Toeing the Rubber

I was in Fenway Park and it was SNOWING. How cool is that?

So the winter meetings are going on in Nashville and after the flurry of activity, what with Mike Napoli being signed Monday and Shane Victorino being signed on Tuesday, the newest dueling reports are that the Red Sox are shopping Jacoby Ellsbury and that the Red Sox definitely AREN’T shopping Jacoby Ellsbury. Ben Cherington seems to be saying all the right things about how he has big plans for Jacoby for 2013. Personally, I hope he’s being sincere. I’m partial to the kid and I’d like to see him stay with the team for a good long while.

It was a long season and I have admittedly been relatively disinterested in this off-season so I have to admit to enjoying there being activity with the team. I like Victorino and I can deal with Napoli and I will most likely learn to love Johnny Gomes.  So let’s get things moving so we can see this new team in action.

I was invited by a friend to accompany her to Christmas at Fenway last Saturday (Thanks Kelly!) which pretty much was the shot I needed to remind me of how much I love this team and how much I miss them making me happy.  There is something peaceful and, frankly, just freaking amazing about standing on the field at Fenway while the stands are empty and the snow is falling. It was such a unique opportunity that’ll stay with me and I can’t thank Kelly and the Red Sox enough.

Added bonuses for the day were watching Keith Foulke snuggle with a skunk (for reasons unclear to me, the Red Sox had Curious Creatures at the event – it was all kinds of adorable) and winning an autographed Kevin Youkilis bat in the Red Sox Foundation raffle. And, no, the irony of my winning Youk memorabilia after I ranted about letting him go is not lost on me. I don’t care…I have a Youk bat and you’ll get it from me when you pry it from my hands.  I promise you, though, if you try to do that I’ll probably hit you with it.

But instead of violence, I leave you with the few photos I took at Christmas at Fenway: