Rain=best time at Fenway yet.

Hi there:

There are no words for what happened today at Fenway Park. As I sit here and try to think of a few, there isn't just one I can use. So...I'll just describe to you, in as detailed of a way possible, what happened today. :)

Like I said yesterday, I went in to work at 6:30. I'm sort of getting used to that now, not cool. Anyways, it had rained last night so the field was covered with the tarp. There was surprisingly a lot of water on it. He sort of explained to us all what we were doing and we did it. When I worked for the Cardinals, we just would walk the tarp out...no running. In Boston, we run. No jog, a run. About 300 ft from home plate boy did my hammys start burning. Not to mention all the water running down my arms, into my shoe and the infield dirt splattering all over our faces. We got the tarp all folded up and went about normal jobs for the day. I cleaned the warning track, not hard just time consuming. Just before we headed up for our "brunch" for the day my boss Dave pulled a few of us new guys aside and talked to us. Basically him and his assistant just gave us the low down on the tarp and how perfect, fast, and consistent we NEEDED to be. Like I said, completely different from AA. Its funny b/c just as in major league baseball you need to be better, faster and work harder; the same goes for grounds keeping at a major league level. Like I said, I had worked with a tarp before, so I wasn't too terribly nervous--but still a little.

Game time came around. We did our thing--pregame set up and all of the above. When we got back to our "grounds crew alley" along the 1st base line, our boss told us that we were probably going to get hit pretty hard by a few thunderstorms. That meant we would have to put the tarp out. The first 1/2 inning went by and then the bottom of the first came along. It started to sprinkle just a little bit, lightning all around. These rain drops were huuuuuge. Someone said it felt like someone was chucking water balloons at us. Haha. Then all of the sudden, it just came, and it came fast. I remember the last thing I saw before I sprinted out onto the field was the 2nd baseman for the Mets just jogging off the field. Like I said, all 25 or so of us just sprint out of this 6 foot wide ally onto the field. I turn left to go to the tarp get in front of it, jump over it so my back is facing the stands and my front is facing the green monster. My jump was a lot more sloppy than how I just put it. Mud all down my legs and body. We all got behind the big roll and started pushing. Hands covered in infield mix, shoes soaking wet, shirts heavy with rain water and cold ran drops hitting my face is really the only thing I felt at that point. The fans at Fenway just erupted in cheers and I quickly felt like I was the star instead of the ball players. We finally got the tarp pushed all the way out and we started to line up along the edge. We did this all in the span of about 45 seconds by the way. When we were all lined up we unfolded the tarp onto the field at the approval of one of our bosses. When we were unfolding the last fold which would then cover the whole field, AGAIN the stadium just erupted into cheer. I really wish I could've seen my face when I was pulling that tarp. Im not saying Im cool or anything, but damnit I felt really freaking cool when I was pulling that tarp towards the visitors dugout. (sorry for the cuss word) We got the tarp over the field, and some guys started to run around to start putting pins in. I did the same. It was still pouring down rain at this point and the infield had standing water all over it. After a few more cheers from some individual fans we had the thing down! We went into the Mets dugout as we were told and stood for lets see...maybe 3 minutes. Who I stood by wasn't important today. So after those 3 minutes our boss instructed us to start taking the pins out so that we could pull it off. Again, just as this morning when we took it off, we took off running at the signal of our boss. Again--Fenway cheered us on as well as some pump of music courtesy of the guys upstairs. We pulled the tarp all the way off and into right field. We sprinted as fast as we could to our alley and started hawling out bags of dry "turface" (the dirt used for the infield). One by one we would bring them out and spread them onto the infield playing surface. As soon as our boss would whistle at us we went to him and he told us where to put it. The field was seriously covered with red as all 25 of us were trying as hard as we could to get this field playable. I think I made about 4 trips back and fourth with 60 pounds/bag of turface in my arms. I felt like a star again, as people made their way just outside of our alley and were snapping photos of us left and right, laughing, and looking at us in awe of how and what we were doing. Words of encouragement were spoken every once in awhile between the crew as was as from some of the fans. We finally got the field playable and rolled the tarp back up. It very well may have been the quickest, yet longest 36 minutes of my life. Thirty six minutes, however that I will never ever forget.

We returned to our alley and they started the game shortly after. Then it was back to real life. We were no longer on the big stage, and were just the Fenway Grounds Crew. We did our job, and we did it well. I had fun today, and its moments like that, that make me want to pursue my dreams even more.

Thanks for reading all that. I hope I kept you excited. It was exciting for me. Wish you guys could've watched it. Apparently I was on tv?

gave high fives to 5 Red Sox players after the game,

Phillip