Fenway Park

Address:4 Yawkey Way
Boston, Massachusetts

The oldest professional baseball stadium still in use has also become one of the most modern in the United States. Opened the week after the sinking of the Titanic, in April, 1912, Fenway Park has been the home of the Boston Red Sox ever since then, hosting many great players and historic events.

Because of Fenway's age, it has a certain unique character and quirkiness that is not present in any other ballpark in the country. The most obvious of these attributes is the 37-foot high leftfield wall, known as "The Green Monster." The height counteracts the wall's relative closeness to home plate, but results in a number of not particularly well-struck fly balls becoming home runs. No better example of this can be found, to the dismay of Boston fans and the delight of Yankee diehards, by light-hitting New York shortstop Bucky Dent in a playoff game in 1978. The home run capped off an amazing Yankees stretch run to wrest the championship from a collapsed Boston team who'd held a 14 game lead as late in the season as mid July.

Moving to the right, there are various nooks and crannies along the outfield, with a very deep right field ally easing towards the 302-feet-from home plate right field foul pole, known as Pesky's Pole. The pole was named after Red Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky, who wrapped a few of his six career Fenway Park homeruns around the close pole. In deep right field there is also one seat painted red (as opposed to every other seat being green). This commemorates the longest homerun measured in Fenway Park, hit by arguably the greatest player in Red Sox history, Ted Williams.

Along the Green Monster, there is also a large, famed, hand-operated scoreboard, the interior of which has been signed by a multitude of players and guests over the last nine decades.

Fenway Park has seen seven World Series championships for the Red Sox, and nine World Series overall. The Red Sox went 86 years between World Championships, from 1918 to 2004. Many blamed this drought on the mythical "Curse of the Bambino." The Bambino is baseball great Babe Ruth, who pitched and hit the Red Sox to three titles, before being sold to the archrival Yankees in 1920 by Red Sox owner and theater investor Harry Frazee to finance his production "No No Nanette." But finally, in 2004, the Red Sox shocked the baseball world, recovering from a 3 games to 0 deficit in the playoffs against the Yankees, becoming the first baseball team ever to do so in a postseason series. The comeback began with two epic extra inning games at Fenway Park. The Sox then went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Other memorable contests at Fenway were Game 7 of the 1946 World Series, which ended in a win by the Cardinals in the late innings when Enos Slaughter ignored his coach's stop sign at third base, and Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, when Carlton Fisk hit a 12th inning homerun to keep the Red Sox's season alive. Fenway has also hosted the 1946, 1961, and 1999 All-Star Games.

Despite its age, Red Sox ownership has continued to improve the park in recent years. In 2003, immensely popular seats were added above the Green Monster and on the roof in right field. More seats and interior improvements have been added since, bringing what used to be baseball's smallest park to a capacity of 38,805. Furthermore, the streets surrounding the Park have been turned into a street fair before every Red Sox home game. And while previous Red Sox owners suggested building a new Fenway in the late 1990s, the subsequent improvements should suffice to keep the Major League's oldest gem around for the foreseeable future.

Fenway has also housed assorted football games over the years, as well as minor league and college baseball contests. The new ownership has added a twice-a-year concert series as well.

Tours of Fenway Park are available seven days a week, and are given every hour between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. There are no advanced sales, except for groups. Fenway is located near Boston's Back Bay area, and is accessible via the T (Boston's subway) on the Green Line, as well as via the MBTA Worcester/Framingham commuter train on game days.