The song doesn’t hit the same.
Fans don’t shriek when the trumpets blare over the speakers like they did at Dodger Stadium. They don’t sing along once Vicente Fernandez starts crooning. “Volver Volver” doesn’t evoke the same emotion when Alex Verdugo steps into the batter’s box at Fenway Park, where the fan base’s Latino sector prefers salsa and merengue over rancheras.
“It doesn’t get appreciated as it did in L.A., for sure,” Verdugo said in a recent phone interview, “but Boston fans have been coming around.”
That was the question when Verdugo arrived in Boston last February: Would Red Sox fans ever accept the guy replacing Mookie Betts?