One of the highlights of heading back to my home state during the summer is the chance to return to one of my favorite places on Earth — Fenway Park.
What made this summer’s trip even better for my wife and I was that it was the first time that our sons came to the world’s greatest ballpark with us.
We even got to chase it down with a game at Camden Yards in Baltimore on the way back home (a first for me, despite having once lived in the Washington, D.C. area for a year).
Baseball has been surpassed in popularity over the past few decades by football and basketball, but there’s still something extremely special about going to watch a baseball game in person.
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It’s become even more special now that my kids can be a part of it, too.
I still remember my first time going to Fenway with my father and my brother. I was about the same age as my oldest son is now — and we saw the Sox play Rickey Henderson, Tony Armas and the Oakland A’s.
That game got rained out in the second inning. Fortunately, the boys got the full experience this time.
Of course, keeping a young child’s attention focused on anything for more than five minutes is a challenge, so trying to stretch that out to three or four hours in one place is risky. Thankfully, though, most parks have added so many kid-friendly attractions that it’s actually possible — even if they’re not necessarily as into the game itself as someone older might be.
They were determined to get their faces on the big video board everywhere they went — my youngest made an appearance at Fenway, and my oldest earned a “Dance Cam Winner” shirt at Camden Yards that will fit him in about six years.
They made friends with mascots — Wally the Green Monster gave them a wave and a thumbs-up in Boston, and they exchanged fist bumps and high-fives with Rowdie at an Indianapolis Indians game a week after we got back (also an enjoyable first for me).
When the games were over, they got to see fireworks in Baltimore and run the bases at Victory Field.
Perhaps most importantly, they became experts in ballpark cuisine. I don’t know exactly how many hot dogs they threw down, but it was a lot — and they inhaled more than their fair share of ice cream and other goodies as well. Seldom did an inning go by without a request for something.
And if they were paying attention to the games in between all of that, they got to see some of the best players in the world do their thing. We saw Chris Sale strike out 13 Mariners over seven shutout innings and hit 100 miles per hour on his 93rd and final pitch. We saw Mookie Betts make two or three catches that few, if any, other outfielders can make. We saw Mike Trout hit a home run. Someday, when those guys are getting inducted into the Hall of Fame, my sons will be able to tell their kids that they saw them play in person (even if they won’t actually remember a lick of it).
I’ve been to thousands of sporting events in hundreds of places over the years — but these trips to the ballpark this summer will always rank among the most memorable.
Hopefully, my boys will remember at least some of it too.
