Spiderman at Fenway Park

[Kutcher55]

Although the events of this story took place in 1988, I'm putting it here since it's a vintage tale. Leon, please allow me this indulgence...

I was a vendor at Fenway Park for nine years spanning the great 1990s. In my life I have been to over 500 Red Sox games. I was at Yaz Day in '83. I have been to ALCS games, including The Steal in '04, World Series games including the clincher in '13. But for sheer drama and absolute craziness, nothing tops the game I attended on July 20th, 1988.

Let's set the stage. It was shortly after the All Star break. The Sox had just fired Johnny McNamara and replaced him with the venerable Joe Morgan, he of the "six, two and even" fame. This was right in the middle of "Morgan Magic," when the Sox ripped off 19 of 20 wins before limping the rest of the way to the postseason and getting their asses handed to them by Dave Stewart and the Bash Brothers in the ALCS, but I digress...

The Sox played the Twins at Fenway that night. The place was packed. Roger Clemens was on the hill. It was hot. The 15-year-old me was unable to get tickets so I loitered outside with some friends before finally entering the park in the 8th inning, when people were leaving. Back then they allowed this.

Clemens didn't have it. The Sox blew a 5-0 lead. The Twins tied it in the 9th and pushed two across in the 10th to take a 7-5 lead. Things looked bleak as the Sox prepared for the bottom of the 10th. And that's when the most incredible thing happened...

If you've been to Fenway you're aware of the screen behind home plate that extends up to the press box area. It's an old school screen and it's held up in part by thick steel cables on each side that extend from the edges of each side of the screen all the way down the left & right field box seats and up into the grandstand rafters adjacent to the outfield. The cables must be 250-300 feet long. On this night, the left field cable took center stage because some absolute maniac -- if I recall, the guy's name was Joseph Cullen -- climbed up into those rafters in the upper recesses of the left field corner and began to shimmy his way like a Navy Seal down the steel cable. This cable had to be 20 feet above the seats below, where me and my buddies had settled. A fall may very well have been fatal. The crowd started going berserk looking up at this guy as he slowly made his way toward the screen behind home plate. The players and umpires noticed, but they played on, and the Sox began to rally. Gator Greenwell got on base as did Spike Owen. Jody Reed hit a double off the green monster to cut it to 7-6. Meanwhile, "Spiderman" continued to shimmy along. People in seats below him moved out of his path for fear that he would fall. Several times along his journey he had to stop and rest one arm and then the other, while his feet were clamped over the wire in front of him. Looking back, it was a marvelous athletic feat. The guy must have been trained, I dunno. I imagine he did it on a drunken dare, but it was just a sick move on his part, the stuff of legend.

The thing about it was that this guy actually impacted the game. Jeff Reardon was pitching for Minnesota. He was clearly rattled. Juan Berenguer came in and he was rattled. This went on for 15 minutes! Everyone in attendance watched to see if the guy would make it. And remarkably he did just that! He then climbed up onto the screen behind home plate and began jumping up in down in celebration as the whole park gave him a standing ovation. The screen was shaking like crazy as this guy enjoyed his moment of glory. To this day it remains one of the damdest things I have ever seen.

Security climbed down from the 600 club and he gave himself up peacefully. It was but a footnote in the Boston Globe the next day. If anyone has more info on this person and the story I would love to hear about it.

Almost immediately after his arrest, Tood Benzinger strode to the plate against new pitcher Keith Atherton and promptly mashed an absolute laser that curled safely inside Pesky's Pole delivering the home team a 9-7 win. And because every thread needs a card, I present to you this sort-of-not-really vintage 1989 Topps Tiffany Todd Benzinger.

[JollyElm]

Good stuff!!!

[bnorth]

That is an amazing story, thank you for sharing.

Weirdest I was ever at was Chuck Knaublauch's first game back in Minnesota as a Yankee. Fans there are usually really nice but not that day. People threw all sorts of stuff at him. The game stopped for some time and they threw out a boat load of people. That was May 3rd 2001.

[Gary Dunaier]

Funny thing is, Spider-Man is a Mets fan.

[Kutcher55]

Thanks to the awesome invention known as Youtube, this incident is captured in the below video link. Fast forward to 1:24:30 of the attached. Mike Greenwell is at the plate and you can hear the crowd start to go nuts and the Gator staring toward the third base side. Just after 1:25:00, announcer Ned Martin becomes aware of the situation and he and color commentator Jerry Remy begin to remark on the situation. Ned Martin expresses his disgust as things unfold. You even get a brief shot of the guy on the screen making his way up to the press box at around 1:30. Benzinger's home run was on a 3-2 pitch. Both he and Jody Reed had great at-bats and hit tough 2-strike pitches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0tWXX5514s

[Kutcher55]

A few additional comments on this event, and corrections to my original recollection, to help set the record straight:

1. Jeff Reardon pitched the two innings before. The entire event happened with Juan Berenguer on the mound. It took approximately 6 minutes for Joseph Cullen to pull off his marvelous stunt, not 15 as I imagined.

