{"id":661172,"date":"2026-04-03T17:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661172\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T17:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:17:19","slug":"diehard-red-sox-fans-gather-outside-fenway-park-hours-ahead-of-home-opener-boston-25-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661172\/","title":{"rendered":"Diehard Red Sox fans gather outside Fenway Park hours ahead of home opener \u2013 Boston 25 News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">BOSTON \u2014 Some Boston Red Sox fans arrived at Fenway Park before 5 a.m. Friday for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston25news.com\/news\/local\/red-sox-honor-1986-team-during-todays-home-opener-fenway-park-heres-what-fans-need-know\/N2QHXLHPOBG3JCI3GI25H6KUYI\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.boston25news.com\/news\/local\/red-sox-honor-1986-team-during-todays-home-opener-fenway-park-heres-what-fans-need-know\/N2QHXLHPOBG3JCI3GI25H6KUYI\/\">2026 home opener<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">For one group of friends, Opening Day is a tradition they\u2019ll never miss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">\u201cWe don\u2019t see each other for 364 days a year but the 365th &#8211; it\u2019s family and it\u2019s Christmas,\u201d fan Mike Columbare said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">Columbare said he\u2019s been one of the first fans outside of Fenway Park for the last 25 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">Opening Day is a day to celebrate the start of the Red Sox season, but this year, it\u2019s also a time to look ahead after a rough 1-5 start on the road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">\u201cObviously, we all want to make the playoffs,\u201d Drew Sutherland said. \u201cWe\u2019re a pretty young team; hopefully, the pitching we spent on can solidify a little better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">While it\u2019s a chilly kickoff to what fans hope will be a lengthy baseball season, Columbare came prepared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">\u201c25 years later, I finally figured this out for the cold weather,\u201d Columbare said. \u201cBattery pack, heating pad, insulated blankets, mom knitted me a throw to bring with me every year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">Home-opener decor, such as blue, red, and white balloons, could be seen down Landsdowne Street well ahead of the 2:10 first pitch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">Bars like Game On said they\u2019re prepared to serve thousands of customers throughout the day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s the kickoff to everything, and then as the season plays out and hopefully we make it to the playoffs, keep going that way, then we\u2019ll see a really busy October as well,\u201d Tyler Hall with the Lyons Group said outside of Game On.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston25news.com\/news\/local\/have-new-device-get-our-free-boston-25-news-weather-apps\/PDC6X7UKOFDBVPV5YJHG3CX36I\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE Boston 25 News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph\">Follow Boston 25 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Boston25News\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/boston25\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston25news.com\/video\/live-stream\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Watch Boston 25 News NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 fcApnw body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Some Boston Red Sox fans arrived at Fenway Park before 5 a.m. Friday for the 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[50236,84333,5,141,48,24347,58510,2542,20360,3848,24354,84336,84335,84337,84334,4,169,89,4172,2543,286,69034,2183],"class_list":{"0":"post-661172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-50236","9":"tag-alyssa_azare","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-boston","12":"tag-boston-red-sox","13":"tag-boston_25","14":"tag-boston_25_news","15":"tag-bostonredsox","16":"tag-christmas","17":"tag-fenway","18":"tag-fenway_park","19":"tag-game_on","20":"tag-lansdowne_street","21":"tag-melissa_azara","22":"tag-mike_colomberart","23":"tag-mlb","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-red-sox","26":"tag-red_sox","27":"tag-redsox","28":"tag-sox","29":"tag-ufl","30":"tag-video"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116341915504588809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}