One week before Opening Day at Fenway, a girl named Alexa Rodriguez was attacked by a hawk while touring America’s favorite ballpark. The Red Sox organization says the bird’s nest was removed shortly after the incident, but I’ve been to two day games since then and have seen the majestic creatures soaring overhead both times, much to the delight of fans.

When it comes time to write about the bird, we’ve described it as the Fenway Park hawk. The Lowell Spinners stuck with the generic Red-Tailed Hawk when it named the bird the official mascot of its Yankees Elimination Project. The Herald described it as “Fenway Park’s in-house hawk.”

We think it’s high time the bird got a proper name.

Whether it’s the same bird with a vendetta against people named A-Rod is irrelevant. The birds enjoy soaring above the green grass of Fenway and coming to rest on the light towers every once in a while. During the Patriot’s Day game, this got more fans bringing out their cameras than anything that happened on the field.

So let’s show him our appreciation by naming him. It could be as simple as naming him Henry the Hawk (a nice homage to Red Sox principal owner John Henry), or something more inventive. Here’s some information on the red-tailed hawk in case you need some insight on the bird’s personality.

[T]his hawk soars with wings in a slight dihedral, flapping as little as possible to conserve energy. Active flight is slow and deliberate, with deep wing beats. . . . When the Red-tailed Hawk walks, its steps are slow and awkward.

Hmm. Sounds a little like David Ortiz’s approach to hitting and running the bases. Maybe Big Hawki? Let’s hear some of your ideas. Hopefully we can get a name that will stick to the now beloved bird.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Red Sox, Celebrity, City Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by Amy Derjue on 4/28/08 in Red Sox, Celebrity, City Life