Local News

Camping Out For Tickets: A Fan's Successful Tale

wbztv.com Producer Mike Pueschel Is In Line At Fenway Park

Photos From The Fenway Line

How badly do you want Red Sox World Series tickets? One of our wbztv.com producers devoted 35 hours of his life to camping outside Fenway Park, before scoring two tickets just before the World Series opener. Mike chronicled his adventures in both prose and pictures, here on wbztv.com, giving a glimpse of what life was like living on Lansdowne Street.

While you're here, for your entertainment, watch this video of Jonathan Papelbon's celebratory dance.


9:25 am
Greetings from Friendly Fenway
Its 9:25 am on Tuesday October 23rd... 35 hours before the first pitch inside these walls at game one of the World Series. Its weird being here with no one here. That is except for the 62 or so odd people ahead of me in line and the occasional person walking down the street and buses.

9:30am
My first (and hopefully last crisis). It turns out the tent I borrowed from my friend John, did not come with any poles. So if it rains like Barry Burbank said it would I could be in trouble.

10:02am
I was worried coming down here that it might not be very safe... but I've already met a bunch of nice people
Brian is 2 ahead of me... he's say he's #60 (which would make me #64 and last at this point). Brian says he was #8 in line for tickets to game 6 of the ALCS last Saturday night. He told me he got here early Friday for the 8pm Saturday night game.

I've also met Dominic... who seems like he may the so called "mayor" of what he called "Lansdowne Island". He interrupted me as I was writing my first entries to say hello and once he found out what I was doing he offered to collaborate on a documentary of this existence. He says he's been doing this for years... since the Celtics were great in the 80's. He told me some of the "ground rules" as far as someone standing in for you to go to the bathroom... to how many people you can bring with you to get tickets (and how long they have to wait here to qualify to do so). He says there's a whole sub-culture to this urban camping out for tickets. He's some where in the middle of this 60 some odd people.

10:05am
I am no longer the last in line. So guy walked up asked me what number I was, and after I told him put down his bag and Red Sox jacket and said now were 64!

10:30am
I'm now farther from the end of the line... two nice girls pulled up in a cab and set up a huge tent right next to me... they said they have 4 more friends coming later... she's a student, said they will be holding each others place while each goes to class... they're aiming for seats for game 2 however.

An older gentleman came next... he wondered how this works... he doesn't look all that prepared... no coat, no tent, or even a chair or sleeping bag... I highly doubt he'll last through any rain. He was nice enough however to help one of the girls set up a tent. Yours truly was completely clueless as how to do it

Then a Scottish couple came up (the older gentleman thought they were Scottish but I wasn't close enough to make out their accents)... and asked them how this worked... whether there was a game tonight? They explained it was for tomorrow night at 8. They then asked if they could come back tomorrow at 6pm and get tickets... everyone but them laughed and they tried to explain it... but to quote Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson... this one was lost in translation.

11:05am
I had a brief scare. First one wet drop and then more and more fell on me. I thought it had started to rain, and me with only a tent with no poles to hold it up. Then I noticed it was raining only on me, not on either of the people to my left or right. It was like some old cartoon where the little storm cloud follows Bug Bunny around raining only on him. I grabbed everything I could and tried to move it out of the path of the water... my pillow and blanket are now drying draped on a tree. It turns out (someone told me) that inside they must have been cleaning (and spraying down) the monster seats (which are 100 feet?) above me... and I got to enjoy the excess water. I'm now sitting on the curb.. far from the wall to lean on as some stuff dries.

11:30pm
Let's Make A Deal. Remember the old game show? Well apparently a wannabe local game show host is lurking around Fenway park. Some guy has been talking to and bugging the girls to my right... upset that the 2 of them were holding space for a bunch more people who weren't there yet. He says he has a friend on the Boston Police who's coming down to wait and won't be happy with that. He says it'll be ok for them to save spaces if they save some for him and some of his buddies he wants to bring down. Finding no deal he tried door #2 and complained to me that he was worried once BU gets out that the line will be flooded by thousands of college students and instead of #62 we'll be 262... and that ticket brokers will be muscling their way in saying "what are you going to do about it"?

