BOSTON — In the pregame mist outside Fenway Park, street vendors sell clam chowder.
The crowd is packed shoulder-to-shoulder, a mass of red and navy blue, of long A’s and disappearing R’s. Chants of “Go, Red Sox!” fill the air.
Are there no Rockies fans here?
Then you see Dennis and Tim Crouthers leaning up against a wall of the 95-year-old stadium, wearing Rockies T-shirts beneath jackets. The father and son, who flew into Boston from Denver Wednesday morning, say they have seen a handful of other Rockies fans.
“And they’re all like family,” Dennis said. “It’s funny how an event like this brings everyone together.”
In Boston Wednesday night, the few Rockies fans there had to stick together.
Between the jabs of Boston fans and the stabs of disappointment as the Red Sox piled up runs, it was not quite the experience Rockies fans had hoped for in the team’s first World Series game ever. Rockies fans admitted to being in awe of the moment, to even being a little intimidated by the Red Sox’s history.
“There’s a certain intimidation that we’re this new,” said Steve Braccini of Highlands Ranch, who went to the game with his daughter after getting tickets through a friend. “We believe we belong. But not many people believe we belong.”
Indeed, Red Sox fans – as well as Boston media reports leading up to the game – were mostly polite to the Rockies and their fans, if a little dismissive. Red Sox season ticket holder Bob McKetchnie sat in front of two Rockies fans who flew into Boston and bought tickets outside the stadium from scalpers for $450 apiece.
“I’m happier to have these polite Westerners behind us,” McKetchnie said, “than the Yankees fans who are usually here.”
Thirty-four. That’s the number of Rockies fans that can be counted on the night. There may be more hiding in the folds of Fenway, which seats about 35,000, but not many more.
“There’s probably more Rockies players than fans,” said Chris Bianchi, a Rockies fan and a college student in Boston who waited in line for two nights for tickets to the game. “But, whatever. We’ll make enough noise for 3,000.”
While the Rockies took batting practice, about a dozen Rockies fans gathered near the third-base dugout and started a “LET’S GO, ROCK-IES!” chant that carried to the outfield seats.
But by the middle of the game, the Rockies fans seemed to disappear. In their seats on the third-base line, the Braccinis sat quietly.
“We’ve just got to chip away at them,” Steve Braccini said.
Up in the cheap seats, Bianchi and fellow Rockies fan Eric Gardner look shell-shocked. The two have been media darlings for two days, the crazy Rockies fans camping out for tickets. At one point Wednesday, Bianchi said he had conducted 36 interviews, in two languages and for media outlets from six countries.
But as the Red Sox closed out another inning with a strikeout and the rain began falling harder, Bianchi’s telegenic smile had vanished.
It could be a long, cold night camping out for Game 2 tickets.
“It’ll clear up,” he said. “We’ll just pray that it does.”
John Ingold: 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com
