So this past weekend my wife and I went to Boston and took in two games at Fenway Park.
We had tickets to the Saturday game already. Then a few weeks ago a friend of ours said he had tickets to the Friday game and was wondering if we wanted to go up with him and his wife.
So I attended back to back Red Sox games.
Full disclosure - I'm a Yankees fan. But my wife is a Red Sox fan. It's what we in Connecticut refer to as a "mixed marriage". But I do enjoy watching games at Fenway Park and have attended more baseball games there than any other park.
But they have begun a tradition over the last few years which has just become totally obnoxious. It needs to stop.
I'm referring of course to "Sweet Caroline". They play the old Neil Diamond song during the 8th inning break. So for two nights running I was treated to 35,000 plus people, with varying amounts of alcohol in their system, belting out parts of the chorus.
Hands, touchin' hands
Reachin' out, touchin' me, touchin' you
Sweet Caroline
[crowd screams: "OH OH OH!"]
Good times never seemed so good
[crowd screams: "SO GOOD! SO GOOD! SO GOOD!"]
...
It. Has. To. Stop.
Okay I get it. There was the Marathon bombing. And the song became one of the rallying cries that helped the city through it. But enough is enough.
As Neil Diamond songs go "Sweet Caroline" was mediocre to begin with. And when you read in an interview that he was inspired to write the song after seeing a picture of a young Caroline Kennedy (probably about age 10) sitting on a horse, and then look at lines like "touchin' me touchin' you", it gets down right creepy.
So please Neil I'm begging you. Do the right thing. Stop the madness. Revoke your permission for the Red Sox to abuse, er I mean use, your song every damned home game.
If not I fear there is a special circle of Hell reserved just for you.