Red Sox Notebook: Sam Kennedy ‘fired up’ as Fenway Park opens to full capacity

Though the weather literally rained on the Red Sox’ parade as they opened Fenway Park to full capacity on Saturday, team president Sam Kennedy viewed it as a blessing in disguise.

Because of the rainy weather, Kennedy was only expecting 16,000-17,000 fans to show up for Saturday’s big reopening at Fenway Park, but 25,089 came to watch the Red Sox beat the Marlins 3-1, their largest crowd since the 2019 season finale. With about 66% of full capacity in the house, though, Kennedy was happy to ease back into a return to normalcy as Massachusetts lifted its state-wide COVID-19 restrictions and Fenway Park adjusts from 25% capacity straight to full.

“As much as we’d love to have a full house, it’s nice, to be honest with you, to have a bit of a dry run,” Kennedy said. “Although not dry, wet. A wet run, with the restrictions being relaxed. It will probably work out for the best today and tomorrow and then be ready for June 8 (the next homestand).”

Kennedy asked that fans who are not fully vaccinated to continue to wear masks, and employees in food and beverage will continue to wear masks for the time being. But other than that, the Red Sox aren’t operating under any remaining COVID restrictions as they return to a traditional experience at Fenway.

“Fenway will be the Fenway that we all have known and loved and it will be a little bit like stepping back in time when you come into Fenway Park today,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy admitted that there has been some reluctance from fans to return to Fenway, though, including from his mother.

“She’s asking me if she’s going to be OK,” Kennedy said. “I have heard some reluctance from different demographics, have heard a lot of other folks say, I just can’t wait to get to Fenway, to get back to some normalcy. In different conversations, have heard responses sort of all over the board, all over the map. I think all of us need to be really sensitive to … people have very different feelings to emerging from the experience that we’ve had over the last 15 months and we just need to be mindful and respectful of that, when it comes to people coming into the building, but also companies, our employees, people feeling very different about it.

“Some people, like me, for example, I’m really fired up that we’re all going to be able to be back together in person but there are others that are less enthusiastic and it’s going to take some time. We just have to recognize that people will adjust at a different pace and just be respectful of each other.”

But Kennedy is confident that one day soon, everyone will be comfortable returning to the ballpark. It might not have been on Saturday, but he looks forward to a time this summer that he can look out at Fenway on a hot summer day with a sellout crowd.

Kennedy said Saturday was an emotional day for him and people within the organization as they saw some people who they haven’t seen since before the pandemic began.

“It’ll be great for everyone to get back together and we’ll do it at a pace that’s a little bit different for everybody, but I think by later this summer, I really think people will feel completely and totally comfortable,” Kennedy said. “We’ve seen the incredible impact of the vaccinations and how it’s helped, so we just need to keep encouraging everybody to go out and get vaccinated and we’ll be able to do the things that we love to do.”

Kennedy disappointed by vaccine number

On Friday, Major League Baseball announced that 19 teams have reached 85% of their Tier 1 individuals being fully vaccinated. The Red Sox, though, are not one of those teams, and it doesn’t look promising that they’ll get to that number soon after Alex Cora said they haven’t made much progress over the last week.

Teams need to hit the 85% number for COVID-19 protocols to be relaxed. Kennedy was honest about how he feels about the Red Sox not getting there yet, but showed respect to those who have chosen not to get vaccinated.

“It is frustrating because you’d like to be at 100%,” Kennedy said. “It’s really important with the situation we’re dealing with to have as many people vaccinated as possible. That said, you have to respect differences of opinion, thought, approach to combating COVID, and so we respect the individual players who have decided to not get vaccinated. But the honest answer is that it is frustrating because I know for the coaching staff and the players who have been vaccinated, you’d like to see a relaxing of protocols across the game.

“The honest answer is, yes, it’s frustrating but also we’re respectful of individual choice and people have the right to decide what’s best for them.”

First pitch

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) threw the ceremonial first pitch prior to Saturday’s game to catcher Christian Vazquez, as the Red Sox marked the lifting of restrictions and capacity limitations in Massachusetts.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3uz6zvV