I was going to have a nice little report from the game, but after taking, uploading to computer, renaming, resizing, uploading to internet, getting the URLs, getting the HTML to make them a link, putting the URL in the link, naming the link, pasting the links in order, I’m fried. Besides, the pictures (and video!) all tell the story. Enjoy! I tried to take a lot of pictures so that the people there could join into the fun, but a number of things – one, some pictures I took were lousy (some are included below, some are not – I judged which were worthless) and two, I had to watch too, not just take pictures! Hopefully this will make up for me being a lucky bastard (see comments).
Some notes I will however write down which I jotted down at the game:
* Jorge Posada, the first pitch he saw in the game he tried to bunt. Then the bunt was off. Why put it on and then take it off right away?
* Edgar Renteria is so unlucky with these double plays. Early in the game, Trot Nixon singles, Manny walks on five pitches, Ortiz on four. With one out, Kevin Millar gets a two-run single up the middle, and then Renteria rips a ball to Jeter, who tosses to second to get Ortiz doubled off. Sigh.
* Terry Francona is the winningest Red Sox manager in the postseason.
* The Red Sox retired numbers are now outside the park near the Ted Williams’ statue. There’s a picture below.
* There was a standing ovation in the bottom eighth for Alex Rodriguez. You see, A-Rod fielded Doug Mirabelli’s grounder cleanly and threw to first for the out. What a novel concept! We had no choice but to applaud A-Rod for making a clean play!
* The lesser known the player, the lesser the applause. And there were no boos, but the park was virtually silent except for some clapping when Ramiro Mendoza was announced. Shame – good pitcher, injury issues, didn’t pitch all that bad in 2004. But he has a ring! (Thanks to amh03 at SOSH for the picture)
There were many highlights of the ring ceremony, from Derek Lowe and Dave Roberts wearing their Red Sox uniforms (as was reported, it was completely up to the player whether they wanted to do it or not) and the big ovations for each player, to the flag raising, to … gosh, everything. One thing I really liked was the scoreboard before each player. I took every single picture except Terry Francona’s, as I was late in getting the camera ready. I’ve also included some extra pictures below that I took of the player’s reactions.
| THE SCOREBOARD INTRODUCTION OF THE PLAYERS GETTING THEIR RINGS |
Francona tips his cap, Abe Alvarez, Bronson Arroyo, Mark Bellhorn, Billy Broadbent, Joe Cochran, Chris Correnti, Johnny Damon, Lenny DiNardo, Ellis Burks, Alan Embree, Keith Foulke, Bill Haselman, Ron Jackson, Pookie Jackson, Chang-Ho Lee, Lynn Jones, Curtis Leskanic (Curtis Leskanic acknowledges the crowd), Derek Lowe (Derek Lowe tips his cap), Mark Malaska, Jack McCormick, Tom McLaughlin, Dr. Bill Morgan, Manny Ramirez, Ramiro Mendoza, David McCarty, Anastacio Martinez, Kevin Millar, Brad Mills, Doug Mirabelli, Bill Mueller, Mike Myers, Russell Nua, David Ortiz, Dave Roberts (Hmm, I wonder who’s about to appear on the right?) (Dave Roberts acknowledges the fans), Jim Rowe, Curt Schilling (Schilling shakes hands), Phil Seibel, Dale Sveum, Mike Timlin, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield, Dave Wallace, Kevin Youkilis, And last, but not least … Johnny Pesky (Pesky’s ring) (Pesky tips his cap) (Pesky acknowledging ME! That’s right, me, in a sea of people, even though he has no idea I exist … although I did meet him and get a ball signed from him when I was a tyke … but I digress) |
The unfurling of the World Series banner and the raising of the World Series flag was awesome as well. There were also other little parts of the ceremonies I photographed – those are below.
