Two years ago for Christmas, my niece gifted me with a book – The New York Times 36 Hours (150 Hours in the USA & Canada), a nod to my ADD approach to vacationing. I love seeing new places, and old favourite places, and I’m usually planning my next vacation on the plane ride home from my current vacation. This month alone, I’ve spent time in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Montreal, so we thought, why not one more?
Which is why we’re on the way to Boston! We’ve been to Boston before of course, and covered the major Boston highlights except for one glaring omission: Fenway. Although I did once declare to a befuddled waitress that I was one my way to Fenway. This was in Chicago, and I believe they pronounce their ball park “Wrigley”, but anyway, I digress. Our last trip to Boston was more football-centric, to be fair, but we always knew we’d be back, and after having so much fun watching the Giants win in AT&T park a few weeks ago, we were inspired to cross another stadium off our bucket list.
Which is why earlier this week I watched Fever Pitch – the awful American one. Okay, maybe it’s 
not so awful. I read the essay of course, an autobiographical recounting of Nick Hornby’s obsession with Arsenal football as a young man. They turned this into a movie in 1997, starring Colin Firth, and it sort of became a weird and delightful sporty romcom, about how his best girl had to compete against his best team. Then in 2005, that movie got the Farrelly brother Americanization treatment and it became a movie obsessed with baseball, and what team better to be obsessed with than the Boston Red Sox? It just so happens that the year they filmed it, 2004, turned out to be an incredibly seminal season for the Sox, and the Farrellys had to keep rewriting the script.
I have to admit this movie is not without its charms – Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore have some great chemistry (and well they should – Jimmy Fallon was the new Adam Sandler, and then
Adam Samberg was the new Jimmy Fallon, and that’s where I lose the trail as I’ve no idea who the current Adam Sandler on SNL is, but I do know that all these guys work well together, and Drew has a surprisingly high tolerance for them). Surprisingly though, the Red Sox insist on stealing the show, and it’s unbelievably cool that they happened to be filming at precisely the right time. Upping the factor on the Boston love-in, the film cast real-life die-hard fans as seen in the previous year’s documentary Still We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie in various minor roles.
This film garnered no awards, and even angered some sports fans who felt this was just a chick flick wearing sheep’s clothing (or, you know, a Sox warm-up jacket), but it did earn Jimmy Fallon an honorary membership to the Red Sox Nation for playing Ben so convincingly in spite of being a lifelong Yankee fan. There’s something magical about that park and I look forward to experiencing it in person.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
I can’t remember whether I saw this movie or not. I suppose that’s never a good sign. But I love Boston! Great city to walk around.
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Well that’s so over my head, especially as I never saw the Brit version, sports movies are a meh in my life though I did like the one with Kevin Costner and Louise. 😉
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It wasn’t terrible, kinda cute, actually. I got a good laugh out of the Yankees toilet paper…and I’m a lifelong Yankees fan.
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have fun Jay. another one i never saw, lotta big names in there, im kinda with Fraggy.. i dont go out of my way for sports,(except..i am a BILLS fan) but this has a comedy theme..i might have been into it?!
Ive never been to Boston, its on our list
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Yeah, it’s more of a rom-com with a sports background.
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I avoided this movie because it looked so incredibly boring/dumb. I kind of love that you’re traveling and now I want that book!
Love Boston. Used to live in New England and have visited there many times.
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Well you won’t be missing much if you continue to avoid it.
Sean and I are very happy at home but we have ants in our pants and travel all the time. Not our first trip to Boston, but our first to Fenway!
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Karen and I just took in Coors Field, Jay, and a 17-7 Rockies victory in our five days in Colorado for her family reunion. That was an interesting park to cross off our list. I envy you Fenway. This Mets fan wants that one next season. Enjoy, my friend.
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Oh, and Jimmy and Drew’s chemistry and the baseball story make ‘Fever Pitch’ very tolerable, I thought.
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Yes, those two do have the cutest chemistry.
Very cool that you guys are checking out parks too!! Sounds like quite the game.
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We now together have Citi Field, Yankee Stadium, Jacobs Field in Cleveland (when it was called that, I forget the new name), San Fran like you two, and Coors Field. I have a couple more pre-MDW Karen: Shea, Olympic Stadium in Montreal, SkyDome in Toronto, the Vet in Philly and Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. I’m so old I have a lot of former ballparks on that list, I now realize. 😦
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The Cleveland one is Progressive now – I was there last summer! My husband still calls them all the names from his boyhood even if it’s been completely torn down and rebuilt. Hard to shake those!
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I’m like your hubby, Jay. I get the original name in my head, and there she stays. 🙂
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Great overview as ever dear Jay!…. Have a wonderful rest of your week! Aquileana 😀
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OMG! Gord loves this movie!!!!!
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