Fenway Park
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“It’s disappointing in that we didn’t get where we want to go, but there’s still a lot to be proud of,” Epstein said on the season’s final weekend, as the Sox finished below second place for the first time in 13 years. “I’d like to rewind and start over and do 162 again and see how it turns out.”
As they had during the first six years after the ballpark had opened, the Fenway faithful had become accustomed to Soxtober—watching the hometown team playing for a championship—and Sox President Larry Lucchino had promised them “the constant, unwavering commitment to winning.” So as Mike Lowell, Victor Martinez, and Adrian Beltre departed, the front office moved boldly to sign stars Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego and Carl Crawford from Tampa Bay for 2011.
With a $161 million payroll and 15 All-Stars on the roster, the club was widely touted as the likely champion in spring training. “We have a lot of work to do but I can see why people are talking about going back to the World Series,” acknowledged rightfielder J.D. Drew. “On paper, we have that kind of team.”
A Fenway Park concession-stand worker watched Red Sox-Yankees action on a television monitor in mid-September 2007.
Fenway Franks made their way through the park concourse before a game against the Toronto Blue Jays in July 2011.
Just two years after battling cancer, left-hander Jon Lester threw the 18th no-hitter in Red Sox history—and the team’s fourth of the 2000s—beating the Kansas City Royals, 7-0, at Fenway Park on May 19, 2008. Jason Varitek was behind the plate, setting a major-league record by catching the fourth no-hitter of his career.
But the fact that the opener at Texas was played on April Fool’s Day might have been an omen about the historic pratfall that was to follow. Boston lost its first six games to the Rangers and Indians; it was the team’s worst start since 1945 when most of its top players were wearing Uncle Sam’s uniform. “It can’t get any worse than this,” third baseman Kevin Youkilis declared after the Sox lost 1-0 at Cleveland on a squeeze bunt in the eighth inning to go 0-6.
The 100th opening day at Fenway brought a delightful turnaround as the hosts drilled the Yankees 9-6. “I’ve never seen a team so happy to be 1-6,” observed Francona. The upward ascent took time, though. It wasn’t until May 16 that the club had a winning record and not until May 27 that it climbed past New York into first place.
Boston still was there at the beginning of September but an unsightly 10-0 home loss to Texas was the first misstep in a fatal tumble. Though the Sox still had a comfortable nine-game lead over Tampa Bay in the wild-card race, they soon went into free fall en route to the worst September swoon (7-20) in major-league history.
“It’s crazy,” proclaimed designated hitter David Ortiz after the players were hooted off the diamond for losing the Fenway finale to the last-place Orioles. “I’ve never seen anything like that around here as long as I’ve been here. If you would have told me in August this would happen in September, I would have laughed at you.”
Going into the final six games at New York and Baltimore, Boston still had a two and a half game edge over the Rays for the wild-card spot. But the tailspin continued as the visitors lost two of three in the Bronx, needing Jacoby Ellsbury’s three-run homer in the 14th to salvage the finale.
THRILLS, CHILLS, SPILLS
For years it had been easy to forget New England’s hockey roots. In the first decade of the new century, the Bruins got lost in the championship seasons of the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics. But on New Year’s Day 2010, Boston reminded North America that the Hub is still a hockey town. (And, 18 months later, they would finally bring home the Stanley Cup.)
In the third NHL Winter Classic, 38,112 stoic souls stood in the cold at Fenway Park for three hours before they were rewarded with a 2-1 Bruins victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on a tip-in goal by Marco Sturm in the second minute of extra time.
“It’s the perfect day for hockey in Boston,” said Bruins legend Bobby Orr, who skated to center ice for a ceremonial pregame handshake with Flyer nemesis Bobby Clarke after leading the Black and Gold onto the infield ice. “It’s a thrill to see all these pros turn into kids again for one day. This is how we all started playing hockey—outdoors. And this day, here at Fenway Park, truly is a classic.”
It was a day that could scarcely have been imagined when Fenway opened in 1912, a dozen years before the Bruins would take the ice for the first time.
The postcard-perfect afternoon lacked the Currier & Ives snowfall that marked the previous day’s photogenic practice session, but everything else worked out the way it was sketched on the NHL blueprint.
Late in the third period, comedian Lenny Clarke came out to lead the singing of “Sweet Caroline,” and the Red Sox magic took over. Mark Recchi scored a power-play goal with 2:18 remaining, and then Sturm potted the OT winner. It was time to cue up “Dirty Water.” No one wanted to leave on the day Fenway put on its snow pants and we all came home to hockey.
“It’s Fenway Park. It’s history. It’s something you’re going to remember the rest of your life,” said the Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron. “You want to be on the good side of the outcome. You want to win.”
