A Yankee fan's night at Fenway Park

Tuesday night, Mrs. Last Honest and I decided to buy tickets to last night's game between the Yankees and Red Sox at Fenway Park. We hopped on StubHub and checked out various options before deciding on a pair of grandstand tickets for $27 each.

If you don't understand what that last paragraph says about the state of the Red Sox, let me break it down:
1. We decided we wanted to go to a game at Fenway Park two days before the game.
2. A game between the Yankees and the Red Sox.
3. There were multiple people wanted to get rid of their tickets for a Yankees/Red Sox game.
4. We were able to buy tickets for $27 each, less than half of what we paid to see Liverpool and AS Roma play an exhibition soccer match for seats that were behind a pole.

When you're sitting behind a pole, you're either watching at this angle...

... or this one.

Speaking of poles, in 2012, are there not engineering and architectural minds who can figure out how to support the upper levels of Fenway Park without needing thick poles? My camera batteries were all dead, so I can't show you exactly where we were last night, but our pole was behind the pitcher's mound, so slow rollers to third were hidden, but they weren't bad.

We had previously seen the Yankees and Red Sox in early 2004, and while next to nothing offends me, it was a bad enough environment that when a co-worker suggested to me that he wanted to take his kids to see the Yankees and Red Sox, I advised against it.

But last night showed that Red Sox fans have lost the will to live. Not only was there a lack of T-shirts spelling out in considerable detail the ways in which Yankees players engage in certain same-sex acts, the crowd was only close to a sellout (as opposed to those newfangled Fenway "sellouts" that show the hit fall fashion accessory in Boston is dressing like an empty seat) because of all the Yankees fans.

It was sort of like Baltimore in the days when Red Sox fans used to brag about taking over the ballpark (something Yankees fans did, too). Congratulations Fenway Park, you're now Yankee Stadium North.

Of course, the "greatest fans in the world" are barely showing up and completely disinterested because their team is so bad. One person tried to start a "Yankees suck" chant last night, but all it took was a couple calls of "Scoreboard!" (one by a guy who looks a lot like the guy writing this post) to put a stop to it.

Then, in the middle of the eighth inning, it happened, the nightly invocation of that which RUINED EVERYTHING ...



For those of you having trouble hearing it, it's Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," and there are honestly people around these parts who think this is a part of the problem. And just so you know, the guy starting the conversation is the best sports radio host in Boston (Michael Felger), and that guy on the right is only one of the best sportswriters anyone has ever seen, some dude named Ryan.



The hit parade also included Jarrod Saltalamacchia's use of "Rock Me Amadeus" as his walk-up music, which is awesome even though Saltalamacchia kind of sucks.

Then in the ninth inning came one of the greatest riffs of all time ... until they start singing.

As for the game, the Yankees won 2-0. Phil Hughes was dealing, Rafael Soriano untucked, and I went home happy.