The best Major League Baseball games are often the ones the fewest people attend. As a Boston Red Sox fan, I have mixed feelings about Fenway Park. It’s historic, but it’s also small, cramped, expensive, hard to reach, and often cold or rainy outside of summer. I still enjoy going—despite those drawbacks. But there’s one time when visiting Fenway feels almost perfect: day makeup games. I’ve been to four of them, and each one stood out.
I recently went with some friends to a makeup game where the Red Sox crushed the Orioles 19–5. We’d planned to go Thursday night, but heavy rain pushed the game to Friday afternoon. Thanks to the rescheduling, the park felt wide open. No one sat in front, behind, or beside us. When Fenway’s under half full, you can spread out—an impossible task during a typical packed game.
Getting close to players also becomes easier. I only saw a handful of autograph seekers. A few obtained signatures from Alex Bregman and Alex Cora. That would’ve been far tougher in a crowd of 100 collectors. These games are also great for families. The park is quieter, with fewer loud or intoxicated fans. It’s much easier for kids to take pictures with Wally and Tessie, or hop in the bullpen cart and mock dugout near the kids’ concourse.
One friend hated that both teams used position players to pitch, but I loved it. The Red Sox scored eight runs off the Orioles’ backup third baseman in 0.2 innings. Sox first baseman Abraham Toro pitched the ninth. Cora rarely has position players pitch for the Sox. Before this, the last time I remember both teams using position players was Chris Davis versus Darnell McDonald in a 17-inning Red Sox-Orioles game in 2012.
Four years had passed since my previous daytime makeup game, but that one was just as unforgettable. Travis Shaw, newly re-acquired at the time, hit a walk-off grand slam in the 11th inning to lift the Red Sox. I’d bought my ticket that morning for under $20. Though the seat was behind a pole, I moved to a better one.
The month before, I picked up another cheap ticket and unexpectedly ran into two cousins and an uncle I hadn’t seen in years. With space all around us, my uncle invited me to sit with them, and I gladly joined. We grabbed a couple of beers after the game. The best makeup game I attended was the one I’ve already written about: covering a Red Sox-Pirates game in 2017 for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Pirates had games in three cities in three days, so I pitched in to save their beat writers a trip. That quiet weekday game made things easier as a reporter. Fewer media members were there, and while the Pirates’ clubhouse was closed pregame, I interviewed a player and a coach on the field. I’ll look forward to the next daytime makeup game at Fenway. If I’m around, I’ll be there.