Boston Red Sox president Sam Kennedy has turned Scotland's World Cup visit into one of Fenway Park's warmest baseball memories of the summer.
The Tartan Army came for football, then adopted Boston for a week.
Fenway clearly has not forgotten them.
The Scotland national team shared Kennedy's letter to Scottish FA president Mike Mulraney and chief executive Ian Maxwell, and it read less like corporate courtesy than genuine affection.
"What happened at Fenway Park on June 14th was something none of us will forget. We knew the Tartan Army was coming. We did not fully understand what that meant until we saw it."
Kennedy described hundreds of supporters gathering near the Robert Burns statue in the Back Bay before marching to Lansdowne Street with bagpipes, kilts, and Scottish flags. His strongest line was that they filled the ballpark with "a spirit that has no equivalent in American sport."
That matched what Boston saw. Scotland fans had just watched their team beat Haiti 1-0 at Boston Stadium, the nation's first World Cup appearance since 1998 and first World Cup win since 1990, then turned a mid-June Red Sox game into a singalong.
The Red Sox still lost 6-4 to the Rangers, but the visitors made the night feel lighter than the score. They bought caps, packed bars near the Green Monster, joined local rituals, and gave a midseason baseball slog the noise of an away-day football end.
Kennedy closed by asking the Scottish FA to thank Steve Clarke, staff and the Tartan Army, writing that they treated Fenway like their own home.
Boston's role in this World Cup is bigger than one fan march.
Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
Boston Stadium in Foxborough is hosting seven matches: five group games, a Round of 32 match on June 29 and a quarterfinal on July 9. Scotland helped open that slate with the Haiti win, then stayed for the 1-0 loss to Morocco.
The guaranteed Boston chapter is now over because Scotland face Brazil in Miami on June 24. Their path is still open, but narrow. Beat Brazil and they should advance, possibly even winning Group C if Morocco fail to beat Haiti. Draw, and four points could be enough for a third-place route. Lose, and the math becomes uncomfortable.
Boston may not know when it will see the Tartan Army again. It already knows why it would welcome them back.
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