By Isaac Teich and Ashley Davis
BU News Service

Boston — The streets surrounding Fenway Park quickly filled with devoted fans awaiting Game 1 of the 2013 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals.

The atmosphere is wild and electric inside and around Fenway Park for the first World Series game played in Boston since 2007.

“It’s crazy,” said Kim Salvato, a Red Sox fan who passed out posters for a local radio station. “There’s definitely a lot of people. They’re excited for the World Series. It’s a lot of fun.”

Fans have come from far and wide to watch Game 1 at Fenway Park, like Red Sox fan Bill Youngs, a season ticket holder, who came to Boston from Albany, NY.

“I went to spring training and I knew they were good, but I didn’t know they were this good,” Youngs said.

Youngs is not the only Sox fan in the area tonight who didn’t expect the team to be playing in the World Series this year.

“At the beginning of the year I thought they would be a .500 team,” said another Sox fan, Nathan Mazurekno. “This team being here right now is just great.”

Restaurants and bars surrounding Fenway Park also filling up with devoted fans who were unable to get tickets to the game.

“Great atmosphere so far,” Mazurekno said. “[But] after the game it’s going to be a lot crazier.”

Many fans walking the streets near Fenway are students. Shawn Kelley, a student at Northeastern University, passed out posters for a local newspaper. Even Kelly, an avid Red Sox fan, hasn’t seen anything quite like the atmosphere surrounding Fenway tonight.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I’m the one handing out these posters and you get to meet the people who just came into town, but you can see some diehards around here which is kind of awesome to be around.”

Lindsay Smith and Darcy Gilbert hoped to purchase tickets at the box office Wednesday. In lieu of purchasing tickets from StubHub or other third party sources, the two thought it was worth trying to brave the box office line. Just prior to Wednesday’s game, tickets were selling from upwards of $200 per seat.

“We just came to walk around and then saw the line for tickets, so thought we might as well give it a shot,” Smith said, adding that if they couldn’t get tickets to tonight’s game that they would try for a later game in the Series.

“I mean, how often do you get to go to the World Series?”

Grace D. Huberman of Boston was one of those to secure a ticket to Wednesday night’s game before heading to the ballpark.

Huberman, who attended games in both the Boston Red Sox 2004 and 2007 World Series appearances, said that for her tonight is mostly about being a part of the energy and excitement–for both the crowd and the Red Sox team.

“It’s just so great that they’ve made it this far,” Huberman said. “My husband and I are going to the game with the best man from our wedding. We got married in 2003 and in his toast he predicted the Red Sox would win the next year.”

Huberman thinks there may be a pattern. “After our first child was born, he predicted they would win again–and that was 2007,” she said, adding, “We just had our second child so we’ll see what happens this year.”