Right up front let me say that I’m not objective about Fenway Park. It’s my favorite team’s home park, and it’s the first ballpark I ever visited, so to me it’s still the best. Not because it has comfy seats, or awesome sight lines, or great concessions, or anything else we’ve come to associate with attending a major league game. In fact, it has none of what we’d call modern amenities.
What is has is history, and charm, and character. It has an energy all its own, borrowed from the fans who seemingly always fill the seats, no matter how bad the team might be. It has a place in the city that few ballparks can boast. It’s a landmark.
It’s right in the heart of the city, called Fenway because it’s in the Fenway neighborhood, surrounded by hospitals, art museums, colleges, parks. I was born about a mile away, and my mom went to Emmanuel College, which is even closer to the ballpark. You can drive to it if you want, but it’s better to ride the T and walk the rest of the way.
Outside the park, the streets are closed off on game days, and a lively party atmosphere surrounds you. Bars and restaurants in the neighborhood cater to fans, who spill out into the streets and weave through people scalping tickets, or selling food and souvenirs.
Around it are the banners of all the World Series the team has appeared in, and statues of the great players who spent their whole careers there. Yaz is tipping his cap to the crowd, and the famous friends teammates from the 1940s and 50s (Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams) are lined up together. Williams has a separate statue, too, as it should be. Only he’s not depicted taking that beautiful swing we all remember, or crossing home plate after his famous home run in his final at bat. Instead, he’s putting his cap on the head of a little kid, in remembrance of his passionate support for The Jimmy Fund, dedicated to defeating cancer in children.
I’ve been inside Fenway when the centerfield seats were still benches and there was only a screen over the Green Monster, and I’ve also been since several renovations have replaced those benches with seats and added tiers of seating above The Wall. The best part of those renovations was not the upgraded comfort, it was the retention of the charm and character the ballpark already had. They didn’t move the fans further away, or change the quirky corners and dimensions. Even adding the enormous scoreboard in centerfield was done in a way that made it seem like it had always been there.
I took a tour with my kids when they still let you walk the warning track and sit in the dugout. I took the opportunity to scoop up some of the dirt, carry it back to Kansas City, and place it in a jar in my office. It still sits there today, on a shelf behind me as I type this. I’ve also taken that tour with my kids after the renovations, and sat high above The Wall with them, in seats that didn’t exist when I was born (or when they were born),
They still have the manual scoreboard in The Wall, the one my daughter ran around in front of when she was two. And The Pesky Pole is still there, adorned with autographs and dents. The pole in left field has been formally named for Carlton Fisk, but there was no need for it. Anyone who witnessed that homer in 1975 knows what that pole means, named or not.
There aren’t enough bathrooms, and the many of the seats were built for the smaller people who lived in 1912. Some of those seats don’t face home plate, to you spend the entire game either staring into the outfield or with your head craned around to the left. Lines for concessions are long, and the food you get isn’t great. (Though a Fenway Frank remains my favorite ballpark hotdog.) Some of the things they’ve added, like the enormous layers to the press box, and the singing of “Sweet Caroline,” are ugly or sappy. There are too many advertisements on the walls, which is true all around baseball but feels particularly wrong there.
But still, Fenway seems to have been built to present a ballgame in the optimal way, one which hasn’t really been duplicated. The players seem to be right there, within reach. The fans are a part of the game. The ballpark’s corners and dimensions make you consider things differently than in other games in other parks. Will that fly ball hit the wall? Or go over it? Will a line drive rattle around in that deep right field corner? Will that average pop up reach the seats? Fenway keeps you on your toes.
No, I haven’t been to Wrigley Field yet. I’m saving it for last on my lifetime tour of active parks, because I want the tour’s bookends to be Fenway and Wrigley. Maybe once I’ve seen it, I’ll be pleasantly surprised and concede that Fenway has a co-equal in Chicago.
But I doubt it. Wrigley may match some of Fenway’s charms or quirks. The street scene might be familiar. We might feel it’s “cozy” instead of “cramped.” It might match Fenway’s lack of comfort or amenities. But it will never be Fenway’s equal, at least not to me.
Because Fenway is home.
My favorite will always be Tiger Stadium where I saw my first game and several more since. Since that time I have been to both versions of Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Wrigley, Petco and whatever they call Toronto nowdays. Of the surviving stadiums I put Fenway at the top. When I went we scalped tickets and sat down the left field line very close to the Monster and 10 rows back. We had a great view....of the Green Monster. I don’t recall anything about the food in the park, I’m sure I had a Fenway dog but the Italian Beef from one of the carts outside of the stadium was memorable.
Went to the game against SF yesterday. Awesome weather. I just want to let folks know the expiration date on the bottom of the can of beer was 2024. My fellow fans checked the expiration date on other cans of beer. Bad news folks. They all were set to expire in a few weeks to a month or so. Make your own decision on the quality of the beer. Given the prices it seems disrespectful to the fans to sell beer that was made last year. It has been my observation that the Best By Date on beer is one year from the date it was put in the can. Just a heads up for people who enjoy fresh local beer.