Peņa home run leaves quite an impression
The bad news is that Wily Mo Peña's fourth-inning bomb off Paul Byrd cleared the light tower above the Green Monster, screamed over Lansdowne Street, and popped the headlight of David Dore's 1997
The good news is that Dore can still save a ton of money by switching to Geico.
Dore hadn't seen a Red Sox game in 13 years, and his first time back, he parks his car in what ended up being a minefield.
Not that it mattered to him.
``Are you kidding?" said Dore, still amped after driving all the way from New Hampshire with family to catch the theatrics of last night's 9-8 win. ``It's the best broken headlight I've ever had. This is unbelievable. I'm buying a lottery ticket."
Thomas Phillips, Dore's brother, came all the way from Oregon to catch the Sox. He also had the small matter of a family reunion to take care of, but honestly, the Sox may have been slightly more important to him.
``Any cop pulls us over," Phillips said, ``we'll tell them it's true: Wily Mo put this out. You write it to him."
Dore's car was one of three casualties at the Lansdowne Street Garage last night. A solo shot from Manny Ramírez in the first left a ball print in the windshield of a Chevy TrailBlazer, and a Casey Blake bomb in the second shattered the windshield of a green
Peña will take the credit for a 3-for-4 night on which he was a double shy of the cycle, but as for anybody's automobile . . .
``I don't know," he said. ``I don't have to pay for that car, though."
He had no idea where the ball landed until a reporter showed him a picture on a camera phone. Peña passed the phone to Ortiz, who was still giddy after belting his third walkoff homer of the season.
It's not every day the sluggers get photographic evidence of their homers, but the guys at the garage see the damage all the time.
``All we do is keep the ball and give it to the person who drives the car," said Marcell McNeil, who's been working at the lot for a few weeks. ``That way, it helps for the insurance. I mean, some people get upset, you know, but some people are just glad they got a ball, especially the fans that are continuous fans, that go to all the games basically."
Phillips and Dore may have their own plans for the ball.
``Wily Mo home run," Phillips yelled. ``Internet tomorrow. EBay. Season tickets tomorrow."
According to Greg Rybarczyk, who runs a website called hittrackeronline.com, Peña's blast -- closer to the left-field line than Ramírez's -- traveled 436 feet, while Ramírez's went 441. But with Dore's car all by itself on the back row of the parking lot, Peña's homer seemed to be in an area all its own.
``I was like, `Oh my goodness, I can't believe how far this ball went in the air,' " said Leo Haskell, who stopped flipping sausages at the Original Che-Chi's BBQ when he saw Peña's ball clear the Coke bottles. Haskell, who had already nabbed a Ramírez batting-practice ball, sprinted down the alley hoping to catch Peña's ball off the carom. But it bulleted into Dore's headlight.
``It's got to be one of the farthest home runs I've ever seen at Fenway Park," he said. ``It's unbelievable. Jose Canseco hit one over in the air about six years ago. Mark McGwire in the home run derby. But this is different. This is the real deal."
Tim Dineen has been working at a Lansdowne Street souvenir stand for a couple years, and he could barely get words out when he described Peña's shot.
``That's usually a Manny blast," he said, stopping to catch his breath.
``That's the first time I . . .
``Yeah, it would have ended up on the . . .
``If it didn't hit that car . . .
``If the car wasn't there, it would have ended up on the tracks."
It ended up with Dore and Phillips, who said they'd probably keep the ball rather than auction it off and use the money to fix the headlight.
``We've got AAA," Phillips said. ``That car's worth more right now."
After all, Dore said, it's his wife's car, anyway.
