Sweet Caroline—Good Times (at Fenway Park) Never Seemed So Good
by Jack Hayford, EditorI've been a never-say-die Boston Red Sox Fan since I discovered sports as a kid. For the better part of half a century I have alternately celebrated and suffered with the Red Sox and their Nation. 1967, "The Impossible Dream" year, was the first big year for me. The Sox miraculously went from last place in the American League the year before to the World Series and a heart-breaking seven game loss to the Bob Gibson led St. Louis Cardinals. (BTW in '67, Red Sox leftfielder Carl Yastrzemski became baseball's LAST—to date—Triple Crown winner with a batting average of .326, 44 home runs and 121 RBIs!) I was in college at UF by the time we made it back to the October Classic in 1975. This was the Carlton Fisk extra-inning "if it stays fair" game-ending home run Series. One of the greatest moments in sports, by virtually all accounts. Again we lost to those storied Cardinals in seven exciting games. '86 was our next shot at breaking the curse of the Bambino. (While the hated Yankees were racking up title after title ever since the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth's contract to them for $100,000 in 1920, the last World Championship for the Sox was in 1918.) '86 was the most torturous Series of them all for Sox fandom: the Bill Buckner error at first base that cost them the game and the title. (I always like to remind my younger fan-friends that despite the infamous Buckner gaff, Billy's great bat was indispensable that season and likely the Sox would have never made the playoffs without him.) And, NO OUTCOME is ever the result of ONE PLAY (with the possible exception of the walk-off home run ala Fisk in '75!). But my my my have times changed for our beloved BoSox. World Series Champs in 2004 (finally breaking "The Curse") and again (already!) in 2007! "Good times never seemed so good" at Fenway Park. There has been a lot of good-natured controversy and speculation about WHY Neil Diamond's 1969 hit (peaked at #4) "Sweet Caroline" is enthusiastically sung by the crowd in the 8th inning of each home game. But it's not because Neil's last name is "Diamond" and he didn't write it for JFK's daughter Caroline. The Boston Globe sets the record straight: [Amy] Tobey began working for the Red Sox through her job at BCN Productions, a film and video communications company, having interned for the Boston Bruins. Her assignment was to decide what music would be played at the park from 1998 to 2004. She had noticed "Sweet Caroline" was used at other sporting events, and she decided to send the sweetness over the Fenway speakers. The song was picked up by fans, and the more it caught on, the more superstitious Tobey became about playing it. Tobey would play the song somewhere between the seventh and ninth innings if the team was ahead, depending on whether she felt the team was going to win. She didn't go by any specific margin of runs, but rather who the opponent was, and her gut instincts... In 2002, when new management took over at the park, they requested that Tobey play the song during the eighth inning of every game... Though Tobey says she was nervous the change would be bad luck for the team, its appeal to fans ultimately ruled... It was even included in the recent film Fever Pitch starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, that appropriates scenes from 2004's winning season....
Where it began Was in the spring
Hands, touchin' hands Sweet Caroline (Whoa whoa whoa!) But now I look at the night Warm, touchin' warm Sweet Caroline (Whoa whoa whoa!) Sweet Caroline (Whoa whoa whoa!)
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