THIS IS THE SANTA I HAVE TO SIT WITH EVERY CHRISTMAS EVE AT MY IN LAWS

I am certainly up for the game....I think Erin would come as well. The balcony seats wont be as good, but the price sounds a lot more reasonable.

If you want pizza, we should do Regina....as Santarpios is better IMO...but you need a rental car / cab to get there. Regina is walking distance to the Garden.

After the game, the bars around the Garden will be nuts....but if we hit up the Fours or a slightly "older" place...we will be just fine.

Keep me informed, and thanks for doing the legwork

OK Guys/Gals

After the holidays I will begin to firm - up everything.

I will make a post of suggested hotels in and just outside of Boston with approx. prices per night. Also people can get on Travelocity, Orbitz or Priceline and check best rates.

As far as tickets go, we should get an idea of how much people want to spend on tickets. The Lodge is better seating at $115. I know that it may be a challenge for some............but I always say........how many times do we do this a year........especially getting together with our friends on Sam's Celtic Forum. But it does not matter to me.

The best way to buy the ticket........I will post the name and number of the person with the Celtics who handles group sales. You will have a 1 day opportunity to call that person and give your credit card info to him and identify the group you belong to (SAM'S CELTIC FORUM). The next day I will firm up how many tickets are needed and the seat location and order them.

I WILL NOT .....REPEAT NOT BABY OR PUSH PEOPLE INTO CALLING..........
YOU WANT TO GO.........CALL ON THE SPECIFIC DAY AND PROVIDE INFORMATION TO THE CELTIC TIX PERSON..........NEXT DAY I WILL FINALIZE WHO AND HOW MANY. WE WILL PICK TICKETS UP ON GAME DAY AT THE BOX OFFICE.

This way those who truly want to go will call ........and those calling are all assured of going, so we are not postponing ordering tix's until it is too late and nothing happens.

Restaurants .......7:30pm game.............we can eat at the Garden or have an early diner at 4:30-5:00pm perhaps at the 4B's.

After the game....we can head to a bar for those interested or a dessert place.

112288

Good job, 112288. Sounds as though you're off and running. I should be able to help get some hotel names. 1200 Beacon St. in Brookline (own parking lot, right on the MBTA line, not usually too expensive) is often a good starting point.

Sam

Good job, 112288. Sounds as though you're off and running. I should be able to help get some hotel names. 1200 Beacon St. in Brookline (own parking lot, right on the MBTA line, not usually too expensive) is often a good starting point.

Sam

Actually, I see that 1200 Beacon St. is now a Holiday Inn. Rooms for March 16 are going for $162, which may sound like a lot but, compared with most prices for decent Boston hotels is not too bad. I'll keep looking.

Sam

There are some hotels near the Garden....which are reasonable (by Boston standards)

http://www.tdgarden.com/getting-here/hotels.html

The Onyx is a block away and is showing $250 per night for 3/16 and 3/17.

There's also the Midtown Hotel on Huntington Ave. in Boston, across from the Prudential Center and almost next door to Brasserie Jo, where I had lunch with Beat and his family. They're advertising five rooms left for March 16 @ $159.

For out-of-towners, especially those not used to Boston, although there might be a tendency to try to get a place as near as possible to the Garden. But, aside from when the area is crowded before and after a game, it may not be as desirable as, say, the Waterfront or Copley Square or near the Prudential Center—especially if a significant other is involved and wants to do some shopping. It's not difficult to get to the Garden by public transportation or taxi, although hailing a cab after the game can be really chancy. (Best to mosey over to browse the North End/Waterfront and hail a cab there).

Sam

My family always likes the MARRIOT BRAND .

Here are several locations in and around Boston.

Marriott - Residence Inn - FROM $100 PER NIGHT
BOSTON HARBOR ON TUDOR WHARF
22-44 Charles River Ave, Boston, Ma 02129
I HAVE STAYED THERE FOR THE FINALS. YOU CAN WALK OVER CHARLESTOWN BRIDGE TO THE GARDEN AND PRICES ARE MODERATE.


Boston Marriott Long Wharf - FROM $149 PER NIGHT
296 State Street Boston, MA 02109
WALK TO TD GARDEN OR NORTH END
I STAY THERE MOST TIMES UNLESS I CANNOT GET A RESERVATION. PRICEY HOWEVER OFF SEASON LIKE MARCH YOU CAN GET A GOOD DEAL. WALK TO GARDEN, NORTH END.

Courtyard Boston Natick - FROM $99 PER NIGHT
342 Speen Street Natick, MA 01760
VERY NICE PLACE AND VERY INEXPENSIVE ESPECIALLY OFF SEASON LIKE MARCH. JUST OFF OFF I90 JUST WEST OF FENWAY PARK AREA. STAY HERE WHEN SHUT OUT OF BOSTON RESERVATIONS.


