Clad in Red Sox jackets, Anita and Fred White of Melrose stepped from the Fenway Park ticket office onto Brookline Avenue yesterday carrying a photo of themselves with the World Series trophy and - more carefully guarded - a handful of 2008 tickets, purchased at face value.
"It's awesome," Anita White said, of "Christmas at Fenway," an event that gave about 2,000 randomly drawn fans a chance to visit the park and purchase "Sox Pax" tickets, meet selected players and coaches, and pose for photos with Santa and championship hardware. "Better than sitting home at the computer trying to purchase tickets and being frustrated by a queue that's never ending."
Selected April and May single-game tickets also went on sale yesterday for purchase by phone and over the Internet, a prospect that the fans at Fenway Park knew from experience could mean hours of waiting.
"I've tried the Internet thing, and it never works," said Jason Maxwell, 30, a lifelong fan from Yarmouth, Maine, who drove two hours to the park after being selected in the drawing at RedSox.com.
Fans at the park could buy up to eight single-game tickets and also choose from nine four-game Sox Pax bundles that were unavailable by phone or on the Internet. Those packs offered tickets to choice dates such as opening day and Yankees games.
"We could never get in the park here" without this, said Fred White, 49, a fan since the 1967 Impossible Dream season. Until this year, he and his wife had always opted to spend a week in Florida for spring training, rather than spend the same money for marked-up tickets at Fenway Park. But now they have tickets to eight home games next year.
"Oh, God, don't tell anybody," said Anita White, 48. "They'll be at my door wanting tickets."
After fans arrived at specified times yesterday, they were given wrist bands specifying when to go to the box office, and numbered tickets that minimized the wait times to see the 2004 and 2007 World Series trophies.
Inside the park, a series of signs - "Keep Going . . . ", "Almost There . . . " - encouraged fans to make their way up the ramps to the
Many wanted to know whether the Sox would bolster their strong pitching staff by acquiring Minnesota Twins ace Johan Santana, but manager Terry Francona deferred, just as he might with the press. "I'll get in trouble if I answer that," he said.
Correspondent Jessica Isner contributed to this story.
