Home Opener a Banner Day

In their first home game of the season, the Boston Red Sox yesterday downed the Detroit Tigers by five to nothing.

It was a banner day at Fenway Park. The sun shone and the stars came out to play.

The fans were in their element for a game that opened with a celebration of the Sox' 2007 World Series Championship...and a surprise guest on the mound.

WBUR's Monica Brady-Myerov has this report from the stands.

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MUSIC AND CROWD SOUNDS

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: Inside Fenway Park, fans had their cameras ready for the unfurling of the 2007 World Series banner that spanned the length of left field. A ten-mile-an-hour wind from center field caught hold of it and threatened to carry it away.

PAUL PICCIUTO: The banner is now flying away, somebody jump on it. Somebody jump on it.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: Paul Piccuito slept out with his friend Matthew Drouin to get standing room tickets.

PAUL PICCIUTO: We got here at midnight this morning, and have been miserable and cold. Is it worth it now? Seeing that banner fall is one of the proudest moments of a Red Sox fan in three years, yeah. High Five.

STADIUM ANNOUNCER: And now for the much awaited presentation of the 2007 World Series Championship rings.

BAND STRIKES UP MUSIC

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: As the Boston Pops Brass Band played in center field, Pam Cooley was in the stands in deep right field.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV IN THE STANDS: Since you have binoculars and I can't see, can you narrate what you are seeing?

PAM COOLEY: Terry Francona just got his ring.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: Each team member walked out on a red carpet to receive their white gold ring with 42 diamonds.

PAM COOLEY: Johnny Pesky...86, 87 years old and still going strong. Tek, Jason Varitek, our captain, our captain.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: But it was the man Red Sox nation used to vilify who stole the show.

STADIUM ANNOUNCER: Won't you please welcome back to Boston and let him know he is welcome always, Number 6, Bill Buckner.

SOUND OF CHEERING

PAM COOLEY: Oh that's great. Jeez, he looks good.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: Former first baseman Bill Buckner made an emotional return to Fenway to throw out the first pitch of the home opener. Buckner was blamed for the Red sox World Series loss in 1986 when a ground ball rolled thru his legs. Yesterday, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.

NATIONAL ANTHEM

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: Underscoring the poignancy of the moment, as the national anthem played, a red tailed hawked soared in circles over the infield. The same hawk has made its home at Fenway since 2002. But last week its nest was removed after it swooped down and scraped the scalp of a visitor.

SOUND OF FLYOVER

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: The hawk was scared away by the fighter jets as they roared over Fenway yesterday. But it came back. In the second inning, it swooped low with a dead rodent in its mouth and dropped it into the crowd...making returning players and feathered friends the highlights of the day.

For WBUR I'm Monica Brady-Myerov.