Roger Lajoie operates Triumph Sports Communications, a leader in providing editorial, broadcast and public relations services.

Roger's weekly sports column "The Rog's Rant" is now available here every Monday.

The Rog's Rant

The best: The World Series at Fenway Park

BOSTON - The regular seasons are too long, it’s all about business now and the prison rap sheets are almost longer than the pre-game notes in professional sports these days.

Even I, a huge sports fan who was fortunate enough to make the sports media my career, knows that. The state of professional sports is enough sometimes to make even the biggest fans turn away.
But only sometimes does that happen to me. And in my case, as I guy who is fortunate enough to be able to get to some of the biggest sporting events and see them live, every once in a while I can still get a thrill from pro sports just like I did when I was a kid.

The World Series at Fenway Park is such a thrill. And in my mind, it’s the very best that professional sports has to offer.

I keep all of my media passes from over the years in a display case at home and there are hundreds of them in there. I reserve the top two shelves for the major events, things like the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup finals, things like that.

This World Series is the seventh one I have been accredited for. My previous six passes sit there with ones from five Stanley Cup Finals, five NBA Finals, six Final Fours, four Super Bowls, four Grey Cups and 13 Memorial Cups.

Along with those are hundreds more season passes and badges from other special events, like Canada Cups, All-Star Games, tennis, golf and other major events, all of which have been great.

The Super Bowl remains number one in my mind as the best event to attend live, but the ultimate sporting event for me in North America has to be a World Series game at Fenway Park in Boston, where of course the World Series is again this year for the second time in four years.

You walk around Boston during the World Series and even the most cynical sports fan in the world can’t help but get caught up in the excitement. The streets around Fenway are electric and the park itself – well as anybody who has ever been there knows it defies description.

I readily admit I’m a fan of modern stadiums. I’m a creature comfort guy, as I’ll take a five-star hotel over a camping trip any day of the week too for that matter! But Fenway Park truly is a site to behold at World Series time.

It’s like visiting a shrine for haven’s sake, the history just seeps out of the place. The fans are rabid, the temperatures dip and every pitch, every moment, takes on an enormous importance.

Are their better fans around than Boston Red Sox fans? Maybe Chicago Cubs fans rank with them, but that would be about it. Toronto Maple Leaf fans are kidded about it being 40 years since a Stanley Cup – try waiting 86 years for a championship like Red Sox fans have! (The Cubs “celebrate” 100 years without a title next season which is why I rank them up there too).

This really is Red Sox Nation. In 2004 I couldn’t get over the passion and excitement in Fenway as they won the first two games of the World Series, then went on and won the next two in St. Louis to end that long draught. World Series 2007 is just as great.

Pro sports is bloated with teams, there is too much business talk and it’s hard to respect a lot of people involved with it these days. But when the World Series comes to Fenway Park, well it just doesn’t get any better than that.

The fans, the atmosphere and the games are enough to make you remember why you came to love sports in the first place.

It’s the best. Period.

Comments The Rant of October 1 on the baseball playoffs:

“I love baseball too Rog but I’ve missed most of the great playoff moments in the past decade because I have to get up at 7 a.m. for work during the week. Why can’t they start the games earlier?” – Mike in Toronto

“Baseball lost me years ago and I never went back to the game. It’s just too darn slow and I can’t get my kids to watch. They like soccer better and I don’t blame them!” – Stan in Pickering

Email your comments to therog@rogerlajoie.com

Other Rog's Rants & Reader Comments

To read Roger's previous Rants, please visit the Rant Archives section of the website.