Red Sox homecoming

After an excruciating 3-2 loss in Baltimore in the 13th inning Thursday night, Red Sox Nation is ready to come home.

Sox caps and construction hats scattered the Fenway Park landscape and surrounding area Thursday afternoon as hundreds of people prepared for today’s home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Workers put finishing touches on the new right field seats and pushed empty concession carts through the park’s concrete concourses.

The sounds of drill guns and practice announcements of the Sox lineup over the music from Field of Dreams reverberated throughout the park while workers attached green light fixtures and painted a final coat of antique green on hand rails.

Roughly 350 of the several hundred workers who helped in the construction of the right field seating area will be rewarded with complementary tickets to watch today’s game from the new right field seats.

“Tomorrow we’re going to finish off a few miscellaneous odds and ends, have a few beers on our new roof and watch the Red Sox kick some butt,” said Project Superintendent Richard Waterman, 47, of Concord.

Waterman said he has been working on the 350 to 400 capacity right field seating area since Nov. 11, and Thursday was one of the few nice days during the five-month process. Construction ran through the frigid winter – “one of the coldest ever in New England,” Waterman said.

“It’s a rare, rare thing to see that flag not blowing,” Waterman said as he pointed to an American flag on the roof of a nearby building.

Waterman, who was responsible for doling out the tickets, said he gave them to the workers he felt deserved the tickets the most.

“I made sure that no uncles or kids were getting the tickets,” Waterman said. “I wanted to reward the guys who worked long and hard.”

The right field seating area is an open space that includes a bar, televisions and multiple home plate-shaped tables with four moveable chairs at each. The bar is made from the lanes of the bowling alley that used to be on the corner of Lansdowne Street and Brookline Avenue, and a pint of beer can sit where candlepins were once set.

The new seats are $75 and $100 for “red games” against the rival Yankees and rare visitors such as the Phillies and Dodgers. The price includes $25 credit for food. Lobster rolls, clam rolls and “Red Sox Ribs” are among menu items.

“These are the coolest right field seats in baseball,” Red Sox President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Lucchino said.

Van Ness Street has been refurbished to include acorn street lights, cherry trees and a wider sidewalk. Other new fixtures to the park include extra seating along the first-base line, more concessions and restrooms in Concourse E and a freight elevator and additional ticket windows at Gates B and C.

“We won’t just have a glut of people at Gate A,” Lucchino said.

Across from the main ticket window at Gate A is one of the multiple Twin Enterprise Souvenir Shops, where employees were bringing out new stock for the 2004 season Thursday.

“We don’t order anything new during the winter,” store manager Greg Serra said.

All new hats, T-shirts, jerseys and paraphernalia have been filtering into the shop for about the last two weeks, Serra said. The salespeople planned on staying into the early-morning hours to be ready for opening day.

“We’ll be here all night,” Serra said.

The souvenir shops open at 10 a.m. and remain open for about an hour after the game, said Anne Marie Reardon, a manager at the Twin Enterprise store across from the Cask ‘N’ Flagon.

“Hopefully this is their year,” Reardon said. “I get mad when they have bases loaded and they can’t even bring anybody home, but I’m hopeful this year.”

Bruce VanFleet, the manager of the Cask ‘N’ Flagon, said this year will be different from past years.

“They’re going to win,” he said.

“At the beginning of the year, pretty much everybody’s into baseball,” VanFleet said.

Some of Cask ‘N’ Flagon’s customer base thins when the Sox are not doing well, he added. But he said he is excited about the home opener and hopes for a good turnout.

“It’s opening day – there’s lots of energy,” VanFleet said. “We open the doors at 8 a.m. – there will be 50 people in line waiting to get in.”

Many local employees are excited about off-season Red Sox additions Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke.

“There’s been a lot of good training,” VanFleet said. “The new owners carried on changes in the park that the neighbors have gotten really excited about.”

VanFleet said he only has one goal for opening day: “That everybody has a good time and every customer leaves here happy.”