Courtyard Boston Downtown/Tremont - FROM $111 PER NIGHT
275 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02116

Courtyard Boston-South Boston - FROM $89 PER NIGHT
63 R Boston Street Boston, MA 02125

Residence Inn Boston Logan Airport/Chelsea - FROM $106 PER NIGHT
200 Maple Street Chelsea, MA 02150

Courtyard Boston Logan Airport - FROM $99 PER NIGHT
225 William F. McClellan Highway Boston, MA 02128

Courtyard Boston Cambridge - FROM $87 PER NIGHT
777 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02139

Fairfield Inn & Suites Boston North - FROM $79 PER NIGHT
100 Morris Street Revere, MA 02151

112288

112288,

Some great prices.

Of those you listed, I'd definitely recommend Marriott Long Wharf at those prices. On the Waterfront' less than a 10 minute walk to Hanover St.; the main drag in the North End; about a 15-minute walk to TD Garden; across the street from Quincy Market; right by an MBTA (transit) stop on the Blue Line that can take you up State Street to Downtown Boston. Also has an extensive Sunday breakfast buffet (they don't call it "brunch" but it's the same thing) from 7:00 am to noon.

Speen Street in Natick is just off I-90, but it's about 15-20 miles west of Fenway Park. I used to live on a nearby street in Natick.

Sam

Sam,

Also Marriott - Residence Inn - Charlestown Walk to Causeway St and Garden
(15/20 Minutes). Also walk to North End. Also on the water with view of Boston.

Better pricing then Long Wharf.

112288

112288,

Actually, that Residence Inn is virtually on one corner of the Charlestown Bridge, making it not more than a 10-minute walk (max) to TD Garden. Charlestown is kind of a cool place too. (Didn't you stay there or look at property there once?) In fact, the Residence Inn is practically next door to the Navy Yard, which is actually a national park and houses the U.S.S. Constitution. Warren Tavern is really old and a lot of fun. It's always a hoot to go look at the B.H. Monument. And the Leonard Zakim Bridge that goes west past TD Garden is beautiful—especially at night. People should take notice of the fact that the towers on that bridge were designed to replicate the Bunker Hill Monument.

By the way, if one were to say in Charlestown, cross the bridge, and continue straight (on North Washington Street) instead of turning right on Causeway St. toward the Garden, about two blocks up North Washington St. is Joe Tecce's Way.

I always push the Duck Tours (yes, the same amphibious vehicles that took the 2008 team on their triumphal trip throughout Boston). I believe some leave from the Prudential Center, some from Lower State Street, and I know some leave from the Museum of Science. There are multiple historic routes, and you get to plunk into the Charles River too.

Boston is just so, so cool. Definitely up there with Paris and San Francisco. Don't get me started! I mean, what other city do you know that once had a molasses flood? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Molasses_Disaster) I sometimes think of that when I see the Celtics' halfcourt offense stagnate.

Sam

Sam,

Your description of the Marriott and Residence Inn and Charlestown are all correct. Yes I stayed there for the last few games of the Final against LA. Great place. I jogged through the Navy Yard each morning...great views and a short walk.

112288

sam wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Molasses_Disaster

Sam,

I removed the brackets. That allowed the link to breath!! (and hopefully work)

gyso, good move. Otherwise, with the brackets in there, reaching the link would be like stirring cold molasses.

Sam

What a way to go!

beat

A very sticky situation to be in!

However the people running from the accident who were trapped must have slow as molasses!!!!!!!

112288

I'd never heard of the Boston molasses flood. That must've been one huge tank.

My dad worked for a company that specialized in refinery maintenance, and he got me work whenever I came home from college. It was mostly in oil refineries, but the last job I did for them was at the Pacific Molasses Company, which had molasses tanks that had to be cleaned periodically. It was a hot summer day, and I was in full heavy raingear cleaning the sludge out of the tank with a hot water blaster. It felt like it was 150 degrees inside that tank, and the molasses odor was so strong and sickening sweet that it was repulsive.

I lost my taste for molasses cookies for years. After that job, being drowned by molasses would be about the worst nightmare I could have. And to think that's what actually happened to those poor people in the Boston molasses flood. Awful.

We come from Newton, home of "Fats" Pellegrini, a character and a half. He was part of the North End "group", and my husband's sister in law was his niece. "Fats" was on the cover of Yankee magazine, they used to paint the streets down "the lake" on the fourth of July because that is what Fats wanted and what he wanted, they (the city) did! I love these stories, because it was as if we were living in our own private movie some of the time.

They played cards at one of the bookie's homes in Newton every week and they were robbed. They found out who did it and they found the body dead.
Unreal stories, a world unto itself!!!! But, Fats love my husband. Anytime he
wanted anything done, he came to him because my husband was the president of the union for ten years.

The stories go on and on

Mrkleen,

You mentioned Gerry Angiulo in connection with Francesco's. I've excerpted a couple of paragraphs from Wikipedia because (1) they allude to his history at the restaurant and (2) because they lead to another story:

*******
Wikipedia:

Early life

Gennaro J. Angiulo was born in 1919 to Italian immigrants Caesar and Giovannina (Jeannie) Anguilo, who owned a mom-and-pop grocery store. Even though he was from the North End neighborhood, he graduated from Boston's Franklin High School in Franklin, Massachusetts in 1938, where his ambition was to attend Suffolk Law School and become a criminal lawyer. Gennaro Angiulo enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the beginning of World War II and served 4 years in the Pacific theater; he achieved the rank of Chief Boatswain's Mate. Upon completion of his service, he moved back to the North End of Boston. He had a regular table in the back room of an Italian dinery called Francesca's Restaurant on North Washington Street in North End, Boston.

