Even if you can’t get tickets to a Red Sox home game this season (don’t laugh; some are already sold out), there are still plenty of ways to wear your team spirit on your sleeve. Or head. Or just about anywhere else. Merchants in the Fenway Park area are already bursting with Red Sox regalia — everything from tank tops and caps to bobbin’-head Trot Nixon dolls.
Fenway Sportsworld boasts the lowest prices in town. As it’s mostly a memorabilia and collectibles shop, it doesn’t get a lot of new products from year to year, but it has signed baseballs and bats from Tony Clark, Rickey Henderson, and other newbies (prices range from $15 to thousands of dollars, depending on the player). The store’s best feature may be its parking lot, with five spaces reserved for customers — but only when the Sox aren’t playing across the street.
The Souvenir Store, located directly across from the park on Yawkey Way, offers a little something for the ladies. Weekend manager Tim Pettit says the store has tons of girls’ garb: tank tops, shorts, and pastel- and bright-colored T-shirts and sweaters ($25–$70). He’s also particularly proud of the bobbin’-head doll collection ($15). Where else can you find dolls of the players, different teams, and Wally the Green Monster?
Surprisingly, the Fenway Brooks Pharmacy also carries a pretty hefty selection of baseball paraphernalia. It has the standard hats and T-shirts ($11.99) mixed in with more obscure items, such as a team collectible car — think Matchbox painted with a Red Sox logo ($6.99). This year’s new stock includes stuff for the more practical fan: logo-covered blankets for those chilly evening games ($21.99) and seat cushions to make the bleachers a bit more bearable ($17.99).
Of course, for the cyber-savvy Sox fan, there’s the official team Web site, where you’ll find gifts for even the youngest sluggers, like blue and red taffeta coveralls for fans three to nine months old ($24.95). You can also combine your love of baseball and your love of America with a home jersey complete with the Stars and Stripes embroidered on the back ($92.95).
But if none of these Major League Baseball–sanctioned products floats your boat, there are always the guys hawking YANKEES SUCK T-shirts outside the park before every home game.
Where to find it:
• Brooks Pharmacy, 1295 Boylston Street, Boston, (617) 262-4450.
• Fenway Sportsworld, 1312 Boylston Street, Boston, (617) 437-1010.
• Souvenir Store, 19 Yawkey Way, Boston, (617) 421-8686.
• www.bostonredsox.com.
