Sitting in the sun and watching a baseball game can be cleansing for the soul. Especially at a place like Fenway Park. Yeah, Virginia Tech didn’t win, but that’s OK. The result isn’t what I’ll remember from Saturday, because in the grand scheme of things, one baseball game doesn’t matter very much. It’s all about the experience, and the experience in Boston was great.
Baseball isn’t like football. Using a Major League Baseball schedule as an example, even the worst teams usually win about 60 games per year. If you’re a fan of one of those teams, that’s 60 times per year that you get to go to bed happy after a game. That’s not exactly like being a college football fan, where if you’re bad, it means you win three games per year. That’s just not very many times you get to go to bed happy. You know the saying: bad baseball beats no baseball, and it’s true. I don’t think we can say the same about football.
I’m disappointed the Hokies didn’t win on Saturday against Boston College. I’m especially disappointed with how the game ended. But it didn’t alter my mood at all. I met some great fans, I got to see a Tech player (Ethan Ball, more on him later) homer in Fenway, and I checked off a couple of bucket list items. Besides going to game at Fenway, I’ve always wanted to hike Battle Road between Lexington and Concord, and I did that on Sunday. It’s rare that you get to check off two bucket list items 24 hours apart, so it was a great trip from a personal standpoint.
This article isn’t going to be very long, nor is it going to be about the game, but I want to hit on a few different topics.
Ethan Ball’s Impressive Freshman Season
Since he homered on Saturday, I want to mention Ethan Ball, who is having a great freshman season for the Hokies. I want to compare his numbers to those of Carson DeMartini, who put together a tremendous freshman campaign in 2022. Here’s a little table with the comparison, and we have to keep in mind that Ball’s season isn’t complete.
| Carson DeMartini vs. Ethan Ball | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stat | DeMartini | Ball |
| Avg. | .341 | .315 |
| HR | 15 | 8 |
| RBI | 50 | 23 |
| OB% | .452 | .400 |
| SLG% | .659 | .591 |
| BB | 35 | 12 |
| K | 63 | 49 |
| E | 8 | 1 |
Ball’s numbers aren’t quite as good, except for the fact that he’s only made one error. However, he’s had to hold down a spot in the middle of the order, whereas DeMartini had the luxury of hitting ninth and getting a lot of protection on that 2022 team. That year’s team featured Jack Hurley (.375 BA), Tanner Schobel (.362), Nick Biddison (.351), Cade Hunter (.330), Gavin Cross (.328) and Carson Jones (.327). That team hit 126 homers. It was as good a hitting lineup as you’ll see in college baseball.
Ball doesn’t have that kind of protection. Only one other player on the team is hitting about .300, which is Pete Daniel at .305, and Ball has eight of Tech’s paltry 38 homers. He’s not getting much help, but he’s still managed to be very productive. The future looks bright for the freshman. It must have been quite a thrill for him to homer in Fenway Park.
Now on to the main topics that I wanted to discuss.
Altering My Take On Boston College
I make fun of Boston College too much. The Eagles don’t have a lot of resources, and they lose a lot of games in the sports that most people watch. They don’t bring a lot to the league, and I have argued that they are a drain on conference resources more than they are a boost. All that may still be true, but now that I’ve made my first trip to Boston, my perspective on Boston College has changed a lot.
As it turns out, Boston is now my favorite American city that I’ve ever visited. Not only am I now an advocate of keeping the Eagles in the ACC as long as possible, but I wish the Coastal Division still existed so I could get a guaranteed road trip every other year. There are two things I like: sports and history. You certainly can get plenty of both in Boston. I’m not sure why it never registered with me that Boston would be the type of city that I would like, but now that I’ve experienced it, I’m ready to go back.
I thought the city was just big enough to provide plenty of things to do, but just small enough to get that feeling of intimacy. I walked into a random bar (The Hub Pub) on Sunday night to watch the Braves game, and everyone else in there was a local, and they all knew each other. Those are my types of pubs. The conversations were great. (And apparently the New England Alumni Association has done a thing or two there in the past.)
I’ve been to plenty of bowl games in my life, but I imagine going to a Virginia Tech-BC football game in Boston is probably a little like going to a bowl game because it’s in a city. I’m not pining for the Fenway Bowl or anything like that because Boston in December doesn’t sound so ideal, but this September’s football game against the Eagles can be a lot of fun.
Here are a few recommendations for your next trip:
• Bleacher Bar: It’s in the outfield at Fenway Park. You don’t need tickets to the game to get in, but you can look out into the outfield from right behind the warning track. Also, the Bleacher Burger is top-notch, and I have high expectations when it comes to cheeseburgers. I also wonder if I’m the first person to ever start the “Let’s Go Hokies” chant from Bleacher Bar? It’s possible.
• Bell in Hand Tavern: The oldest continuously operating tavern in the United States (1795). Or at least the claim to be. It’s debatable because they’ve changed locations a couple of times. Still, it’s a really good place.
• The Hub Pub: A local boozer where everyone is friendly. The bartender is named Scotty, and he likes to play the song Scotty Doesn’t Know while telling customers about the night a woman named Fiona came into the bar. That will only be funny to you if you’ve ever seen Eurotrip.
There you have it. My take on Boston College has been completely altered. The Eagles might be behind, and they might be limited in what they are capable of doing in the modern era of college athletics, but because of the city of Boston, they still provide a unique experience for the ACC that I believe should be valued.
On The Road Again
It’s been a long time since I traveled for a Virginia Tech athletic event. The long downturn in football got me down in the dumps, and I decided that I just didn’t want to spend the money to depress myself further. I don’t mind spending money on the Hokies; in fact, I’d like to spend more. But I don’t like spending money to work myself into a bad mood, which is usually what happens when the football team loses.
However, not traveling meant that I hadn’t gotten out of Blacksburg to meet fans from other areas in quite a long time. I got to do that on Saturday, and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed it. I ran into members of the New England Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association. It was a pretty young group overall, and a guy named Randy seems to do a great job organizing all of its events. The group mentioned that it would like to get to more Virginia Tech games, but unfortunately, there are no direct flights between Boston and Roanoke. (I flew in and out of Raleigh.)
It’s sort of the gift and the curse. Everyone likes the uniqueness of their own school, and part of Virginia Tech’s uniqueness is that it is nestled away in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. The remoteness is part of the appeal, and it’s one of the reasons we love it so much. However, it can also be part of the downside. You can only fly direct from Roanoke to 10 different cities, and Boston isn’t one of them.
I don’t know that Virginia Tech did a great job of promoting this game. A local Tech fan was kind enough to take me to some places around Fenway Park after the game, and she told me she didn’t know the Hokies were playing in Fenway until a couple of days before, and she pays attention to sports. But we’ve discussed communication issues in the athletic department for a long time on this site, so there’s no point in revisiting that old topic.
I feel like there should have been a specific Hokie Club event, though. Perhaps an event at a bar the night before the game with John Szefc and/or Whit Babcock (or maybe Bud Foster, too), or even just a pre-game party before the game. That’s not cheap, but it’s also not overly expensive, and more importantly, it builds up goodwill with alums in an era when you are trying to increase donations and attempting to build your donor base for the future. But again, I’ve beaten the Hokie Club topic to death over the years.
Overall, it was a good trip, and special thanks go out to all the Virginia Tech fans I met who made it better. I’ll see you all in Boston for the weekend of September 26.