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Monday May 14, 2012

Bryan Sheehan (MLB Writer): Fenway Park is baseball. The stadium itself represents the long history of Major League Baseball, spanning a century in age. Its iconic look, as well as the legends that have called it home, make the park one of the most valuable relics of all time. The impression of roughly 8,000 Red Sox games has given Fenway a rich past, with such legends as Babe Ruth and Ted Williams once calling the park home. Six World Series Championships have been brought back to the city by the Red Sox in triumph, Fenway surviving to see every one of them. Some of its features, such as The Big Green Monster and The Lone Red Seat, have legends as large as the crowd (over 130 million), that have passed through the gates in a one hundred year old history.

Fenway has also been home to the biggest rivalry in perhaps the entire history of sports. The Red Sox have been in a never-ending battle with their A.L. East neighbor, the New York Yankees, for over 100 years. Their rich history once found common ground on the diamonds they played in, as Yankee Stadium stood for 85 years from 1923 to 2008. Now, with the recent Centennial Celebration in Boston and New Yankee Stadium serving as a modern homage to the past, there is some question of when, or if, the Red Sox will follow suit and create a new shrine.

The first real talk of a New Fenway came in 1999, when then-CEO John Harrington announced plans to build a new home for the Sox. The idea would be to build almost a “replica stadium,” with the same dimensions and a new Big Green Monster in left field. Tremendous outcry ensued, and after years of deliberation and struggles with the detail of a new build, the plans were abandoned. Instead, renovations would be made to the current park, costing upwards of $285 million over ten years. The upgrades, that mainly focused on adding capacity and refurbishing rundown concourses, were finished in 2011 and it was announced that the Sox had no plans of moving out of Fenway.

One of the locations seats were added to is the area in left field iconically known as the Big Green Monster. The 37 foot high wall has stood since 1934, is one of the most instantly recognizable sights in baseball. On its face sits one of the only manual scoreboards left in the league, yet another iconic throwback to the field’s storied past. Thankfully, the Red Sox decided not to change or remove the scoreboard, as they already had an electronic board in centerfield, and the relic remains.

Personally, I feel that it’s right to keep Fenway as it is. Commiserating with the diehard fans of Boston, I see no reason to destroy such a historical landmark: Fenway is the Mount Rushmore of Baseball. Though it may only seat 37,493, the second least behind Miami, a sellout streak of over 725 games means that the Sox have no trouble filling Fenway nightly. If Boston decided to build a New Fenway, it would be, at least to some extent, destroying a piece of history to make a few bucks. Even with a “replica” there is no way to transfer the history that lives between the baselines, or even the monuments in the stands.

Take for example, the Lone Red Seat. 502 feet from home plate in right field, there is a single chair painted red, standing out among the sea of green to honor the longest home run ever hit in Fenway. In 1946, outfielder Ted Williams drove a pitch from Detroit’s Fred Hutchinson over the right field fence and into section 42, row 37, seat 21. After his passing in 2002, the seat was left empty for the remainder of the season as a tribute to Williams, who is considered to be one of the greatest outfielders in Red Sox history.

There’s no reason to demolish the memories of Fenway to build a new castle. With the renovations made in the last decade, the structure is said to be sound for the next 50 years, eliminating any safety concerns a 100-year-old building may have. Almost every Red Sox fan (sorry anyone who’s 101 or older) has known nothing but Fenway Park in their time, creating their own memories to go along with the team’s history. Fenway is a sacred ground that will hopefully stand for many more lifetimes.

Today’s feature was prepared by  Baseball Writer, Bryan Sheehan.  You can follow Bryan on Twitter (@BaseballHipster), read his interviews with Phillies’ minor league prospects at PhightingOn.com, and catch him writing the occasional article for ThroughTheFenceBaseball.com. Tweet him about this article and give him a follow and he will follow you back!

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