Noon
MMMMMM Scooby Snacks…. Its about noon and time for some thing to eat. I've been good so far... I haven't eaten or drinking anything since getting here at 9am. I'm trying to eat so much that way I don't have to use the bathroom with no one to watch my stuff and no tent to hide it in. For lunch the gourmet treat that satisfies nearly every hungry urban camper: fruit snacks... but not just any fruit snacks.... Scooby Doo fruit snacks. So good I had to have two packets. I wonder how many points that is? I'll save my appetite for dinner.... which my wife has promised to deliver.

12:15 pm
Get by with a little help from your friend… I had my first visitors to my new home away from home... case de Lansdowne. Investigative reporter, Kathy Curran and Photog Extraordinaire Chris Gobiele stopped by for a visit. Alas neither of them could figure out what was wrong with my camcorder... depriving all of you from seeing just how bad I bet some of these people could imitate Jonathan Papelbon. Chris did suggest I take the video camera around the corner and down the street to a camera shop... but alas then I'd have to get out of line.

12:45 pm
Despite Scooby's help I am getting tired. Really tired. I've been up since 5:30PM yesterday, having worked on the morning show this morning and then coming here. I'm afraid to nap with no tent to hide anything and worried my items will not be there when I wake. The good thing is everyone seems to be in a great mood here and there energy is infectious. The girls next to me are listening to music, doing home work, smoking from a hookah (I think that's how its spelled?) and talking non stop in Spanish (I heard 1 tell someone else she is from Columbia). Unfortunately 3 years of Spanish at Holyoke Catholic High and 4 semesters at UMass haven't prepared me to pick up one word they're saying. Others are playing wiffle ball in the middle of the street and catch with a football.

12:55 pm
Horsing around
The police seem to be keeping a relatively close eye on things. In the 4 hours I've been here a group of Boston Police on horseback have come by 3 or 4 times.

1:30pm
Don't Beware This Greek Bearing A Gift
While a Trojan Horse would have kept me out of tonight's rain it may have been a bit conspicuous on the side of Lansdowne street. However John Karalis came through for me yet again. He encourage me to do this in the first place, then lent me the tent (unbeknownst to either of us that it was missing its poles). He just drove up and delivered me a 2 person pup tent that he went and bought for me.

2pm
First let me apologize for my typing and spelling. I hope my mother (an English teacher isn't cringing when she reads all this) I swear I'm spell checking everything. However my wife informs me I'm leaving words out and my typing is horrible... I'm going to blame it on the lack of sleep at this point.

Now on with the show....

Random Acts of Kindness

My new friend Brian offered to help me put up the tent! Thank God he did, because what would have taken me an hour to figure out instead took 10 minutes. And in a strange twist of television fate, as we are doing this we were also the back drop of a Fox 25 reporter doing a story on fans camped out at Fenway... little do they know I'll be blogging about later. We were in a good 7 takes or so as she did her takes. Brian's a nice kid... we talked for awhile to pass the time as we are both here alone. He's a student at nearby Emmanuelle college. He's originally from the Shrewsbury area and me being from Holyoke, MA means we both have a long drive home to visit our parents.

He told me all about him and his friends impromptu trip down here to try and get tickets for game 6 of the ALCS... and the insanity in this are after game 7. He said 1 of his friends got arrested for not moving when from a street as he watched game 7 through the window of a bar... when police told him to move. They had to bail him out.... in Southie.... at 4am. Ouch!!!! They were here however (8th in line) when Dustin Pedroia and Mike Lowell delivered Mexican food while waiting for game 6 tickets.

2:30pm
Luckily I have some nice people around me. The lady between Brian and I asked us to watcher her chair and stuff while she went and got some food and also asked us if we needed anything. We of course both said yes we'd watch it and no we didn't need anything. Later I watched Brian's stuff as he went and bough a tarp or 2 afraid his tent won't make it here before the rain. Thanks Brian's dad for saying you'd bring your son a tent... camped outside of Fenway park. Still 2 people I didn't know at all 5 hours ago have entrusted me to watch their stuff. I guess there is still some trust and good in the world.

2:50 ish
Brian returns with his tarp and I help him lay it down. He says there's only 1 rule: no shoes on the tarp. He says they learned the hard way that walking with scuzzy bottom shoes where you sleep is not such a good idea. He even lays a newspaper ion front of the tarp to place sneakers on. He looks exhausted so I give him my extra blanket to use as a pillow to lay on.

