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The "Pahk"
by Andy Hall
Located at 4 Yawkey Way, right in the heart of the great city of Boston, lies one of the most historic pieces of architecture known to all sports fans. That's right , this is the home of the Boston Red Sox baseball club. As many of you are already aware, the Red Sox could arguably be one of the best baseball teams of all time. On any given summer night, you can expect many lifelong, die hard fans to flock to the ballpark to watch the team they know better than they'll ever know their in-laws. Bustling down the streets after forcing your way out of a packed subway tunnel, take a left go over the Mass. Pike bridge and take a left onto Yawkey hearing those famous words:
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Fenway Park."
Fenway was built on September 25, 1911, and was constructed over the long winter by the Osborne Engineering Corp, until it was opened on April 20, 1912. The capacity was set to reach 27,000 screaming fans to watch their home team play. Owner John Taylor was a real estate guru who sold himself a piece of land in the "Fens" of Boston to replace the old park on Huntington Ave. This was also an incentive to bring mo re value to the teams net worth. Before construction was complete, Taylor sold the project to Jim McAleer and Robert McRoy who later named it 'Fenway Park'. The facade of the building was (and remains) beautiful inlaid brick, and the bleachers of wooden seats. Remember, the park only had one story. The original measurements were 321 ft. to left, 488 ft. to center, and 314 ft. to right. Fenway is now one of the smallest ballparks in the country, although perhaps the most distinct out of any.
Of course Fenway is famous for it's unique style and design, but there is one feature of the ballpark that makes it really stand out- that's right, the Green Monster (aka 'The Monstah'). First made with wood when the stadium was first built, but then in 1934 changed to concrete and tin, and later changed to hard plastic in 1978. The 9000 sq. ft. beast in left field used to just be a big wall filled with advertisements and the manually operated scoreboard until it was painted green in 1947. The wall stands a solid 37 ft, 2 inches tall, just a bit over the reach of an outstretched left fielder trying to reel in a homer. The distance from the Monster to the plate has been disputed as much as the Curse of the Bambino. Some say its 315, others say its 310, and some think it is much closer at 304. However, either the ball is hit high and deep enough so it's gone anyway, or the ball headed for a wall ball double and it's going to bounce hard off it anyway regardless
of how far away it is (it's a shallow left field anyway). This is the biggest wall in the majors, and the only to have birthed a mascot because of it, 'Wally' The Green Monster. In 2003, seats were added to the top of The Monster. Now since seats up there are in such demand, there is an online lottery system just to qualify for the tickets. However, tickets can range well up into the thousand dollar range just for standing-room only tickets! As for the scoreboard, it is still run and operated manually every game. The job is in high demand eac h season and the extremely hot work conditions never seem to scare off Red Sox faithful.
Right in front of the wall was something called "Duffy's Cliff". Duffy's Cliff was a mount able 10 ft. tall to help both stabilize the wall, and level out the grades between Fenway and Lansdowne St. This meant that the left fielder had to run up the hill to get a ball, and back down again to make the play. The Sox first star left fielder Duffy Lewis was perfected this trick, as the hill became named after him. Later in 1934, Sox owner Tom Yawkey had the hill removed, making Lansdowne St. higher than the actual field itself. This took place during the remodeling of the entire field.
Drifting towards center brings yet another trick in playing the outfield at Fenway. The "Triangle" in center field was meant to corral balls hit in the 'power alley'. The power alley assumes that most of the batters are right handed hitters. Pulling the ball is much more of a powerful stroke than hitting to the opposite field, so the Monster is angled so that once it bounces off (if it is ropes from the middle to the right side of the wall, hooking) it would get directed towards the bullpen and get caught up in the triangle, also the deepest part of the park.
Behind right field is any old, typical bullpen, right? Well, sort of-this was named after a Red Sox legend. Ted Williams, one of the best hitters of all time, used to pull the ball (since he was a lefty) and blast HR's, that sometimes wouldn't always clear over the old bullpen. In return, the newer bullpen was extended 23 feet to make it much easier to hit home runs, especially over the smaller wall.
Now we step off the field for a moment and up into the outfield bleachers for a remarkable story. In the sea of blue (seats), there is one red seat the signifies one of the best hits ever seen through the eyes of Fenway Park. An absolute bomb hit by Ted Williams, one of the biggest HR's ever seen at Fenway, was crushed a whopping 502 ft. If the ball hadn't been obstructed, it is believed the ball would have gone almost 530 ft. The story with the red seat you might ask? A 'die hard' fan by the name of Joseph Boucher was camped in his seat, quietly napping underneath his straw hat when the ball busted through and hit him in the head. Dazed, he was awoken suddenly with some 30,000 fans and a splitter of a headache and said...
