My division CFO at work dropped by my office with a very nice surprise yesterday; a pair of tickets to the EMC Club at Fenway for last night's game against the Indians. I called A. to let her know and she broke all speed records in getting a sitter so that she could join me at the game.

We met up at the Brookline Village T station and then drove over to the ballpark, using the parking pass that came along with the tickets. That's right, free parking! We were in the lot directly across from the ballpark on Brookline Ave, and we entered through the Crown Royal Club. We then made our way through the ballpark up to the EMC Club.

When you enter the Club, there is a large dining room with bars on either side. Since this was a last minute deal, we didn't have time to sample the dining room fare, so we opted for the in-seat service. Waiters come around and take your order on Palm-like devices and someone brings the food to your seat. I had a cheeseburger and A. had a turkey wrap. Both were quite good, although it was all at pretty much standard Fenway prices.

We're in the middle of a major heat wave here, so it was pretty damn hot at the ballpark last night. We ended up spending $13 on bottled water to combat the heat, and we also took advantage of the access to the air-conditioned dining room on a couple of occassions. This is definitely service you don't get down below.

The view from the seats was outstanding. We were about 100 feet above home plate and had an unparalleled view of the ballpark. I could even pick up what kind of pitch was being thrown. The brochure that came with the tickets described the seats as the "most comfortable at Fenway Park" and they weren't fooling around. The seats are wide, with plenty of legroom and they're padded. It was really an amazing way to watch a ballgame.

Unfortunately, the game itself didn't live up to the seats. The Sox lost 6-3, with Jason Johnson starting against Indians ace C.C. Sabathia. After a seemingly endless first inning, where Johnson have up 2 runs and threw 36 pitches, he seemed to settle down a bit and only gave up one more run on a homer to Casey Blake. Unfortunately, the Sox couldn't muster much offense against Sabathia, who only gave up one run in his 8 innings of work. That 97 MPH fastball looks pretty impressive close up. The Sox generated some momentary excitement in the 9th with a 2 run homer by Alex Gonzalez, but couldn't get anything else going.

Of course, the evening wasn't a total loss. We were thoroughly entertained by the bird.

This little black bird somehow managed to get on the field and for some reason was unable to fly away. So he wandered around the field, finally making his way to second base in the 9th inning as the crowd went wild. It was kind of odd, but kind of fun. Boston.com even asked people to suggest names for the bird. My favorite? Crow Crow Crisp.

So, we had a fun night. The only thing that would have improved it was a Red Sox win.