About a week ago, blog reader Holly had the good fortune to watch the Red Sox play from the comfort of Section 36. As any fan with such great luck should do, after the game she sent along some pictures to share. She pointed out that one of the pictures had a longer story that went along with it. When she told me, I knew it was a story that had to be shared with all of you. So, I asked her if she’d mind giving all the details so we could all hear them. Thankfully she agreed. So, here’s Holly’s Section 36 Story of something that could, probably, only happen in Section 36!
There I was, sitting in Section 36, Row 15, of Fenway Park, waiting for the Boston Red Sox to take on the Baltimore Orioles. It was around 6:50 pm and the game wasn't scheduled to start until 7:30. Excited to be at Fenway once again, I was taking in the sights and talking to my family members that I was attending the game with. Casually looking around at all of the other people in attendance, I look down to Row 5 and notice that there is a man standing up with a group of 3 blonde haired women and they were getting their picture taken by another blonde. I didn't think too much of it because taking pictures at Fenway is not an unusual activity. After they had their picture taken, the man and the blondes sat down with the man sitting in Row 5 and the blondes sitting directly behind him in Row 6. I continue to people watch and talk to my family, not even thinking twice about the man and the three blondes. While talking to my friend Wendy that was sitting to my right, I notice out of the corner of my eye that the same man and a different blonde had stood up to get their picture taken. For some reason that got my attention so I turned my head to look at them. While I was watching them get their picture taken, I got a feeling that I had seen this man before (prior to this Monday). So I watched them for longer than I probably should have, trying to think of how I knew this man. And then it hit me! I mentioned to my friend that I thought that the man that was standing up was Jared Haibon from The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise, two shows that I watch religiously. Wendy replied with that she didn't know if it was or not because she didn't watch those shows. I went back and forth with whether it was really Jared or not in my mind. Maybe it was just a guy that looked like him. I pulled out my phone and decided to get on Jared's Instagram account to see if he had posted anything about if he was at Fenway that night (he hadn't) or to see if he was a Red Sox fan at all. There were a few pictures on his Instagram account of him wearing a Red Sox baseball hat so that gave me the information that I needed to know. He is a fan so there was a possibility that the man standing up ten rows in front of me was indeed Jared. I started to compare the pictures that Jared has of himself on his Instagram account to the man standing in front of me. They were one and the same so at this point I knew that the only way I would know for sure if it was Jared or not was to get the courage up to walk down the stairs and go up to the man to ask him if he was who I thought he was. I will not lie ... It did take a few minutes for me to get my courage up and some encouragement from my family and friend to walk down those stairs. While I was walking down the stairs, I was trying to think of what I would say to this man and what I could talk about if it was Jared standing before me. I couldn't think of anything clever
because I was so nervous about doing something that I don't normally do. I made my way down the stairs and over to where the man was sitting. He looked up as I approached and very meekly I asked, "Are you Jared from The Bachelorette?" He replied with "I am" and I instantly went into crazy girl fan mode. Ugh. Not the way I wanted to come across at all but I couldn't help but be starstruck that I was actually meeting one of the contestants on my favorite reality show. Jared wasn't my favorite and I didn't know much about him, besides of what they show on TV. I did know that I didn't want to bring up any of his exes from the show though, so I basically carried on about how The Bachelor/The Bachelorette/Bachelor in Paradise were my favorite shows and they are the only ones that I watch faithfully and how glad that I was to be meeting him. Jared waited for me to stop talking obsessively about the show before he asked me what my name was and when I told him, he replied that it was nice to meet me as well. We carried on a brief conversation about Nick being the next Bachelor, how we think he's going to do well, and how we both hope that he finds what he's looking for. We also talked about the Red Sox, how awesome they were doing this season and how we were excited to be at Fenway on this particular Monday night to watch them play the Orioles. Not wanting to take up too much of Jared's time, I asked him if I could get my picture taken with him and he happily obliged. I asked the blonde sitting next to him if she wouldn't mind taking our picture and Jared told me that she wouldn't and that the blonde is his sister. I made introductions with her and told her that it was nice to meet her as well. I handed her my cellphone, Jared and I stepped closer to each other (the seats from Row 4 were separating us), he put his arm around my shoulder and rested his hand on my right shoulder. I wasn't sure where to put my arm so I did what came naturally -- I placed my arm around his waist. As we leaned our heads closer to each other's, we smiled for the camera,
his sister Shannon snapped a couple of pictures and handed my phone back to me. Jared sat down and reached underneath his seat for the Fenway frank that he was eating when I approached him and I figured that I had taken up too much of his time and should be going back to my seat. I thanked Shannon for taking the picture, told Jared again that it was nice to meet him to which he replied with the same and told me to enjoy the game. I walked away with a HUGE grin on my face and my hands shaking so bad from being nervous to talk to Jared. Win or lose, though, my night had been made by meeting Jared.
And it all happened in Section 36 ...
Now, that’s a story! As it turns out, Jared did end up posting something to both his Instagram and Twitter account about being at the game. So, Holly can be doubly assured that she was talking to the man himself. In fact, check out Jared’s twitter posts from that evening.
Not a bad night at @fenwaypark pic.twitter.com/XdF8qMOxqX— Jared Haibon (@haibon_jared) September 12, 2016
— Jared Haibon (@haibon_jared) September 13, 2016
See? I keep telling you all that Section 36 is paradise. Now we have confirmation. After all, he would know!
I want to give many thanks to Holly for sharing this story. It was a fun read. Hope you all agree!
If anyone else has a story from their time in Section 36, I encourage you to share it as well. After all, even if you never thought it would happen to you…wonderful things can happen in Section 36.
You might even say it’s “Paradise.”
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