Looking into the Future(s)

We were back in Boston on Saturday, Aug. 9 for one of our favorite annual events - Futures at Fenway. First held in 2006, the event is a double-header featuring two teams from the Red Sox farm system taking on league rivals. It's a fun day that brings what we love most about baseball to Fenway Park: great baseball, exciting players with a real thirst for success, wacky between-innings entertainment and of course, mascots.

This year's Futures at Fenway saw the Lowell Spinners take on the Hudson Valley Renegades. As we've written before, the Spinners are the short-season Single-A affiliate of the Red Sox. Normally, they play at LeLacheur Park on the East Campus of the University of Massachusetts Lowell along the banks of the Merrimack River. While we are big fans of LeLacheur (it's got a lot of character and came from the same minds that designed the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards -- and it's a short distance from where we live), it's always exciting to see the Spinners on the hallowed field at Fenway.

We've been fortunate to attend all three of the Futures at Fenway events. The Spinners took part in the inaugural event three seasons ago (last year featured the Portland Sea Dogs and the Paw Sox), and had the pleasure of seeing key players like Justin Masterson first step onto the diamond. The excitement of the minor-leaguers first experiencing Fenway from the player's point of view is truly infectious. We've often seen players taking photos of themselves on the field and in the dugout before their games started, as well as greeting family and friends in the crowd. Some will return to the park as major leaguers. For others, this is the closest they will ever come to playing in a major league park. No one (at least not the players or the fans) knows who will end up in which category, but they all seem to make the most of this experience.

Futures at Fenway is a far kinder, gentler experience than most Boston Red Sox games. The atmosphere is much more family-oriented and the fans are far less frenzied. The outcome here won't bring the Red Sox closer to or further from another World Series championship. It's unlikely anyone in the stands paid more than $20 (if that) per ticket to be there. And it's hard to take things too seriously when there are dogs catching Frisbees in the outfield in between innings.

Those are just some of the reasons we love the Futures at Fenway experience so much. This year's event didn't disappoint: the skies were sunny and the temperature comfortable (so far, F at F is batting 1.000 in the weather department), and while the park was plenty full, we weren't as crammed in as we would have been at a Red Sox game. And our seats were a heck of a lot better than anything we can get our hands on under "normal" circumstances.

First up at this year's Futures, the Spinners delivered an exciting game against the Renegades. The team (check out the recap) delivered an exciting 4-3 victory over Hudson Valley (the Tampa Bay Ray's Single-A team) -- and it took 12 innings to do it. We imagine that having the first game of a double-header go 12 innings is a nightmare for the folks behind the scenes, but the fans had no trouble going the distance to see the Spinners win.

On the mascot front, Canaligator, Allie-Gator and Millie-Gator were on hand to lead the "Spinnertainment." (As a side note, if you aren't familiar with the mascots, Canaligator and Allie-Gator are married, and Millie-Gator is their daughter. Check out the photos from their 2006 wedding at LeLacheur Park.) With the help of "P.A. Guy" and Spinners staffers, we were treated to a mascot dance-off, Sumo wrestlers (the inflatable kind), a sub-eating contest, T-shirt tosses, and of course, Blue Dog Group doing their thing with the Frisbees.

When the Paw Sox (Boston's Triple-A team) took the field, it was against the Charlotte Knights, their counterparts in the Chicago White Sox system. As did the Spinners, the Paw Sox defeated their rivals (see the recap). This game didn't go 12 innings, but it was exciting to see the 5-2 win nonetheless, which saw the team put the Knights away for real in the bottom of the fourth with three runs.

Mascots Paws and Sox were also on hand and they also entertained fans, although the Paw Sox, as a more serious team (they are, after all, only a step below playing at Fenway for real) don't have the same complement of wacky antics in between innings. That said, T-shirts were thrown, mascots danced, and even Wally the Green Monster made an appearance.

We sipped lemonade, munched on hot dogs, visited with some friends who also attended the games -- and enjoyed what's great about minor-league baseball in a major-league setting.