Since the current day Red Sox are too depressing to talk about at the moment, I'm going to indulge in a little nostalgia tonight.

I was reading an article about a Web site called Retrosheet. They have posted every box score from every Major League game since 1957 on their site, and they are working on going further back. So I decided to check out the first game I ever saw at Fenway Park.

I didn't remember a lot of details, but I knew it was a day game in April, 1975. I knew the Sox played the Baltimore Orioles and that Jim Rice and Lee May both hit at least one home run.

I was able to track down the game pretty quickly. It happened April 18, 1975. The O's defeated the Sox 9-7. Rice and May did indeed hit homers. In fact, they hit two each. Fred Lynn also hit one. The pitching matchup was Reggie Cleveland vs. Ross Grimsley. Grimsley only lasted three innings, as the Sox took an early 6-2 lead. He was replaced by Doyle Alexander, who pitched the remainder of the game and got the win. Cleveland went 6 and 1/3 and took the loss.

Two Hall of Famers played in the game: Yaz for the Sox and Brooks Robinson for Baltimore. And, amazingly in this age of constant sellouts at Fenway, the only 8,219 people were in the crowd.

Retrosheet is pretty cool. Go check it out if you are so inclined.