Three teenage boys from Malden went to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park Wednesday night with a new friend.
Pedro Lugo, Sean Wetzonis and Francisco Rios were walking to the game when they saw John, a homeless man in Boston, sitting with a sign asking for a drink that said "Go Sox" in one hand and a cup asking for change in the other.
The teenagers told John they could give him money but wanted to give him something more meaningful.
"We saw our friend John sitting there asking for some change. I told my friends we should ask him, and so we asked him and said, 'Hey. We have money but I also have a ticket for the game.' And he said, 'Yeah, I'll go.' And he dropped his cup, put his change in his pocket and we went inside," Lugo said.
They had an extra ticket after their friend Josh had to cancel last minute due to a family emergency.
Wetzonis says they asked if John wanted anything to eat or drink. He did end up getting a Miller Lite, but he really just wanted to enjoy the game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
"I was sitting next to him asking him how he was feeling, and he really liked it. It was a lot of music. He was just vibing to it. He was quiet but he was just doing his thing," Rios said.
U.S. & World
The boys say his favorite part of the game — like it is for so many — was singing "Sweet Caroline."
"A lot of these homeless people are just overlooked," Wetzonis said. "People just think of them as trash and are forgotten about in society. It's just nice to see that a little thing as a ticket that was going to go to waste from us that ended up going to him just made the biggest difference in his day."