I remember watching the 1999 Home Run Derby from my dad's Cambridge apartment. It was on TV, too, to be sure, but it was more fun to watch from the porch as Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey and Jeromy Burnitz launched ball after ball over the Green Monster, and everyone else, even Boston's own Nomar Garciaparra, was perplexed by it.
The biggest highlight of the night, apart from watching the little pills fly over the fence, was the Citgo sign, lurking just out of the reach of the Fenway Park lights, looming mercifully over Kenmore Square. It was an image that won't soon leave my mind, and judging by Sebastian Smee's article in today's Boston Globe, I'm not alone.
Smee's narative makes the sign come to life more than it already does by itself, which is saying something for the icon that's lit up the sky over Kenmore Square for the past 28 years with nary an interruption.