| THE WORLD SERIES BANNER AND ODDS AND ENDS |
The flag is draped for the national anthem, The flag on the upper deck now has 2004 added, The first flag is unfurled, The 2004 banner outside Fenway, Two more flags are unfurled, All the flags unfurled, All the banners outside Fenway, Flags in the Right Field Concourse, The big 2004 Champions banner unfurled, The ceremony comes to a close, The scoreboard as the ceremony ends, The ceremony is over…, Today’s ceremonial first pitch…, The American flag and World Series flag, Preparing for the ceremony, The Table of the Rings, The Red Carpet, The military walks in as the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Boston Pops look on, Joe Castiglione (right) and Don Orsillo (left) announce the ceremony, The old-timers pass the Yankee bullpen, And now … the presentation of the 2004 World Series rings!, Hurry up, get the rings ready!, Raise that flag!, Old-timers file past the flag, The flag rises…, Scooore! The flag rises!, The big banner on the Monster, Better shot of the big banner, Part of the ‘An Ode to Teddy Ballgame’ ditty, Another part of the ditty |
The following are the shots I took of people walking out to get the rings, or walking to the lineup after recieving their rings. Some shots I did not include because it was either too blurry or you couldn’t really make out the player.
| COMING TO GET THEIR RINGS… |
Abe Alvarez walking out to recieve his ring, Ellis Burks coming to get his ring, Foulke comes to get his ring, Francona comes to get his ring, Lowe walks to the lineup of the Sox with his ring, Millar wants his ring, David Ortiz cherishes his ring, Pesky greeting the 2004 Sox, Dave Roberts comes to get his ring!, Roberts greets his old teammates, Schilling with his 2004 teammates, Jason Varitek gets his ring, Wakefield comes to get his ring |
The following is the shots I took of the 2005 Red Sox player ceremony. I only took shots of the new 2005 Sox players because I wasn’t about to take 45 pictures again.
| THE 2005 RED SOX ARE… |
And now, your 2005 Boston Red Sox!, The 2005 Red Sox, 2005 member – Matt Clement, 2005 Sox – John Halama , 2005 Sox – Matt Mantei, 2005 Sox – Wade Miller, 2005 Sox – Blaine Neal, 2005 Sox – Jay Payton, 2005 Sox – Edgar Renteria, 2005 Sox – Ramon Vazquez, Terry Francona, 2005 Sox – David Wells |
The following are either random shots I took, or shots of the Red Sox/Yankees as they were introduced as the 2005 team.
| RANDOM SHOTS |
The Red Sox and Yankees line up, Mariano Rivera announced to cheers, Fenway as I enter, April 11th was the date of the game, Welcome James Taylor for the National Anthem, Mariano Rivera has a sense of humor, The new restaurant at Fenway, Charlie Wagner, former Sox, here to say these words – Play Ball!, Retired numbers outside Fenway, The ceremonial first pitches, A painting near where I sat, Quite a long line for tickets, Torre tips his cap to the crowd for applauding him, The Yankees prepare for the Sox introductions |
You know something? There was a game as well!
| SHOTS FROM DURING AND AFTER THE GAME |
A-Rod after he overruns the ball (Damon the batter, 4th the inning – Sheffield misplays Nixon’s double to make the score 6-1 a batter later), Second to last pitch of the game, Bernie awaits, Bernie pops the ball up for the final out, Bill Mueller is practicing prior to the game, David Ortiz during batting practice, Felix Rodriguez warms up, Foulke warms up, Foulke and ‘Belli – job well done, Sox win!, Jeter hits, A-Rod doesn’t, Mantei warms up in the 8th, Doug Mirabelli touches home plate after his HR, Nixon walks back after scoring on Manny’s RBI single in the 4th, Ortiz hungry! Ortiz whip bat! Ortiz want home-run!, Jay Payton at bat, Edgar Renteria at bat, The Red Sox during BP, Mike Stanton gets ready to face the hitters from hell, Wakefield warms up, Bleacher creatures were lucky – they sat in the sun! I was freezing, Final score of the game, A decent shot of Fenway/the skyline |
I took two videos as well!
Well, finally. I’m done. Hopefully you got to enjoy the ceremony and the game on TV or radio yesterday, and maybe these pictures help you enjoy it more. Schilling debuts tomorrow!
Oh, and if anyone wants the original picture of any of the above (which is much larger) drop me a line!
