Game Six and Parade

So I saw my favorite team win their championship in front of my face a little while ago. Here's a bunch of pictures of it. Warning, I grew a horrible beard for the playoffs. It was the first and only beard I will ever grow, so my beard is retiring undefeated. Anyway, sorry for having to look at my horrible beard.

Earlier that day was dress up for Halloween at Connor's school. Afterward we went to Mighty Subs and they gave Choo-Choo Conductor Connor a cookie:

We got a chicken parm sub:

We got a large, and that picture above is only half of it. I was eating it throughout the next day. I took the train into Back Bay, then rented a Hubway and biked to Fenway. Mine was the first bike to show up at the Fenway Hubway station, so I took a picture:

The beard is pretty horrible. I mentioned it was horrible earlier, so you were expecting it to be bad, but it's probably worse than you thought it would be, right? I walked around and took a picture of the new Yaz statue:

The statue is from Yaz Day of him doffing his cap in his last game. I was in the stands that day as an eight year old.

I went to Lansdowne Street, and the game-of-day tickets line was by far the biggest I ever saw it:

I can't imagine there were very many tickets made available later, so most of those people waited for nothing. I didn't want to have to make any food runs during the game, and my favorite burrito shop, El Pelon Taqueria, is nearby. So I got a burrito:

I had arrived early and had some time to kill so I grabbed another Hubway and off I went. Bay State Road had parking restrictions, and it was weird seeing it without any cars:

Then I went to the Esplanade:

I have to say for late October, the weather couldn't have been nicer. I brought a ski hat and gloves for the game later, and didn't end up needing either. Gates were going to open soon, so I went back to Fenway and ran into Steve Horgan the bullpen police officer. He was Horganing every five feet for people:

I met my friends Kristen and Scott, and their son Jackson. I almost got a batting practice ball, it rolled around, and hit my foot. I was looking down and saw a kid's arms trying to get it so I focused on just blocking the people from behind me from getting it. The kid's arms that I saw grabbed it. I looked up to give Jackson a high five, and it was some other kid who had raced in and got it. Anyway, this was my view from my seat:

I was sitting with Kristen, while Scott and Jackson were a couple sections closer. Here's another pre-game shot of Luis Tiant and Carlton Fisk throwing out the first pitch:

I made a point of not taking many pictures during the game so as not to miss anything. If you want pictures of the game, watch the game on TV.

The game was awesome as you can imagine. I was really nervous during the day and thought it would be nerve wracking watching the game. But once it started, I felt rather calm. Much calmer than I would've been at home. Not having to listen to Tim McCarver probably helped.

Anyway, late in the game I took a picture of the Cardinals' Fan section. There was one section that would erupt whenever the Cardinals had a good play (which wasn't very often - zing). So I thought it was funny it was almost empty before the game was even over:

This is the moment, late in the ninth inning, when I realized I could shave soon, and it was all worth it to grow my horrible beard:

Not sure what "worth it" really means though. And yes, I'm listening to the radio play-by-play call on my iPod in the picture. I wasn't messing around at this game. Then they won the world championship in front of my face:

Bring out the World Series Cup:

How's that Cardinals section doing?

Notice how no one else had left? Kristen and I went to Scott and Jackson, around them everyone was standing on their seats so we couldn't see anything. Then a couple right next to Scott and Jackson left. It was great luck as, like I said, no one was leaving. So we were a little closer for the ceremony:

Then the Smoke Monstah came in:

One last selfie:

That's the back of Kristen's head. It was time to leave and my phone was on like 2% battery at this point, but I did take this picture:

The walk to Scott and Kristen's car went fairly well, I got to see some idiot fall off a light post and I think we just missed seeing the one car that was later flipped over. They were just rocking it as we went past. I think the scariest part was walking along and all of a sudden the crowd parted and I almost stepped into a giant pile of horse poop. Phew. I took a screencap of the game's win probability later:

That is probably my favorite graph in the history of graphs. They could probably change the Y-axis to Jeff's Happiness and it would be the same. 

A few days later, the World Champs threw a parade, so off we went. Heather and I went to the 2004 parade, biked around and had a good time, so we decided to do it again this year, but brought a new guy:

Yup, the beard is still there. I liked to say "I am awaiting further beard instructions" when people would ask when I was going to shave.

We stopped at the playground and Connor decided to climb up the 20 foot tall play structure, thus terrifying Heather and me:

We watched the duck boats float by near the science museum. Connor liked yelling out each boat's color and an occasional "Go Red Sox!" which got people yelling.

Here's the two of us at Connor's first championship parade:

Just Connor:

Duck boats:

The three of us:

This was now early November, and we definitely could not have asked for better weather:

It was probably my perfect weather day, since I like it a little chilly.

It seemed like there were more people than 2004. It was hard to get too close to the parade, but we did pretty well getting close. After all the boats went by we decided to bike to Uburger near Fenway and eat. While walking there, some police went by with sirens on. I looked back and we were about to get our own private parade:

The duck boats were just heading back to Fenway, not on a publicized route, so there were no other people. I jumped into the street and Heather took a photo:

We then went to Uburger. I got, what I think, is the best burger in the world, the Ucheeseburger. Heather got one of her favorite salads, and Connor got chicken nuggets:

Yummy. We then went back home and went to the brand new park that opened within walking distance of our house:

The next day I received whatever crazy further instructions I needed and decided to shave. I'm such an beard amateur that I first slapped some shaving cream on it, then hacked away with my razor. I soon realized that I needed my electric clippers.

Here's my full six week old beard:

Goatee:

Mustache:

I left the mustache for a little while, because I thought about continuing it for Movember, but I really couldn't take having the mustache any more. 

And finally cleanly shaven:

That's about it. I would say it was a dream come true to watch the Red Sox win it live, but I wouldn't have even dreamed of being able to do so. I'm not sure what I did about 12 years ago to deserve the run of success my favorite sports teams have experienced. But it's been a great 12 years, and attending that game made every minute I've spent watching sports worth it, in my crazy sports fan mind.