Bill Cleary, coach of the NCAA champion Harvard hockey team, is nursing a sore shoulder and his toss from the Fenway mound bounced a few feet shy of Sox catcher Rich Gedman.

"I planned it that way; I wanted the ball to look authentic," Cleary said as he showed off the scuffed ceremonial first baseball.

Cleary was accompanied by the entire Harvard hockey team, all of whom had to buy their own tickets.

"NCAA rules," Cleary said.

Not just The Wall

From home plate outward, Fenway looks much the same as it did in 1934 when the refurbished park was opened with its fabled "Green Monster" left field wall. Behind home plate, time appears to be marching on. The park now boasts an $18 million press luxury box complete with elevators and a restaurant. On opening day the elevators weren't operating. Neither was the cafe.

But none of that matters to John Lord and his hunting buddies who made the trip again this year from Augusta, Maine. They consider opening day a holiday as sacred as July 4th or Memorial Day.

"It's different in that on those other days, we'll be heading north," said Lord. "It is a special day down here."

Opening day is more than just a rite of spring; it's also a fan's greatest delight.

"I've missed two opening days in 20 years," Bill Cullen said outside the park. "I've been wearing different outfits since '67."

It wasn't so much the blue boxer shorts with Red Sox logos or the red knee stockings the 62-year-old Cullen was wearing that attracted attention. It was the beachball hat stuffed and sewn together like a baseball by his wife that drew stares.