3:15pm
The mayor wants to make a movie
Dominic (who I earlier referred to as the mayor but later learned that's a term for someone else) keeps coming to talk to me (3 or 4 times at this count) to talk about ''our documentary''. That is the one he wants to make with me, upon finding out what I am doing. Unfortunately at this point not only was my camcorder not working, neither was my internet so he volunteered to write it down some of his idea/script for later *which he would do twice more in the evening for I laid down for a nap). I not entirely sure if he's all there or just feeling it. Then again he didn't smell of booze so???? He keeps mentioning how he wants to do "our documentary" like a different famous newscaster, or interviewer... but he keeps changing his mind who. He starts spouting flowery lines that belong in a Shakespeare story but instead are about Fenway the Red Sox and Lansdowne street. The the Bard (his new nickname) He then quotes:" The night was moist" from the cinematic masterpiece "Throw Mama from the Train". Somewhere Danny Devito is smiling (perhaps with wife Rhea Perlman down at Cheers) I then retire to my tent to write these entries down long hand as I wait for the internet connection to work again... and hide from the Bard and his grand ideas.

4:30pm
How it Really Works
I asked Brian and the nice lady to my left how this typically works (seeing as they've been through it before) They say usually vouchers for your place in line are given out around 4 hours or so before the game... at which point you should ditch your stuff. Brian will call friends at his nearby dorm who will retrieve his and bring them back to the dorm. Then about 2 hours before the game the tickets will actually be sold according to the vouchers and you have to go right inside. I also learn now that while I was inside the tent, a Colorado TV station came by and asked him how many Colorado Rockies he could name from pictures... He did pretty good... getting outfielder, and NL MVP candidate Matt Holiday, Rockies 1st baseman (and almost Red Sox) Todd Helton, and catcher (and toughest name to spell and pronounce in baseball), Yorbit Toriellba, but did not know Shortstop and possible NL rookie of the year, Troy Tulowitzki. Brian also asks me how TV really works, as I discover he is a freshman Communications major, just a month and a half into his college career.

4:50pm
I think it was Andy Warhol who made the "15 minutes of fame" famous. This may be mine. A DJ from WZLX calls me around now and asks me if I'd do a live interview with him on the radio. Here I thought no one (aside from my family and friends at work) would read this blog. While ducking inside the tent I here some familiar muttering from some people outside looking for someone with a computer who was out here earlier... I duck my head outside and hear him? They say something about a blog and I say guilty as charged... and tell them to go to wbztv.com to read it. They are all really nice, especially Liz (whom I now meet) and was playing catch with a football earlier... She also offers her and her friend/boyfriend/husband? to be interviewed if I'd like later... which I intend to take them up on after I get some sleep. also get a call from the TV station saying they're coming down to shoot me and to watch for a certain photographer, I talk to Brian later as he does this and gets more video of the lines. He wasn't in the best of moods... Brian comment about him was (in your best sarcastic tone): ''Wow he really has a passion for his job.''

At about 5:06pm WZLX calls and I talk to Chuck Nowlin for a little while and try to be as funny as he appears to be. Not :30 after I hang up with him... my best friend, Chris, calls from Western Mass. and says his brother heard me on the radio and called him. His brother was forever immortalized by the picture his parents used to keep on the mantle of him as a young boy and his proclivity for lying around naked on the couch. I tease him about it to this day... even though he's know far bigger than me and in college.

5:15pm
I get to meet the "real mayor".... David.... the first man in line (who it seems has made a habit of being so). He's going a long writing down everyone's name and when they got here... on a big piece of cardboard with a sharpie... to get a better accurate count. However somehow in the 8 or so hours since I've been here I some how gone from 63rd in line to like 80-th according to his count. He's quite a character in his tattered Yankees Suck t shirt. The want to be mayor/Bard Dominic later comes by and makes a list of his own.

6pm
Domino's slogan may be we deliver.... but tonight it is Myra (my wife) and Laura (her friend) who deliver. When not moonlighting as food delivers/bathroom break givers to a desperate Red Sox fans hoping to get World Series tickets they both do a great job at the Moakley Courthouse. Tonight after work they were nice enough to come up here after work... bring me dinner (Mexican--- eat your heart out Mike Lowell & Dustin Pedroia) let me run down to Game On to go to the bathroom and (AND THIS IS A BIG AND) they take the laptop somewhere to plug it in and recharge it while I take a nap... my first sleep in more than 24 and a half hours... at 6:45. Not only did my loving and understanding wife allow yours truly to come down here, she brought me food.. and much more. I am a lucky man for this and many more reasons.

