Red Sox Report: Yankees Spoil Fenway Celebration
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Friday afternoon at Fenway, it wasn’t about the game. And it’s a good thing for the Red Sox that it wasn’t. Boston lost to the rival New York Yankees 6-2.
Instead, this was about the 100th anniversary celebration of Fenway Park and a chance for Red Sox Nation to pay tribute to many of the great former players and managers who wore a Boston uniform over the years.
One by one they paraded different players out for the crowd to cheer. Those who received the loudest cheers were Pedro Martinez, Nomar Garciaparra, Terry Francona and the man who was introduced last - Carl Yaztremski.
92-year-old Johnny Pesky was on hand, as was 93-year-old former Red Sox great Bobby Doerr who were pushed in wheelchairs to their shortstop and second base positions respectively.
Ironically, it was Francona who received the loudest cheers as he entered the park to chants of, “Tito, Tito!” That had to resonate with Red Sox ownership which couldn’t wait to make him the fall guy for last September’s debacle.
But this was about celebrating 100 years of memories at the beloved ballpark known as “Fenway.” It opened in 1912 and would have made the headlines in the Boston papers the following day had the Titanic not sunk on the same day.
It may be old, it may be outdated, it may need replacing. But there is a certain charm about Fenway Park that you just can’t get anywhere else throughout Major League Baseball.
It was a fitting celebration.
NOTES:
-In another unfortunate display of no class, the Red Sox organization did not extend an invitation to former general manager Theo Epstein to attend the ceremony until a couple of days ago when they were questioned by the media about not sending him one. Now the Chicago Cubs’ GM, Theo politely declined the invitation taking the high road in his response much like Terry Francona has done since his departure.
-It was announced Friday that pitcher Diasuke Matsuzaka will have his first rehab assignment Monday in Salem, Virginia for one of the organization’s class-A teams. Bobby Valentine said that Matsuzaka is ready to throw about 75 pitches per outing and will be placed in a 5-man rotation. He is expected to get at least 5 starts in the minors over the next 30 days or so.
-The Yankees connected for 5 homers Friday, all of them off of starter Clay Buchholz who took the loss. Eric Chavez hit two for New York while Alex Rodriguez, Nick Swisher and Russell Martin each went deep once. A-Rod’s blast was the 631st homerun of his career moving him past Ken Griffey Jr. into fifth place on the career homeruns list.
-Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter also reached a milestone with his 3,111th career hit. He moved past former Yankee Dave Winfield into 18th place on the all-time hits list.
-Friday’s loss was the 4th straight setback for Boston. The Red Sox have been outscored by 23 runs in those 4 games.
-Yankee starter Ivan Nova, who had a horrible spring for New York, won his 15h consecutive regular season start dating back to last season. He’s now (3-0) on the season.
-David Ortiz belted his second homerun of the year in the bottom of the second inning off of Nova to pull Boston to within 2 runs at 3-1.
-Ironically, while the Red Sox celebrated the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park yesterday. Friday also marked the 73rd anniversary of Ted Williams’ major league debut.
-Saturday’s game 2 of the series features Felix Doubront for Boston and Freddy Garcia for New York. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05pm. The game will be televised on FOX.
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