My spouse and I
attended a baseball game with two family members on a Sunday afternoon in late
May 2017. Because single-game tickets were sold out on the Red Sox MLB website,
we bought our tickets through third-party vendor Stubhub.
Fenway Park is located in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of
the city. Because the field is nestled among buildings of similar architecture,
construction, and height, it blends into its dense surroundings. Many bars and
restaurants line the streets surrounding the field. On game days, the city
shuts down Yawkey Way (the street
that lies between Van Ness and Lansdowne Streets and is named after a longtime
team owner) three hours prior to game time so that fans can enjoy a sort of
block/street party, with food, drinks, music, family entertainment, autographs,
and merchandise for sale. The old Citgo gas station sign is an important part of the Boston
skyline; in fact, the relationship between Citgo, the Red Sox, and Fenway is so
recognizable that some local Little League fields display a replica of the
original sign. If you cannot purchase tickets to the game, you can visit
the new “Bleacher Bar”, positioned beneath the bleacher seats in center field that
offers a window that looks directly through center field and into the park. In addition to attending a game, you can
take one of several tours of the ballpark, ranging from an abbreviated
15-minute tour to a longer 60-minute tour, where you can see the roof deck
(with its panoramic view), sit in the old 1930s seats, stand on the warning track,
visit the Green monster (and meet the mascot).
Fenway Park is the oldest baseball stadium
in the country, where legends like Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Bucky Dent
played. One of the most famous stories about the Red Sox is called the “Curse
of the Bambino”. In 1920, the team sold Babe Ruth (nicknamed “The Bambino”) to
the New York Yankees, and for the next 86 years, the Red Sox did not win a
World Series, creating a streak of bad luck. But in 2004, the team broke the
curse by winning against the New York Yankees in the semifinals, then winning
against St. Louis in the finals. The Sox won the World Series next in 2007 and then
again in 2013. In 1995, the team created the Red Sox Hall of Fame in
order to recognize the outstanding careers of former players, managers, front
office staff, and broadcasters. The retired Red Sox numbers of Ted Williams
(9), Joe Cronin (4), Bobby Doerr (1), Carl Yastrzemski (8), Carlton Fisk (27),
Johnny Pesky (6), and Jim Rice (14), along with Jackie Robinson's number 42 (retired
by Major League Baseball in 1997), are displayed on the right field facade.
Other notable features of the ballpark are the “Green Monster” (a nickname for
the high left-field wall), and the scoreboard below the wall (which is still
updated by hand throughout the game from behind). A newer feature is the Fenway
Farms rooftop garden tended by Green City Growers that supplies fresh produce for
the stadium.
We enjoyed watching a Red Sox game at
renowned Fenway Park, even though the Sox lost that day to the Seattle
Mariners.
