Red Sox fan camps out alone outside Fenway Park waiting for Opening Day tickets

Red Sox fan camps out alone for opening day tickets

BOSTON - Hundreds of fans once lined up to sleep outside Fenway Park the night before Opening Day to get tickets at the box office.

On Thursday, there was just one.

Mike Columbare of Pembroke arrived on Lansdowne Street at 2 a.m. and was all by himself, bundled up alone in the cold with a blanket made by his mother. He was the first and only person in line waiting for an Opening Day ticket. 

He said it's a tradition he's continued for more than 20 years.

Mike Columbare of Pembroke sat alone outside Fenway Park on March 30, 2023, to get Opening Day tickets. Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images

"It's awesome, it's a new beginning. It's happiness, it's hope, it's great," Columbare told WBZ-TV's Nick Giovanni. "You get to the park, everything flushes away and it's just about that, hopefully, only two-and-a-half hours of baseball with the new pitch clock."

Columbare said despite the convenience of mobile tickets, he camps out under the Green Monster before Opening Day so he can get an actual ticket in his hand to celebrate the start of the baseball season.

By 9 a.m. a second person had joined him in line.

Game time is just after 2 p.m.

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