Welcome back to Thebeerchaser.  If you are seeing this post through an e-mail, please visit the blog by clicking on the title above to see all of the photos and the video at the end of the post and so the narrative isn’t clipped or shortened. (External photo attribution at the end of the post # 1)

Our final destination on the eight-day May cruise originating in Montreal, was Boston.  We debarked from the ship on Saturday morning and our flight back to Portland, Oregon wasn’t until early Sunday evening.  So, one and one-half days to enjoy this great city.

As mentioned in the previous post, we decided to hit historic Fenway Park for a 4:00 PM Saturday game – Red Sox vs the Washington Nationals.   

But we had all morning and so (with some reluctance on my part) hit the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art – less than one-half mile from our hotel. My aversion to art relates back to my childhood when I took classes at the Cincinnati Art Museum.  (Both the instructors and I were elated when my instruction ended.) 

The Institute is housed in an impressive building and the exhibits were creative and expressive even though I didn’t understand many of them. (#2)

For example, one exhibit displayed the works of Firelei Baez, Dominican artist based in New York City, who wrote on an explanatory poster:

“My works are propositions, meant to create alternate pasts and potential futures, questioning history and culture in order to provide a space for reassessing the present.” 

I contemplated what that meant as we were drinking beer before the Red Sox game and in between innings. (#3)

On to Fenway

The hotel maître d’ gave us directions for using public transportation to get to Fenway.  First, take a bus to South Station (officially – The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center) of Boston’s MBTA – “T” – transit system.)

There are three levels to South Station and for help, we groveled and got a grumpy edict from a Transit Authority Officer:

“Take the Red Line to Park Street then the Green Line to Kenmore.  Don’t screw it up or you’ll end up at Boston College.”  Then he grinned (a little) and said, “Worst case is you’ll never return and your fate will be unknown….” (#4)

Well, after a bus trip and two subway lines, I flashed back to the Art Institute and wondered if we had just “created alternate pasts and potential futures.”  We then walked about four blocks to Fenway and joined an excited throng about two hours before game time.

When I say, “excited throng”, I have to clarify because I realized that a significant portion of the crowd – lined up for several blocks – was waiting for a concert at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway. 

“(It’s) a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose live performance venue that occupies roughly 91,500 square feet on four levels and accommodates 5,005 patrons.” (#5 – #6)

It was somewhat chilly and I wondered why most of the adolescent girls in line were dressed in tutus – in many cases supplemented by capes and tiaras without coats. I asked a security guard and he said they were waiting for a Madison Beer concert that was scheduled to start at 7:30.

I thought Madison Beer was a medium-bodied, low-carbonation pilsner brewed in Wisconsin, but I found out that she’s a twenty-five-year-old singer- songwriter with ties to Justin Bieber.

Fenway was one of sixty-three concerts on her 2023-2024 “Spinnin” world tour. These hardy kids had lined up five hours (or more) early for the evening concert for which they paid an average ticket price of $143.

Janet laughed and said, “Well, that’s one event at which you’d be way out of place even though you are Thebeerchaser!”

We just wanted general admission tickets to the game and an outgoing and well-dressed guy approached us and said that he had tickets in the Green Monster (left field), but unfortunately couldn’t make it. (Janet said, “No way,” as I was about to dig into my wallet for cash and she was the wise one on that scheme.)

So, at the Red Sox box office we got bleacher seats in the right field grandstand – each for $40. (#7)

We still had adequate time to check out a bar and brewery, so we popped into the famous Bleacher Bar – in the bowels of Fenway Park:

The Bleacher Bar has a great history and character:

“Situated beneath the bleachers in Fenway Park’s centerfield, a few feet away from the Ted Williams Red Seat, is Lansdowne Street’s greatest attraction….With a huge garage window that looks directly into the stadium, Bleacher Bar has earned its title as one of the most exceptional sports bars in the world.

“Bleacher Bar officially opened its doors in 2008 but, upon entering, you’ll think that we’ve been around a lot longer. Previously used as the visiting team’s batting cage for several years in addition to field storage, there’s an intimate, nostalgic vibe about our bar that almost needs to be experienced in person to be fully understood.”

As you can see below, however, trying to get a beer right before a game would be as challenging as scoring front row seats at a Madison Beer concert.  But we enjoyed seeing it.

We walked around the stadium, down David Ortiz Drive – renamed in 2017 for Big Papi – the Red Sox legend who played there for thirteen years and passed figures and statuettes of famous baseball icons such as No 42 – Jackie Robinson.

We then had a beer at Mighty Squirrel Brewing’s Fenway Brewery and Taproom – one of three locations for the brewery.  The Fenway location at 1 David Ortiz Drive opened in 2017 and is sleek and impressive:

“The two-story, 13,000-square-foot space will feature four bars, a lineup of beers, hard seltzers, and hard smoothies, and a full kitchen serving pizzas, salads, tacos, and more.”

We split a pint of their flagship beer Cloud Candy IPA (6.5% – 60 IBU). “Tropical aromas and notes of papaya, mango, and star fruit dominate this juicy IPA.”

This is an accurate description of the brew and we liked it.  We also enjoyed our conversation with personable Jack, a new and enthusiastic employee. (#8 – #9)

The Game

Fenway Park broke the all-time Major League record for consecutive sellouts with 456 on September 8, 2008, was the site of the first open-air boxing show in Boston in 1920 and has hosted the World Series eleven times.  It lived up to its reputation as one of the most well-known sports venues in the world and a symbol of Boston. (Wikipedia)

Just walking in and mingling with the crowds as they hit the refreshment stands (we were surprised to see Vodka and Lemonade among the choices…) to heading up to our seats in the grandstand and taking in the expansive structures surrounding the diamond and outfield was worth the journey there.

I have to note that the only disappointment was going down to the beer concession under the grandstand and being forced to enter a tip for the guy drawing me a draft Budweiser. (At least the guy at the turnstile when we entered the stadium didn’t put his hand out….)

The Red Sox beat the Guardians, and while the game wasn’t exhilarating, the experience was. Standing and singing with a united crowd “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at the seventh inning stretch in America’s oldest active baseball stadium, made us forget the divisions in America and is an experience that neither of us will forget. (You’ll hear it if you click on the photo below,)

External Photo Attribution

#1.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Boston Seaport (36318p).jpg – Wikimedia Commons)  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Rhododendrites – 13 November 2019.

#2.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Institute of Contemporary Art.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  Author: Smart Destinations – 29 November 2006.

#3.  Wikimedia Commons (163 St-Amsterdam Av (44235641874) – Firelei Báez – Wikipedia) By Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York from United States of America – 163 St-Amsterdam Av, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73140807. Author: Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York from United States of America – 27 September 2018.

#4.  MLB.com (Take the T to Fenway Park | Boston Red Sox (mlb.com).

#5. Wikimedia Commons (PXL 20220924 014854178 – Category: MGM Music Hall at Fenway – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.  Author:  Fearthez –  23 September 2022.

#6. Wikimedia Commons (File:Madison Beer @ The Wiltern 11 28 2021 (51783561891).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author:  Justin Higuchi – 28 November 2021.. 

#7. Wikimedia Commons (File:Red Sox Hat Best.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.  Author: Andrew Lindquist – 11 February 2022.

#8. Mighty Squirrel Brewing Facebook Page. (https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122119505012250304&set=a.122108644058250304).

#9. Mighty Squirrel Brewing Website (Image-empty-state.webp (515×499).