This is the story of Derek's historic game at Fenway Park. Am I being over dramatic? No. No I'm not. Let the story unfold.
Derek had never been to a Major League baseball game. Over time, we've been to plenty of Pride games and Fisher Cats games. I took him to his first Pride game at the age of 3. He lasted about 5 innings, and then we left. I didn't mind spending $8 for each ticket, driving 15 minutes each way, and parking for free to do that. And of course for a lot of those 5 innings he wasn't paying attention to the game. Then he started talking about the Red Sox. I knew for the time and expense that would be involved, he'd have to be able to make it through a whole game. More than that, he'd need to be able to enjoy a full game. We've gone to more minor league games over the years. His knowledge of baseball has increased, as has his attention span.
In February, I was able to get a pair of Sox tickets to a game against the Orioles in September. I didn't tell Derek. I thought he'd go crazy trying to wait 7 months! I told him about 6 weeks before game time. He had something to look forward to, without it seeming like it would never come.
I found out that the gates open two hours before game time. Because it was his first game, I told him that we could get there that early if he wanted to. As I expected, he wanted to. We walked around to just a couple parts of Fenway Park. Derek also continued as a student of the game, watching some of the players take batting practice. The most entertaining part was Kevin Millar, a member of the 2004 World Series championship Red Sox team and current Oriole. He's still a fan favorite in Boston. During batting practice, Millar hit a lot of shots over the Green Monster, and got a big hand every time he did. When he was done, he led his own cheerleading, and the fans were right there to cheer him on.
We got some pictures of different parts of the Park. The famous Green Monster, the Coke bottles on the light tower that some home runs manage to find, and Derek wanted a picture of the retired numbers. He said his favorite is Number 9. That's my boy!
Right before the game, we saw Wally saying hello to a little fan. Then the Boys came out to warm up, and the game was on!
Originally, we were supposed to see Tavarez pitch. Of all the Red Sox starters, I did not want to see Tavarez. But what can you do when you buy the tickets 7 months ahead of time? It turns out that the day before, scheduled starter Wakefield had a sore back and was not able to pitch. So they moved Tavarez up a night. They decided to call up the guy they are calling their top AAA pitching prospect. He'd been called up once before, and managed to get the win. So this would be his second big league start. His name is Clay Buchholz. It was too bad that Manny Ramirez was out with a strained muscle, so we wouldn't get to see him hit.
The game started well, with the Sox not giving up a run. In the bottom of the second, the Sox managed to get a run across the plate. The pitching and fielding held. Then in the bottom of the 4th, the Sox had the bases loaded with two outs. David Ortiz, aka Big Papi, came up to the plate. The members of Red Sox nation, at the game and all over the world, were anticipating something big.
Living up to the expectations, Ortiz launched one that had everyone at the game thinking home run. Well, he hit it off the Monster for a bases clearing 3-run double. A chant of "Papi! Papi! Papi!" went up around the ball park, until he tipped his cap from second base. In the picture, you can see Ortiz getting to second, plus the runner who started at first rounding 3rd and heading home.
That left some breathing room for Buchholz to keep pitching. He was holding his own, and looking like the top prospect he was billed as. He kept the shutout going and in the bottom of the 6th, the Sox got some more runs including a 3-run homer over the Monster by Kevin Youkilis. In the picture, you can see Youk getting five from the third base coach.
It was about this time that I noticed no one warming up in the Red Sox bullpen. I thought they'd try to get 6 solid innings out of this kid, and then go to the bullpen. At this point, with a 8-0 lead, we figured we wouldn't be seeing Papelbon. We were hoping for Okajima, but again no one was warming. I thought maybe they'd let the kid go 7 innings since he was still looking strong and had a big lead. Dustin Pedroia, the second baseman, made a great diving stop on a ground ball up the middle, and somehow got up and threw a bullet to first base. I thought it was an incredible play. The stadium erupted. That's when I somehow looked over at the box score and noticed all 0's for the Orioles -- including hits! No wonder they left Buchholz in -- he was working on a no hitter in the 7th inning!
It was getting to the point that the fans seemed restless when the Sox were up to bat, almost as if they were rooting for quick outs in order to get Buchholz back out on the mound. Sure enough, he kept it going in the 8th, and again the fans got really impatient when the Sox scored two more in the bottom of the 8th. Normally you'd expect the fans to root root root for the home team to score as many as they could. But not on this night.
The top of the 9th came, and no one was sitting down. With every strike a huge cheer went up. With each out, the buzz grew and grew. The no hitter was still intact. With two outs, the crowd was ready to peak. When the umpire called Strike Three, if Fenway Park was a domed stadium, we would have blown the roof off. The Sox rushed the mound -- all the players on the field, in the dugout, and they came running in from the (unused) bullpen. It was a total mob scene at the mound.
The celebration went on for a while. They started putting stats up on the screen, such as Buchholz is only the 11th Red Sox pitcher to pitch a no hitter in the history of Fenway Park. Also, Buchholz is the FIRST Red Sox Rookie pitcher to pitch a no hitter. This truly was an historic game (and you thought I was exaggerating at the top of this page). My favorite stat is that this was Derek's first Big League game. Win or lose, it was a thrill to bring my Boy to his first Fenway game. And to top it all off, we got to see THAT for his first game.
