Boys of Summer Book - Entry #62

Interviewing Red Sox PR Rep. Colleen Reilly

CR:

I was living in China for a year, wanted to just com back and, you know, back to apple pie -- whatever. And then I thought, I want to sell hot dogs at Fenway Park. And I had never seen a girl do it, but I thought, I can hack it -- definitely. So I came to get an application for that and someone else was calling me, telling me about this Fenway Ambassador job. And I read about it and it was called a “Goodwill Emissary position” and I was like, that’s fantastic. But, when it came to the interview, I was saying, I couldn’t tell you stats, I couldn’t tell you numbers on these guys...but I can tell you every game what happened when I sat next to my dad -- not with the players. I wouldn’t even be able to tell you an opponent. But I remember what we talked about and I can remember sitting there thinking, this will never happen again; what I have right now. So...that’s why this place is so good. 

RC: 

What are some of the best conversations you had with your dad?

CR:

I think I had gone through something that had broke my heart a little bit and I was finally over the pain part and I looked at my dad and I told him I was okay. And he looked at me and he said, “Dang, you’re pretty awesome.” 

And then when I got the job, he called me one day and said, “I’m in your neighborhood do you want to grab a cup of coffee?” I said, that would be great. I met him on the sidewalk, we went down Yawkey Way, and we came into the ballpark. We came down next to the dugout and, obviously, not a soul in the ballpark -- middle of the day -- and I said, you know what dad, so much happened to us in Row 15 and uh, I started to cry. It was pretty awesome stuff. I guess that’s what -- no, I don’t guess, I know, that’s what drives me. That’s why I work here.

**********

Dad:

We start our tour of the field behind home plate during batting practice. While there, Bob and I were interviewed by a local t.v. station. Colleen arranged to have Peter Gammons available for Bob to interview. 

Bob:

We walk into Fenway and there’s this smell -- the best I can do to describe it to you is it tell you it smells like baseball -- because it does. It literally attacks your senses. Fenway is baseball; smell, look and feel. Beautiful.

We go down ot the field, do some great interviews and, thanks to Colleen, get to talk to none other than Peter Gammons.