August 15, 2012

We flew into Boston and rented a car at Logan. We drove straight downtown and found a nice hotel.

A few hours later we headed to Fenway Park.

A place that I said I would never visit. A friend of mine would rave about the place and time after time I would say:

“Never! I will never step foot in that park.”

Then I posted the photo where I pretended to urinate at the exterior of the park and I sent it to my buddy.

We laughed a lot.

Then an email from him:

“You ARE going to Fenway!!!!”

The email contained 2 tickets to see Springsteen at Fenway. He was right. I was going!

We walked all around the park and Kathy said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if Bruce came out and said hello to us before going in.”

I laughed. That wouldn’t go so well.

We settled into our seats along the 3rd base line - The E-Street Band was set up with the green monster as their background. 

The video board flashed footage...

...of Bruce at the main gate...

...shaking hands with the fans.

“Damn! If we’d stayed there ten more minutes!”

The show was memorable from the first note.

As I think back on it 8 years later I immediately think of “Spirit in the Night” when he sat down with Jake on the stage.

They were missing Clarence...Bruce’s buddy and Jake’s uncle.

Bruce chugged a beer.

Then he played ‘Frankie’ and the crowd lit up their phones because Bruce said that he was reminded of the great summer nights and the lightning bugs in the air.

It was a great moment.

They played American Land and Thunder Road.

We smiled for hours that night.

I emailed my buddy after the show. He wouldn’t take a dime for the tickets. 

“But there’s one thing I want,” he said. “You have to go back to Fenway, on your own, and take in a baseball game.”

Less than a month later, I did.

Sat next to the Pesky Pole. 

Thought about Ted Williams and Yaz and the Bucky F****ng Dent game in ‘78.

The Sox were playing the Indians that night and the Tribe put up 7 in the first 3 innings.

I took a photo of the scoreboard as the game went final:

Indians 12 Red Sox 3.

I texted it to my buddy.

He laughed.

“Ah well, at least you’ll never forget seeing Bruce.”

That’s right!

Frankie.