Let me explain something to you. If you're in Boston (as I currently am) then you pretty much, automatically, have to be a Red Sox fan. At the very least, you have to be anti-Yankees. That being said, last night was game 7 for the Red Sox, the one that decided whether or not they moved on to the World Series. It was a home game at Fenway park, which is literally just across the river from where we live. We can actually hear the fans from our windows, believe it or not.
Game 7 found the residents of Conner 2 all sitting in the floor lounge, after an exciting day of apple bake, watching baseball. Come the bottom of the 8th inning, I get a brilliant idea!
"Hey guys, there's going to be a huge party/mob outside Fenway tonight, let's go!"
(5 others) "Ok!"
We ran around the floor looking for Red Sox gear to put on. I got a shirt, some others got hats, and one other had a shirt. We ran from the door and to the Harvard bridge. A quick jaunt across the river and we were on our way. That was when we had our first clue that this was going to be insane.
A taxi drove down the street with people hanging out the windows screaming "RED SOX, YEAH!" We decided to get into the spirit of things and scream back, making for a lovely conversation with the drunken cab-riders who were already on their way down the street to yell at more people. As we got closer and closer to the stadium we began to see more and more people. Soon, we found the mob. Oh, and with the mob, we found 75-100 police officers in riot gear, motorcycles, German Sheppards, and police cars. Everybody in the mob was screaming and cheering as loud as they could, so we smashed our way in and towards the center to participate in the festivities.
There was a streetlight post on the corner of the intersection we were mobbing in and people decided that it would be a really good idea to climb it, so they did.
They used 2 flimsy street signs as a step and climbed onto the "Do Not Walk/Walk" light-up box so they could lead chants and yell. Soon, the street signs were all bent and messed up, so (and I'm assuming this) for the safety of all involved, 3-4 crazy guys just started pulling and ripping and yanking the signs. Eventually they ripped them completely off, which caused more screaming and jumping by us, the mob.
Next to that sign was either a car or a series of garbage cans that people were standing on, screaming chants and riling up the crowd. Some favorite chants were
"F*** The Rockies!"
"Let's Go Red Sox!"
"Yankees Suck!"
"Ole, ole ole ole"
That's when flash lady appeared. Let's face it, with a huge mob, there's going to be a flash lady. What made it fun (other than the fact that she was flash lady) is that while she was on the garbage cans/car doing her thing, there was a guy on top of the traffic light swinging his shirt around and cheering. The mob was cheering wildly and this guy thought it was all for him, so he kept screaming and chanting and being cool, completely oblivious of the naked lady that everybody was actually cheering for. Good times! That's when some genius decided it'd be fun to try to climb another post. He made it halfway up and was holding onto the street sign when all of a sudden the street sign snapped off and he just fell, straight down, with nothing under him but concrete. There was some laughing that happened at his expense.
At this point cops, in full riot gear, decided that the "illegal assembly" should go away, so they began their crowd dispersal tactics (which were actually quite effective).
They blocked off two sides of the intersection with police so there was only one street. They then ran lines of motorcycles, with sirens blaring as loud as possible, down the street, flushing people to the sidewalks. They did this several times, and all the while a recording was playing from the SWAT-looking tank/van thing:
"You are unlawfully assembled. Under order of Massachusetts state law, if you do not immediately and peacefully disperse, you will be arrested."
Red Lines = Motorcycles
Blue Lines = Police
Blue Boxes = Police Cars
Big Blue Box = SWAT-looking/Van thing
Oval = Mob
After several waves of motorcycles they started to get serious. If you look on the map, see the little park where are all the police cars are parked? Those cars are K9 units. Guess what came out of every single car . . .
The motorcycles then lined up in the street, but this time didn't move. Another line of motorcycles formed behind them. Then, police on foot behind them, two lines. Finally, the SWAT-looking/van thing, followed up by a Gator, retrofitted to be a police Gator. This was the final flush. They started moving forward and not letting a single person stay, anywhere. We were in the park by the dogs, but that was until we noticed the dogs. I'm not a fan of being on the wrong end of a police dog (mainly, the mouth end) so I was all for getting to the other side of the park and watching the final flush from a safe vantage point.
And so that's how it happened. We walked peacefully down a street parallel to the mob/flush street and watched an extremely large number of police flush the Red Sox mob down out and away from our location of unlawful assembly. All in all, it was an amazing night! I'd never seen that many cops, I'd never been part of a mob of Red Sox fans, and everybody was in a great mood. Then, the cherry on top happened on the way home.
The Harvard Bridge connects Boston to Cambridge/MIT so we had to cross it to get home. There's a passenger sidewalk and then right next to it is a bike lane. It's REALLY irritating when you have to move for a bike rider who decided that the sidewalk would be a better choice, but normally you just move and bitterly complain. Last night, the four of us formed a line across the sidewalk, making it impossible for the bike to pass. Eventually we let him pass, but that started a rousing game of "Bike Lane." The rules are simple, one person says "Bike Lane" at a fairly low volume. Then, another person immediately follows by saying "Bike Lane" at a slightly to moderately louder volume. Eventually, all four of us were screaming "BIKE LANE!" in a bitter, angry tone, as loud as we could. Then, we looked across the 4 lane street and saw, lo and behold, somebody riding a bike in the bike lane! We turn our attention to him and start screaming "YEAH BIKE LANE, WOOOO!" He acknowledged by raising his fist into the air, to which we cheered wildly. He then screamed "GO RED SOX!" to which we screamed even louder! It was a good night, I can't wait until the world series. . .
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