World Series?  What?

So, I drove into Fenway Park today to pick up my
last paycheck of the season.  As I pull down Yawkey Way, I see lots of police
and police cars.  Normally, I turn right onto Van Ness to park, but that way is
blocked.  I continue down Yawkey where there are lots of trucks parked.  I look
at them and notice that they are film trucks.  Hmmmm, wonder what they are
filming here.  Anyway, I continue around the block and come back to Yawkey and
take a left and park right on the corner.

I get out of the vehicle and walk towards the media entrance at Gate D on Yawkey Way, thinking I can’t walk down Van Ness.  However, I’m told I have to enter in the triangle past Gate B, as usual.  Okay, so I end up walking past the police blockade and head down past the movie camera that is set up in the street.  Didn’t notice anything special except a crowd of people in the parking lot behind the Howard Johnson’s there.  I do notice, as I continue down the street, that two of the door are open to Fenway.  One of the doors is where the ambulance is usually parked during games, next to the first aid station.  The other door is the door right after that.  That one is usually NEVER open before / during games, only after.

I walk into the Fenway.  I actually love being able to head into the ballpark even when there is not even a game or other event going on.  What World Series?  Anyway, I go into the ballpark, pick up my check, and then head up to the big concourse in RF.  I see a couple of painter painting the railing heading up the handicap ramp into the bleachers behind the visitor’s bullpen.  I walk up the ramp next to it that leads to section 1 in the RF grandstand.  I look across the field, and see that all of the blue seats in the grandstand of sections 31, 32, and 33 have been ripped out.  You can only see the concrete there.  Looks like they are replacing the grandstand seats.  In the grandstand seats behind home plate there is a group of people sitting.  Looks like it is a tour group.  Here’s an empty Fenway from 2 weeks ago:

Anyway, time to leave.  I head back out the way I came.  Head back down Van Ness street to head to my vehicle.  There are some people milling about, with ear pieces.  Are they part of the film crew?  Not sure, but there still isn’t any noticeable action happening.  I still see the camera set up though.  As I continue down the street, I see a cop is walking towards me.  I reach him and he says, “Hi, how you doing?”  I reply, “Good and you?” as I focus on him and notice it that he is not any ordinary cop, but:

Yes, that is Ben Affleck.  He actually had a bit more facial growth than the above photo.  However, I was not expecting to see him there.  Plus, with him being from the area (and being a famous, superstar, Hollywood type) I was surprised he even greeted me friendly as we walked by each other.  Folks from the North East (NY, New England, etc) aren’t really known for being all that friendly.  I try to be, but take a walk around Boston, and you’ll noticed 95% of people just either walk with their head down or just plain ignore others.  But I digress.

Ben is in town (no pun intended) shooting a movie (he is directing as well as starring) titled “The Town.”  This movie also stars Jon Hamm (aka Don Draper of Mad Men (a great show)) (didn’t you love the double parenthesis there?), Chris Cooper, and Blake Lively (apparently my younger readers will know her.)

Anyway, I continue walking down the street thinking, “That was pretty cool!”  I continue past the camera and stop near the group of people who are behind the fence in the Howard Johnson parking lot.  As I stand there, I see a police cruiser come driving down the street with it’s lights on.  It goes past the camera and comes to a stop past where I am standing.  Then I see Ben Affleck come out one of the 2 open doors of Fenway, gun in hand.  He runs across the street and into the parking lot, and looks like he disappears behind one of the buildings.  A few minutes later I see him walking towards the group of people, and goes under a little canopy thing.  Apparently he is looking at the scene they just shot.  Meanwhile, the cruiser is reversing back up the street.  After a few minutes, he heads back where he came from and they do it again.  Cruiser comes down the road, Ben runs across the street.  They rinse and repeat one or two more times.  As they are doing this, I notice Jon Hamm is sitting over where the group of people are.  I pulled out my cell phone and snapped this picture:

That’s Jon Hamm on the left.  He’s just killing his time on his phone, probably tweeting or facebooking it while waiting for his turn to shoot.  After I took that picture, some chick asked me to move further down the street (about 2 feet) past the entrance to that parking lot.  Oh well.  A little later, they cleared the whole street as they turned the camera around to shoot another scene.  I watched a bit on Yawkey Way.  I saw a bunch of background actors (probably extras?) in action at the intersection of Van Ness and Yawkey.  It may be possible that my vehicle will be in the scene as I was parked in the view of the camera.  I will check when the movie comes out and somehow post screen shots of it if it happens.  Haha.

Anyway, that was some excitement for me today.  Aside from having a famous author reading and posting on my blog once in a while, and having another famous author buy some cotton candy one time from me and a sports bar another time from me, and shaking the hand of the WWF Champion when I was in 7th grade, this was my closest to rubbing elbows with a famous person.  Haha.  I was hoping that I would bump into Jennifer Garner, so I could set up a play date with my kids and her kids.  However, it was not meant to be today.  Oh well, it was a cool day none the less.