Fenway Park, the majors’ oldest energetic ballpark, was reworked into an out of doors hockey area for the NHL’s 14th annual Winter Classic on Monday afternoon.
With the logos of the 2 groups — the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins — hanging excessive atop the seats above the park’s fabled 37-foot Green Monster, the league’s annual marquee New Year’s occasion returned to Fenway for the second time.
Batters up. ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/51aWZ8kMku
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 2, 2023
Those often clad in purple and blue for the Boston Red Sox had been changed by 1000’s sporting black and gold (really, the colours of each NHL groups), and so they lined up across the soon-to-be 111-year outdated park hours earlier than the faceoff.
The championship banners of the Red Sox, that often hold alongside the surface of the third-base aspect of the park, had been changed by banners of the Bruins, Penguins and the Winter Classic emblem.
About 4 hours earlier than the sport, Bruins’ followers lined the gates alongside the gamers’ parking zone simply behind dwelling plate, seeking to get a glimpse of their stars earlier than they entered.
Bruins’ gamers joined into the baseball theme, too, coming into the park sporting classic white Red Sox uniforms with “Boston” in purple letters throughout the entrance. Some performed catch in entrance of the house dugout, which had “Boston Bruins” throughout the highest on the first-base aspect. The guests had “Pittsburgh Penguins” on the roof.
The staff’s official memento retailer was stuffed with Bruins and Penguins Classic gear, with many of the Red Sox stuff pushed to again racks.
The rink stretched from simply past what’s often second base throughout the center of the diamond, over the pitcher’s mound the place Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez labored for the Red Sox, and towards the guests’ dugout on an unseasonably heat afternoon with temperatures within the higher 40s.
Last season’s Classic was performed at Target Field in Minnesota — the house of MLB’s Twins — and noticed the temperature drop to minus-5.7 levels Fahrenheit.
Before the sport, a free live performance that featured nation music star Sam Hunt was held in a parking zone throughout the road from Fenway, the place followers might play a large table-top hockey sport and take a problem of ingesting scorching sauce earlier than sitting in a penalty field for 2 minutes together with different free occasions.
Hunt sang his hit tune “23” in his almost hour-long efficiency, citing the beginning of 2023.
In an attention-grabbing twist to the sport’s venue, the Penguins are owned by Fenway Sports Group, which additionally owns the Red Sox. They had been offered to the group that’s headed by Principle Owner John Henry in December of 2021.
So, Boston’s skilled hockey staff confronted Henry’s NHL staff in his MLB park.
Some followers picked up on the second.
“It’s kind of strange, but I knew they were going to play the Penguins,” stated Andy Holt, 58, from Merrimack, New Hampshire, who was sporting a Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron No. 37 street jersey.
One fan even had some recommendation for the Red Sox with star third baseman Rafael Devers after they misplaced shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who signed a $280-million, 11-year deal as a free agent with the San Diego Padres final month.
“John Henry, the traitor. I don’t love it,” Ally Ryan, 29, from Marshfield, Massachusetts, stated of the Bruins dealing with Henry’s NHL staff. “They better sign Devers.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”