FENWAY PARK
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Owned by the Yawky Trust
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Cost of Construction:
Seating Capacity: . Largest Crowd . . . Largest Crowd (since 1945 fire laws: High Season Attendance: Low Season Attendance: Surface |
$650,000
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Fences: Left field: |
. 37 ft. (since 1934) |
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1st Game: April 20, 1912
1at hit: Harry Wolter, New York Highlanders
1st home run: Hugh Bradley, Boston (4/26/12)
Most home runs: 248, Ted Williams ('39-'60)
In 1926 a fire destroyed the lef-field bleachers at Fenway. The owner pocketed the insurance money and left the bleachers missing for several years. Because of this, left fielders were able to catch foul balls behind the third base grandstand.
The foul territory is smaller than at any other Marjor League ballpark.
Capping off a Hall-of-Fame career, Ted Williams hit a home run in his final at bat, on September 28, 1960.
On October 4, 1948, the Red Sox lost to the Indians in the first playoff game in American League history, preventing an all-Boston World Series with the crosstown Braves.
Sunday games were not allowed at Fenway Park until 1932 (also their lowest attendance season).
Of the ten unassisted triple plays in Major League history, three have occurred at Fenway Park.
Birds have played an interesting role here over the years. In a 1945 game Boston's Skeeter Newsome was tagged out at second after a throw from the outfield to home deflected off a pigeon and was caught by the second baseman. In 1947 a seagull flying overhead dropped a three-pound fish on the mound during a game. Billy Hunter of the Browns in 1946 and Willie Horton in 1974 both killed pigeons with fly balls.
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FENWAY PARK Some parks are hitter's parks. Some parks are pitcher's parks. Fenway is a writer's park. Something in the air at Fenway leads writers to soar on wings of rhetoric in describing it. John Updike noted that "Fenway Park ... is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg." Longtime Red and WhiteSox catcher Carlton "Pudge" Fisk took a far more pragmatic approach. He said, "You can sit around and compare ballparks all you want, but no park in baseball compares to Fenway. If you want to come see a'a baseball game' —that's a generic term — and have a chance to see everything that baseball can provide, then Fenway is the place to see it." With the towering Green Monster looming in left field, Boston's Fenway Park is one of the most distinctive and storied ballparks in the Marjoe Leagues. It was constructed during the era of the classic ballparks, opening the same day as Detroit's Navin Field (later Tiger Stadium) in 1912. In the ballpark's inaugural season, the Red Sox compiled what remains the team's best record (105-47), and capped it off with a World Series title. When the park was first construced, a ten-foot-high embankment lay in front of the wall in left field. It was coined "Duffy's Cliff" after Duffy Lewis, the Red Sox outfielder who mastered it's intricacies during his six seasons at Fenway. As part of a major renovation in 1934, the team's new owner, Thomas A. Yawkey, removed the cliff and replaced it with a feature that would from then on dominate the park's architecture: a 37-foot-high wall, later known as "The Green Monster." Despite some modernization over the years, Fenway Park still conveys the charm— and quirks —of the classic ballparks of old. It lacks the spaciousness and amenities of newer parks, and many seats have their view obstructed by vertical steel beams supporting the grandstand roof. Nevertheless, for nearly 90 years, Fenway Park has been a popular destination for fans of the Red Sox and baseball in general. |
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Records & Milestones at Fenway Park: 07/09/46—Ted Williams sets or ties several All-Star Game records, compiling four hits, four runs, two home runs, five RBI and a 1.000 batting average. 10/10/46—St. Louis Cardinals collect a World Series record 20 hits in Game 4. 06/08/50—Red Sox score a record 29 runs against the St. Louis Browns, who score only four. 06/18/53—Red Sox score a single inning record 17 runs against the Tigers. Gene Stephens gets a record three hits in the inning. 09/12/79—Carl Yastrzemski gets 3,000 career hit. 04/29/86—Roger Clemens strikes out a record 20 batters in nine innings. He also ties the AL record for consecutive K's with eight. 10/10/99—Red Sox shatter the record for runs in a postseason game, defeating the Indians 23-7 in Game 4 of the League Chapionship Series. Their 24 hits also set a record. |
