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ALL STAR GAMES: 1946, 1961, 1999 LIGHTS: 1947
BEEN THERE: I walked around Fenway Park after attending conferences in Boston in both August 1998 and 2002.
Fenway Park is the best classic era baseball stadium still standing, falling slightly behind Wrigley Field only in the aesthetics and location departments. It has some of the quirkiest angles and extreme dimensions of any stadium, and the seats are very close to the field, leaving very little foul territory. The way the right field corner angles out sharply from the short 302 feet in the corner to 380 feet in front of the bullpens creates a unique situation that challenges visiting right fielders to chase down long drives that often end up as triples. Center field is unusually short, but the high fence there (18 feet) makes it hard to hit home runs in that direction. It is also the only stadium with essentially just one big deck; there is a mezzanine level (or levels) for high-paying patrons on top of the roof, but this is only about six rows deep. My first impression (from the outside only; the Red Sox were out of town both times I was there, and there were no tours either day) was that this modest four-story brick structure didn't look big enough to contain a major league baseball stadium.
In the original configuration, there was a steep slope in left field, known as "Duffy's Cliff" after the Red Sox left fielder. Temporary bleachers were installed along that slope for World Series games. The space behind the center field bleachers was in play for some of the early years, accounting for the outlandish official distance of 550 feet to the corner just right center field. (The 593 foot official distance given for the early 1930s is very doubtful.) Another possible oddity is that the rows in the uncovered section of the grandstand on the third base side were apparently angled toward the infield, not parallel to the front edge, so that the front edge steadily rose in height as it approached the foul pole; if so, the rear edge of that section would presumably be oriented that way as well. (This is based on a wide angle photo from the Burns and Ward book, however, so it may be an optical illusion.) Warning tracks are not shown in the 1912 version diagram above because available photographs do not show any dirt along the fences; further research may be necessary.
The Boston Braves moved into Fenway Park in August 1914 and played the 1914 World Series there, and remained as temporary tenants of the Red Sox until construction of Braves Field was completed in August 1915. Oddly enough, the Red Sox left behind their brand new stadium during the World Series in both 1915 AND 1916, preferring the even newer (and much bigger) Braves Field a few blocks away. (See Shared & borrowed stadiums. Boston was totally crazy about baseball in those days, and many people hoped for an all-Boston World Series. That eventuality finally almost came to pass in 1948, but the Cleveland Indians beat the Red Sox in a tie-breaking playoff game, thus winning the American League pennant.
Fenway Park was substantially rebuilt in 1934, with new bleachers and new grandstands in the right field and left field corners. The steep slope in front of the left field wall was eliminated, and instead the wall was increased in height to 37 feet. This created the signature feature of Fenway Park that almost everyone who pays any attention to baseball recognizes: the famous "Green Monster." Originally it was plastered with advertising billboards, and didn't really turn "green" until the 1950s.
In 1940 the bullpens were moved from along the foul lines to in front of the right field bleachers, which shortened the distance out there by about 23 feet. This area of the ballpark was known as "Williamsburg" after the Hall of Fame slugger Ted Williams, who hit 521 home runs in his career, tied with Willie McCovey for 12th place all time. If Williams had not served his country in the armed forces in TWO wars -- World War II and Korea -- he would almost certainly have hit at least 100 more homers, and possibly more than Babe Ruth's lifetime total of 714.
During the 1980s a big new multi-level press box/sky box section, known as the "406 Club," was built on top of the roof behind home plate. Also, a second mezzanine level was added around the infield. In the right field corner the rooftop mezzanine is uncovered. On final intriguing aspect of this quirky ballpark is the uncertainty over the true left field dimension. Officially it was 315 feet from 1936 on, but blueprints and independent estimates suggested 308 feet or less. In 1995 the Red Sox changed the distance marker from "315" to "310."
Despite all this charm, for 86 years there was a dark side to Fenway Park, the sad fact that the Red Sox failed to win a single World Series since 1918! This is known as "The curse of Babe Ruth," because ever since he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, the Red Sox have only rarely won the American League pennant, and even on those few occasions when they did, twisted fate seems to have robbed them of glory at the last moment. Red Sox fans have endured some of the highest emotional peaks -- such as Carlton Fisk's game-winning home run over the Green Monster in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series -- and some of the bleakest moments of despair -- such as Game 7 of the 2003 AL divisional playoffs when the Red Sox frittered away a four run lead against the Yankees. And then -- miracle of miracles -- the Red Sox overcame their past and finally achieved ourageously improbable triumph in 2004, after losing the first three games of the ALCS. The curse was reversed! After getting over that psychological hump, beating the Cardinals four games to none in the October Classic was almost an afterthought.
CINEMA: Fenway Park appeared in the movie Field of Dreams (1989), starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, and Amy Madigan.
After moving out of Braves Field and changing their name, the Boston Redskins played football in Fenway Park from 1933 to 1936, and then moved to Washington, D.C.! The AFL Boston Patriots played in Fenway Park from 1963 until 1968.
The Red Sox had been planning to replace Fenway Park with a virtual carbon copy of the original ballpark next door, complete with a new "green monster" in left field. The main difference would be the addition of a large second deck. Under the new owner John Henry, however, it was decided to renovate Fenway Park, which will therefore live on for the foreseeable future. Hearty thanks are due to the Save Fenway Park citizen movement. The renovations began in early 2003 by installing a new section of high-priced seats on top of the Green Monster. Since it hangs over the sidewalk (supported by steel beams positioned at a 45 degree angle), they had to get a special easement from the City of Boston. Some purists complained, but it's only three rows deep and really doesn't detract from the classic Fenway setting. In addition, two extra rows of box seats were squeezed in behind the diamond, and a new concession area was added in back of the right field bleachers, where a run-down garage had been previously. Prior to the 2004 a new section of luxury "tavern style" seats was added on top of the roof in the right field corner, adorned with a big "Budweiser" sign in neon lights. The biggest change came in 2006, when the tiny top level was expanded into a real upper deck, albeit a small one. Also, the glass was removed from the former "406 Club" behind home plate, exposing Boston's elite patrons to the chilly air. In 2008, a new section of 412 seats to be known as the "Coca-Cola Corner" was added to the upper deck in the left field corner. These incremental additions have raised the seating capacity to over 36,000, guaranteeing the Red Sox a big enough revenue stream to remain competitive in future years.
SOURCES: Lowry (1992), Gershman (1993), Ward & Burns (1994), USA Today / Fodor's (1996), Rosen (2001), Washington Post
WEB LINKS: Boston Public Library, zazzle.com
FAN TIPS: Steven Poppe, Howard Corday, Bruce Orser, Sean Holland, A. Young
