Who Dresses Ceremony Guests?

I’ve been fortunate enough to be at Fenway for several special ceremonies.  Whether it be ring ceremonies, or regular Opening Day ceremonies, or whatever…these events usually involve special guests. Sometimes, guests from other Boston Area sports teams. These guests usually wear the jerseys of the team they play for during the ceremony. With all the championships they’ve won, I’m starting to lose track of the number of Patriots players I’ve seen in the standard Jersey/jeans combination. But, I’ve also seen Bobby Orr, for instance, in his Bruins jersey, or Leon Powe in his Celtics warm-up jacket. (It was April, after all. Sleeveless was definitely not the way to go.) I never really gave the wardrobe much thought. 

Until the Patriots won their last championship. I saw them visit other area teams for ceremonies. I saw Gronk spiking a puck at a Bruins game…wearing a Bruins jersey. Wait. That’s odd. Or, at least different. I guess that’s one way to go…wear the jersey of the team you’re visiting. Huh.

Again, different teams do different things. But, then the Patriots made their appearance at Fenway. You may remember that Brady was just wearing a t-shirt. The rest of the group was dressed in their civilian clothes. Again, odd. I figured that, maybe, since the rest of the group was ownership or management, they didn’t really have jerseys. The Krafts do wear a button down shirt to games. Maybe it would have been weird to just have Brady in a jersey, so they all went casual. I guess that made sense.

Then they had the triple-ceremony for David Ortiz at the end of this season. There were Bobby Orr and Ray Bourque wearing their usual Bruins jersey. But, the Celtics team all wore jerseys with the #34 on them. Pretty sure they weren’t all Paul Pierce. It was a slight shift. Why wouldn’t Bourque and Orr wear #34 Bruins jerseys to be consistent? Who makes that call?

It got even weirder during the final ceremony on Sunday. They brought back several of Ortiz’s teammates from World Championship teams. They all marched out from underneath wearing their jersey. All except Doug Mientkiewicz. He wore a #34 Red Sox jersey. Huh. Who’s call was that? Everyone had a jersey with a David Ortiz patch on it. So, it’s not like they all brought a jersey from their playing days, but Doug’s was lost by the airline on the way in. Everyone had special jerseys made (maybe even provided) for them. Why was he the exception? I also saw Pedro Martinez make his way out the centerfield before the game. He wasn’t wearing the jersey then. Neither was Kevin Millar. They both put one on while they were waiting under Section 36 for the ceremony to begin. So, they made a conscious choice to wear that jersey. It wasn’t just something they grabbed on the way out the door.

Later in the ceremony, the President of the Dominican Republic threw out the first pitch. He was wearing a Red Sox warm up jacket for the occasion. Made sense. It was a bit chilly and rainy, after all. But, who decided he’d wear a jacket? Why didn’t Robert Kraft wear a Red Sox jacket? I’m guessing that the President doesn’t usually wear a baseball jacket. Who told him to put one on for the ceremony? Why isn’t there any consistency?

Suddenly something I never really thought much about is loaded with questions. Who picks out the wardrobe? Who supplies the wardrobe? If it’s not the team, does it have to be cleared with the team first?

So many questions, so few answers!

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Update!
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We have an answer! Keith Foulke was nice enough to help me out a little bit.

@Section_36 The @RedSox give us a jersey to wear. I have a collection of jerseys from events over the years

— Keith Foulke (@KeithFoulke) November 1, 2016

So, that answers that. Now we just need to decide why Mientkiewicz got the wrong jersey...