🌭⚾ Alexa, play “Sweet Caroline”

It’s Tuesday, Boston.

💍 B-SIDE EXCLUSIVE: After 8.5 years together, B-Side’s head of content Emily Schario got engaged! Her fiancé popped the question at Mount Auburn Cemetery, one of our fave spots (it’s not creepy, we promise!). Please enjoy her proposal pics for a Tuesday serotonin boost. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Total solar eclipse POV

• Seaport Sweat is (almost) back

• Cambridge’s rodent academy

Up first…

SPORTS

It’s Opening Day, baby!

Welcome to Boston’s first unofficial day of spring! The Red Sox kick off their home opener against the Baltimore Orioles today at 2:10 p.m. And while baseball is the name of the game, Fenway’s vibes are half the fun. 

Here’s what’s going down at the ballpark this season: 

🤯 First off, in a surprise to everyone, the Red Sox are … kinda good? We’re only 10 games in, but between our 7-3 record and our pitching staff having the best ERA in the league (1.49 ERA), things are off to a solid start. But true fans know the Sox have played poorly at home the past few seasons (even manager Alex Cora agrees), so here’s hoping they can keep the momentum going during this home-game stretch.

❤️ Today’s Opening Day will be a lil’ extra special. This year marks the 20th (!) anniversary of the 2004 Championship team that broke the Sox’s 86-year championship drought. To celebrate, nearly 40 players from the team that reversed the curse will be at a special pregame ceremony, which will include a tribute to Red Sox Hall of Famer Tim Wakefield and his wife, Stacy, who both recently passed from cancer. 

🌭 Foodies have a lot to love about this season’s lineup. There are tons of new concessions at the ballpark, including Irish nachos made with crispy waffles, corned beef, and Sauerkraut; a fried chicken sandwich with bacon, Vermont cheddar cheese, and Grillo’s pickles; and executive chef Ron Abell’s personal fave, the half- and full-pound cookies, loaded with white, milk, and dark chocolate (obviously, served warm).

🙌 And arguably, the most important food news … Heinz will now supply Fenway’s ketchup. Their previous supplier was True Made Foods, whose ketchup was naturally sweetened with fruits and veggies. IYKYK.

⚾ Looking ahead: Add a Fenway theme night to your 2024 bucket list. The ballpark will be hosting dozens of theme nights and cultural and identity celebrations this season, recognizing everything from college students, to Pride month, to Noah Kahan. Fans can take home a themed jersey, water bottle, or other doodad with the purchase of their ticket at most theme night games. And if you’re a student, sign up for Student9s tickets where you can get seats at select homes games starting at $9. 

🥳 You can still celebrate Opening Day without even being at Fenway. South Street Diner is serving all-you-can-eat Fenway Franks today from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with the purchase of a beer or root beer; Sam Adams Brewing is hosting a watch party this afternoon; and if you grab a slice from Sal’s Pizza on Brookline Ave., you’ll be entered to win Sox tickets. 

🎟️ Still want tix for today? Bleacher seats start around $50. 

B-SIDE MADNESS

Boston’s best nightlife

👯 Welcome to the B-Side madness FINALS! It’s all come down to this. We crowdsourced some of Boston’s best nightlife venues to create our own March Madness bracket, where B-Siders can vote which spot is the city’s best. Make sure to cast your vote!

TOGETHER WITH DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE AND THE JIMMY FUND

Help strike out cancer once and for all

⚾ Storytime: Back in 1948, a boy with cancer, dubbed “Jimmy” to protect his privacy, had one wish — to watch his favorite team, the Boston Braves, from his hospital bed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. That wish sparked a movement that led to the birth of the Jimmy Fund. Now it's your turn to help carry on Jimmy's legacy. As we gear up for Fenway Opening Day, April 9, step up to the plate and donate to help the Red Sox and Jimmy Fund in the fight against cancer. With Northwestern Mutual Boston matching donations, up to $25,000 total, every contribution counts.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🌒 T-20 years until the next U.S. total solar eclipse. After months of anticipation, this total solar eclipse has come and gone, bringing huge crowds to the areas of northern New England who were lucky enough to be in the path of totality and watch the afternoon plunge into eerie darkness. B-Side writer Gia trekked Maine to catch a glimpse of the total eclipse, and can confirm it was seriously awesome. The only issue: she forgot to take her eclipse glasses off and missed about 45 seconds of totality. 

🪧 Striking BU grad students have a lot on their plates. It’s now been over two weeks since BU’s nearly 3,000 unionized grad students began their strike for better pay and benefits. And many striking students are struggling. BU has been withholding pay from striking workers, many of whom say they were already scraping to get by, with long hours (up to 60 a week, in some instances), low pay (stipends range from $24,000 to $45,000 a year), and often, the inability to take on other work. Combined with Boston’s high cost of living, the situation can be dire, with rent alone taking up to 60% of salaries in some cases. 

🚇 No night train for Blue Liners this week. Starting tonight through Thursday, Blue Line trains are going to be replaced by shuttle buses between Bowdoin and Orient Heights from 8 p.m. until the end of service. And it wouldn’t be an MBTA shutdown without a caveat: The shuttles won’t be stopping at Bowdoin, so the MBTA is redirecting riders to the next closest stop, Government Center, which is about a .25 mile walk away. Consider this an amuse-bouche to the two bigger Blue Line shutdowns later this month. 

🏋️‍♀️ Seaport Sweat is (almost) SO back. Boston’s biggest free workout series is kicking off its ninth season on May 1 and will feature everything from barre to power sculpting. This year, the program will run through Sept. 28, and will include over 100 classes on the Seaport Common every Monday through Thursday at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 10 a.m., plus the all-new Stretch in the City series, a weekly yoga class that’ll meet on Fridays at noon on the Summer Street Steps. You can scope out all the instructors here and keep an eye on this space for when classes open (they fill quickly!).

GIVEAWAY

Together with Tutuland

Enter to win two small tufting experiences from Tutuland! Tutuland Studio is a crafting store located in Boston, which provides the best experience of tufting, pouring arts, and decoden arts to customers. Tufting is an art form using yarn and fabric to create rugs. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

ONE LAST THING

Boston’s best rat hunter

A star was born at Cambridge’s recent pest management conference. 

Sansa, a small, five year old Patterdale terrier, is one of the many dogs with D.C.-based Unique Pest Management that are tasked with professionally hunting rats as an alternative to using poison or trapping. And she was introduced to Bostonians at Cambridge’s recent “Rodent Academy” event, a two-day conference to discuss improving pest management in the city.

And although you wouldn’t think it by looking at Sansa, the method is effective. One team of three pups managed to kill 88 rats in an hour, according to the company’s owner. 

Although tiny, Sansa is truly deadly, with a kill count of “thousands” under her collar. And conference-goers got a peek at her skills when Unique Pest Management played a video compilation of her and her colleagues chasing and catching rats to the tune of “Another one bites the dust.” 

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🐀 Thanks for reading! She might be a killer, but she’s so darn cute. 

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund, for supporting local journalism and fighting the good fight against cancer.

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].