Boston.com - Boston restaurant and club owner Patrick Lyons is hardly Big Papi, but he is relishing his first time in the visitors' batting cage in the basement of Fenway Park. He has just stepped through a door from his Fenway eatery Game On! and entered the indoor cage, which is all artificial turf, padded mats, and black netting. "It's exhilarating," says Lyons, 55, who played sandlot ball as a child. For the first time at Fenway, fans will be able to enter the visiting team's batting cage and take swings in the same practice area used by the likes of Derek Jeter and Miguel Tejada. Lyons and the Red Sox say they aren't aware of any other Major League Baseball team with such an arrangement. Naturally this will all occur when the Sox aren't at Fenway, and naturally it will cost, starting at $50 to $75 per head. Here's how it works: You book a party of at least 20 people - birthday, corporate, bachelor, whatever - at Game On!, which is on Fenway prop erty but outside the gates. The package includes food, the batting cage - complete with bats, helmets, and a pitching machine - and cheers and jeers from your friends, who can watch through a huge one-way window in the basement bar. There's another novel plan in the works: When the Sox are at Fenway, restaurant patrons will be able to watch - free of charge - the visiting team take batting practice through that huge window in the bar, which is now covered by a NASCAR mural. Lyons hopes to have the window ready by opening day on April 8."As soon as that mural comes down, you will be able to sit here and see the visiting team practice," says Lindsay Curtis, marketing manager for the Lyons Group. "They're in there an hour and a half before each game."

With apologies to every other bar around Fenway Park (Cask, Baseball Tavern etc) none of them can now hold a candle to Game On!    I guess it shouldn’t be that surprising that they would smash their competition like this since they are clearly the smartest bar in the area.  How else can you explain that they’re the only ones to advertise with us?  Anyway I digress.  This is by far the best addition to any bar since I’ve lived here which is my whole life.    I’ve been hearing whispers about this for years and now it has finally arrived.  How cool is it to be able to pregame and watch the other team take BP right in your face?   There hasn’t been this much excitement at Game On! since our March Madness Pop A Shot tournament last year. Granted it will probably be impossible now to get in, but whatever.   Get their early is all I can say.   As far as paying 50-75 bucks to take BP, that seems pretty freaking steep.   But I guess if only do it once or twice it’s not that big of a deal.  My only question is does the Jugs Machine come with it or do you need to bring Deeds (total inside joke for SHS people)?   Regardless it’s time to dust off the Green Easton.   

PS – Do you see how I naturally weave a real story into pumping up a client that advertises with us?   Sometimes I amaze myself.    Now let all the Stoolies who love to sabotage us commence with the Game On! bashing.

TRIVIA TOMORROW AT GAME ON!