the parking--one lot cost more than I thought and another turned out to be closed. I hate non-Sunday day games! (Parking-wise only.) So I put it in a metered spot and hoped the inevitable ticket would cost less than the lots do. More on that later.

Was there waiting when the gates opened and...no Red Sox batting practice! I guess it got moved up since they had the ceremony to do. So I only saw two Sox players at that time. Above, Cameron goofin with Captain Kangapoo.

The token Monster scoreboard shot.

The other Socker I saw--Ortiz pulling a Pedro-Posada with Cano.

If there are buntings at a baseball game, I will take a picture of them.

The new clock.

The new boards. I think they did a fine job. They don't look too much different than the old, but they're HD and they're all screen. The ads you see on them can disappear. In this shot, the main board is still made to look like the old board, but that would soon change.

The bottom of the CF board. They're also using new fonts everywhere.

It was a nice sunny day...until the sun went away and it became as cold as it can get short of seeing-your-breath weather.

This would be the view from my seat, second row grandstand. I have to say, the pole that I knew would be in my view was in the best possible place. I could see the whole infield, and on the other side of the pole, the scoreboards.

Up at the back of the RF grandstand, the whole ground and the fence are new and improved (as is the ground in the entire RF GS/boxes and the VOMITorium beneath).

And looking back the other way toward the infield.

The RF boxes with its new seats and better cross-aisle/wheelchair area. So now all the seats in the entire lower level are new, except for the grandstand seats, which now all have the springback seat. And all the concrete all around is new. Here's to fifty more years. And then fifty more after that.

This in that warm spot beneath the first base seats. Good job taking away the Budweiser logos through the years and putting up Red Sox ones! So here we have the old logo, showing its end in 2008--though they don't show the new version of it, they show the socks since that's the current primary logo. But look closely--they effed up that logo! The "Red Sox" type is blue with red border instead of red with blue border! Even people who don't realize that logo has been tweaked will notice that one....if you think I'm pissed about people not using the updated version, imagine what I think of seeing a logo that NEVER existed.

I couldn't capture the newness of the roomier Gate D area. But you can see this new shelf they've got there. This is looking down the third base line toward RF. Last year this shot would have had that Guinness booth straight ahead.

In this shot you can see how much the RF board sticks out, it's in front of the CF board from here. (I should have walked up a few more steps to get the full effect.)

Close-up of the clock. This replaces the clock on the CF board--even though you see it in the above pics, it will soon disappear....

Yeah, dude!

Home plate guy.

Castiglione, Orsillo, and O'Brien were the emcees for the ceremony. Here, Joe greets Johnny Pesky.

Papelbon and his cop buddies.

The Red Sox and the Yankees.


The new boards "unveiled." It all crumbled away to reveal the fact that they could use the entire surface of the thing to show video.

Here's the board with the whole thing used for live HD video.

Johnny Pesky.

That woman who wears Fenway Park on her head was a few seats away from me. She wasn't wearing her park! Instead she had a ball on her head.


Yaz threw out the first ball.

Here's Yaz in non-video form.

First pitch of the year at home.

What the boards look like during the game. The one to the right, outside this shot, shows the lineup.

Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk.

Pedroia has just hit a dong and is psyched.

Finally Adrian puts his head up so I can get a shot of him. We went up early, Lackey gave it all back--he always seems to pitch good enough to barely lose--but key hits by Sodium and Drew gave us the lead which the pen held.

Papelbon gets the save. 1 and 6! Yes!

I pulled a reverse move from my usual--I started in a great seat and ended in the SRO area. I wanted to get warmed up, and honestly, my section was full of drunks, texters, and know-nothings. At least the few rows around me anyway. There weren't a lot of Yanks fans this time--fewest I've seen in a while. The only ones around me were the two guys in front of me with fat heads and NO Yankee gear on (cowards!), and one other guy with a bombastic Yankee championship jacket who like the other two stayed pretty quiet. No fighting or anything. But usually I'm in the bleachers so this was different--though I feel, especially after today, that the bleacher fans are better fans than the rich kids who can't pronounce "Lackey." We are the best fans in baseball and it's not even close, but sometimes you find yourself in a bad spot, could happen anywhere.

I'll never forget where I was when I found out Manny retired--the urinal! Manny sure isn't helping us in the "Manny's not a moron" camp....

Oh...and I got back to my car to find a ticket for...25 bucks! Ha! The parking lot I was right next to charged $35! Looks like I've discovered another secret. The cheapest lot right near Fenway on a non-Sunday day game is...any spot you want.