Kia Ora Sept Issue

Travel Boston
BOSTONIANS ANNOUNCE THEIR love of
sport long before you’ve even touched down
on the Eastern Seaboard. When I boarded
my flight from San Francisco, I was greeted
by a sea of Red Sox baseball caps, Harvard
Rowing sweatshirts and Celtics basketball
singlets (it was summer after all).
This town lives for sport, fielding national
champions and internationally recognised
franchises in a number of American codes.
As much as the city is the focal point of
American independence, Boston’s sports
history – and its citizens’ undying love of
contemporary battle on the court or field
– is very much a part of its beating heart.
Fenway Park (boston.redsox.mlb.com) is
where these two sides of Boston collide.
America’s oldest baseball ground, Fenway, is
a museum; it’s just one that happens to
resonate with the sound of feverish crowds
several nights a week when Boston’s beloved
Red Sox are playing at home. Oldest? It
pre-dates Chicago’s Wrigley Field by two
seasons. To give some context, the first
game ever played there was on April 9, 1912.
That’s five days before the Titanic hit an
iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Witnessing a home game against a worthy
adversary here is unlike any other sporting
occasion you’re likely to experience. Unless
you’re a New York Yankees fan, of course.
After defeating the Chicago Cubs in the
1918 World Series, the Boston Red Sox were
at the top of the heap, thanks to their
legendary slugger, Babe Ruth.
But in 1919 the Red Sox sold “the Bambino”
to the New York Yankees and so began
Boston’s fierce rivalry with their southern
neighbours, and the so-called “Curse of the
Bambino” – a superstition that evolved
through the decades from the moment
Ruth left Fenway Park until 2004, when
the Red Sox finally broke an 86-year losing
streak and won the World Series.
I found out all this and much more on
a walking tour of Fenway Park.
While these hour-long visits don’t take you
out onto the diamond itself, visitors are
escorted almost everywhere else, from the
best seats in the house (above the “Green
Monster”, the 11.33m left-field wall that still
houses the ballpark’s 1934-era scoreboard), to
the media room high above the diamond, to
the visiting teams’ changing room – a former
supply cupboard where out-of-town
opponents trip over each other in purposely
designed compact solitude. Well, team sports
are 90 percent psychology, right?
Speaking of psychology, I’m not a runner.
Various purchases of expensive “this time,
——
As much as Boston is a
focal point of American
independence, its sports
history – and its citizens’
undying love of battle on the
court or field – is very much
part of its beating heart.
——
Clockwise from top: Fenway Park, home of the
Boston Red Sox; the Red Sox in action; the start
of the Boston Marathon in Hopkinton; Baseball
caps for sale in Quincy Market; and the Boston
Sports Museum.
40 Kia Ora September 2017 41