Fenway Park

I lived in Boston as young child my first trip to Fenway was in 1973. That team had a lot of talent but no rings. The early 70’s was a great time to be a Boston sports fan. The Bruins had Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito (Tony for a bit too). The Celtics had John Havlicek and Dave Cowens. And the Sox had Carl Yastrzemski, Orlando Cepeda, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, and Luis Tiant. My older brother and I had the All-Star Baseball board game (the one with the circle player cards and the photo of the baseball field with the two spinners.) We would fight over who got the Rico Petrocelli card. We also collected baseball cards. Lots of 70, 71, and 72 Topps – all gone (thrown away by my mother) when the family moved to Phoenix in 1974.
But I digress…

I went back to Fenway in 1994 as the last game of my second ballpark tour. The Sox were mediocre this year as were the Brewers. Both finished under .500 in a strike shortened season. The Red Sox had Mo Vaughn, Mike Greenwell, and Andre Dawson. They also had Roger Clemens and Frank Viola (neither of whom pitched that day). The Brewers had Greg Vaughn and Cal Eldred, and the rookie Jeff Cirillo. The game I saw that day was a 5-2 win for the Brewers. Jaime Navarro got the win after Milwaukee started Rickey Bones got injured in the 2nd inning. The down side is that it’s a crowded stadium. I’m 6’2” and my knees were jammed into seat in front of me. This also happened to be the walkway for people to get through. Around the 5th inning me and another guy got sick of missing most of the game while people went back & forth in front of us so we got up and walked to this small open air box high above first base. We go up the stairs into the box and everyone there stops and looks at us. Someone asks, “Who the hell are you guys?” We said we’re just trying to watch the game and were stuck in an aisle. There was a brief pause as they digested this and then, “Come on in!” This was a group travelling from Milwaukee for the game. Not surprising, they were friendly and had drinking heavily most of the day. I’m not suggesting that Milwaukee, alcohol consumption, and a friendly disposition are causally related – but the three seem highly correlated.

One more thing about Fenway I want to mention. This is the most ‘original’ of the old ballparks. When you walk under the stadium to concessions or bathrooms, you know it’s an old park with a lot of history. It is a very cool experience.

Update May 2017

After 23 years I finally made it back to Fenway Park for 2 games. Much has changed since I was last here…

The Red Sox have won three world series and the park has undergone substantial renovations. They cordoned off Yawkey Way and made that part of the park which opened up more opportunities for the team to sell food, alcohol and merchandise. The old ticket windows are now just a display. They completely renovated the upper deck seats. The open-air box I met my friend from Milwaukee was removed and of course they added the seats above the green monster. Don’t get me wrong, the updates were necessary and they made the park better. The downside is that each renovation and update is one more step away from the original feel of a pre-world war II park. I do appreciate that they still have many wooden seats in the stands.