Enjoy Joy and Pain as a Red Sox Fan.

In 2012, I made yet another pilgrimage to The Shrine—otherwise known               as Fenway Park in Boston. The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the very first big league game played by the Red Sox in that wonderful old ballpark. (The only other barely comparable site in Major League Baseball is Wrigley Field in Chicago, and compared Fenway Park . . . well, enough said.

At any rate, the event was a spectacular success. You think I exaggerate? Well, how does A Fenway Fanfare sound to you . . . a musical piece a couple of minutes long, performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra . . . live! In the ballpark! And the orchestra was conducted by Maestro John Williams himself!

It’s impossible to describe what Fenway Park means to a true Red Sox fan. There are so many little things that make Fenway Park different . . . and special. Real Red Sox fans know that.

There’s the famous left field wall, 37 feet high and known as “The Green Mawnstuh.” That’s different.

And then there’s “The Red Seat”, way back . . . way, WAY back . . . in right field, which supposedly is where the longest home run ever hit by Red Sox hero, Ted Williams, landed. That’s different.

A few years ago, spotting a guy wearing a Red Sox cap at another table in a restaurant in Tirano, Italy (population 9,000) led to a hilarious 45-minute conversation. That’s different.

When we moved to Maui more than twenty years ago, I was worried about finding the right doctor . . . someone who would be my primary care physician.I I picked the Maui Medical Group because it seemed to have a lot of doctors and, from a list of thirty or forty physicians, I chose a doc named Mitchell entirely at random and scheduled an appointment.

A month later, I showed up at the appointed hour, a nurse took “my vitals” and was ushered into a typical examining room. Ten minutes later, after one of the nurses had taken “my vitals,” Bill Mitchell, a tall fiftyish haole (white) man entered the room and we began the process of getting to know each other. Then, in the middle of a sentence, he stopped, hesitated, and finally said, “Come with me!”

We walked down to the end of the corridor and into Dr. Mitchel’s private office. He closed the door quietly behind us. Then he reached out and, ever-so-slightly, moved the mouse on his desk.

Instantly, the Boston Red Sox Home Page popped up on his computer screen! (The observant Dr. Mitchell had noticed the Red Sox logo on the face of my wristwatch.)

No need to continue the search. I’ve found my guy!