Two icons, one big event
The Game in ’18 will be fun at Fenway
I attended a couple of Patriots games at Fenway Park when I was a kid, but never considered it to be a big deal.
Part of the reason is that neither the Patriots nor Fenway were looked upon with any particular fondness in those days. The Pats were a shoestring outfit doing business in the upstart, twobit American Football League. And Fenway? It was nothing more than a clanky, dusty, run-down baseball park whose special charms wouldn’t be revealed to us for another couple decades.
The Pats rented out Fenway Park for no other reason than because it was the best available option. They were the old-timey football equivalent of couch-surfers, crashing at Nickerson Field, Alumni Stadium and, yes, Fenway; they were the down-on-his-luck uncle who pops in for the weekend and then hangs around for three months. Not a lot of tradition in that.
Speaking of tradition, one of the oldest and upper crus test traditions in the history of Boston sports is about to get a major tweaking: Next year’s 135th edition of the Harvard-Yale football game is slated to be played at Fenway Park.
This news takes on greater meaning when one considers that the 2018 Ivy League season will mark the 50th anniversary of the famous game in which Harvard “beat” Yale 29-29. For you kids not familiar with the significance of this — and, sorry, this is back-in-the-day stuff every fan should know — the two teams were undefeated entering The Game, meaning the winner would win the Ivy League.
Harvard trailed by 16 points with 42 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, but rallied for a tie on the strength of a touchdown and conversion, followed by an onside kick recovery, followed by another touchdown and conversion.
With no time left on the clock, tight end Pete Varney, later a major league catcher and still later the longtime baseball coach at Brandeis, caught the gamewinning, er, game-tying, conversion attempt.
The Harvard Crimson newspaper came up with the best headline in the history of college newspapers: “Harvard Beats Yale, 29–29.”
And now, on the 50th anniversary of such an epic football game, Harvard and Yale will meet up . . . at Fenway Park.
I love it.
Why do I love it? First, a disclaimer: For about a thousand years now, I’ve been clamoring for a new Fenway Park. As a lifelong consumer of baseball who actually purchases tickets and sits in the stands — and not just in the press box — I find the place painfully uncomfortable. Fenway was built in 1912, and, sorry, folks back then weren’t as tall or stout as us 21st century folks. The Red Sox are to be applauded for the many throw pillows and doilies they’ve used over the years to spruce up the beloved Kenmore Square ballyard, but it’s still cramped and tight.
Strangely, however, I love Fenway for events other than baseball. I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen at Fenway. Had a blast. I’ve seen the Bruins at Fenway. Loved it. And, yes, I’ve seen college football at Fenway. Loved that as well.
There’s something really, really cool about all these events, and they inspire me to cast aside my grumpiness about site lines and seats. The night I was at Fenway to see Springsteen was just a day after the death of Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky, and we heard The Boss, a legit baseball fan, asking that a spotlight be shone on the right-field foul pole — Pesky’s Pole. Wow.
When Boston University played Boston College in a college hockey showdown at Fenway, it was a dream come true for Terriers coach Jack Parker and Eagles coach Jerry York, two local boys who grew up rooting for the Red Sox. Parker proudly told me about a scheme he had worked up to sneak into Fenway during the 1967 World Series. (Memo to Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner: Parker owes you some $$$.)
What I’m talking about here are guys whose careers are not in Major League Baseball, from rock star Bruce Springsteen to Somerville Jack Parker, who got dropped into Fenway and then allowed the baseball lover inside them to bubble to the surface. As a once-ina-while thing it’s no harm, no foul. And a lot of fun.
I understand the recent football games played at Fenway haven’t exactly been turn-away affairs. That doesn’t mean they’ve been bad events; it just means people haven’t caught on to a cool thing. I’d fire the marketing people instead of halting the non-baseball events.
Besides, there’s this extra special bonus: If we hear from some gasbag, stiffupper-lip, Oliver Barrett IV types from Harvard or Yale who grouse about tradition, or bad seats, or heaven help us, the lack of a decent patch of grass outside Fenway to set up a wine-and-brie-fueled tailgate party, is that a bad thing?