It's a long way from Fenway

The view looking to the outfield from our seats at Boston’s Fenway Park before the start of a Red Sox game in August 2011. Do you know they actually sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game in the seventh-inning stretch? Magic.

Watching the hard-working vendors who sell Fenway Franks in the stands is almost as much fun as watching the ballgame. (Photo from redsoxhome.com)

Raymond comes originally from Lowell, Massachusetts, so you won’t be surprised a) if you hear him talking about pahking the cah, and b) to know that he is a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox. And quite a bit of that Red Sox fandom has rubbed off on me, though I was annoyed when they got rid of coach Terry (Tito) Francona and captain Jason Varitek before last season. Raymond has taken me to a few games at Boston’s legendary Fenway Park, and that is a thrill – and I’m not just talking about the Fenway Franks (though there is nothing to beat ballpark hot dogs). There are few things finer than whiling away a warm summer night watching the Red Sox – and singing along with Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline, as they always do at Fenway in the middle of the eighth inning.

It is a hardship for Raymond that not that many Red Sox games get aired in Canada, though they do show up from time to time on our TV in Montreal, where cable brings us more channels than we really need or want.

Ah, but the Manse is another matter. As I have reported before, there is no TV reception at all there – at least until and unless we buy one of those dish thingies, which I’m not too crazy about. Some have advised us to try the modern-day version of rabbit ears, but we will probably be lucky if that brings in CHEX, the CBC affiliate in Peterborough; I don’t think TSN or the Rogers sports channels are going to materialize that way. This is not good news for Raymond if we want to spend any length of time in Queensborough through the summer.

At the Manse, Raymond shows off a Red Sox-themed birthday gift I gave him last year.

But to every problem there is a solution, it seems, and technology is often a key part of that solution. Major League Baseball has created an app that allows you to watch games live on whatever device you happen to be using (computer, iPad, iPhone), and a cord allows you to plug that device into your TV monitor (which we do have at the Manse). So as long as you have a signal that gets you on the internet, you can watch the Red Sox to your heart’s content!

Which means that we are all set. In theory. Queensborough is, however, not the centre of the internet universe, and the 3G signal there can be weak or nonexistent, depending on which direction you’re facing, the time of day or night, and lord knows what other variables.

So we’ll see: maybe we’ll be watching the Red Sox at Fenway (and on the road, of course) from the comfort of our Manse, and maybe we won’t. But for a Red Sox fan – hey, they waited 86 years to win the World Series! – hope springs eternal.

And on that optimistic note, and with a nod to the baseball season that starts (for the Red Sox) in 13 days (but who’s counting?), let’s sing along with the fans at Fenway: