May 19th, 2008
Sometime around November or December Kyley found a “The Little Prince” calendar in Whole Foods. Apparently she is a big fan of the book, I had never heard of it but I figured we would need a calendar so I bought it.
Standard calendars start on Sunday and go to Saturday left to right, that’s just the way it works. But this one, we noticed in January, starts on Monday and goes to Sunday.
Sunday night we take a quick glance at the calendar, see that the game is marked on the second day from the left and acknowledge we have tickets to the game on Monday. I put them in my wallet without looking at them and we make plans to meet before the game.
Monday night we get to Gate D at Fenway Park, bundled, freezing (it was about 55 degrees with constant 15-20 mph winds) and attempt to scan our tickets (I got the pat down and the security guy thought my work ID was a knife but I convinced him otherwise) but when Kyley’s ticket will not scan, the ticket taker looks at it closely and lets us know our tickets are actually for Tuesday, May 20th.
It became clear very quickly that we had made a mistake. Seeing that we were already at Fenway and that I had a ticket for game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday, we found a scalper to trade with us. I wonder how he must have felt after the game (not that you can ever predict a no hitter – no wait, I can, on July 29th 2008 Micah Owings will throw a no hitter! – still, those tickets seem much less desirable now by contrast).
When we got in, I was Paul Mezzianti and Kyely was Jane Molloy, my ticket was grandstand and hers was bleachers so we went up to our original Left Field Standing Room spot and had a perfect view of the field.
A few big hits got us excited, there was that bizarre muffed catch by Mark Grudzielanek, a hard triple by Jacoby Ellsbury and a ground rule double by Kevin Youkilis. The Red Sox went up early and it felt like the exact opposite of the Detroit Tigers debacle we witnessed Jon Lester pitch in April.
Through four I started noticing how often Lester was throwing first pitch strikes. It just seemed like he was hitting his spots on every batter. I started noticing he was getting a few strikeouts.
During the fifth and the top of the sixth we went down to the restrooms and I saw the great catch by Ellsbury on one of the TVs. I saw that Lester still had yet to give up a hit through 6 and knew we needed to get back to our “seats” immediately.
During the first inning I said ”There’s nothing like October baseball” because of how cold it was up there. By the top of the seventh it felt like October baseball.
I realized at this point that Kyley couldn’t see the scoreboard and didn’t realize that Lester had surrendered zero hits through 6. I couldn’t tell her though. I knew if I told her the Royals would find a way to pull an outside pitch down the line for a double or knock one over the monster.
I sent a few vague text messages to friends that said something like “I hope you’re watching the game. Red Sox. Not Hornets/Spurs”
My friend Casey sent one back that said “This looks like a ’special’ game.”
Lester threw a first pitch strike to nearly every batter he faced from the 7th on. He got ahead in counts and made a lot of guys swing at tough pitches. When people made contact they would either fly out (a routine fly out to Coco Crisp in center has never made a stadium so nervous) or ground weakly to the infield.
20 of 29 batters faced were first pitch strikes, including the top of the 8th when Lester threw a first pitch strike to each batter and K’d Billy Butler and Miguel Olivo.
Lester threw 130 pitches, 86 of which were strikes.
In the 9th inning, Lester walked the first batter and there was definitely a sense of danger. He made Pena and DeJesus ground out to second and third respectively and when Callaspo was at bat, the only thing way I could see it ending was a strikeout.
People were jumping up and down and screaming. I hugged Kyley and yelled “THAT WAS A NO HITTER” and she said “TONIGHT?!?!” I have never seen anyone make a face of surprise and shock and happiness like that before.
I’ve never been to a World Series, but I cannot imagine any crowd in Fenway Park having as much energy and life as it did last night. With the playoffs, people go in expecting to see something they will never forget. I certainly never thought a random Monday night game in May would be the most memorable Red Sox game I have ever attended.
Lester may never be great. He may continue to struggle with inconsistency or have trouble hitting his spots or throw too many pitches. He will (probably) never become an ace in any rotation on any team. None of that really matters.
In baseball anyone can be king for a day.
Thanks to the calendar I’ll always remember Jon Lester as “The Little Prince”.