Mob career

The Angiulo brothers, who owned nightclubs, were publicly named as members of Cosa Nostra, more commonly known as the American Mafia. In 1963. Gennaro's reputation for being a shrewd businessman, along with his successful racketeering, led to Patriarca appointing him underboss of the Providence, Rhode Island-based Patriarca crime family. Angiulo later headed up Boston's underworld from the 1960s to the 1980s. He and his brothers ran the criminal organization out of Francesco's Restaurant at 98 Prince Street in the North End, the neighborhood in which he grew up.

**********

Mrkleen, I was tempted to slide in a sentence about Gerry putting out a hit order on some young guy name Paul who used to work at Francesca's and dropped Gerry's calamari on the floor one day. But I didn't want to ruin your extended honeymoon.

Anyway, in the late 1960s, an attorney came into my very new research company and said he wanted us to conduct a survey. It turned out that he was the lawyer for Gennaro Angiulo. Gerry was soon to be tried in court on some charge, and his lawyer wanted to plead for a change of venue on the basis that Gerry was too well-known and disliked in the Boston area to face an unbiased jury.

So we set up a telephone survey that basically consisted of one question:

Are you very familiar, somewhat familiar, somewhat unfamiliar, or very unfamiliar with each of the following Italian Americans?

• Lawrence Berra
• Francis Sinatra
• James Durante
• Gennaro Angiulo
• Joseph DiMaggio
• Rocco Marciano
• Mario Lanza

The theory was that, if Gerry was known even a quarter as well as other luminaries on the list, it would be enough to prejudice a jury against him.

It turned out that only 3% of the 500 respondents were even "somewhat familiar" with him, so the survey never saw the light of day as court evidence, and Gerry did not win a change of venue. But at least we did get paid—and in cash rather than bullets.

Some time, I'll relate the story of a very well-known Boston mayor who threatened to put us out of business if we didn't phony the results of a mayoral candidate survey and publicize those phony results. And no, it was not Kevin White or Thomas Menino.

Sam

sam wrote:Mrkleen, I was tempted to slide in a sentence about Gerry putting out a hit order on some young guy name Paul who used to work at Francesca's and dropped Gerry's calamari on the floor one day. But I didn't want to ruin your extended honeymoon.

Interesting story that is VERY close to what you joked about above...but was not me.

We had two main cooks. Sal Black (black hair) and Sal Red. So one week we come in and expect to see Sal Black...but he is missing from the kitchen. The explanation was that he had an injury...and would be out for a bit. The true story was that Sal was frying up a big pan of eggplant to make into parmigiana later and the tray fell off the counter. He said out loud - ah, screw them...they are rich bastards, they wont miss it."

As it turned out, one of the owners (another made guy) heard him and later that day, Sal was taken for a ride on the elevator. He ended up with 5 broken ribs.

Now that same night, after midnight when we were cleaning up - that same guy told me to go start and clean the snow off of his car in the lot. I ran out with shot sleeves in January and cleaned all the snow and got it nice and warm. On his way out, he handed me a $50 dollar bill. So goes to show, you bend over backwards to show respect and those wiseguys would do the same for you. But you cross them and WATCH OUT.

Mrkleen,

That's the North End to a "t."

Sam

RosalieTCeltics wrote:We come from Newton, home of "Fats" Pellegrini, a character and a half. He was part of the North End "group", and my husband's sister in law was his niece. "Fats" was on the cover of Yankee magazine, they used to paint the streets down "the lake" on the fourth of July because that is what Fats wanted and what he wanted, they (the city) did! I love these stories, because it was as if we were living in our own private movie some of the time.

They played cards at one of the bookie's homes in Newton every week and they were robbed. They found out who did it and they found the body dead.
Unreal stories, a world unto itself!!!! But, Fats love my husband. Anytime he
wanted anything done, he came to him because my husband was the president of the union for ten years.

The stories go on and on

Fat was one of the most giving persons I've ever known. When my Mom was wheelchair bound her last couple of years one day Fat and the "boys" showed up at the house and built a ramp to the front door. When my Dad asked what he owed the answer was nothing. Later when my Dad needed to go into the Soldier's Home I was told it was about a two year wait for a spot. Fat heard that, made some calls, and Dad was admitted less than a week later. What a guy, and his son is keeping up the good work.

when my brother in law died (he was a quadrapeligic, from a car accident), my husband donated all his wheelchairs to Fat, he had people in mind who could use them. One of them was as expensive as a new car, but, coming from the family he did, there was no way he was selling them.

As big a reputation as Fat had, he had a good heart. But he certainly was a character!! The people in Newton miss him more than any other Newton citizen!

Rosalie

These are great stories - thanks for sharing Rosalie and Bob.