BOSTON -- One of the more iconic landmarks in this city is the famed Citgo sign, a huge red, white and blue illuminated advertisement that has loomed over Fenway Park since 1940.
It's as much a part of the Fenway landscape as the Green Monster itself, and yesterday around noon, the sign caught fire. The minor conflagration was contained rather quickly, but with the Red Sox on the verge of elimination, and the Patriots staggering in the wake of Tom Brady's season-ending knee injury, what could go wrong next?
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In a city that, over the past decade. has come to expect championship parades at regular intervals -- six since 2002, including the Patriots (three), Red Sox (two) and the Celtics -- the mood in Boston has suddenly turned glum.
The Patriots not only lost the Super Bowl in February, but any hope for redemption was lost when star quarterback Tom Brady blew out his knee in the first 15 minutes of this season, ending his year. And with one more loss in the ALCS, the beloved Red Sox's season will be over.
It has been a truly brutal, long weekend up here. The Red Sox lost to Tampa Saturday night, the Patriots were demolished Sunday in San Diego, and on Monday and Tuesday the Rays again spanked the Sox, pushing them to the brink of elimination.
"Boston fans don't like to lose," said MBTA bus driver Jean Frederick. "We're used to winning around here. People are very shocked."
Frederick, a 28-year-old from nearby Everett, said his bus from Kenmore Square near Fenway out to Dorchester, was nearly silent Tuesday night after the Red Sox lost 13-4 to fall behind 3-1 in the best-of-seven series.
And at the Upper Crust Pizzeria on swanky Newbury St. Tuesday, the TVs were turned off as the game unfolded and the Red Sox were down 11-1. People understood why.
"They were coming in and saying, 'Yeah, I turned it off, too," explained 21-year-old employee Angel Covas from Chelsea.
Covas, who is more of a Patriots fan, was also working in the restaurant the day Brady went down. He heard the dreaded words from a co-worker, "Brady's hurt," and his world suddenly changed.
"I panicked," he said. "Everything just dropped for me."
Brady's injury has been a source of a deep angst up here, but many fans have moved on, either rooting for replacement Matt Cassel, or arguing that he should be replaced with backup Kevin O'Connell.
Surprisingly, artist Neil Collins from Cape Cod actually wasn't devastated by Brady's injury at all.
"I'm sick of Tom Brady's Hollywood lifestyle," he said. "People obviously wish he didn't get hurt, but I don't think there's a great deal of sympathy for him here. A lot of people around here are sick of hearing how great his lifestyle is."
Collins, 33, stood outside an art gallery on Newbury St., putting the finishing touches on a painting depicting a Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway Park. Atop the painting he placed a sign he had drawn earlier in the morning in the same lettering that adorns the Red Sox's uniforms. It read, "Keep The Faith."
After 2004 and last year, two seasons in which the Red Sox came back from 3-0 and 3-1 deficits to beat the Yankees and Indians, respectively, en route to winning the World Series, many Sox fans indeed remain faithful.
Amy Whitten of Beacon Hill, despite losing her Red Sox hat when someone broke into her car last week (another sign of doom?), refused to give in. Wednesday she went to the souvenir shop across the street from Fenway for a replacement.
"With all the bad news lately on the economy, people were looking forward to the games for some good news," she said, her new cap sitting prettily atop her head. "Now this. We've come back before, but I don't think anyone has the same level of confidence right now."
If the Sox should lose, and if the Patriots go 8-8 and the Citgo sign burns to the ground and Old Ironsides sinks, Frederick, the bus driver from Everett, has a plan.
"We've still got the Celtics," he said, "and pretty soon they're going to raise their banner."
"I did Fenway on my bedroom wall with the four letters of my name on the bases,” he says.
Like many young boys, Collins spent his youth playing little league and Babe Ruth baseball and rooting for the Boston Red Sox.
"I grew up watching the games with my dad and idolizing Ted Williams," he says.
"I finally realized the Sox probably weren’t going to draft me," he says.
He put down his bat and picked up his brushes, forfeiting the dream of playing left field.
Collins then started reading art magazines to learn more about the craft and eventually wrote to artist Kent Twitchell for advice.
“He wrote back to me and told me how to prepare a surface, how to varnish,” he says. “He was really helpful.”
Collins, who graduated from Falmouth High School and lives in Mashpee, is now a full-time artist, and specializes in murals, paintings, signs and holiday cards. Much of his work involves underwater images or sports-related scenes. When recreating familiar scenes such as landmarks, Collins always adds his own stamp.
"For this one, I’m painting Nobska the way I remember it," he says, pointing to the white shingles on his canvas. Collins says paintings that depict the lighthouse since it was re-shingled over five years ago aren’t as popular.
"I like it the way it used to be and it seems like other people do, too."
His beachside easel draws attention; cars slow down as they make their way past the Nobska beach houses, heads crane out windows to get a better look. Beach strollers approach curiously with cameras. Collins stands as if before a mirror, his canvas reflecting the majestic lighthouse in front of him.
This particular painting will be auctioned off for charity at Mashnee Beach Club in Bourne Sunday, June 8. The proceeds will go toward chemotherapy treatments for 11-year-old John Lunedei Jr. of Bourne who was recently diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.
Collins studied for two years at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale but left because it was too expensive. Upon returning to the Cape, he took business and art courses at Cape Cod Community College, and describes art professor Sara Ringler as one of the best teachers he ever had.
"She always went the extra mile to show she cared," he says. "Whatever you needed, she was there for you."
Collins doesn’t deny it can be difficult pursuing art professionally.
"They sell day-old bread for a reason," he says, dryly.
Like his childhood heroes, Collins makes a positive impact with his involvement in the Jimmy Fund. In 2006, two of his theme-painted cows were selected for the Cow Parade Boston and were displayed in the city from June through Labor Day and later auctioned off to benefit the fund.
"Cape Cowder," which features lobster claw horns, was displayed in front of the Prudential Center and “Ted Williams Cow,” covered in black and white images of the Red Sox icon, was displayed in front of the Old North Church, both raising a combined total of $13,500.
The fund later asked Collins to design a holiday card and in 2007, his Fenway-themed card was its top-seller, selling 52,000 copies.
His childhood passion for the Rex Sox has never waned. “Moonshot” features David Ortiz standing at the plate under a moonlit Boston skyline. Signed, numbered canvas prints of the premiere and second edition of the painting are available only at Yankee Accent in Osterville.
Since returning to the Cape from Fla., Collins has experienced a lot support and encouragement from the local art community.
“The Woodruffs of Woodruff’s Art Center in Mashpee Commons are great people. They provide a place for artists to network,” he says. “You need that when things aren’t going so well. It’s important for artists to have support from people who have been doing it longer.”
Collins likens it to the way blues musicians paved the way for those who followed.
“Without them,” he says. “There wouldn’t be a Led Zeppelin.”
Collins has also picked up his bat again and plays with the Baseball Clubs of Cape Cod, an amateur, wooden-bat league, just in case the Red Sox need him.
"They could have had the wrong number," he says and laughs, dabbing paint on a panoramic en plein air scene of Nobska Lighthouse. "I’m still waiting for the call."
