Tag: Fenway Park

Fighting Irish Wire makes Notre Dame Stadium debut at Blue Gold Game

Major stepping stone for our site.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The first Notre Dame event Fighting Irish Wire covered on location was the final edition of the Crossroads Classic. That was in late 2021. Since then, we have covered many Irish men’s and women’s basketball games at Purcell Pavilion and elsewhere. We also traveled to Boston a year ago when the baseball team played at Fenway Park.

However, we never have had media access to any football events, let alone one at Notre Dame Stadium. That changes today with the annual Blue Gold Game to wrap up spring practices. Yes, you read that correctly. Fighting Irish Wire is covering its first event inside the House That Rockne Built.

As of this writing, we aren’t entirely sure what we’ll be writing about today. What we are sure of is we’re excited to be here, and we hope this will serve as a dress rehearsal to covering at least some regular-season games here this fall. We appreciate your support on this big day for our site.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

A baseball landed in a scoreboard light on Fenway Park’s Green Monster and everyone was so confused

So…what just happened at Fenway Park?

Fenway Park’s infamous Green Monster played some impressive defense on Wednesday night as one of its scoreboard lights literally caught a ball.

It happened as a Kansas City Royals slugger popped a ball all the way to back left field as Boston Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida chased down the hit for an out.

Well, rather than Yoshida coming away with the snag, the ball broke through of the “out” lights on the Green Monster scoreboard. Yoshida searched for where the ball went, but it wasn’t until he saw the busted light that he found the ball inside.

It counted as a foul ball, saving the Red Sox a run as a Royals runner had a clear lane to make it home without the Green Monster’s scoreboard save.

This just doesn’t happen in baseball, much less an iconic baseball venue like Fenway Park. You can bet that the scoreboard light will be fixed immediately.

However, we’re all still very confused as to what exactly just happened.

MLB fans were in disbelief after heavy rain flooded the concourses at Fenway Park

And fans were diving in the dirty water …

Friday’s game between the Mets and Red Sox was suspended in the fourth inning after heavy rain in the Boston area made for unplayable conditions on the field. But it turned out that it wasn’t much better inside the concourses of Fenway Park.

Now, Fenway Park is a bucket-list trip for any baseball fan. The history and atmosphere make for an undeniably cool experience. But as a 111-year-old stadium, few would argue that Fenway Park can compete with newer stadiums in terms of modern amenities. That includes keeping fans dry.

As Friday’s game went into a delay, videos hit social media that showed the drenched scene inside the Fenway concourses. Everywhere you looked, there was water — streaming down from the stairways and flooding lower-level concourses.

This was especially gross:

If your stadium looks like that, it’s probably a smart decision to suspend a game.

By Saturday, the concourses were clear of water, and the two teams split a doubleheader.

Still, fans were perplexed to see how Fenway Park turned into a waterpark.

MLB fans watched an epic Father’s Day drama unfold after a young Red Sox fan threw a foul ball back

Big bro was LIVID.

There aren’t many better ways to spend Father’s Day than an afternoon at Fenway Park. It’s a bucket-list trip, and a chance to watch a Red Sox-Yankees game in person should have been a memorable experience for everyone there on Sunday.

One family, in particular, will leave the game with a lifelong memory, but probably not for the reasons they expected.

Early on in the ballgame, a foul ball made its way into the upper deck at Fenway Park. The fan who caught the ball was an adult, and he briefly looked around for a kid to hand the ball off to. The great gesture, though, almost immediately backfired for that young kid and his family.

The kid took the baseball and threw the ball off the upper deck with almost no hesitation. Dad saw that look in his son’s eyes and tried to stop the throw, but it was too late. That baseball was gone. But keep an eye on how the big brother reacted. He was distraught. He couldn’t believe his younger brother would actually throw away a baseball like that.

The NESN broadcast caught the entire ordeal on camera. And once mom returned with a couple hard seltzers after missing the initial fiasco, she was treated to both her sons having a meltdown.

By that point, the dad’s phone appeared to be blowing up because, again, the sequence was on camera! The Red Sox were able to get them new baseballs and jersey. So, hopefully big bro will let his little brother off the hook.

Still, it all made for compelling television. They’ll probably look back and laugh about it one day like the rest of MLB Twitter.

Notre Dame’s 2015 Fenway Park game vs. Boston College

It wasn’t the prettiest of games but the event was incredible!

With news out that Notre Dame baseball is headed to play at Fenway Park in Boston in the spring of 2023, we thought it’d be a good time to take a quick trip down memory lane and look back at the football team’s trip to Fenway in 2015.

It wasn’t the prettiest of games for the Irish, who were very much alive in the College Football Playoff chase at the time.  Boston College was in the midst of a brutal season, but five Notre Dame turnovers kept things far closer than most expected going in.

Despite getting off to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, the Irish had to struggle their way to hold onto a 19-16 victory in improving to 10-1 while Boston College fell to 3-8.

[autotag]Deshone Kizer[/autotag] threw for 328 yards and two touchdowns put also was intercepted three times that night.  The Irish averaged just 3.7 yards per carry on the night, as [autotag]C.J. Prosise[/autotag] led the way with 57 of the team’s 123 rushing yards.

