Red Sox legend David Ortiz, grand marshal of the 127th Boston Marathon, greets a police officer Monday at the starting line of the race in Hopkinton, Mass. Mary Schwalm/Associated Press
There was plenty to celebrate in Boston over the weekend.
The Celtics stormed out of the gate with a stunning first half and a Game 1 win over the Atlanta Hawks to open the NBA playoffs.
The Bruins hosted the Florida Panthers to drop the puck on the Stanley Cup playoffs Monday night, looking to live up to the expectations set by a record-setting regular season that saw Boston set records for wins and points in a season.
And the Red Sox spent an emotional weekend at the ballpark, honoring the memory of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing 10 years ago while bringing back the members of that year’s team that stunned the baseball world by winning it all.
It was all just another reminder why Boston is the greatest sports city in America.
Patriots Day is a unique holiday, celebrated in Massachusetts and Maine to remember Paul Revere’s ride and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. It’s a holiday to celebrate liberty and the spirit our forefathers showed in proclaiming their freedom from oppression.
That’s why the City of Boston created One Boston Day, a day to commemorate those impacted by the terror of the marathon bombing and to honor the heroism and resiliency shown by the Bostonians in the hours, days and weeks that followed.
One Boston Day takes place on April 15 every year, giving us a chance to commemorate a somber anniversary separate from the celebration of Patriots Day. Marathon Monday is a party in Boston, and the act of terror threatened to take that tradition away from us.
Bridging the gap was the 10 Year Stronger concert put together by the Greg Hill Foundation. The Zac Brown Band headlined the event, and the money raised ensured that the Boston Marathon Survivors Fund is funded in perpetuity.
Players from the 2013 Red Sox gathered one more time for the concert. Several players from the current team were there as well. Others were headed to TD Garden to take in Game 1 of the Bruins series.
Everywhere you looked there were Boston athletes taking part in the festivities. Shawn Thornton, who won a Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011 and is now the chief revenue officer of the Panthers, was at Fenway Park on Monday morning before his new team took on his former team at the Boston Garden.
Former Bruins captain Zdeno Chara was running the marathon for a pair of charities. He was impossible to miss as his 6-foot-9 frame made its way through the Wellesley hills. Ryan Dempster, the starting pitcher on Marathon Monday in 2013, was running it as well. Dempster was raising money for the Lingzi Foundation in honor of Lingzi Lu, one of the five victims killed in the blasts 10 years ago.
Chara and Dempster were joined by some 30,000 runners making their way through the rain from Hopkinton to Copley Square. Evans Chebet of Kenya pulled away late to win the race, becoming the first back-to-back Boston winner in 15 years.
He ran the race in 2:06:51, which was nearly 10 minutes longer than Saturday’s Red Sox win at Fenway. That pitch clock-aided final was the shortest game at Fenway Park since 2018.
Monday’s baseball game was slower, and wetter. Two hours after the scheduled start time the Sox and Angels were still in the top of the third inning thanks to the first two rain delays of the season. The game resumed and the Angels went on to win 5-4.
None of that dampened the atmosphere in Boston. As David Ortiz said so memorably in 2013, “this is our (expletive) city. And nobody gonna dictate our freedom.”
Those words are as true today as they were 10 years ago.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN.
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