Riding the Rivalry: the images

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Before you say it - Yes, there is a crazy number of flats.

All done and ripe for the recapping

Another journey is done and more lessons learned. The last two days were about as different as any two over the whole week. Thursday was rainy, miserable, and had four flat tires (the most of any day. Friday, on the other hand, was sunny, hot but not overly so, and had no mechanical malfunctions greater than a chain coming off. We were also done with the day earlier than any other, getting to Fenway before 1pm with almost the same mileage. Needless to say it was the best way to end our journey.

While not really fair to this trip, I can't help but compare it to last year's (again). One thing that was similar to last year was what it was like to arrive at Fenway. The stadium sneaks up on you as a part of the city and before you know it you smell hot dogs and everyone is wearing red, grey and navy blue. We were again greeted by Lucias bearing Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and again we celebrated by touching the plaque of Tom Yawkey. Once again we were also met with a sense of anticlimax as few people around seemed to notice that, while they arrived by SUV, we arrived by way of physical exertion and mental determination.

As much as discussion regarding the rivalry, this trip was also a learning experience for me in other areas. I am now much more confident in my bike maintenance abilities. I'm hoping to build a road bike in the next year, so this was a good intro for that. While I am no expert by any means, it was cool to have the tools to adjust brakes and change tires when in the middle of nowhere. I also learned a great deal about no budget doc filming. Of course, most of it was what not to do, but c'est la vie. Working with my footage from this and last year will be a good exercise in editing, but I'm not sure yet what the end product will look like.

As far as the Rivalry, it's still extremely interesting to me. I can't just make myself a baseball guy in a week, but I never fail to enjoy the heated "discussions" that are generated by the love of these teams. Walking around Fenway yesterday and today I noticed several couples and families representing both sides. It might be like other situations involving different groups of people. Those who continue to champion the impression that "Yankee fans are a-holes" or "Boston fans are d-bags" are probably people who haven't really spent much time with the other. Once they do, it seems that mutual respect over loving the game overcomes the dominant prejudices.

Now that doesn't mean there's less trash talking. In fact, there's probably more because it doesn't get personal as much. Over this week John didn't hide his dislike for Pedroia just because Liz was around. It just stayed there. It wasn't about Boston or Boston fans sucking. The only moment of that this week was yesterday when the cashier at the liquor store was giving John a hard time for being a Yankee fan and talking sh*t about New Yorkers being whiney. I'm no Yankee fan, but the guy was being a douche. I'd bet that this guy hasn't ever watched a game with a Yankee fan or really hung out with one.

There's nothing wrong with good natured ball busting, but the best baseball fans I've ever known are the ones who understand that can appreciate other baseball fans. Just as I enjoy debating politics with people who vote opposite of me, a great debate over baseball seems to be one of the best things about being a real fan. The personal attacks should be saved for those who deserve it -- fairweather fans.

Day 1-2 It begins, stops, then begins again.

For those who followed us on the blog last year, this trip has been very different, though, in some ways, the same. We're still tired at the end of the day, getting too much sun at times, eating a lot of granola bars, and occasionally peeing on the great outdoors. Also the route is very similar, though not exactly the same. At the moment there are four of us blogging here in the Donnelly Hall computer lab at Marist College (three of our alma mater), so I'll focus mostly on my stuff with the filming.

As I may or may not have mentioned last time around, I made a documentary in my senior year here at Marist with a few other students. That, along with a short fictional film, a promotional video for a summer camp, and some minor personal projects, is the extent of my filmmaking experience. Last time John and I did this walk we didn't get as much interviewing done as we'd have liked and at the time we chalked this up to being totally exhausted.

The difference this time is that we have done more interviews, but still not as many as I might have liked. When I look back at the projects that I've done successfully I notice that they all had preplanned interviews which were scheduled and organized around deadlines (and also all for credit or money). This time around I have no such planned interviews or deadlines (or upcoming paychecks) so going about the filming is different. I don't typically like just going up to people randomly, interrupting their day. We did get some really good ones so far though.

To name a few: there was the group of girls in the parking lot for Yankee Stadium before Friday's game who had some choice words for Boston fans (and were starting some kind of fashion business called Gruvie), Bald Vinny of the Bleacher Creatures (which was a huge get), and three guys (one in Red Sox gear and two in Yankees) outside Yankee Stadium the day we left who had a great argument about the team for the camera.

I'm also excited to look back at the riding footage I've taken. [MOM - DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH] My new camera is small enough to fit in my pocket, so I'm able to pull it out a film the other four while I'm riding behind them. I'm still not sure how this will all fit together, but that stuff cut together should look pretty cool. It'll probably become a short YouTube video to go along with whatever is done more formally with all this.

We're almost done with Day 2 and will be ending in Hyde Park, NY soon. The housing situation is not as nailed down as it was last year, but we're doing alright so far. Last night was crazy trying to get to the place, but you can read the others' entries for that. We still need to figure out where we're staying in Worcester, so if you know someone please email me (alex.bea@gmail.com).

That's it for now.

A new, but familiar journey

I'm stoked about The Ride this summer. It's going to be different from The Walk that John and I did last summer in some ways, but the same in others.

• Different: There are 5 of us. John, myself (Alex), a Liz, and two Billys
• Same: Still mostly guys (be prepared for more mentions of peeing outside - #1 & #2)
• Different: 40-ish miles a day rather than 20
• Same: Generally the same route. Some towns will be good to see again and some not as much.
• Different: no more getting picked up by people. 5 bikes makes that difficult, so we'll be rolling deep up to their front doors.
• Same: just like Blanche DuBois, we're going to be relying on the kindness of strangers. Okay, not strangers, but the reference doesn't work with "friends."
  
• Same: representing both sides of the rivalry in our group
• Different: Yankee fans are definitely in the majority. I'm leaving it up to Liz to represent for the Sox since she's much more qualified. I'm still a fan, but not enough to live up to the responsibility. So Yanks 3, Sox 1, Loser who doesn't follow baseball much 1
• Same: still trying to film for a potential project later on
• Different: biking will allow for more time and energy to do so
  

I could go on, but... I won't. I'm looking forward to getting more into the belly of the Rivalry. It'll be a very different dynamic now that there are more of us, and a true member of Red Sox Nation to give better support to the team than I ever could.

I came to the realization that no amount of reading books on the teams (which I've been doing some of) is going to make me a baseball guy, and that's fine. That doesn't diminish my curiosity regarding the Rivalry and the people on either side. People who are passionate about anything interest me, and I don't know if there's a better example of populations who are passionate about something than those on both sides of this debate.

Recommendation: check out The Rooters. It's a documentary about the Boston fans, from the original Royal Rooters to today. It's pretty impressive what they had going from the beginning. I got The New York Yankees: Team of the Century from Netflix today. I'll let you know how that goes.

Correction: One of the Billys is a Mets fan, not a Yankees fan. It's good to have an impartial guy on the crew who actually knows something about baseball. Final count: Red Sox 1, Yankees 2, Doesn't like either 1, Idiot who doesn't even know who's riding with him 1 (that one is me)