"Well what are you doing out here?! Get the F in there!"

  I went down to Kenmore Square with $100 and a dream. I was about a week late, and a couple of hundred short.

    In the limited experiences that I have had around Fenway on game day there never seemed to be a shortage of scalpers hawking their tickets around the ball field.  I have seen them outside of Copperfields and right when you get off of the T @ Kenmore.  However, that was not the case on Sunday night. 

    Maybe I should not have been so naive and believed all those reports that the game was not even sold out.  The rumors of tickets available at face value was just too good not to believe.  My greed got the best of me.  

  Tim and I walked around Fenway Park while the game went on.  We did so many laps, that one of the sausage and peppers vendors recognized us.  He told us that he was able to get tickets for $25 last week no problem.  Tonight he heard that they were selling bleacher seats for $400.     We saw one scalper, and he was offering his one bleacher seat for $200.  At that point, it was already the 4th inning.  

It was nice to be down there though, despite the frustration.  The weather was warm, and plenty of people there had spent the weekend out in the sun.  The first sun burn of 2010 was accompanied by Opening Day, baseball was officially back.

   The bars outside Fenway were packed, with people waiting over 45 minutes to watch the game on a flat screen T.V. and pay way too much for a draft beer.  I forgot about the Drunken shuffle that is only heightened by sandals.  There were a few of girls shuffling on Lansdowne Street, that broke out the summer dresses before they lose the winter lbs.   

A man who could have passed as C.C.'s twin brother was leaning against a lamp post on the corner of Lansdowne.  He was wearing his Yankee gear and had the swagger to go with it.  He asked if I was waiting to get in to the Cask n Flagon.  When I told him that I was trying to get tickets for the game he looked me up and down and gave a little pep talk that is the title of the blog. 

         Taking my hefty African Tony Robbins' advice I soldiered on with Tim for another lap that was as fruitless as the previous two.  I had enough and headed back to the T feeling like I wasted a good amount of my evening.

The Yanks lost, so maybe it wasn't a complete waste.  It spared me having to endure the taunts of Red Sox fans while leaving Fenway Park.  Which, by the way I did not experience while I was walking around during the game.  Nobody bothered me or said anything to me while I looked for tickets.  Maybe the rivalry is fading a bit?  Or is it too early in the season to be angry?

Monday morning, one of my least favorite students and I had an exchange:

L.F.S.: "so, you ah enjoy that game last night?"

me: "I did. I fell asleep when the Yankees were winning."

L.F.S.: "well, we won."

me: "we?  I didn't see any 4 foot 9 Asian ball players. Who is we?"

I can't just inspire kids, I'm sorry