Sports
Red Sox Celebrate PHS Clippers Baseball Team's Amazing Run at Fenway Park [VIDEO]
Clippers 83-game consecutive win streak gets a special nod from Red Sox Nation Saturday evening.
The Clippers baseball team has been in celebration mode for the last four seasons thanks to its national record 83-game consecutive win streak and four consecutive state Division II titles.
On Saturday evening, the team's players and coaches found themselves on the receiving end of applause from thousands of Boston Red Sox fans at Fenway Park. As they stood together in back of home plate on the hallowed ground that is Fenway Park, P.A. announcer Carl Beane asked the Fenway Faithful to give celebrate their amazing accomplishment.
The team also got some high-fives from Wally the Green Monster, the Red Sox mascot. The Red Sox also gave the team and its entourage of family members and supporters 24 seats in the right field bleachers.
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The pre-game ceremony lasted less than three minutes before the Red Sox took on the Baltimore Orioles, but the memories from that moment will last a lifetime for many of the team's members and its most ardent supporters.
"I'm really happy about it," said Karen Conway, who serves as secretary for the high school's athletic department.
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She sported a newly created T-shirt that celebrated the team's national record win streak and championships.
"I'm glad it all worked out. It's been a fun year," said Conway, who initiated the invitation from the Red Sox in June after she spoke with Red Sox radio announcer Dave O'Brien. He was attending his daughter's graduation at Portsmouth High on June 10 and spoke with Conway about having the Red Sox recognize the team.
Conway said she also spoke with Clippers player Quinn McCann before she even reached out to O'Brien.
Clippers baseball coach Tim Hopley said he and the team were thrilled the Red Sox chose to recognize them. He said the streak and championships were made possible by the present team and many former Clippers ballplayers who have since graduated from high school.
The pre-game ceremony was also gratifying for Joe Dubois, the bus driver who drove the team to all of its road games the last four years. He drove 12 of the team's 14 players, the coaches and family members to Fenway Park on Saturday.
"I've been driving them all through these championships all four years," Dubois said. "It's been great because these guys really accepted me and treated me more like a team member than a bus driver."
Hopley said some of his players have graduated from high school and will be moving onto college. Dubois may also not return as the team's bus driver because the Portsmouth School Board recently voted to switch school bus providers.
One of the players that is moving onto college is star pitcher Keegan Taylor. When asked if he could ever imagine himself playing at Fenway Park someday, he replied, "I will be next year."
Taylor is going to play for the Northeastern University baseball team next season and the college team typically plays a few games at Fenway Park each season as well as some spring training games in Fort Meyers, Fla.
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