Patriots Day

Bostonians Celebrate Holiday with Running and Baseball

Patriots Day commemorates the first battles of the Revolutionary War, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which took place on April 19th, 1775. The Holiday is celebrated in the state of Massachusetts, where the battles took place, and in Maine, which was once a part of Massachusetts.

Many great fights and competitions have come from the state of Massachusetts and in 1897, the Boston Athletic Association decided to add another way to do battle on Patriots Day.

The Marathon is Born

The first Boston Marathon was held on April 19th, 1897. The course ran from Metcalf’s Hill in Ashland to the Irvington Oval in Boston, but unlike the traditional Olympic Marathon which runs 26 miles and 385 yards, the first Boston Marathon covered only a distance of 24.5 miles.

Out of a field of 15 runners, John J. McDermott from New York won that very first race 114 years ago, doing so in a time of 2:55:10. The race was altered in 1924 to conform to the Olympic Marathon standards.

More tweaks were made to the Marathon and Patriots Day when in 1969 it was decided to move Patriots Day from April 19th to the third Monday of April (before that change Patriots Day was held every year on April 19th except for when it fell on a Sunday, in which case the Marathon was held on the following Monday).

“Heartbreak Hill”

The modern day Boston Marathon course is home to one of the most psychologically brutal hills in running, “Heartbreak Hill.” Heartbreak Hill is the fourth and last of the “Newton Hills,” which begin at the 16 mile mark of the Marathon and near the campus of Boston College.

Most runners suffer from a term called “hitting the wall,” where during a Marathon, usually between the 18 and 20 mile markers, runners run out of stored glycogen and severe fatigue starts to set in. One runner has described the experience as “It felt like an elephant had jumped out of a tree onto my shoulders and was making me carry it the rest of the way in.” (http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/latta.htm)

Heartbreak Hill is only about an 88 foot elevation, but because of its positioning at the point where most runners “hit the wall,” it has defeated many runners over the years and can even make experienced runners halt to a walking pace.

Let’s Play Ball

Six years after the Boston Athletic Association held the first Boston Marathon, the Boston Red Sox (then known as the Boston Americans) played their first Patriots Day baseball game when they hosted the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds.

The starting time of the game was 10 A.M., and 8,376 fans showed up to witness their Boston team beat the visiting Philadelphia ball club 9-4. The following year the Boston Braves decided to play an afternoon game, but attendance was sparse, and the Red Sox and Braves alternated playing the Patriots Day at home until 1953 when the Braves left for Milwaukee.

Morning Baseball

The Red Sox have played a home game every year on Patriots Day since 1959 (with the exceptions of 1965 and 1967 because of off days and 1995 because of the player’s strike) with the traditional 11:05 starting time beginning in 1968. The time was again changed in 1987 due to complaints from the Player’s Association that the starting time was too early, but was changed back the next year to 11:05.

The traditional starting time of the game has been 11:05 A.M. with a couple of changed due to weather and other various conditions. The traditional early start time of the game allows fans in attendance of the baseball game the chance to watch the full game and see runners making their way through Kenmore Square, which is about the 25 mile marker for runners.

However, due to a combination of the lengthening time of baseball games and progressively earlier starts to the Boston Marathon, runners over the past couple of years have been making their way through Kenmore Square sometime in the middle of the baseball game.

A New Feel to Patriots Day

On a day filled with running and baseball, the Boston Red Sox have done their best in recent years to add to the enjoyment. The Red Sox are 66-49 on Patriots day, and before this year’s game had won their last six contests on the civic holiday.

But this year there was more heartbreak at Fenway Park than on the last of the Newton Hills.

The Red Sox entered the game at 4-8 and losers of three in a row to their divisional rival the Tampa Bay Rays (who had won their only other Patriots Day game in 1999). And the early season trends continued for the Red Sox, as the shoddy defense and pitching that has plagued them so far this year reared its ugly head again on Patriots Day.

The Red Sox, who are normally the best team in baseball at home, are now 1-6 at the not-so-friendly-anymore confines of Fenway Park. The Patriots Day match-up seemed to favor the Red Sox and the pitching match-up looked great on paper, but like most things that have looked great on paper this year for the Red Sox, reality did not agree with the paper match-up.

The Red Sox sent hurler John Lackey (1-1, 5.63/1-0 with a 1.42 ERA before the game) to the mound to face off against Jeff Niemann, the Ray’s tallest pitcher in their short history, standing a towering 6’9 on the hill and who can command four different pitches.

But the Red Sox had history going for them… and that was about it. The Rays manufactured a run on a lead-off double, a sacrifice bunt and a RBI groundout to short in the first inning and never looked back.

A big three run home run by B.J. Upton in the third inning just out of the reach of the glove of Bill Hall in right center made a 3-0 game into a 6-0 affair, and all the hype and energy that Red Sox fans mustered up for the Patriots Day game quickly dissipated.

Lackey was mercifully pulled after 3 1/3 innings while allowing eight earned runs; just a day after Jon Lester allowed six earned runs in his start.
But there was some solace in Boston; those who participated in the Marathon and lost their personal battles with Heartbreak Hill did not have to watch the Red Sox.