A baseball stadium is a special place, especially classic stadiums like Fenway Park. It’s even more special when you get to go inside the belly of the beast.
Nate and Rob Corddry have found success in the comedy and show business world, but their roots are always in the Boston area. They grew up in Weymouth and Rob knew former Red Sox general manager Brian O’Halloran from their time working at a Caldor store together. They kept in touch and their paths crossed at different times.
Nate Corddry was a guest on the Audacy Original Podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” and shared a story about how O’Halloran was able to give the Corddrys the experience of a lifetime at Fenway Park.
“I was doing a baseball road trip with my dad, which I’ve done a couple times, and we finished in Boston,” Corddry said (25:25 in player above). “My brother reached out to Brian and said ‘Hey, we’re all in Boston, we’re going to go to the game.’ Brian was like ‘Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to fully set you up.’”
Nate and Rob kept their dad in the dark about this until the day of the game. They surprised their dad as O’Halloran gave the Corddrys the full Fenway Park experience.
“We got there like an hour before the game and Brian met us and took us into the players’ entrance into the clubhouse and my dad was like ‘Where are we going? We can’t go in here.’ I said ‘No, it’s alright dad. Brian runs the team,’” Corddry said. “All of a sudden the door opens and we’re in the f—ing clubhouse and we’re walking by and Ortiz is at the end polishing his bats, Rob was like ‘Holy s–t, Ortiz is doing some real Ortiz stuff at the other end of this room. Oh my God.’”
While being in a clubhouse is second nature for players and people around the team, it’s something that fans – even celebrity fans – can only dream of.
“We walk in, he walks us straight into Tito’s office. And because I was such a psycho Red Sox fan I knew he and Pedro played cribbage and cribbage is a game that I used to play with my dad and my grandfather. So I sent him this beautiful cribbage board out of nowhere. Just a psycho fan. Tito Francona, Fenway Park, Boston, MA. Wrote a little note,” Corddry continued. “He called me, left a message saying ‘Aw, thank you so much. Me and Pedey are going to use it today. Really appreciate it. Glad you’re such a fan. Thanks for doing it.’”
You can be sure that Tito Francona and the rest of the Red Sox receive a lot of fan mail, but the Red Sox manager remembered Corddry’s unique gift.
So I walked in and he goes ‘You’re the maniac that sent me a cribbage board!’ I shook his hand, my dad is just f—ing stunned. He’s like ‘What am I doing?’” he continued. “And then Brian is like, ‘Do you know Rob?’ ‘Oh, of course, you’re from Hot Tub Time Machine. We watched Hot Tub Time Machine from Fort Meyers to Jupiter, or wherever the f–k, during spring training.’”
Francona then called Dustin Pedroia into his office, who was amazed to meet Lou from “Hot Tub Time Machine.
“He’s like ‘Get Pedey in here. Pedey loves that movie.’ In comes Pedroia: ‘Holy s–t it’s Lou!’ … ‘It’s f—ing Lou! Go get Wake. Go get Wake! Holy s–t! F—ing Lou!’ Every other word out of his mouth is ‘f—ing.’”
“My brother’s like, ‘Oh my God, Pedroia’s shaking my hand.’ In comes Wakefield, who’s pitching in like 45 minutes, he’s got a sleeveless t-shirt on, he’s like ‘Hey man, how you doing? Hey Lou, alright,’” Corddry said. “He was like so chill and laid back. He was the f—ing greatest guy. And again my father’s head is spinning like in The Exorcist. And then he takes us out onto the field. Down the tunnel from the clubhouse into the dugout, onto the field. … Pedroia didn’t know me from anyone but he knew my brother. We all got photos with him. It was nuts.”
O’Halloran gave the Corddrys a day to remember, even if the Red Sox lost the game. After dropping Rob off at his hotel, Nate went back to his dad’s house and they were still in shock.
“We were just sitting in his kitchen, we were drinking some whiskey, and we were pondering just we couldn’t believe that we were let into this magical inner sanctum in Fenway Park,” he said. “A place that you only dream about or read about. And where these immortal humans live, and breathe, and prepare. I was like ‘Can you believe that?’ And he’s like ‘I can’t believe Pedroia knew who Rob was.’”
Stories like this show exactly why baseball is America’s pastime.
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