Notre Dame's Red Sox fans excited for Fenway Park game

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Born in Everett, Mass. and raised in the nearby Boston suburb of Chelsea, Brian Kelly is a lifelong supporter of the Boston Red Sox. But he’s not the only Red Sox fan who will travel with Notre Dame to play Boston College at Fenway Park on Saturday.

Graduate student linebacker Joe Schmidt, a Southern California native, grew up a Red Sox fan. And junior safety Max Redfield, another Los Angeles-area native, is a fan of the former hard-luck franchise that’s won three World Series titles since 2004.

Schmidt’s roots as a Red Sox fan come from the years before Theo Epstein & Co. turned the organization into a perennial winner — Boston’s underdog status behind the Yankees attracted him to root for those Pedro Martinez-led teams from across the country.

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Friday’s walkthrough at Fenway Park will be a special opportunity for Schmidt to take in the historic surroundings — he’s never been to the venerable baseball stadium before.

“I'm going to try to do what's allowed to do. I don't want to get in trouble, but if there is an opportunity to go into the Green Monster, I think I would gladly accept that opportunity,” Schmidt said. “I’m not going to try to pull a Manny Ramirez and leave the game to go to the Green Monster, but it's going to be kinda cool to walk around.”

(Ramirez infamously once took a bathroom break in the Green Monster while playing left field between innings of a Red Sox game.)

Redfield, who was born in Connecticut has family that are Red Sox fans and has been to a game at Fenway Park before, and listed former Red Sox ace Curt Schilling and soon-to-be-retired designated hitter David Ortiz as some of his favorite players.

Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer grew up playing baseball and joked that, as a pretty good pull hitter, he always thought he’d wind up at Fenway Park facing a “Papi shift,” which Ortiz frequently faces with teams expecting him to hit the ball to right field.

“This is just a cool opportunity for me to be on the field that a lot of great baseball players and a lot of history has been made on,” Kizer said.

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And Notre Dame wide receiver Torii Hunter Jr. knows Fenway Park well from his father’s 19-year major league career. He said he went to a playoff series his dad played in at Fenway Park as a kid — it would’ve been when Torii Hunter Sr. played for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim — and added his dad told him Red Sox fans “hated” him while he played for the Minnesota Twins, Angels and Detroit Tigers.

But Kelly is almost certainly the biggest Red Sox fan in the Irish contingent heading to Boston this weekend. The sixth-year Irish coach threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game at Fenway Park last summer and has fond memories of going to games — including one in the 1975 World Series — with his dad growing up.

“Going to Fenway is an event in itself,” Kelly said. “It's not just the stadium, but it's the surroundings and it's always an enjoyable time.”

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