With the Yankees having moved to an incredible new stadium just across the road from their fabled old arena in New York there really is only two illustrious, old fashioned and rather wonderful stadiums remaining in the States that haven’t been rebuilt and renamed. They are the Cubs Wrigley field in North Chicago and in my opinion the more famous (think the Babe and Green Monster, it will mean something to someone in a non-sexual sense!) and rather wonderful Fenway Park of the Boston Red Sox.

The Sox are by their own high standards having a rather average season primarily due to a horrendous injury list and some below par performances by some of their star pitchers so with the team away on a long ‘road trip’ to the west coast of the states there was an opportunity for CE Sam Kennedy to jump on the World Cup bandwagon by inviting two famous European football teams to Fenway and in turn make a few dollars for all three clubs. With over 32,000 in attendance and live TV footage shown in many countries the financial aspect was more than covered but this was much more than that. Fenway is truly one of thee great sporting arenas in the world of sport so for Celtic to be invited to partake in the first football match at this stadium in 42 years is a great honour for the club.

The links are obvious between the great cities of Glasgow and Boston with a significantly high percentage of both cities made up of Irish stock and of course both old towns having famous Celtic(s) playing within their boundaries. While we have Jinky Johnstone, Kenny Dalglish & Henrik Larsson as three great Glasgow Celts, Boston has Larry Byrd, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish as three great Celts of their own, albeit in the sport of Basketball. While Boston has its historic arch-nemesis in sporting terms of the Yankees in baseball and the Lakers in Basketball. Glasgow being a one city sport has one rival that trumps many times over a sporting dislike any of the citizens of Boston and New England may have for the teams containing Jeter and Bryant. Trust us folks, you don’t want to investigate the horrible anti-Catholic history of the board of Rangers football club and it’s to this day still abhorrent bigotry and thuggish behaviour of their supporters. Oh ok, if you must google ‘Manchester riots 2008’ for the appalling acts of thuggery and the following recent link from the most respected sports journalist in Scottish football, who incidentally was brought up a Rangers supporter;

http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2009/10/cowardly-rangers-turn-a-blind-eye-to-bigotry.html

If anyone from Texas baseball or New York ice hockey stock has read the above link does it kinda of make you feel dirty your clubs share the same name as the anti-Christ’s sports team?

Moving back to more positive matters; Celtic completed their American tour by defeating Sporting Lisbon on penalties following a 1-1 draw at the end of normal time. Samaras was once more the man with the golden touch as he scored his third successful spot kick of the trip much to the astonishment of watching Scottish referees and the Celts secured victory in the penalty shoot-out when Paul McGowan scored the winning goal. With the long journey now at an end and 2 wins and 2 losses from the four game campaign the team are now on their way back to Glasgow with much needed game time behind them and a satchel full of cash in the directors briefcases. In his post-match media conference Manager Neil Lennon made it clear he is looking to strengthen the goalkeeper, left back, centre back and striker positions upon his return to Scotland with the wonderful line; “the bedlam will really start when we get back”. With the club hoping to tie up a new signing this evening the bedlam should start in earnest rather soon. And a jolly hurrah from all of us Neil.

Now the Boston tea party is over and that initial link has AT LONG LAST been established it is expected an annual visit to that great City makes up part of Celtic’s pre-season itinerary.

Lets Go Celtic’s, Lets Go (groan – Ed!).

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