Dear Boston,
I fell in love with the Red Sox the first time I visited this city. I went directly from the airport to the hotel to Fenway Park. I toured their stadium during practice for the ALCS series. I went home and watched every game thereafter. I stayed up til 3:30am watching them and texting anxiously all night with a fellow fan over the game. I fell asleep and woke up the next morning to texts about the game’s end. I watched them win the World Series. I learned all the players’ names and positions. I chose JD Martinez as my favorite player. He’s Cuban-American just like me. I bought the shirt online and then the hat from the team store so it would be “authentic”. I eventually bought the Red Sox B earrings too.
I fell even more in love with them the second time I visited and a man at the concession stand gave me $200 dollar face value tickets behind the dugout because he needed to get his kids to bed in the third inning. The game went into extra innings until 2:00am. My friend I was with said, “You were happier tonight than most people are on their wedding day.” There is no man that has ever made my heart feel the way Fenway does but when one does…I promise you I’ll marry him.
It’s impossible to not have a stupid grin on your face as you sing Sweet Caroline. I can’t explain the explosion of joy in my heart when my brother surprised me with a ticket to the Red Sox Wild Card game against the Yankees 30 minutes before game time. Every transgression on the long list of times he didn’t pay me back since birth magically vanished. This was the first game I went to by myself. I remember my mom asking,” Who was I going to go with?” and my reply was, “You know it didn’t even cross my mind that I needed anyone to go with when I’m in a stadium full of friends.” I used to dream of the day I didn’t need someone to go with me to do things…Boston pushed that dream into fruition, into something I would do over and over again. I stopped limiting myself from being able to do everything I wanted to do because I was waiting on someone else.
There is no man that has ever made my heart feel the way Fenway does but when one does…I promise you I’ll marry him.
MOLLY INCLÁN
I got in the habit of scoring student tickets for $9 and going to the games by myself. I never felt alone. I never felt sad. The people around me always became my friends. There’s something special about Fenway and the night air. The hot dogs. The lights shining down on the field. It always felt natural and peaceful and exactly how I wanted to spend my “me time”. It’s exactly how I spent my last night in Boston with a good friend by my side right behind home plate.
I think its sacrilegious to pass by the concession stand and not buy a hot dog. What is a game without a hot dog? I’ll never know. I’ve never tried it. The talent of the vendors who balance huge warmers filled with food through the stands on their head makes me smile but not half as much as when I hear them calling with a strong Boston accent, “wattah, wattah”.
I got to hear David Ortiz speak in a small auditorium in Questrom and it made me love him even more. It made me love the Red Sox more. It made me love this city more. I know you’re thinking it’s impossible. It’s impossible for this girl to love Boston any more than she did at the beginning of this. I thought that too…I thought 2018 was peak loving Boston/Red Sox season but it’s only grown more and more each day.
Fenway houses the epitome of all things Boston. The air is full of magic and passion and some amazing insults hurled loudly in a thick Boston accent. There are few things better in life than a night in Fenway Park with my beloved Red Sox.
May you never be a Yankees fan,
Molly