Between 6:45 and 8pm
I forgot a big thank you... for yet another action of kindness among the group of strangers down here that share the common bond that is being a member of Red Sox Nation. I have to thank Liz and her crew who not only offered me some of their pizza before my dinner was delivered... but they also told me about the outlets to plug stuff in... and I directed Myra and Laura to her to ask her upon my behalf to charge this laptop as I headed off to dream land at least for a short time.

While I was asleep I apparently slept through a fire truck driving right by... sirens and all. Laura and Myra also had a close encounter with Mike Lowell and Dustin Pedroia who walked by (admiring the line) with their respective significant others.

That noise you may have heard was me snoring from my tent.

As the clock ticks past 10pm... and I write what will likely be my last entry of the evening. I will likely write tonight... especially if what has happened in the past I am told happens again... (picture a homeless lady in response to being agitated by a local bar worker, dropping her pants and going to the bathroom in the middle of Lansdowne street at like 4am) I also overheard someone saying they were looking forward to another game of risk,,, but they wanted to get high as a kite first.I will type some more in the morning. And WBZ weather team... where is this rain????

10:30 pm
A phone call wakes me from a brief nap... its WBZ sports producer extraordinaire, Joe Giza! He's stopped by for a visit; and he's brought gifts. Listen to this: not only did Joe come down and let me go to the bathroom, but he brought me a bunch of energy bars and a bag full (and I mean a bag full) of cheeseburgers from McDonald's. Seriously there had to be like a dozen in there. He said I could do with them as I saw fit... eat them all, share them or trade them whatever. Oh and here's the best part: IT'S JOE'S DAY OFF! He's going to be here the next 2 days covering the games before going to Denver. So On his 1 day off in like 2 weeks,,, he came down to see me and check out the scene. That my friends is true friendship. I later handed out the cheeseburgers with some of my new "neighbors"... I figures it doesn't hurt to have too many friends especially when you're urban camping by yourself; and for people who know me: whether it be candy or cupcakes or something else one thing I do do is share my food. An added bonus to my surprise was seeing a WBZ TV live truck parked across the street... and inside was Dominic, not the bard of Lansdowne Street, but the photographer who I think may have been named after the Italian Christmas song: Dominic the Donkey. So in between him trying to set up a live shot for the 11pm news I got to see another familiar face.

11:30pm
What appears to be a Japanese TV crew comes down to see the horde waiting for tickets. They're not the first TV crew, and won't be the last... ESPN, a bunch of Boston, Manchester and Denver crews have all been here. But what they do is a little different. Instead of just picking and choosing who they want to record... they get everybody. So about every 2 minutes or so you hear a different cheer or people screaming as they move down the line from front to back. Apparently we are quite the spectacle.. because there's been a bunch of traffic... lots of people with camera, video and other wise driving slowly by to see us all out here. The Duck tours have even added it to their route so all the tourists can see how crazy Red Sox nation is. The boats came by at least 4 times yesterday... and that was while I was awake and outside the tent, so it's probably more. Quack Quack!

11:58pm
Some of Brian's friends decide to take a walk to see how far the line goes. They get back like 10 minutes later and tell us it goes all the way down to Lansdowne Street. They talked to someone who said they were about 280-th in line but were optimistic they'd get tickets to Game 1. Apparently the Red Sox gave out about 300 tickets for Game 6 of the ALCS but I'm told that is unusual.

12:17am
Time for me to attempt to get some sleep. I feel bad for Brian and his friends (they came here by various forms of transportation from Albany, NY) They've got the exact same tent I have, but will have 6 college age guys sleeping in it. Ok, who wants to spoon? Oh yeah... and its started to rain... enough to chase everyone into their tents, under umbrellas or any other shelter they can find. Goodnight.

