Yes, we know. The Boston Red Sox play in Fenway Park, and have for over 90 years now, approaching 100. But, The Crew has entered a new ball park into the fold for the past couple of seasons. Let's give you a profile of the Sox' new digs, as well as a refresher on the old ones.
When The Gang were originally placed on the Red Sox, they knew that because of schooling, they couldn't be too far away from home on certian day games. The solution, originally proposed by GM Ray, was to play at a venue not too far away from the City of Knoxville. They found it in the mountian/tourist town of Gatlinburg, which borders the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Originally an old baseball field for Gatlinburg-Pittman High School, The Gang took it, paid for around $1,000,000 for rennovations, and upgraded the seating capacity to 18,000, previously 2,500 for GPHS games.
In the short history of the ballpark, it has gained a reputation as one of the most beautiful stadiums in the land. Completley surrounded by forest and shubbery at the start, it is now one of the most visible things in Gatlinburg. It is also, considered by most baseball experts, to be the most hitter friendly park in the history of the game. At center field, it is 357 feet to homeplate, with the power alleys in the 330 to 340 range, and at the foul poles, 280 feet to homeplate. As you might imagine, records are going to be broken in this new park. B. Taylor already has 61 homeruns because of that, and we're just barely out of the All-Star break.
Currently, the place is used for all Boston Red Sox day home games.
Fenway Park - Boston, Massachucets
The Red Sox moved to Fenway Park from the old Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds. In 1911, owner John I. Taylor
sold the team at the same time he developed land bordered by Brookline
Avenue, Jersey Street, Van Ness Street and Lansdowne Street into a
larger baseball stadium.
Former owner John I. Taylor claimed the name Fenway Park came from its location in the Fenway district of Boston, which was partially created late in the nineteenth century by filling in marshland or "fens".
However, given that Taylor's family also owned the Fenway Realty
Company, the promotional value of the naming at the time has been cited
as well.
Like many classic ballparks, Fenway Park was constructed on an
asymmetrical block, with consequent asymmetry in its field dimensions.
Attendance at the park has not always been great, and reached its
low point late in the 1965 season with two games having paid attendance
under 500 spectators. Its fortunes have risen since the Red Sox' 1967 "Impossible Dream" season, and on September 8, 2008 with a game versus the Tampa Bay Rays, Fenway Park broke the all-time Major League record with its 456th consecutive sellout, surpassing the previous record held by Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland, Ohio. Former pitcher Bill Lee has called Fenway Park "a shrine".
The old wooden seats of Fenway's Grandstand section.
Some of the changes include:
In 1946, upper deck seats were installed; Fenway Park is essentially the first double-tiered ballpark in Boston since the South End Grounds of the 1880s.
In 1947, arc lights were installed at Fenway Park. The Boston Red
Sox were the third-to-last team out of 16 major league teams to have
lights in their home park.
In 1976, metric distances were added to the conventionally-stated distances because it was thought that the United States would adopt the metric system.
Today, few American ballparks have metric distances posted. Fenway Park
retained the metric measurement until mid-season 2002, when they were
painted over. Also, Fenway's first message board was added over the
center field bleachers.
In 1999 the auxiliary press boxes were added atop the roof boxes along the first and third base sides.
Before the 2003 season, seats were added to the Green Monster.
Before the 2004 season, seats were added to the right field roof, above the retired numbers, called the Budweiser Right Field Roof.
Before the 2005 season, a new drainage system was installed on the
field. The system, along with new sod, was installed to prevent the
field from becoming too wet to play on during light to medium rains,
and to reduce the time needed to dry the field adequately. Work on the
field was completed only weeks prior to spring training.
After the 2005 season, the Red Sox completed their plans for the
.406 Club area, which became the EMC Club. The construction resulted in
852 pavilion club seats, 745 pavilion box seats, and approximately 200
pavilion standing-room seats along the left- and right-field lines,
resulting in approximately 1300 additional seats.
The winter of 2006 renovations focused on renovating the luxury
boxes as well as adding a new food concourse area and renovated
bathrooms behind the third base grandstands.
Before the 2008 season, the temporary luxury boxes installed for
the 1999 All-Star Game were removed and permanent ones were added to
the State Street Pavilion level. Seats were also added down the left
field line called the Coca-Cola
Party-Deck. 100 standing-room tickets were also added to the pavilion
increasing capacity to just under 40,000 people. The Coke bottles,
installed in 1997, were also removed to return the light towers to
their original state. All bleacher seats were replaced and the seating
bowl water-proofed as well.
Before the 2009 season, the right field roofbox seating area was
renovated and expanded and the original 1912 seating bowl was
water-proofed and seats replaced.
Proposed new Fenway Park
On May 15, 1999 then Red Sox CEO John Harrington announced plans for a new Fenway Park to be built near the existing structure. It was to have the same dimensions on the field, include a new Green Monster,
basically be a replica of the current park, but be modernized to
replace some of the old features of Fenway Park. Some sections of the
old Fenway Park were to be preserved (mainly the original Green Monster
and the third base side of the park) as part of the overall new layout.
Most of the old park was to be demolished to make room for new
development, with one section remaining to house a baseball museum and
public park. This was a highly controversial idea, as most Boston area
sports fans consider Fenway Park to be sacred ground, and demolishing
the old park would have caused a significant outcry. Several groups
sprang up, such as "Save Fenway Park" to try and block the move.
All involved parties wrangled for several years on the details of
the new stadium. One plan even involved building a "Sports Megaplex" in
South Boston, where a new Fenway would be located next to a new stadium
for the New England Patriots. The Patriots ultimately built a new stadium in Foxboro,
and that plan was abandoned. Even after several more rounds of
deliberations, the Red Sox could not reach an agreement with the city
of Boston for a new stadium. In 2005, the Red Sox ownership group
announced that the team would stay in the current Fenway Park
indefinitely.
