Happy Patriots Day

For all of you up in the Commonwealth I just want to wish you a Happy Patriots Day!

For all of my readers who are not from Boston, no, this is not a day set aside to celebrate the New England Patriot's 3 championships- that's called "every day."

Let me explain to you what our very provincial holiday means: it is a celebration of the Battle of Lexington & Concord, and since 1969 it has been observed on the third Monday in April, making this a 3-day holiday weekend in the Hub.

Here's the three most common things people do on this important and cherished day:

1.) The Boston Marathon
From Hopkinton to Boston and from Rosie Ruiz to that famous Kenyan, the oldest marathon in the country has been run in weather ranging from extremely hot to bitterly cold; look for the latter today.

Some people also refer to this day as Marathon Monday.

2.)The Sox game at Fenway
For every year since 1960 the Red Sox have played a home game the morning of the marathon, in case traffic didn't get crazy enough around Kenmore Square from just one of the events.

3.) Playing hooky to catch one of the above
Although most business and schools are close on this holiday, when I was a kid that wasn't always the case. That didn't stop nearly everyone in the Greater Boston area from playing hooky from one or the other in order to either hand out orange slices to dehydrated runners somewhere along the route, or be lucky enough to get into the game at Fenway.

With the nasty weather that landed in the area starting yesterday morning the start time of today's Sox game with the Angels has been pushed back from 10:00 to 12:00, and could move again depending on the conditions. MLB officials, plagued by a slew of rain/snow outs the past few weeks, are determined to get this game in, and it looks like if they have to push it back to 4:00 they will still play today following yesterday's cancellation.

So get your rain poncho on, grab some citrus snacks and get ready for a day on the sporting calendar that has no peer.

History.

Runners.

Baseball.

Hooky.

It doesn't get any better than Patriots Day in Boston.