Flashback, June 2004

[judecorp]

dadgrandpa
Originally uploaded by judecorp.

Jen and I had just moved to Boston a few weeks prior, but we splurged and spent gaggles of money that we didn't have (we didn't have jobs yet) to get 4 tickets to an afternoon Red Sox game - Father's Day presents for my father and grandfather. Grandpa, Dad, my brother and I caught at least one Sox game every summer with the Freemasons and numerous games in Pawtucket (Red Sox AA team) when I was a young person. The Masons stopped taking trips when I was a teenager because it was getting too expensive.

At the time, it seemed so important to do this, to buy these tickets and convince my dad to drive my grandfather up, because we didn't know if we'd ever get another chance to go to a game with my grandfather. He's 88, after all, and though he is pretty healthy you just never know. We didn't want to miss an opportunity to have a Fenway Father's Day with Grandpa and regret it later.

I didn't know how wrong and how right I was. The Sox finally won a World Series in 2004 and the team was positively on fire. The crowd was crazy. We had a great time. It was the last Father's Day gift I would ever buy for my Dad.

And I think it was possibly his favorite.

Comments

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

I wish I could buy an Indians World Series win for my dad and his brothers. The last time they won, my dad was 10, his older brother was 12 and his younger brother was 5. The younger uncle has a rare form of leukemia, and he can't remember a time when the Indians were the champs. I want him to be able to experience that. I want my dad and his older brother to experience it again. I know how happy I was the first time the Pats won the Super Bowl, and I want that for them.

[And not to nitpick, but the PawSox were/are AAA. I know this, because we'd go to the Bristol Red Sox games at that same time, and they were the AA team. Saw Boggs and Gedman play AA ball. One of my brothers has the programs they autographed for us.]

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

My dad dug the Indians, too, probably because they were underdogs. His best friend was also a closet Cubs fan, because really, who can hate the Cubs? Sometimes when certain teams win, even if they're not your teams, it's cool because they deserve it. You know?

And you are 100% right about the PawSox. They are totally AAA and I dropped an A there in typing. :)

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was always trying to figure out, as a kid, why Pawtucket had the AAA team and Bristol only had the AA team. After all, Bristol was much cooler, and people had heard of it! ;) The only reason I could ever come up with, even to this day, is that Pawtucket is just closer to Boston.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

And Providence. Maybe it's just more accessible than Bristol?

I've never been to Bristol.