It’s been a long winter already in Boston, between the cold, the snow, the ice, and the never-ending saga of re-signing the Captain.  I’m not sure I’ve ever been so ready for the grand ceremony that heralds the oncoming spring:  Truck Day!

The truck!

Mascot Steve T. Ferret tries to reach the door.

We decided he wasn’t going to make it very far this way, either.

Steve on the flatbed truck that accompanies the truck at the start of the journey.

Were they short of equipment? The dial-a-bat truck squeezes down Van Ness.

My idol, Brita Meng Outzen of mlb.com.

Wally directs traffic.  “I’m going to be late… I tried to go around Kenmore but a fat furry green man is in the way.”

“Who you calling fat?”

Murph the dog was a very good dog.

Wally holds Steve for me.

One of the best things about Truck Day is the sheer concentration of photographic firepower when there is, ah, very little to shoot.  Here, desperate for an edge, a SWAT team of photographers storms the park for the overhead shot.

Time to start packing the back of the truck!

The vacuums!!

I’m a little obsessed with the vacuums, as you can see from my 2007 and 2008 Truck Day shoots. 

Okay–now we’re getting silly.

Best I could do with the short lens to document the Fenway hawks circling lazily overhead.

“Uh, Al? … heh heh heh… we forgot some stuff!”

Al has finally managed to secure even the vacuums and the bicycle.  This is his smile of non-amusement.

Johnny Pesky!

I appreciate what it means to have Johnny start up the truck.  At the same time, could we not freeze to death perhaps the most beloved man in Red Sox Nation?

I think Johnny’s ready to drive off for real here!

I can’t tell if my friends are elated or just delirious from the cold.

Here we go!

Hang a left on Kilmarnock…

… and back down Boylston Street!

Fenway ambassadors and lucky fans armed with rubber baseballs = INCOMING!

And so the truck is on its way.  In short order we’ll see our boys in the sun.  And in slightly less short order… I’ll join them!