It literally took Derek a couple of days for it all to sink in. He was of course thrilled to see the no hitter happen. But over the next few days, as people who knew we went told us what a huge deal it was to be able to see that game, and people who didn't know we went talked about the game or reacted in awe when we told them that we were there, Derek really got a sense for just how rare being able to witness something like that really is. I am sure that it is something he'll remember for the rest of his life. He is one year younger than I was when I went to my first Fenway game, and I still remember mine.
Note: On the DVD "Champions Again -- The Story of the 2007 Boston Red Sox", this game is highlighted. On top of that, one of the Bonus Features is the last inning of the game. To have a day like that captured on DVD truly something special. Now we can relive the feeling of Derek's first game whenever we want to.
Here is the story I pulled off of redsox.com the next day.
BOSTON -- For 23-year-old right-hander Clay Buchholz, whose understated Beaumont, Texas, drawl bespeaks a grasp of higher powers, the moment came around the seventh inning of his second Major League start.
"You know when everybody knows what's going on," said Buchholz on Saturday night, still wearing his Red Sox jersey, "and then you look at the scoreboard, and then say, 'Oh, Lord.'"
And so the 6-foot-3 rookie, whose Major League focus matched a singularly dominant repertoire on one historic night, finally noticed a lack of Red Sox sitting near him in the dugout. Then he went out and became only the third pitcher since 1900 to throw a no-hitter in his first or second Major League start.
By completing the 17th no-hitter in Red Sox history, Buchholz accomplished at such an early stage in his career what Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling never did in a Red Sox uniform.
Buchholz struck out nine, walked three and hit a batter as Boston won, 10-0, before 36,819 thrilled fans. And he threw 115 pitches before a workload-leery Red Sox front office, which gleefully celebrated with hugs and fist pumps on the last offering, a 1-2 curveball that froze Nick Markakis.
Buchholz joined Mark Buehrle of the White Sox (April 18) and Justin Verlander of the Tigers (June 12) among the pitchers to throw a no-hitter this season -- all of whom are American Leaguers. He also became the 21st rookie to throw a no-hitter, the first since Florida's Anibal Sanchez on Sept. 6, 2006.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Buchholz is the third pitcher since 1900 to throw a no-hitter in his first or second Major League start. Bobo Hollomon threw a no-hitter in his debut on May 6, 1953, for the St. Louis Browns at home against the Philadelphia A's, and Wilson Alvarez did it in his second start on Aug. 11, 1991, for the White Sox at Baltimore.
Considered one of the franchise's top pitching prospects since his arrival as a sandwich pick -- 42nd overall -- out of Angelina College in 2005, compensation for Martinez leaving as a free agent, Buchholz didn't take long to establish himself in the Majors.
For nine innings, Buchholz sparkled among thousands of flashbulbs. He commanded his fastball early, working in a devastating array of offspeed pitches.
After each out, typically the result of a gravity-defying curveball or an immaculately released changeup, the nervous Red Sox rookie nibbled on his glove, enjoying the scene. No later than the seventh inning, the crowd had reached a fever pitch.
Miguel Tejada led off the seventh with a hot shot up the middle. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia dove to his right, stabbing the bounding ball. He turned and threw. Tejada, hurtling headfirst into first, was late.
"To me," Tejada said, "that was the best play they made the whole night."
Buchholz's defensive reputation lags behind the Gold Glove candidate Pedroia's. Nevertheless, he came up with his own top play in the eighth, snaring a Jay Payton rocket on the mound and throwing him out.
Still, Jason Varitek took special care to note the impressive ground that center fielder Coco Crisp covered on a pair of Corey Patterson drives to the outfield gap -- one in the sixth, one in the ninth. That was the most "overlooked" performance, the Sox catcher said.
Answered Crisp, "All the credit goes to [Buchholz]."
"We're back there just trying to make plays for him," Crisp said. "We're his pawns ... and you know, we've got to come up with the plays. That's our job."
The night belonged to Buchholz. When he rang up the final out, a delayed punchout that sent the crowd and the home dugout into a frenzy, the Red Sox spilled onto the field, forming a bounding huddle around the rookie pitcher.
Crisp and third baseman Mike Lowell expressed disappointment that David Ortiz -- "camera hog," Lowell called Big Papi -- beat them to the punch.
"You're rooting for him," Lowell said. "You're absolutely rooting for him."
After the game, Crisp ticked off the many ways in which Buchholz took control.
"He was able to stay focused," he said, "and not allow too many hard-hit balls. And the ones that were hit stayed up in the air."
Perhaps most importantly, Crisp said, on a night when he began the fifth and sixth by walking leadoff men -- "a couple of big innings that can throw a pitcher off" -- Buchholz "was able to relax, go back out there, take a couple of deep breaths at times and stay in his rhythm."
Before the game, Red Sox manager Terry Francona spoke of a letdown in Buchholz's Triple-A performance after he made his Major League debut on Aug. 17. For two weeks, the prospect shuttled across upstate New York, losing his next two starts as a member of the Pawtucket Red Sox.
But, Francona added, "I think we still love this kid to death. And we're excited for a chance to run him out there and see how he does."
Kevin Youkilis added a three-run home run to the cause. Still, the Red Sox's 10-run outburst and the circumstances of the effort -- the Yankees won in the afternoon, staying five games back in the AL East -- remained secondary to Buchholz's singular brilliance.
"I don't even have a word for it," Buchholz said.