One day later, they played the AT&T Legends Classic for charity, and 33,000 fans showed up to watch former Bruins, including Cam Neely, Brad Park, and Terry O’Reilly, skate with celebrities such as Tim Robbins, Denis Leary, Bobby Farrelly, and Kiefer Sutherland.
“I don’t know how many people can actually say they skated in front of 33,000 people,” said Sutherland afterward. “In the middle of a snowstorm, they stayed. I’ve never seen fans like that. It was pretty awesome.” The game raised $200,000 apiece for the Bruins and Red Sox charitable foundations, and for a third charity, Hockey Fights Cancer.
Before they took the boards down a week later, Boston University and Boston College clashed in the college version of the Winter Classic—with BU winning, 3-2, in a battle of the previous two NCAA hockey champions before 38,472 fans.
Hockey fans in Boston were treated to a wondrous sight: a rink set up in front of the Green Monster at Fenway Park, where the Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers squared off in the NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day 2010. Even better, team and regional icon Bobby Orr led the B’s onto the ice for the start of the game, and his counterpart was longtime rival Bobby Clarke of the Flyers. The Bruins prevailed on this day, 2-1, on an overtime goal by Marco Sturm.
WHO’S OUR DADDY?
When Pedro Martinez’s name came up in early 2010, nobody seemed to know what the former Red Sox pitching great was up to. He wasn’t at spring training. He wasn’t working on a deal to join a team at mid-season, as he had done with the Phillies the previous year. Some wondered whether he might be found under that mango tree in the Dominican Republic where he said he planned to spend his time after retirement.
But no, fittingly enough, Martinez made his first appearance of the year when he emerged from a tent in the left-field corner at Fenway to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Night vs. the Yankees. Wearing his familiar Red Sox No. 45 and blowing kisses and making hugging gestures to the fans, he strolled in from the outfield and back—at least fleetingly—into the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry that he was such a major part of. We remember his 17-strikeout effort vs. New York in 1999, when he allowed just one hit. We remember the duel in 2000 against the Yankees’ Roger Clemens when Trot Nixon homered to complete a 1-0 Sox win. We remember his throwdown of Don Zimmer in Game 3 of the ALCS in 2003. We remember, too, the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS when Martinez, leading, 5-2, was left in too long by Grady Little in what became one of the historic meltdowns in playoff history. We remember Pedro after a victory in 2001 snarling, “I don’t believe in damn curses. Wake up the Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I’ll drill him in the ass.”
We remember him saying, after a loss late in the 2004 season, “I just have to tip my hat to the Yankees and call them my daddy.” That comment resulted in a crescendo of “Who’s your daddy?” chants from the New Y
ork faithful in his next outing there, in the 2004 ALCS. But the Red Sox busted the curse in that series, and Pedro ended his seven-year tenure with the Red Sox with a 117-37 record, a 2.52 ERA, two Cy Young Awards, and almost certain election to the Baseball Hall of Fame five years after he retires.
After the Sox split the first two in Baltimore the season came down to the 162nd game, and for seven innings everything was breaking Boston’s way, with the Sox leading 3-2 in the seventh and the Yankees drubbing the Rays 7-0. Then the skies opened in Baltimore and, during the 86-minute rain delay, the players sat in the clubhouse watching Tampa come back from the dead to even the score and send that game into extra innings.
Still, a Boston victory would mean at least a one-game playoff with the Rays and with two out in the ninth, nobody on base and closer Jonathan Papelbon on the mound, victory seemed assured. But two doubles and Robert Andino’s looping liner to left that Crawford couldn’t glove gave Baltimore a 4-3 triumph. By the time the Sox made it from the dugout to the clubhouse Evan Longoria had cranked a walkoff homer in the 12th to put the Rays into the divisional series.
“We can’t sugarcoat this,” Epstein conceded after Boston had missed the post-season in consecutive years for the first time since 2002. “This is awful. We did it to ourselves and we put ourselves in position for a crazy night like this to end our season.” That crazy night ended not only a season but also an era. Francona, who'd concluded that the front office wouldn't extend his contract, resigned two days later after eight years as skipper, frustrated that he couldn't get through to veterans who had a "sense of entitlement." Epstein soon followed him out the door to take on the challenge of rebuilding another ballclub that played in a storied park and that hadn't won a World Series for even longer—the Chicago Cubs.
Amid the upheaval and uncertainty, Sox owner John Henry made an impromptu and impassioned appearance on a local sports radio talk show to assure the public that stability and success would return. "We're going to be back as an organization," he vowed. "We're going to have a top-class manager and general manager and we're going to have a great team next year."
