“Futures at Fenway” was a tremendous hit!

What an amazing day!  It was wonderful to be part of something like the "Futures at Fenway" day.

I guess the most important note of the day:  The Lowell Spinners AND the Pawtucket Red Sox both won their games!  "Local" boy Carlos Pena hit a two-run homerun to help the PawSox along – and beloved Lenny Dinardo threw three scoreless innings!

According to the scoreboard, near the end of the second game, the attendance today was 33,394.  Thirty-three thousand people at a minor league double-header!

I got to see a lot of ‘old friends’ pitch today.  Lenny Dinardo, Craig Hansen, Craig Breslow, Jermaine Van Buren…and we saw Jonathan Papelbon’s younger brother Joshua close out the Spinner’s game (and get the save!).  Fenway went absolutely insane for Papelbon when he came out…and the folks choosing the music for the game went with "Wild Thing" for his entrance music as a tip of the hat to Jonathan.  He also got co-"Player of the Game" and was interviewed after the game.  He said the only difference between pitching in Boston versus pitching in Lowell was "more fans".  🙂

When we first got there, the Oneonto Tigers were having BP and warming up…Kelly noticed a lot of them going toward the Green Monster.  Turns out, they were taking turns going INTO The Monster and taking each other’s pictures coming OUT of it.  A few of them stood in front of the scoreboard, that had today’s date on it, and had their teammates take their picture there.  Seeing that really put into perspective what it’s like for a lot of those kids.  It’ll probably be the only time they play in a big-league park and they had a lot of fun with it.

Met J and K between games!  They came up to visit.  It was great to finally put the real people with the blogs I read all the time!  J was exactly as I had expected.  One of those rare people who shows his true self online and writes the same way he speaks.  I only wish I had more time to ‘hang’ with them! 

It was mascot-palooza today!  Wally the Green Monster was there, as were Canaligator and Allie-Gator, the mascots for the Spinners, along with Paws and Sox, the mascots for the PawSox.  There was also two frisbee catching dogs and a mascot named "Bristles"…a toothbrush.  I didn’t really get that one although the Spinners seemed to get a big kick out of ‘him’.  Lefty and Righty, the "Red Sox’ were there too.  Egads, I was hoping Paw and Sox would beat Lefty and Righty up.  But no such luck.  Oh well.  The other mascots were really cute.

Dave McCarty was doing the color commentary on NESN…I kept trying to get a good picture of him in the booth, but this was the best I could do.  I was making Kelly crazy with my obsession to get that photo.  I have a nerdy little crush on Dave McCarty.  I love it when he’s on the NESN pre and post game shows.  He’s smart and funny and one of ‘the 25’.  I hope he’s on NESN for a long time to come!

Tomorrow, more minor league baseball.  Worcester Tornadoes at North Shore Spirit.  Rich Gedman is the manager for the Tornadoes and I’ve never been to a Spirit game, so both these things, along with spending another day at a baseball game with Kelly, give me a lot to look forward to tomorrow.

Long, but fun, day…I’m going to go crash and finish watching the White Sox/Twins and Red Sox/Mariners games.  Have a good night, folks!