Despite the ugly performance, Notre Dame escaped with a win and it was certainly a memorable night for all who experienced it.  Here is a look back at the best photos from that night at Fenway Park.

 

Notre Dame regular season comes to rough end against Boston College

Not a great night in Beantown.

BOSTON — Notre Dame didn’t plan on losing twice to Boston College in two different locations in one day, but it happened. With wet weather anticipated Saturday in Boston, the game scheduled for that day was moved up to Friday afternoon. The Irish lost that game, 7-2, and they hoped a shift in venues from that first game also would shift their luck. It didn’t happen in an 8-4 defeat at Fenway Park that closed the regular season.

The Irish (30-22, 15-15) ran into early trouble when Joe Vetrano put the Eagles (34-17, 16-14) on top in the first inning with a two-out, two-run homer to left-center. [autotag]Zack Prajzner[/autotag] got the Irish in the hit column with a leadoff double in the fourth, then scored on a [autotag]Vinny Martinez[/autotag] RBI single. That 2-1 score was as close as the Irish would get the rest of the evening.

After [autotag]Jackson Dennies[/autotag] pitched well for five innings, striking out six and walking nobody, [autotag]Caden Spivey[/autotag] relieved him in the sixth, and that’s when the wheels fell off. The Eagles lit Spivey up for six runs, three of which came on Vetrano’s second home run of the game, this one a three-run blast to right. Ten Eagles came to the plate in the frame, and Spivey recorded only two outs before [autotag]Shawn Stiffler[/autotag] gave him the hook.

If the Eagles’ offense hadn’t exploded, starting pitcher John West might have beat the Irish by himself. Over seven-plus innings, he gave up three hits despite striking out only four. Two of the three runs he allowed came during an eighth inning in which the Irish benefited from walks, hit batsmen and a wild pitch. He exited to an ovation after putting the Irish’s first two hitters on base in that inning.

The Irish did get one more run in the ninth on a pinch-hit home run by [autotag]Nick Juaire[/autotag], but all that did was make the game look closer than it was. The focus for Irish fans by that point was the ACC Tournament, which begins Tuesday in Durham. Between losing twice to the Eagles and the earlier loss this week to Northwestern at Wrigley Field, the Irish likely will need to win it or at least get to the title game to have a shot at the NCAA Tournament. Get those prayer circles going.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

The experience of covering a baseball game at Fenway Park

It’s hard not to be excited about an opportunity like this.

BOSTON — Whenever I cover an event on location for this site, I try to keep that fact on the down low except for a single shot of my view. But with the opportunity to cover Notre Dame’s game against Boston College at Fenway Park, I simply can’t help but flex that a bit.

I took the main photo for this post myself, so you have an idea of what it looks like from my vantage point as I write this. Also, when your pass grants you field access to a historic venue like this, you take full advantage as I did:

I also had an ulterior motive behind this action. Two weeks ago, I learned that I was being inducted into my grammar school’s athletic association Hall of Fame for my social media and marketing work with that association.

The ceremony in which my induction would be celebrated conflicted with this game, so I had to miss my big moment. Making it more bittersweet is that the school is about to close after 111 years.

I felt it was only fair to reveal why I couldn’t make my induction, so I did:

That’s enough bragging though. I have a game to cover. Time to see if the Irish can close the regular season on a high note.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame appearances at MLB ballparks through the years

The Irish have been well-represented during ceremonial first pitches.

This is an exciting week for Notre Dame. Not everyone can say they’ve been at MLB’s two oldest ballparks during the same week, but this year’s Irish will be able to make that claim. They’ll face Northwestern at Wrigley Field on Tuesday before meeting Boston College at Fenway Park on Friday. The best part for us at Fighting Irish Wire is that we’ve been credentialed for both games, so we’ll be reporting the action directly from these historic venues.

With these two games taking place during the final week of the regular season, we thought it would be nice to take a look back at Notre Dame figures making appearances at MLB ballparks over the years. We’re not talking about when the football team has played games there or former Irish players who have made the big leagues. We’re talking about when figures have made appearances on behalf of the university. If you have a really good memory, maybe you can recall at least one of these:

Pending inclement weather cancels Notre Dame-Bowling Green

No game Tuesday.

Monday was a wet day in South Bend. With Tuesday’s forecast not looking any better, Notre Dame’s scheduled game against Bowling Green at Frank Eck Stadium has been canceled. That means the Irish’s 25-17 record will stay where it is for now.

The rainout means a wet start to what will be a memorable month for the Irish, who have won seven of their past nine games and thus earned four votes in the latest national poll. Their season at Frank Eck Stadium concludes with a pair of three-game series against NC State and Akron. They’ll face Northwestern at Wrigley Field and then finish the regular season with a four-game series against Boston College, which includes a game at Fenway Park.

Not every baseball player throughout history can boast playing at MLB’s two oldest stadiums in the same week, but the Irish will get that opportunity. To say the least, times are good for the program right now.

[lawrence-related id=72115]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz1mmy7gev0xbr player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=]

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89