My dad and I have made it to Fenway Park for every Opening Day since I was in high school, somehow getting in without season tickets or inside connections. It is our one enduring father-son tradition, and this year, our 25th, I had a surprise in store for him: our very own Fenway brick.

To commemorate the ballpark’s centennial, the Red Sox let fans buy and inscribe bricks cemented into patios near entrance gates B and C. Like me, hundreds have written odes to the men who’ve mattered most in their lives.