Whether or not the calendar included a Soxtober every year, management was continuing its mission to preserve Fenway for the next generation. Tiger Stadium, which had opened on the same day as Fenway in 1912, had gone under the wrecking ball in 2009. So had The House That Ruth Built, replaced by a $2 billion pinstriped pleasure dome across the street.
Boston, though, traditionally has been reluctant to toss its architectural treasures into the trash bin. A city that still has its original 18th-century State House and 19th-century City Hall has seen no reason to dismantle a 20th-century playground that still attracts more than three million ticket holders a year and has sold out every game since early in the 2003 season.
Fenway has undergone annual makeovers in recent years, with ownership spending $40 million in enhancements before the 2011 season—including the addition of three high-definition video screens. The total tab was 60 times more than the $650,000 that John I. Taylor had spent to build the ballpark a century earlier.
Over the past decade, John Henry and his colleagues have underwritten $285 million in improvements—from Monster seats atop the left-field wall to expanded concourses to a new playing surface—designed to carry the “lyric little bandbox” comfortably into the middle of the 21st century. Yet for all of the updating, America’s Most Beloved Ballpark remains essentially as it was in 1912. If Duffy Lewis were to return today, hunting for his misplaced glove, he wouldn’t need to ask directions to left field.
Game announcements and updates were made through a megaphone when the Red Sox played the Chicago Cubs on May 21, 2011—one feature of a series that marked the first meeting of the two teams at Fenway Park since the 1918 World Series. To commemorate the occasion, both teams wore throwback uniforms.
POP CULTURE
OK, so maybe the ballpark isn’t always the star. But it has certainly been a major player in movies and popular culture for much of its history.
Kevin Costner’s character saw old-time player Moonlight Graham’s name and hometown flash on the Fenway Park message board in the ultimate baseball movie Field of Dreams (1989), when he attended a game with Terrance Mann, played by James Earl Jones.
Drew Barrymore as Lindsey dropped from the center-field bleachers and sprinted toward boyfriend Jimmy Fallon in the box seats as hapless security personnel pursued her in Fever Pitch (2005), which required a last-minute revamp when the Red Sox confounded the scriptwriters and won it all in 2004.
Ben Affleck and his homeboys stole millions in receipts from a just-concluded Sox-Yankees series in The Town (2010), with final scenes filmed just inside Gate D of the park. In Moneyball (2011), Brad Pitt as Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane discusses a job offer from the Sox on location at Fenway. The park also had cameos in A Civil Action (1998), Blown Away (1994), Little Big League (1994), Major League II (1994), and numerous documentaries.
In July 2011, New Hampshire native Adam Sandler built a replica of the Green Monster on a Cape Cod Little League field to be used in filming a comedy due out in 2012 and tentatively titled, I Hate You, Dad. Several ballparks and Wiffle-ball fields throughout New England pay homage to Fenway, and another replica park, dubbed “Little Fenway,” hosts the Bucky Dent Baseball School (how dare he?) in Delray Beach, Florida.
On the small screen, in addition to being woven into the fabric of Cheers, Fenway occasionally played a part in Boston-bred producer David E. Kelley’s Ally McBeal and The Practice. It was also the setting for comedy sketches by Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Dratch, as Sully and Denise, on Saturday Night Live.
Novelist and Sox diehard Stephen King came up with the plotline for his novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon while at Fenway. A young girl lost for days in the Maine woods keeps up her hopes by tuning in Sox games on a Walkman.
Longtime Boston musician Jonathan Richman released a song in 2005, “As We Walk to Fenway Park in Boston Town,” that appeared in Fever Pitch. Other music associated with Fenway and its team includes the victory song “Dirty Water” by the Standells, Neil Diamond’s eighth-inning staple “Sweet Caroline,” “Tessie”—the Royal Rooters’ anthem that was resurrected by the Dropkick Murphys in 2004, “The Red Sox Are Winning” by Earth Opera, “Losing” by Pondering Judd, and the “Hot Stove Cool Music” series of benefit concerts spearheaded by Peter Gammons and Theo Epstein.
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS
THE BOSTON GLOBE:
Back cover(bottom): David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
1: Globe file photo
2-3: Jonathan Wiggs/Globe staff
4-5: David L. Ryan/Globe staff
6: Jim Davis/Globe staff
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150 (top): Harry Brett for the Globe
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151 (right): Dan Goshtigian/Globe staff
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155 (bottom): John Tlumacki/Globe staff
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167 (top right): Tom Landers/Globe staff
167 (bottom left and right): Dan Goshtigian/Globe staff
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172: Don Preston/Globe staff
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176: George Rizer/Globe staff
177 (top): Dan Sheehan/Globe staff
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178 (left): Frank O’Brien/Globe staff
178 (right): David L. Ryan/Globe staff
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191 (right): George Rizer/Globe staff
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194 (top): Frank O’Brien/Globe staff