Your first ballgame

Phil Plantier came up in 1991 and had a blazing hot bat. Mo Vaughn came up around that time, too, and was higher regarded. But by Aug/Sep 1991 you weren't so sure. Plantier was smashing HR after HR and was hitting around .330

And the Red Sox went from dead in the water to back in the pennant race. They were 50-58 and then went 31-9 to get within 0.5 games (actually within 1 Jeff Reardon strike to Roberto Kelly) of first place. Then they collapsed down the stretch going 3-11 to finish at 84-78.

I thought Plantier would be a star and it would be a matter of time before he'd top 30 HRs in a season - and he did, but for the 1993 Padres. Even though Plantier struggled like everybody else did in 1992, I was disappointed when they traded him for Jose Melendez, who was injured virtually the entire time he was in Boston.

Plantier was never the same player after 1993, but that name brings back memories, of a time all you had was hope for better days and no memories of any championships.

I think we went to the game the night before, but the first I remember was when I was in the OF bleachers when this happened.

My first game was on August 31, 1980 against the Oakland A's and the Sox were in the midst of a 9 game winning streak that brought them to within 6.5 game of 1st place (a month later they finished 19 games out). They beat Oakland 5-1. I believe John Tudor was the starter and I remember Glenn Hoffman hitting a 3-run HR and I remember Billy Martin getting ticked off, kicking dirt at the umpire, and getting thrown out of the game. I remember wanting to see Yaz play, but he crashed into the wall the day before and got put on the DL for the only time in his career. He wouldn't play LF again until the final day of his career. I wanted to see Freddy Lynn, but he was on the DL with a broken toe, but I saw him running pre-game drills anyway. I remember my father wanting Reid Nicols to sign an autograph and my dad insulting him when he didn't. Fortunately a nice young Oakland OF came over and signed an autograph. The inscription read, "To Marc, may God Bless you - Rickey Henderson".

The other "first game" in my life was on August 18, 2019 when I brought my son to his first ballgame. I had considered waiting another year thinking he might be too young, but said ah the heck with it, I'll bring him. I'm thankful because with the damn pandemic, it'll be quite awhile before we ever go again.

I'm glad we went though. They were giving away free 100 piece puzzles of the final scene in the 2018 World Series where Christian Vazquez is jumping into Chris Sale's arms. We put it together and have it hanging on the wall, which is really cool.

He saw the Orioles jump on Nate Eovaldi for 6 runs and an early 6-0 lead. Fortunately they're the Orioles. We endured alternating scorching heat and drenching rain, but we saw Sam Travis hit a HR to bring the Sox to within 6-3. And then during our inevitable food line wait, we missed Raffy Devers hitting a HR, but we did see enough to see the Red Sox rally to win going away by a score of 13-7, so the day was a smashing success. My boy enjoyed it, and I bought him a baseball and his first Red Sox cap.