A Monday on the Monster

What's big, imposing, green, friendly to right-handed hitters, and has two concession stands and a bathroom on top of it? They call it the Monstah, and while it may be scary to pitchers facing Manny Ramirez, it is a blast of vantage point for lucky Sox fans. After watching Monday's opener of the Sox-Yanks series from atop the big wall, I'm convinced that it is the only way to properly watch a Yankees game in May.

I've seen games lots of ways. I've sat way up in the bleachers, right next to the bullpen, behind the Pesky Pole. I've sat in both sides of the grandstand, both sides of the loge box, and rested my drink atop the Sox' dugout. I've sat along the sloping left field wall, in the front, in the back, in the sun, in the shade, during the day, at night, and have and upgraded to better seats more than a few times. I've driven to the park, taken the T from 5 different stops, and walked in from both Kenmore and Fenway. Point being, after enough experience at the park to have an opinion on a good many seats, the most unique may have been the seat without a seat at all.

Don't get me wrong -- sitting five feet from Big Papi, hanging out with the bleacher creatures, and watching from the infield are all great in their own right (any seat in Fenway is), but standing atop the fabled monster is a feeling that you just have to experience to understand.

Pre-game batting practice is a fitting welcome, with Manny, Lowell, and Youkilis belting souveneirs sky-high and up into the four rows of seats. It's a pretty cool perspective when home runs are hit directly toward you instead of away. In fact, the whole view was much better than I expected -- perfect, with no obstruction even from the last row. The aerial viewpoint gave me a newfound respect for Cora, Lowell, and (grudgingly) Jeter's superb infield play that isn't done justice by the standard TV angles.

I thought I'd have to stake a claim in order to get a space at the standing room bar, but that didn't turn out to be the case. There was plenty of space on top of the wall and, once you were admitted to the section, a comparably small and relaxed security presence. If you want to move down a few rows to some empty barstools in the top of the third, no one is likely to object. I didn't bother because the $35 standing room seats were more than good enough -- the Yankees fan standing to my right paid $250 on eBay for the same spot.

But I wouldn't have sold my ticket even if I had known it would spin a $215 profit; the night was perfect. With the cold wind blowing at our backs through the open fence and Schilling mowing through the Yankee lineup, the series opener seemed more like an ALCS game 1 than a normal Monday in May. But I was hardly surprised -- any Sox fan knows that Fenway's greatest gift is making every game feel like it means the world.