"How far away must one sit to be safe in this park? I didn't even get the ball. They say it bounced a dozen rows higher, but after it hit my head, I was no longer interested. I couldn't see the ball. Nobody could. The sun was right in our eyes. All we could do was duck. I'm glad I didn't stand up."
Boucher was supposedly a Yankee fan in town on business and stayed to catch the game, and later said that he would take it as a sign that the baseball gods wanted him to be a Sox fan. The next day, the Boston Globe read, "Bulls eye! Ted Williams Knocks Sense Into Yankees Fan".
Hopping the fence and returning to the field, as you steer around starting to go down the 1st base line fence, there is a sweeping curve. This is known as "The Belly", where balls can go completely around the horn if they dance down the line just right. However, if there is a shot to the right field fence, the ball can easily bounce off the base of the wall (concrete) and completely throw off the judgment of the right fielder. Often times when watching a game, the right fielder will play very conservatively when the ball goes near The Belly as it is a fairly unpredictable ball-"just let it die in there'" some say until the ball is playable.
The right field foul pole is the shortest foul pole in the Majors, standing at a mere 302 ft. A famous Sox star shortstop Johnny Pesky hit six home runs curving around this pole, but never hitting it. This was dedicated to Pesky on his 87th b birthday in 2006 in honor of his 'run-ins' with the pole.
On the opposite side, the left field pole was named after Carlton Fisk, after he hit that famous home run in game 6 in 1975 (which my dad attended, bragging about it until this day) where he ran down the first base line shuffling his feet, waving the ball fair with his arms, and the ball hooked back and hit off the pole to make it a home run and the sox won the game.
So there you have it; things in Fenway you may have or may not have known existed, or their stories that went with the feature. There are many other phases of change that happened to Fenway, whether it is more seating (building of the upper deck) or the .406 club behind home plate, there are many other perks to the park. There are many other things I missed or briefly touched on, however each one of these unique features could have a whole documentary dedicated to each.
Since we are all a part of Red Sox Nation, I felt obligated to share with you the stories and structures built into Fenway Park; it is your duty as a fan to know. For those of you who have never stood in Fenway, from personal experience I can tell you it is an experience like none other. Just to think of so many great players who have walked through the outfield grass, or roped a hit off the wall. Even FDR made a Presidential Address at Fenway Park at one time. Let's put it this way, no Yankee fan can ever take away your credibility of knowing your home team and park history. We are who we are, but we all have one thing we share- the same old memories, at the same old place, Fenway Park.
Ballpark.com's Fenway Factsheet
This is a datasheet of interesting facts about Fenway Park. All material is directly quotes and can be referenced at ballparks.com/baseball/american/fenway.htm.
* Red Sox dugout is on the 1st base side. The bullpens are located behind the right field fence.
* Elevation: 20 feet above sea level.
* Site of the 1999, 1961 (II) and 1946 All-Star games.
* Seats made of oak.
* 1976 electronic scoreboard significantly altered the wind currents.
* 43 private 28-seat rooftop boxes added in 1984.
* Bleacher sections 34 & 35 are covered with tarps for day games because they are in the batter's eye. However, those seats are available for night games.
* Duffy's Cliff was a 10-foot-high mound, which formed an incline in front of the left field wall from 1912 to 1933, extending from the left-field foul pole to the flagpole in center; named after the Red Sox Duffy Lewis, the acknowledged master of defensive play on the cliff. It was greatly reduced but not completely eliminated in 1934.
* The Green Monster has a ladder running from the top of the scoreboard, 13 feet above ground, to the top of the wall; This once allowed the groundskeeper to remove batting-practice home run balls from the getting above the wall, but became obsolete when the netting was replaced by seats in 2003.
* Behind the manual scoreboard in left field is a room where the walls are covered with signatures of players that have played left field through the years.
* Scoreboard numbers - runs and hits: 16 inches by 16 inches, 3 pounds; errors, innings, pitchers numbers: 12 inches by 16 inches, 2 pounds.
* No ball has ever been hit over the right-field roof.
* The umpires declared home run balls that hit the uprights above the left-field wall in play.
* Wooden bleachers stood in foul territory down the left field line in the 1910s and 1920s but burned down on May 8, 1926. The charred remains were removed, increasing the size of foul territory there. Wooden bleachers were completed in center and right-center for the 1912 World Series.
* Infield grass was transplanted from Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds to Fenway in 1912.
* During the winter of 1933-1934, all of the wooden grandstands were replaced with concrete and steel. A big fire on January 5, 1934, destroyed much of what had already been built, but all was finished for the season opener on April 17, 1934.
* In 1936 a 23-foot, 7-inch net was placed atop the wall in left to protect windows on Landsdowne Street.
* Wind usually helps the batters. A new press box built in the late 1980s above home plate causes wind swirl that pushes foul balls back into fair territory.
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