5:50am
Good morning.
I awake to the call of Mother Nature... apparently my bladder did not enjoy being all together ignored yesterday. I scramble across the street where I learned there was a port-a-potty inside the Lansdowne garage. Thankfully the rain has stopped... but more is supposedly on the way. Its also a lot colder than yesterday. I then have a couple of Scooby snacks and a banana my wife brought me for breakfast. Today should be an interesting day. The nice woman staying next to me who has done this before told me that there are a lot of people that try and cut in line... including an 86 or so year old man who does it every game like clock work at 2:30pm. He either finds some break in the line or finds someone talking and just sits on the curb in front of them. No one ever says anything because he's 86 or so. One guy responds to that story by saying: I don't care if he was in the 1918 World Series, he's not cutting in front of me!

6am
I just heard someone singing take me out to the ballgame this morning. Its stuck in all of our heads. There's a giant video screen almost directly across the street that played ads all night long. One of them plays a few lines of take me out to the ball game... and its airs over and over and over again. I swear since getting here yesterday morning I must have heard it a million times.

7am
I am alone no more. My wife could not get the day off yesterday but some how came up with a way to get out of work today. No she didn't call in sick. Even better she brought me some Gatorade (I was getting dehydrated from not drinking any water to keep from going to the bathroom) and some breakfast. This also allowed me to be able to go to the bathroom and get some coffee... which has never tasted so good.

9am
Its about 9am... and I am long overdue for brushing my teeth (along with showering and probably a bunch of other things). So like so many around me I grab the bottle of water, a tooth brush and tooth paste and brush in the middle of Lansdowne Street. How's that for a pretty picture? At least I'm, not alone in doing so.

9:15 ish
Myra is laying down for a little while having gotten up with the roosters to get down here so early. I'm awake and now that she's here to keep an eye on things, I can explore Lansdowne Island a little more. I shouldn't be surprised by the ingenuity of some of the people here, but there's actually a group of guys toward the front of the line who brought a big TV and a generator and are passing the time by playing video games! Now that's roughing it.

10am
As Myra and I were talking to the two nice ladies next to us (she's bonding with one of them, Jackie) we saw the strangest sight down the street. A giant group of Japanese tourists or students or something came walking down the street part of the way... they took pictures of some of the line, and the Cask N' Flagon and bought some souvenirs. They're all dressed head to toe in schoolboy and girl outfits (skirts even). That ranks up there with the strange things I've seen the past 2 days. Long live the marketing and drawing power of Daisuke I guess.

10:40am
I just witnessed a female stereotype come true... the group pee (or powder your nose if you prefer). Myra met Jackie and the other nice lady next to us (who's name is escaping me) all of 3 and a half hours ago... but they're all walking to Barnes and Noble to go to the ladies room together. Yours truly stayed behind on guard duty..

10:58am
A reporter and camera crew from Fort Myers, Florida just came by to get their first view of the line. Myra asks me what is a Florida TV station doing here? I explain to her its the spring training home of the Red Sox. Still its pretty cool they came up here all the way for this.

11:01am
Brian's back from class. His friends held down the fort (tent)... literally and figuratively he got up at the crack of dawn for an 8am Intro to Spanish class followed by a 10am Math class... the dreaded college double whammy.

11:30am
Everyone goes crazy as a van and school bus with I'm Shipping Up To Boston by The Dropkick Murphy's (Jonathan Papelbon's entry music) blaring out of the speakers. They're from Modell's and were handing out Red Sox t-shirts (if you'd dance like Papelbon's Riverdance) and then hats. One of Brian's friends got stuck with a girl's sweatshirt... but luckily was able to trade it on for a t-shirt. Another one of them wasn't so lucky and is now stuck with a nice yellow women's Red Sox hat.

11:45am
A ton of Boston police on motorcycles come flooding down the street and start driving around and stuff. We're all wondering what's about to happen.

Noon
Sitting on the other side Fenway has its benefits... we get to hear John Williams and the orchestra warm up to play the National Anthem tonight. Later we heard Ashanti practicing God Bless America. After finishing it without screwing up in her first try she said something into into the mic like "See, I can do it without screwing up."

12:40pm
A guy from the Red Sox comes by and tells everyone to break their tents down. Brian tries to tell him they have people coming to wait in line for game 2 and use it... and despite everything Brian says... his only response is Want To Break Your Tent down?

12:45pm
Everyone starts running up the street... a totally unorganized mad dash. We get in another line (ended up losing 15 places or so). I send Myra ahead while I finish breaking down the tent etc... and then start up the street looking like someone carrying enough stuff to climb Mt. Everest. Police later make everyone move up onto the curb by driving motorcycles down the street close to the curb to force people up onto the sidewalk.

