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Why do the Red Sox play so early on Patriots Day?

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The Red Sox’s tradition of playing games at Fenway Park at 11 a.m. on Patriots Day goes back over 50 years.

Boston, MA: 4-18-22: The giant American flag wass unfurled over the Green Monster during the national anthem.The Boston Red Sox hosted the Minnesota Twins in the annual Patriots Day morning MLB baseball game at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox have played a home game on Patriots Day for over 65 years. Jim Davis / The Boston Globe

It’s a tradition as ingrained into the fiber of the Red Sox as Fenway Franks and “Sweet Caroline” singalongs in the eighth inning. 

As the world’s greatest distance runners push their ailing legs through a raucous Kenmore Square on Monday, the Red Sox will take to the field at Fenway Park — with a first pitch delivered just as the cheers from down the street reach a crescendo. 

The third Monday in April is always a cherished time in Boston, especially when factoring in the city’s already stacked sporting calendar. 

As thousands of runners begin their 26.2 mile journey from Hopkinton, overcome Heartbreak Hill, and eventually cross the finish line on Boylston Street, the Red Sox have long added to the festivities with their own unique Patriots’ Day matchup in the morning. 

Boston’s upcoming game against the White Sox on April 21 will feature a familiar commencement — with first pitch slated for 11:10 a.m.

It’s the type of start that might have many baseball fans doing double-takes while scanning through the league’s schedule. 

The Red Sox’s 11:10 a.m. start on Monday stands as the earliest start time for an MLB game in North America this season — with only the Dodgers and Cubs starting earlier (3:00 a.m. PST) during their two-game series in Tokyo in mid-March. 

But as peculiar as the Red Sox’s morning start time might be when contrasted against the rest of the league, it’s become an annual tradition in a sports market like Boston — one that stretches back over 50 years. 

According to the Red Sox’s team notes, Boston has played at Fenway Park on Patriots Day every year since 1959 — with the team wanting to remain in the heart of the action during the marathon-related merriment taking place less than a mile away. 

Since 1968, Patriots Day at Fenway has usually featured a single game with a start time between 11:00 – 11:15 a.m. 

“The Red Sox have scheduled late-morning starts for their Patriots’ Day home games since 1968 so fans can walk over to Kenmore Square afterward and cheer on the competitors in the Boston Marathon,” The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham noted in March 2021. 

Before that stretch, the Red Sox occasionally played a split doubleheader at Fenway during Patriots Day with two admissions — allowing fans to watch the finish of the marathon between games. 

“Today we had to get here very early for meetings and all that. But it’s a special day,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said last April of the unique start time on Patriots Day. “Come here, watch the game, and then go to the finish line and see the people crossing the finish line. It’s amazing. … It should be fun. I always loved it.”

The Red Sox first began the tradition of playing a morning baseball game on Patriots Day in 1903 during the franchise’s third year of existence (back when they were called the Boston Americans). 

The Americans opened that 1903 campaign at the Huntington Avenue Grounds with a doubleheader against the Philadelphia A’s on April 20 — with Game 1 of that twin bill set at 10:30 a.m in front of a crowd of 8,376. 

In total, 26 doubleheaders were played by Boston on Patriots Day from 1903-66. 

When that 11 a.m. start time was initially mapped out, the ending of the Red Sox game was expected to coincide with the final stretch of the elite runners making their way through Kenmore Square and toward Boylston Street — with the storied race traditionally tabbed for a start time around noon since its inaugural run in 1897. 

That starting time has been pushed up over the years to deal with the thousands of participants traveling across the globe to run Boston — with the 129th rendition of the marathon set to begin with the men’s wheelchair at 9:06 a.m. 

As such, most of the elite runners are already aiming to break the tape on Boylston by the time the Red Sox deliver a first pitch on Patriots Day. 

The Red Sox have largely stayed committed to that 11 a.m. time slot over the years — even though several Patriots Day games at Fenway Park have been postponed due to weather (1959, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1984, 2018), the MLB players strike (1995), as well as the COVID-19 pandemic (2020).

Tradition trumped all during the 2021 Red Sox season. Even though the 2021 Boston Marathon was pushed back to Oct. 11 that year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Red Sox still held their Patriots Day game that season against the White Sox at 11:10 a.m. 

“In a year with zero normalcy we wanted to maintain the Patriots’ Day game time tradition,” Red Sox team spokesman Zineb Curran told Abraham. “It felt right to everyone here when game times were being discussed.”

On occasion, the Red Sox have played games even earlier on Patriots Day, as the team took on the Angels at 10:05 a.m. on April 16, 2007. Boston won that game, 7-2, although the top highlight from that early-morning bout might have been the infamous pizza throw that covered one fan in a deluge of piping-hot mozzarella. 

Since the Boston Marathon bombing 12 years ago, the Red Sox have traditionally worn special home jerseys with  “Boston” etched across the front during Patriots Day games — with David Ortiz making those modified jerseys famous while addressing Fenway Park in the team’s first home game after the bombing on April 20, 2013.

“This jersey we are wearing today, it doesn’t say, ‘Red Sox’, it says, ‘Boston,’” Ortiz said. “We want to thank Mayor Menino, Gov. Patrick, the whole police department for the great job they did this past week. This is our [expletitve] city, and nobody is going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong. Thank you.”

Be it the raucous crowd, energy emitting from the city, or perhaps a still drowsy opponent on the other side of the diamond, the Red Sox have performed well on Patriots Day, sporting a record of 71-56 (.559). 

Their most familiar foe in those morning games has been the Yankees — with Boston holding a 22-11 record over its top rival on Patriots Day.

Boston will look to even up its record against the White Sox on Marathon Monday, with Chicago currently holding a 3-2 record in these games ahead of Monday’s latest edition of the cherished 11 a.m. start at Fenway.

Profile image for Conor Ryan

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.





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