New England – Fall 2010 – Day 19: Boston (Fenway Park).

We have enjoyed all our visits to sporting venues in the states but Madison Square Garden stands out amongst our memories because of the knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide. We set off to Fenway Park hoping for the same sort of experience – we were not to be disappointed. We took the subway and after some negotiation we agreed on the station to get off as I recall it was not as obvious as Fenway although we passed through a station of that name. Julia researches our visits in advance and using the lap top she can further check up while we are in place. I recall that we got off the train and followed pedestrian signs to Baseball. However, just as we reached a position where there were four options for us to take, there were no signs at all to help us. We may have looked a bit helpless, or perhaps this was not a new situation, a passing delivery truck stopped by us and the driver gave us directions. His first words were “Are you looking for Fenway Park?”
Our directions took us there in about five minutes, we signed up for a tour that was leaving in about ten minutes and off we went.
Our guide was Morrie, I’ve no idea if that’s how he spells it, he is a rabid Red Sox fan and he gives the impression that he works for free just to be allowed in his idols’ home. On our first stairway he stopped and demanded to know if we had any Yankee fans with us – one family admitted their allegiance to the enemy – but Morrie just said he needed to know in order to speak more slowly for their benefit!
He was an entertaining host. We learnt lots from him but two stories will have to suffice.
From our vantage point he made us look across the ballpark to the opposite bleachers all the seats are green except for one single red seat. To quote Wikipedia:
The lone red seat in the right field bleachers (Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21) signifies the longest home run ever hit at Fenway. The Ted Williams hit was officially measured at 502 feet, the ball, if unobstructed, would have flown 520 to 535 feet.
The ball landed on Joseph A. Boucher, penetrating his large straw hat and hitting him in the head. A confounded Boucher was later quoted as saying, “How far away must one sit to be safe in this park? I didn't even get the ball. They say it bounced a dozen rows higher, but after it hit my head, I was no longer interested. I couldn't see the ball. Nobody could. The sun was right in our eyes. All we could do was duck. I'm glad I did not stand up”.
Morrie’s story is much better he claimed that although Boucher was a Yankees’ fan he was in Boston on business and took in the game, he was dosing in his seat when the ball punched through his straw boater and put him to sleep more fully! When a Boston newspaper reporter got onto the story he interviewed Boucher and discovered that he was now a converted Red Sox fan – the headline read: “Williams hit knocks sense into Yankee fan!”. On a recent anniversary of the event Boucher and his family were invited to attend a match at Fenway Park and they were allocated seats in the red seat area they got into the spirit of the event by all wearing straw boaters!
When we were on the “Green Monster “ he drew our attention to the number 42 in blue alongside several numbers in red. Along with the seven Red Sox who have been honoured by having their number retired there is the 42 representing Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was the first black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades. The example of his character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed significantly, to the Civil Rights Movement. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.
When this happened the number 42 became unavailable to all players except those already wearing it while they stayed at their current club. Wikipedia puts it like this:
A grandfather clause allowed a handful of players who wore number 42 as a salute to Robinson, such as the Mets' Butch Huskey and Boston's Mo Vaughn, were allowed to continue wearing the number for as long as they stayed with their current team and did not change their number. The Yankees' Mariano Rivera is the last player in the major leagues to wear jersey number 42 on a regular basis.
I felt it was a classy thing for a sport to do and very touchingly explained by our guide.
He also pointed out the scoreboard under the Green Monster which is manually operated. Even though there has been an electronic scoreboard above the bleacher seats in center field at Fenway Park for many years, people still look to the base of the Green Monster at the manual scoreboard to keep track of the action on the field and at other parks around the league. This feature was installed in 1934 and it is one of the few remaining manually-operated scoreboards in baseball. During every home game, there are three operators to keep the scoreboard as up-to-date as possible. Green and red lights signal the number of balls, strikes, and outs, 16-inch-square numbers are used to indicate runs and hits, and 12-by-16 inch square numbers are used to show errors, innings, and the number of the current pitcher. In the mid-1970s, when the wall was remodeled, the scoreboard was changed only to show out-of-town American League scores; however, in 2003, the scoreboard was revised to show National League scores as well. Another update in 2005 added a reference to the current standings in the American League East. Also, if you look closely, you will find the initials of former owners Thomas A Yawkey and his wife Jean R. Yawkey written in Morse code. I was amused to learn that some of the National league scores cannot be changed from inside and thus between innings, an operator emerges from a hidden door and using a ladder changes those scores from outside. Morrie claims that you will never see this on televised matches as showing it is banned.
We also learned that Babe Ruth started his career at Boston as a pitcher using the old soft ball and, in fact, that there had been an old soft ball. Also that the Cy Young award is named after the Boston pitcher.
As a side note while on our tour we had watched a documentary on the Red Sox and it said poignantly that when they broke their long barren spell, since 1918, by winning the World Series in 2004 graves in all Boston cemeteries were decorated with Red Sox clothing and score sheets from the series as a tribute to fans that had lived and died without seeing such success.
We followed Morrie’s directions to walk from the ball park to the Prudential Building to take in the view of the city from the Skywalk Observatory. On our way we passed the one of the most impressive locations for a tennis club ever. At 939 Boyleston Street, I have close friends who live in a tiny village called Boylestone in Derbyshire, the club looks like the frontage of an office block or department store. We bravely entered but the Club seems to be in the basement and accessible by a “members only” elevator. Had there been a reception area available to us I would have asked to have a look round using my English accent and tennis background as a passport. Returning to England and looking the place up I discovered that their tennis is Court or Real tennis not my version and perhaps it would all have been too posh for simple Derbyshire folk.
The Prudential Skywalk was excellent, the free auto commentary is brilliant the only down side is that you are always shooting your photos through glass which at times could do with cleaning. I was easy to put the Freedom Trail into context from above and we could also see Fenway Park and our route from there.
We returned to the hotel by subway and enjoyed tea and cookies in our room. We then took a walk out to the Cheers bar close to the Faneuiel Hall, by chance we were both wearing basketball hoodies, Julia’s was Derby Trailblazers, British National Champions of Mens Division One and mine was East Midlands, Under 15 Boys National Champions, coached by Dave Harris a veteran of British Basketball and assisted by Sarah Booth our daughter. We were soon in conversation over a beer with a guy, a river pilot from Washington State, who was visiting Boston. Amusingly he took us to be New Englanders not English, apparently our accents seem similar to the locals. Having overcome this misunderstanding he was very interested in our basketball development and we have his address and email on the basis we must visit in the future.
We returned to the hotel and Julia continued her research into Boston Comedy clubs, thus it was that we set out later to find the Mottleys Comedy Club with a remembered address and no map. Despite poor preparation and a cold drizzle we were still quite upbeat when we located the club in the basement of a bar quite close to Cheers. We then found a cheap but brilliant Mexican restaurant nearby and had a great meal before returning to the bar. The session was not due to start for another half hour so we sat at the bar for another beer, this is very heavy consumption for us, and chatted to a couple who turned out to be baseball fans.
When we saw the show, under the title “Quarter Life Crisis”, we were only mildly amused. Three guys and a girl took their turns at telling us that they were confused about life in general. I took their point because life still confuses me but strangely I’m not confident enough that my confusion equips me to amuse strangers who are paying for the experience!
We returned to the hotel by 10.00pm and everywhere was pretty dead, it seemed much later by the amount, or lack, of activity.