2. I recall being completely shocked when I turned and saw this guy up on that wire. To even conceive of such a thing was creative. To actually do it was beyond brazen. To actually pull it off, well...

3. And it's true the guy endangered people, mostly himself. Although now looking back, Fenway security, although helpless to stop his journey, did a good job clearing people out of the seats below him so the only one truly at risk was Cullen himself.

4. I also recall a group of what had to be his friends, walking below him and barking encouragement up at him. The crowd followed suit. Everyone wanted this guy to make it. And it wasn't a foregone conclusion that he could do it. He was visibly tiring as he approached the finish. Security tried to block him from scrambling up onto the screen, but they failed.

5. This had to be spontaneous. Unlike the famous 'Man on Wire' guy -- the Frenchman who spent months preparing to scale the Twin Towers -- this could not have been planned, although I surely would love to confirm that. The fact that he did it on a whim makes it an even better story.

6. Sadly, I believe this man who captivated Fenway that memorable evening passed away two years ago. His obituary suggested that he was a much beloved larger than life character who conquered alcoholism and had a family. I feel like there's more to the story and would still love to hear from people who knew this daring and bold individual to share additional details on the evening. Was it planned? What did they charge him with? Did he ever do anything like it again? So many unanswered questions.

7. Even though I referred to him (fondly) as a maniac in a previous post, I have nothing but admiration.

For those with any lingering curiosity, here's another rather whimsical recapping of the event on good ol' Youtube. Start at 16:00 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zmtSv4DHVE

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Kutcher55

A few additional comments on this event, and corrections to my original recollection, to help set the record straight:

1. Jeff Reardon pitched the two innings before. The entire event happened with Juan Berenguer on the mound. It took approximately 6 minutes for Joseph Cullen to pull off his marvelous stunt, not 15 as I imagined.

2. I recall being completely shocked when I turned and saw this guy up on that wire. To even conceive of such a thing was creative. To actually do it was beyond brazen. To actually pull it off, well...

3. And it's true the guy endangered people, mostly himself. Although now looking back, Fenway security, although helpless to stop his journey, did a good job clearing people out of the seats below him so the only one truly at risk was Cullen himself.

4. I also recall a group of what had to be his friends, walking below him and barking encouragement up at him. The crowd followed suit. Everyone wanted this guy to make it. And it wasn't a foregone conclusion that he could do it. He was visibly tiring as he approached the finish. Security tried to block him from scrambling up onto the screen, but they failed.

5. This had to be spontaneous. Unlike the famous 'Man on Wire' guy -- the Frenchman who spent months preparing to scale the Twin Towers -- this could not have been planned, although I surely would love to confirm that. The fact that he did it on a whim makes it an even better story.

6. Sadly, I believe this man who captivated Fenway that memorable evening passed away two years ago. His obituary suggested that he was a much beloved larger than life character who conquered alcoholism and had a family. I feel like there's more to the story and would still love to hear from people who knew this daring and bold individual to share additional details on the evening. Was it planned? What did they charge him with? Did he ever do anything like it again? So many unanswered questions.

7. Even though I referred to him (fondly) as a maniac in a previous post, I have nothing but admiration.

For those with any lingering curiosity, here's another rather whimsical recapping of the event on good ol' Youtube. Start at 16:00 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zmtSv4DHVE

I am on the completely worthless moron side. I think the fans should have been instantly handed baseballs to throw at the moron. Then when he fell he got the type of injury that leaves a lifelong limp to remind him every single day how stupid he was that day.

[Kutcher55]

You’re not wrong Ben. My appreciation of this event is somewhat irrational and rooted in an odd sort of nostalgia combined with an appreciation for the truly fearless among us. And yet here we are.

Although chucking baseballs at him might take it a bit too far lol.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Kutcher55

You’re not wrong Ben. My appreciation of this event is somewhat irrational and rooted in an odd sort of nostalgia combined with an appreciation for the truly fearless among us. And yet here we are.

Although chucking baseballs at him might take it a bit too far lol.

I exaggerate for effect.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Kutcher55

You’re not wrong Ben. My appreciation of this event is somewhat irrational and rooted in an odd sort of nostalgia combined with an appreciation for the truly fearless among us. And yet here we are.

Although chucking baseballs at him might take it a bit too far lol.

100% this kind of attitude is missing in America today. My kids would have loved to grow up in in an era where a normal working class guy could get drunk and pull a stunt that would only harm himself, and suffer no consequences for their bad decisions.
We used to celebrate independence and respect the Maverick attitude in this country.