Father's Day

With father's day upon us I thought I'd share my favorite father's day memory:

A few years ago, maybe a decade or more, my father decided to take us to a Red Sox game at Fenway park. For years he got season tickets in the form of a "clergy pass." This pass allowed him, as a Rabbi, to enter the stadium with one guest and sit anywhere there were free seats. Back in the day the Red Sox were not the super team they are now and the games were rarely sold out, which meant they were more lenient and allowed my father to bring in more than one guest. So on this particular father's day we all got in the car, my sister, my step-mother, my father, and me, and drove down to Fenway to get into a Red Sox game for free.
My father used all of the clergy benefits to his advantage. It turns out clergy get these car decals for funeral processions and such, and my father would use his to park at various churches and synagogues for free. Of course Boston is one of those cities that has difficult parking so we used his clergy parking pass (not really what it is). We all get out of the car, dad pops the trunk to get his picnic basket or something silly like that, and we close the doors. Oops, the keys are still in the car. My father makes me climb through the trunk, push down the seats, and slither through them to the front to get the keys. Great start!
When we get to Fenway, the game is sold out - it is father's day after all. We try to get all 4 people in but they say only two are allowed. Oh, wasn't there a guy on the way who was selling 4 tickets? We go back to the scalper and my dad tries to cut a deal. The scalper wants too much for 4 - oh wait, we only need 2 and we know that if the other two tickets are sold, they'll be from this scalper and we can accuse the buyers of getting their tickets illegally! So we buy the two tickets, get in with those and the clergy pass and sit in the 4 empty seats - right behind the home team dugout. Not bad.
When we get to the seats we see another Rabbi and his family that we know from summer camp sitting in the row behind us. Awesome, we're not the only ones abusing the system - oh wait, they bought their tickets and took the T in.
A few innings in, a young couple accuses us of being in their seats - someone finally bought those other two scalped tickets. My dad tries the, you bought those illegally bit, for a minutes but maybe feels bad so he points out two seats a few rows in front of us that haven't been occupied yet for them to sit in. It worked out for all.
What do I remember about the actual baseball game? Johnny Damon on deck and little kids nagging him for his autograph. No clue who they played or who won. I wonder if I was ever actually a Red Sox fan.
BTW, the Red Sox don't give out clergy passes now that all their games sell out. The Padres would never turn their back on their devout fans like that, paying or not paying. Although we'll never really know because the Padres may not ever have sell out seasons - and that's why I'm such a big fan.
Happy father's day, everyone!