Having grown up in the 1950s and 1960’s, we were fortunate to be able to be avid Red Sox fans, attending many games, but not as many these days as corporate sponsors seem to get most of the tickets.
With our boys -- Matt and John -- growing up in the 1970s, we wanted them to be fans as well.
So on John’s eighth birthday we invited the O’Connor boys, from Andover, to join our family in a box at Fenway Park.
The day was memorable just by being there. It was a great day and a great game.
But 12 days later, my brother called to say he had just received his Aug. 11,1975 Sports Illustrated issue and our entire family was on the cover. It was a picture from that game.
Someone from Sports Illustrated had snapped the crowd’s reaction to a play using it for the cover story, “The Baseball Boom.”
Elaine Burke, 69, resides in North Andover with her husband and attends four or five games per year.
Editor’s note:
Throughout the season, we will be bringing you some of our readers’ Favorite Fenway Memories. If you have one, go to www.eagletribune.com/fenwaymemories and send it to us in 200 words or less.
Call it the anatomy of a Sports Illustrated cover shot. The Burke family and friends children are in the lower left half of the cover, just underneath the word "boom" moving to the left. Elaine Burke is the women with her mouth open and right hand raised yelling. Her son, John, who celebrated his eighth birthday that day, is in the blue buttoned down shirt. His father is next to him in the white shirt with his mouth wide open. Their second son, Matt, is in the very corner to the left, almost concealed. The other three boys filling up the rest of the left side are Ed, John and Michael O'Connor, all from Andover. Burke's recollection is that there was a controversial play involving the Red Sox catcher Tim Blackwell which drew a reaction from the fans, hence the photo for the cover on Sports Illustrated. Today, John is 45 and Matt, who resides in Rye, N.H., is 42.
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