America's Pastime- Day 5- Symposium Prep

On the final day of project week, our group met for breakfast at 8:30 am to discuss the plan for the day and spend a few more quality moments together as a group.  From there we headed to the ARC to finish our research on our decade timeline and put everything together.  Everyone in the group worked efficiently, using information from Fenway Park, Cooperstown and research to fill posters with useful information.  The group tried to connect significant U.S. History events of the decade to significant MLB events occurring at the time.  In addition, each member of the group picked a team to research as well as a hall of fame player.  The timeline looks great and we are ready for the symposium to tell everyone about our week!

America's Pastime- Day 2

The group met early for breakfast before spending the morning researching for our timeline project.  Once in the classroom, we assigned each group member a decade starting in 1900 and finishing in the present.  We are trying to research significant U.S. History events during the decade and connect them with important MLB events during the time.  After some statistical research, each group member also researched a specific team/stadium and some cultural aspects of the city.  In addition, each group member selected a hall of fame player from the decade which we will research and ask questions about tomorrow!

We finished the day with an epic game of tennis ball baseball.  Tied 30-30 after 9 innings the game had to go to extra innings, ending with a huge hit from Most Improved Player, Enda Sweeney!

We head to Cooperstown NY tomorrow to visit the Hall of Fame Museum, we are so excited! Pictures and details to come tomorrow...

Great Start for America's Pastime: Fenway Tour!

Awesome start to the week for the America's Pastime group as we hit the road to Boston to take a tour of Historic Fenway Park.  We traveled bright and early, grabbed some coffees and met with our awesome tour leader, Vic, in the team store.

Vic was high energy and full of interesting historical information on the Red Sox and Fenway Park.  When we first entered the stadium, Vic asked "so what movies have any of you seen that show Fenway Park?" Our group answered with movies such as The Town, Ted, Fever Pitch, and Patriots Day, and Vic explained how all of these shoots went down and where! Very cool!

Next, Vic took us out into the stadium for a view of the field and we sat in the oldest seats in the MLB.  They are located in left field of the park and have not been renovated in over 70 years!  At this point, the tour guide ran us through a lot of interesting history, including the Red Sox early success in the MLB (5 out of the first 15 championships) and then moving on to the "curse of the Great Bambino" where Babe Ruth (and multiple other players) were sold to the New York Yankees.  Vic told us that the team struggled for a while after this sale, until the Yawkey family took ownership of the team and started to turn things around.

From there, the group got to go up the the Green Monsters seats to hang out! (picture below).

What a view from the most popular seats in sports today!  

We then moved on through the Red Sox Hall of Fame memorabilia and plaques where we gained a lot of information on the history of some of the clubs best players.  One really cool moment was when Kaitlyn got to take a picture with the Hall of Fame plaque of her grandfather Rico Petrocelli, a great pitcher for the Red Sox.  (see below)

Vic took us to the reporters and broadcasters booth which were some awesome views of the stadium.  We can only imagine how crazy the chatter must be between reporters during the games!  What a cool job.  We finished up our tour on the brand new Budweiser roof deck which is an unbelievable view of the stadium with great seating.  Some interesting questions came up, such as "how much for a ticket on the deck?"  Vic told us the prices could range anywhere from $150-800 depending on the game! Wow!  Here is a photo from the roof deck:

Lastly, we finished with meeting a Husky alum, Kyle Raynor, who works ticket sales with the Red Sox!  He is in charge of selling the box suites for the games and making sure they are filled up.  Kyle took the group to one of the suites where we sat down and got to ask him some questions.  The group asked about his road from New Hampton to a major organization like the Red Sox, how much a suite goes for per game, and how much revenue do the suites create per year.  Cool information about a huge business.  We got to take a photo with Kyle on the deck of one of the suites. (see below)

Overall, it was an amazing day packed with great sites and information about the oldest ball park in America.  Great way to start the week!  We hit the classroom for research tomorrow!