Fenway Park, Gillette Stadium, and the TD Garden are thetouchstones of the Boston sports scene, but residents north of thecity have a number of other destination spots.
'There are plenty of places in their backyard going on all yearlong that diehard sports fans can really get into,' said ChrisKlein, an Andover native who wrote 'The Die-Hard Boston SportsFan's Guide to Boston: A Spectator's Handbook,' which was publishedin June.
North of Boston, fans can take in popular sports such as hockey,baseball, basketball, and football, as well as polo (complete withhigh-class tailgating) and harness racing.
Klein visited many of the sites in researching his book.
'I basically just bought a ticket and took notes from a fan'sperspective, trying out different vantage points in the stadium,figuring out what the concession choices might be, and getting aflavor of the event,' Klein said.
The Bruins training camp is held each September at the RistucciaCenter in Wilmington.
'Some sessions there aren't that many fans there, maybe a fewdozen checking out the action, so it's a really differentexperience,' Klein said. 'You can just sit there and watch them dotheir drills and see how the coaches run them through theirpractices.'
College hockey fans can check out three Hockey East programs: theUniversity of Massachusetts at Lowell, Merrimack College in NorthAndover, and the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
In addition, the Lowell Devils play minor-league hockey atTsongas Arena.
Red Sox fans looking to see future talent in the making can checkout the Lowell Spinners, the single-A farm team of the Sox, whocall 5,000-seat LeLacheur Park their home field for 38 games everysummer.
Spinner alums include Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, JacobyEllsbury, and Clay Buchholz.
'It's fun to buy a program and check it out a few years down theline and see who's playing with the Red Sox now,' Klein said.
The team also relishes its role in the community.
'Lowell has gone through a ton of revitalization, and the thingwe're most proud of is that we're part of that talk,' said JonGoode, the Spinners' vice president of communications.
Other baseball options include the North Shore Navigators, a Lynn-based team in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, and theAmerican Defenders, a Canadian-American League franchise based inNashua.
There are plenty of high school football rivalries north of thecity, but perhaps none as historic as the annual showdown betweenPhillips Academy in Andover and Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter,N.H., which dates to 1878. Patriots coach Bill Belichick and currentNew York Giants linebacker/long snapper Zak DeOssie are Andoveralums.
One of the more well-known basketball venues is Cousens Gymnasiumat Tufts University in Medford, where circus legend P.T. Barnum was once a school trustee. He donated the remains of Jumbo theElephant, a circus favorite, to Tufts.
'I don't think anything beats the energy you can get from a gymon a winter's night,' Klein said.
There are many sporting venues outside the big four sports aswell. At the Myopia Polo Club in South Hamilton, club members playpolo matches Sunday afternoons from Memorial Day to ColumbusDayweekends.
The crowd can tailgate before a game, but compared with theexperience at, say, a Patriots or Boston College football game,'it's definitely more of a refined crowd,' Klein said. 'You'll seepeople bringing their own bales of hay to sit on, and there's a lotmore wine and cheese being served.'
Tennis stars such as Serena Williams and Martina Navratilova have passed though Ferncroft Country Club in Middleton to play forthe Boston Lobsters. Equestrian matches draw crowds to Hamiltonduring the Myopia Horse Show and to Hampton Falls, N.H., for theJumper Classic. Marblehead is known for various regattas,particularly during Race Week in July. And there is harness racing at Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H.
Nahant has staked a claim as the birthplace of tennis in America.There is a wooden sign on Swallow Cave Road stating, 'The firstgame of lawn tennis in the United States was played at this site inAugust of 1874,' according to Klein.
Although the honor is somewhat in dispute, what isn't in disputeis that the first tennis tournament in the country was held inNahant in 1876.
'The guys who played in this match were pioneers of the sport,'Klein said.
And one of the most famous New England athletes from the 20thcentury, Harry Agganis, starred at Lynn Classical, where hisfootball games attracted crowds of 20,000 or more to the ManningBowl.
'He was a magical, mythical champ,' said Paul Halloran, executivedirector of the Agganis All-Star Classics, a series of high schoolall-star games held in Agganis's memory.
Agganis went on to a legendary run at Boston University, on thegridiron and on the baseball diamond, before signing with the RedSox in order to stay close to his mother.
Following a solid rookie season in which he was the team'sstarting first baseman, Agganis died of a blood clot in 1955 at age26.
'Everyone was shocked - here was this handsome Greek God-type ofathlete, and he was gone,' Halloran said. Agganis is buried inLynn's Pine Grove Cemetery.
The Agganis Foundation was founded in 1955 and has since handedout $1.3 million to 813 high school students throughout the area,Halloran said.
