John McGinn’s ‘Meatball’ moniker<\/a> and why people are singing about him. He nods politely.<\/p>\nOn the odd occasion where the home team manage to get someone back for a home run, the Scots – many of whom packed out the bleacher end at the far side of the ground – celebrate with fervour normally reserved for a Scott McTominay bicycle kick.<\/p>\n
It is a night of embracement and friendship, two groups of people hurled together by a love of sport. A clear camaraderie flows through the place, almost as much as the beer.<\/p>\n
A glimpse of the organist with a ‘No Scotland, No Party’ piece of paper propped up at his window flashes on the screen before his fingers merrily dance to the tune of Loch Lomond. At another stoppage, the Scotland fans in the stands go berserk when a young couple get engaged live on the huge screen. All very wholesome.<\/p>\n
Looming across from the grandstand is the Green Monster, an imposing 37-foot high left-field wall with a couple of rows of seating atop. <\/p>\n
One especially sweet swing of the bat sends the ball hurtling through the Boston sky like a heat-seeking missile, only to be plucked out of the air by a young child wearing a Scotland kit. A moment to cherish and a ball to plonk on the mantelpiece. <\/p>\n
Someone get that lad a pair of goalkeeper’s gloves, please.<\/p>\n
Despite a spirited rally, the Red Sox lose 6-4. Although it was not a main priority from everyone in the ground. <\/p>\n
“Class night, but what was the score? We thought it was 1-0,” read a message from one Scotland fan.<\/p>\n
The Bostonians who drifted away into the darkness will naturally be disappointed at the defeat, but it will surely have been a loss cushioned by the unique presence of droves of singing and dancing Scotsmen, women and children who made their home their own and took their cause to their hearts.<\/p>\n
Sport can do special things. It’s not all about the result – although it was on Saturday – it can be about bringing people together.<\/p>\n
On one summer’s night in Massachusetts, it did that magically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland fans are gifted special edition blue tartan Red Sox jerseys and there are probably more of those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-639679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}