RED SOX STADIUM

Fenway Park remains the oldest major league ballpark in use. Home of the Boston Red Sox since 1912, Fenway Park still looks much as it did when it opened. The Red Sox (1907-present), then called the Somersets (1901-1902), and later renamed the Pilgrims (1903-1906), began playing in Huntington Avenue Grounds in 1901. Because of possible fires, and embarrassment to the team and the City of Boston, Red Sox owner John Taylor decided to build a new ballpark to replace Huntington Avenue Grounds. Construction of a new ballpark located in "The Fens" of Boston began in September of 1911. It took one year for the 27,000 seat ballpark to be completed. Named Fenway Park, the ballpark had only one level of seating, built of concrete and steel. Wooden bleachers were located in parts of left, right, and centerfield. The facade consisted of red brick. Fenway Park opened on April 20, 1912. Original dimensions at Fenway Park were 321 ft. (left), 488 ft. (center), and 314 ft. (right). An interesting feature at Fenway Park was Duffy’s Cliff, a 10 foot embankment which was in front of the left field fence until 1934. It is located near and named for the Fenway neighborhood in the heart of Boston, which in turn is named for the nearby fens, or marshes. The home of the Boston Red Sox resounds with the echoes of great baseball players: Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Jimmy Collins, Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski, to name just a few. Fenway's clubhouses are small and modest. The tunnels which lead to the dugouts are usually wet, and the floorboards creak. Like most of baseball’s other old parks, it's cramped and even a little bit uncomfortable. Those other old parks have disappeared, but Fenway is still there. Red Sox fans continue to crowd into Fenway's cozy confines, pushing the Red Sox average attendance to over 2.5 million into the 21st century. They’ve come to Fenway in great numbers ever since the park opened, back in the years when the Red Sox regularly appeared in the World Series. The Red Sox won the World Series at Fenway in the park’s first year and won it three more times by 1918, but it took them another eight-six years before they won it again. Some have thought the Red Sox were cursed when they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees after the 1919 season. For them, the curse was lifted in 2004. The stadium is most famous for the "Green Monster", the imposing, 37-foot-tall (11 meters) left field wall, only 310 feet (94.5 meters) from home plate down the left field line. Other notable features include "The Triangle", a region of center field where the walls form a triangle 420 feet (128 meters) from home plate, "Pesky's Pole" — the foul pole down a shallow right field line named for Johnny Pesky a light-hitting shortstop when he once wrapped a homer around it, and the lone red seat in the right field bleachers (Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21). Fenway is known as a hitter's ballpark, especially during July and August when the wind blows out to left field, carrying balls up to and over the Green Monster. However, the 1990 expansion of the press box had the unintended effect of blocking these winds somewhat. As a result, the park has been less hitter-friendly since then. The Red Sox haven't always been the only tenants at Fenway. The AFL’s Boston Patriots played there from 1963-68 and the Boston Redskins (later the Washington Redskins) played there before that. The Boston Yanks and the Boston College and Boston University football teams played there, too. Fenway once hosted a World Series that did not include the Red Sox. The Boston Braves won the 1914 Series at Fenway because Braves Field was still under construction.