1:45pm
Meagan, esteemed news producer at WBZ TV comes through BIG TIME. She delivers big cup o Joe and hot chocolate plus cups and plenty of sugar etc... to Myra and me in line. I share it with our new college-age friends... its a big hit. Meagan's generosity hits the spot in more ways than one.

2pm
We have vouchers for tickets. We must stay here until 6pm when we actually get to buy the tickets. We are 93 and 94th in line.

2:18pm
Myra is reading her book, Brian and the boys are playing pitch and I am sitting on the curb writing these blogs. I will try to write once more after we do or do not get tickets... battery willing. I have a bunch more pictures taken with my digital camera (from inside Fenway hopefully too) that will hopefully be posted Thursday. A little while ago we also saw WBZ reporter Bill Shields and photographer William doing a story and talking to us. Its always nice to see some friendly faces.

3:30pm
Run Mike (as opposed to Lola) Run
I however did venture out of line briefly twice. Once to go to the bathroom (but that was pretty early on when we were sure they wouldn't be selling tickets yet, and with the assurance that I could run to Game On, use their bathroom and run back before our spot in line would come up.

The second time was a little crazier. I didn't realize until later in the day that once you got the tickets that you had to go directly into the park, that way they can't be re-sold. So once I found that out I had to figure out what to do with all of our stuff. Thankfully, Bob Clark, WBZ news writer, web producer, and perhaps one of the funniest men on the planet stopped by (on his day off!) to say hello and see if Myra or I needed anything. Thankfully he was willing to take some of our stuff, my jumbo duffel bag and sleeping bag. That just left the tents and the lap top. So I went sprinting down Landsdowne Street, and around the park (going down Yawkey Way would have been so much shorter, but I wasn't sure if it was still open). I finally made in to Van Ness Street and "TV Row" where all the live trucks are set up and all the TV people. There I was able to stash my tent and John's old tent in the back of one truck and I was able to find some other people to take the lap top. They were able to talk to head sports producer Jackie Connally (the glue that keeps the sports department together and the hardest working person at WBZ) who would take it back to the station for me. I then ran the rest of the way around the park (getting some strange glances in the process) and back into line.

3:45pm ish
Great Britain and Subtitles
One thing I definitely learned in my time in line... people will do anything with a camera on them. Between all the TV stations, newspapers, radio stations and others who came to see "Lansdowne Island" there were plenty of interesting stories. This is my favorite, a TV crew from Great Britain was interviewing someone near us in line as we waited with our vouchers. He was nice enough, but as we found out the combination of drinking too much and not being the smartest of fellows can have some interesting consequences. The interview was relatively normal enough. But the best part was directly afterward when he turned around and said to everyone in ear shot... that he thought it was great to be interviewed by a Great Britain station, even if his interview would have to have subtitles. At which point I turned to Myra, Brian and the rest of his friends and we all basically had the look on our faces that said: Did he just say what I think he said?'' The someone said "subtitles"? and we all started laughing. We were still laughing about it hours later.

4:15pm
As much as some parts of this "system" was so unorganized and a mess; I do have to give the Red Sox credit for trying to take care of all of us out there waiting and hoping to get tickets. Two incredibly nice women came out first handing out free Red Sox nation bracelets and later water to everyone in line. Both were nice surprises.

4:30pm - 6:30pm
Dirty Rotten Cheaters
While waiting in line we all heard a rumor that some one (who would be very interested in making a documentary with me) got out of line during the day and had photocopied his voucher and then gave it to his friends/family to try and get them in. The Boston cops even showed up talking to him, looked at other vouchers to check the numbers. The crowd started yelling blue ink, blue ink, blue ink! As the numbers of our ticket vouchers were written in blue ink. One of the other people in line (Mr. Subtitles) after hearing the rumor had gone and told the ticket office as well as the police. It must have worked because once they started letting people in around 6:30 or so they made everyone go exactly in the order that was on their vouchers. People who had done this before told us this was strange in that they usually let you go in as long as you're 5 or 10 numbers close to the number of voucher before you. Also the 86 year old man whom one of our neighbors warned us about did indeed show up and cut in line. Myra and I, our two female neighbors and Brian and the college gang proceeded to keep blocking him from getting ahead of any of us. Unfortunately for him, the Red Sox handed out vouchers earlier than usual and it turns out he didn't get one this time. So he was playing the "I lost my voucher can you help me find it game" when he realized he couldn't cut in front of us.

