Fenway Park in Boston

Written by Julie Greiner

Boston has its Freedom Trail, Museums, Bunker Hill, Boston Harbor... but take me out to the ball game. Fenway Park dates almost back to the Civil War and remains much like it did the day if opened on April 20, 1912. In fact, General Charles Henry Taylor, owner of the Boston Globe and a Civil War veteran purchased the Boston Pilgrims for his son, who changed their name to the Red Sox and built Fenway Park. The name Fenway came from the area in which the park was located in Boston - Fens.

History of Fenway Park

After two days of being rained out, Fenway Park hosted its first professional baseball game on April 20, 1912. Tiger Stadium (Navin Field) in Detroit opened the same day as Fenway Park. Fenway Park has an odd shape that was intended to keep non-paying

Photography by Brian Merzbach

customers out of the park. In left field, a 10-foot embankment ran in front of the wall where fans sat. Duffy Lewis hit balls to the ledge so often, that it became known as Duffy's Cliff. On May 8, 1926, a fire destroyed bleachers on the left field line. In 1934, Tom Yawkey bought the club and began overhauling the park facilities. Another fire occurred just within months and severely damaged the ballpark. When Fenway Park reopened, it had a new look. Duffy's Cliff was leveled, the wooden left field wall was replaced by a metal structure and the wood bleachers were replaced with concrete ones. In 1947 the wall's advertisements were covered by green paint and Fenway Park became known as

View from the Bleachers at Fenway Park Boston

Photography by Brian Merzbach

the Green Monster. Skyview seats were installed in 1946 and lights followed in 1947 and the message board was added in 1976.

Fenway Park Today

Being the oldest Major League Park, Wrigley Field in Chicago coming in a close second. The Stadium has a capacity of only 33,925. The hand-operated scoreboard in left field is still used. Green and red lights are used to signal balls, strikes and outs. Each scoreboard number used to indicate runs and hits measures 16 inches by 16 inches and weighs some three pounds. In 1975 the wall was remodeled and an electronic scoreboard was installed. National League games are displayed on the electronic scoreboards around Fenway Park. Behind the manual scoreboard is a room where the walls are covered with signatures of players who have played at Fenway over the years. Some of the names of players out of the past who have played at Fenway Park are: Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice, Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Jimmy Collins, Duffy Lewis and Tris Speaker. Fenway Park is mostly unchanged from its first opening day of April 20, 1912. With the manually operated scoreboard, geometrically different shape and history of eight decades - you haven't been to a ball game until you have been to Fenway Park.