Despite the disappointing end to the 1995 baseball season, with Don Mattingly’s only post-season appearance as a player ending in a disappointing AL division series loss to the Mariners, the 1996 season began filled with excitement and thrilling anticipation of the Yankees having a real shot at heading to the World Series. I was 25 at the time, and fortunate to have been able to attend a couple of home games to fuel that excitement. My youngest brother, Alex, was about 15 at the time, and despite being a teenager, he and I found ourselves connecting more and more over our favorite pastime.
Now, anyone who knows me knows that there is nothing I wouldn’t do for my brothers. The more excited I grew about the season, and the more Alex and I connected, the more I desired to share more of the baseball experience with him. In mid-June the Yankees were 10 games over .500, and despite a few losses, it was more and more evident that the postseason was going to be a reality. I wanted to find a way to share in this excitement with Alex beyond going to a home game at Yankee Stadium. So, on a whim, I looked at the regular season schedule and found the best option possible – a night game in July to experience the deep rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the Yankees up at Fenway Park. There was no hesitation in clicking away on the Ticketmaster site and ordering two tickets in the bleachers to experience a new stadium, the thrill of the team rivalry, and share something special with my little brother.
So, on the morning of July 16th, Alex and I hopped into my purple Saturn coupe and headed from our little brick home in Queens up over the Throgs Neck Bridge, up I-95 and into Boston to Fenway Park. It was a Tuesday and I was off from work, and Alex off from school for the summer break. We had taken a road trip together to Washington DC previously, so we kept each other entertained on the road trip. Though it was only a 4.5 hour drive from door-to-door and neither of us had ever been to Boston, it felt like the drive went on forever. But once we arrived and turned onto Brookline Avenue, we knew the night was going to be special.
We had only experienced goose bumps while visiting Yankee Stadium. The history and significance of being in Fenway was not lost on us, and although there were no actual goose bumps as we crossed the gates, we most certainly were humbled to be in that ballpark. I don’t remember much about the game itself. We spent time walking around and soaking in as much as we could of the park itself. I remember the game starting a little after 7PM that night, and after the Red Sox scored three runs in the bottom of the first and the Yankees coming back on the top of the second with four of their own, the bulk of the game was spent taking in as much of the night as we could. The two most exiting innings of the game, which I do remember, were the top of the eight, with Matt Howard and Joe Girardi driving in three runs to seal the game for the Yankees, and the bottom of the ninth, where the Red Sox taunted us by scoring one run threatening a comeback until Mo Vaughn struck out to end the game. I remember the thrill of high-fiving and hugging Alex in celebration of the Yankee win, knowing that this was a memory unique onto he and I. And as crazy as it sounds, we poured out of the stadium that night, into the car, and began the long drive home. I don’t remember what time we actually walked into the house, and I did not care that I only had a couple of hours of sleep before heading into work that Wednesday. And despite having been to Fenway four of five times since this inaugural visit, this trip was one of the many special experiences I have shared with my little brother, and it remains one of the most special memories of my life.