A No-No
May 22, 2008
Back in the day, I would get to 6-8 Red Sox games a year, but the tickets are just incredibly expensive now, and with the boys so busy and expensive, we go less. I think each of the last two years, we have only gone once. But we got to go as a family on Monday, and we saw an incredible game—a no-hitter by Jon Lester, a young man who is only a year away from battling an aggressive form of cancer.
I’ve been to a lot of Red Sox games over the years, and I have enjoyed them all, and seen many great games and many great individual plays. I saw Mark McGwire hit three home runs in a game. I saw the great Sox-Yankees playoff game when Pedro beat Roger and we serenaded Roger off the field. I saw Bo Jackson hit maybe the hardest home run ever in Fenway Park. I’ve seen great pitching from the likes of Pedro, Roger, Bruce Hurst, Oil Can Boyd, Tom Seaver, Frank Viola. But I had never seen a no-hitter before Monday night, and it was something to see.
I noticed there were no hits after the fourth inning, but I didn’t really start thinking about it until an inning or two later. I figured a hit would come. But then all of a sudden it was the eighth inning and people were really into it. Lester seemed to be both taking energy from the crowd but also not getting too swept away by it. When he walked someone to start the ninth, the crowd reacted more than Lester. He spent a minute behind the mound. Our seats are close enough that we could see he was trying to compose himself—a deep breath or two. But then he was back on the mound and finished strong, striking out a completely overmatched someone-or-other for the final out.
It was great. I was thrilled for my boys. They have missed coming to the games, and the one game we got to last year was a loss to the Yankees (boo!) and in really terrible, obstructed view seats. This game we were back in our old seats, the weather was great, and the game was one for the ages.
Posted by Bill Trippe at May 22, 2008 3:28 PM
