A number of readers have written to ask why FenwayNation was off-line over the last several days. The site went quiet because my Dad,
Mike Paicopolos, passed away last Saturday at the age of 92. Through his passion for sports, he instilled in me a love of baseball and the Red Sox. In fact, in July of 1956, he brought me to my first game at Fenway Park. The ticket to that game still hangs framed in my office—because my Dad convinced the ticket-taker to leave it whole as a keepsake for his four-year old son. He took me to the 1961 All-Star Game at Fenway Park, and I was thrilled to be able to return the favor by bringing him to the 1999 All-Star Game when it returned to Boston. My Dad was a terrific athlete, captaining the 1938 Woburn High School (MA) varsity football team (at quarterback). Even when he was serving his country in the Army during World War II, he played on the Cavalry baseball team for General George Patton's Third Army (see pic). He was a great man from the Greatest Generation, but most of all, he was a great Dad—
Ernie Paicopolos, Editor-In-Chief.