6:45 pm
We're in! Myra and I make it to the front of the line and into the box office. We are told that we have the option of buying bleacher seats, grandstand, right field roof deck, or standing room only. We are psyched as we were worried that after all the standing we've done that we would be standing for game one as well. We asked about 2 bleacher seats together either next to or one in front of the other. No luck. Next up in price is grand stand for $150 each. That's what we get… in left field in the shade of the green monster. Section 32, Row 15, seats 21 and 22.

Christina Hager talks to me right after we get them, and I was so tired and so in shock that we actually got seats that I don't know if I even said anything intelligible. Myra and I go inside.

6:45pm-1:45am
The Impossible Dream (1967's team and 2007's my own)

The first thing we did when we got into the ballpark was go to the bathroom. Up next: buying Myra a sweatshirt (its cold and drizzly) and then buying a program for my brother-in-law Ken (the biggest Red Sox fan I know... but who didn't want to take the time out from work to camp with me), my mom (who loves the Red Sox from George ''Boomer'' Scott to Big Papi and always played catch with me in the back yard) and for myself. Then we grab some kettle corn, and wade through the masses (everyone came in at the same time apparently because at one point we were in a line and didn't move for forever) and head to our seats. We didn't want to miss any of the opening festivities so we skipped picking up dinner figuring we'd instead buy it from the roving vendors.

Hey... I Know you!

It turns out there were a bunch of people we waited with in line sitting in seats in and around us. Liz and her friend were three rows in front of us. Mohawk man and his girlfriend were 1 row down and a bunch of seats over and two guys from Fitchburg we recognized were sitting next to Myra. Brian and the college boys ended up in the bleachers (all the better for their wallets anyway). By the way they had friends already camped out for game 2 and were planning on heading there after game 1 ended. What's sleeping outside 1 night for tickets when you've already done it two plus nights for tickets to game 1?

Wicked Awesome

Everything about the game was A-W-E-S-O-M-E or I guess W-I-C-K-E-D A-W-E-S-O-M-E would be more appropriate. John Williams and the Pop's national anthem was great, and the crowd went nuts when the 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox team was announced and Yaz throw out the first pitch. Ashanti did a great job with "God Bless America'' too. Then Josh Beckett strikes out the side in the first inning, and Dustin Pedroia leads off with a homer and the rout is on as Fenway goes nuts. I've been to a lot of Red Sox games in my life, but this time the atmosphere really was electric. The crowd was constantly standing and clapping and cheering. The one bad thing was I was so wiped and exhausted at this point that I had to down a Dunkin Donuts coffee and gobble up some cotton candy to help stay awake. It was like once we finally got seats my body decided it was ok to relax. By the time Eric Gagne strikes out the last batter to end it I was ok, and the crowd going nuts certainly helped.

Halloween Early

Outside the park things were just as crazy... including two college-aged guys dressed up as solo plastic cups walking down Lansdowne street. They were posing for pictures with people and everything it was hilarious. Earlier in the night we'd seen two people dressed as bowling pins (advertising a near by bowling alley) too.

Home Sweet Home.
We took a cab back to the station and drove home... arriving back in Beverly at 1:40 am. Myra went straight to bed -- having to get up for work at 5:30am. I took a quick shower and then joined her. I figured I slept about 6 hours total in the 56+ hours I spent outside and inside Fenway Park.

11:51am The Day After
It all seems like a blur... even though I spent 35 hours or so outside in hopes of getting Red Sox tickets. It was worth every second of sleeping on the ground and praying I wouldn't have to need to go to the bathroom until someone showed up to keep me company so I could go. That said the first thing I did when we got home last night at about 1:45am was I took a quick shower and went to bed. I guess I was a little tired because I woke up at 11:45 this morning and the only reason I woke up was that the phone was ringing (my ring tone by the way is the call of the final out of the 2004 World Series).

It was worth every second... but tonight I'm watching game 2 at home... part of me is a little sad... but another part of me is happy I got to shower (and sleep) today.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)