The Smells of the Game

I started my Thanksgiving baking today.  I baked pumpkin & banana breads to put in the freezer with cranberry nut bread to come.  The house smelled wonderful and I thought - this smells like Thanksgiving!

So I thought - so many memories that we have are associated with smell.  We've all experienced it.  You smell something and it instantly brings to mind a childhood memory, a great experience or it reminds you of something sad or bittersweet.  Our sense of smell is a powerful part of our memories, even if we aren't aware of it.  And that is true even when you go to a baseball game.  How you ask?  Well have a snack, settle back and get ready to enjoy!

Now, I can only speak of my experiences at Fenway Park, but I'm sure they are similar to ballparks around the country.  The owners of the Red Sox have done an amazing job to make your experience at Fenway a magical one from the moment you arrive.  Outside the park there is a block party feel and once you enter the closed off streets the aromas hit you!  You pass the vendors and you smell it -

"Extra Long Italian Sausages" get 'em while they're hot!  The smell of sausage and peppers and onions (no cheese!) It is a smell that says to me I am at the ball game!  The greasy sauasges, the grilled veggies - if you've smelled it once you will never forget how good it smells!  And because you are eating it standing up, waiting to go into beloved Fenway Park, there are no calories or fat in it!  Sausages not your idea of the best ballpark food?

Then maybe what you need is a Fenway Frank!  Yes you can buy them to cook at home, but can you recreate the smell that whaffs out of the box when the vendor takes your dog out and places it in that steamed bun?  Ahhh.. the memories of childhood.  Do you need a beverage to wash down that sausage or Fenway Frank?

Then what you need is a tall frosty one.  Admit it - beer spilled on someone's shirt, coat, pants...etc is a smell that we ALL associate with spending time in the ballpark.  Maybe not the most pleasant smell, but you know it when you smell it! 

Leaving the concourse and entering into the Park, the smells once again assault your nose.  You smell...

and also....

and don't forget....

Admit it - your mouth is watering because you know exactly what I'm talking about!  You can smell it in your mind.  That's what familiar smells do for us.  They take us on a trip down memory lane and can transport us to places we've been; like Fenway Park and a day spent with the Red Sox! 

Most of the smells at Fenway - or any ballpark - are good ones.  But, like every place, there can be bad smells associated with it.  When you have thousands of people pressed close together for many hours one smell you may experience is the funky smell of body odor.  Ever drive around with a bunch of teenage boys in your car?

Then you know exactly what smell I'm talking about.  And I guess that's my point.

Smells transport us.  They can bring us back home again or they can take us to the old ballpark.  No matter what - can you imagine seeing a baseball game without smelling it also?  I can't!  And for those of you who read this on a empty stomach - sorry!  And for those of you for who this was all too much - I offer you an....

and my apologies!