Scorecard

Whenever you pass through Fenway's brick portals on a bright, sunny day, you're immediately struck by how dark it is under the stands. This day it takes a particularly long time for the eyes to adjust. No lights are on, no public-address announcements are heard, and the clocks that should indicate five minutes till game time aren't working. It is left to P.A. announcer Sherm Feller to open a press-box window, poke his head out and, with a bullhorn, call out the starting lineups. The words are barely audible to the umpires and managers gathered at home plate, who laughingly ask Feller to speak up. Without John Kiley's electric organ to get things going, Feller now must assume another chore. "I'm going to start this off in a logical key," he shouts. "Ohhhh, say can you see...." The national anthem gets off to a shaky start, but soon the crowd takes up the tune. It's a soft, oddly stirring rendition. At the end the applause is vigorous.

With the electronic message board in center blackened, the scoreboard in left, the only one in the American League still set by hand, takes on attention-riveting importance. But communication with the press box is uncertain. While the four runs the Red Sox score in the first inning are duly recorded, the Oriole run in the second is ignored. Word is passed along to the scoreboard operators about the missing run, and it's finally posted—for Boston, making it, erroneously, 5-0. An emissary jogs across the leftfield grass to advise of the mistake, and by the top of the next inning, the O's finally are credited with their run.

Some fans learn how to keep score this afternoon; if you already know how, you're enlisted to tutor. In the absence of the usual drumbeat of amplified information, people seem to pay closer attention to the action on the field. Not a hit or a good play is missed. Despite the cold, most of the crowd remains until the end of the well-played game, during which there have been not only no P.A. announcements or organ music, but also no larger-than-life instant replays or cheery greetings to visiting school and civic groups. All in all, a chilly early-season afternoon at the ball park to be cherished.