Fenway Park

Lefty Grove at Fenway Park, Boston

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Lefty Grove warming up at Fenway Park in 1937. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The scene in 2006:

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In an earlier post, I looked at the present-day location of a photo of a Red Sox pitching legend, Cy Young.  Less than 30 years later, the Red Sox would have another stadium and a new ace pitcher, Lefty Grove.  Although he spent the majority of his career with the A’s, Grove remains the only pitcher to be inducted into the Hall of Fame wearing a Red Sox cap.

Today, Fenway Park hasn’t changed a great deal, although it now has lights, electronic scoreboards, and bullpens beyond the outfield fence.  The Green Monster now has seats atop it, and is no longer adorned with any racist ads.

Fenway Park, Boston (4)

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The exterior of Fenway Park in 1914. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Bain Collection.

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The same view in 2006:

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This is probably the only part of Fenway Park that is virtually unchanged since it opened nearly 102 years ago.  Several fires, a massive reconstruction in 1934, and a number of smaller changes along the way have left very little remaining from the original park.  However, the Yawkey Way facade (called Jersey Street in 1914) hasn’t changed much, aside from the addition of various championship banners that the team has won since they first made Fenway their home.

Football at Fenway (2)

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A football game at Fenway Park, sometime between 1947 and 1956. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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The same view in 2006:

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As mentioned in my previous post, football was a common occurrence at Fenway Park. However, this photo was taken a couple decades after the other one – a couple telltale signs are the right field bullpens and the light tower, which was not added to Fenway until 1947.  I don’t know the exact date of the first photo, or whether this was a college or professional game, but it could be a Boston Yanks game.  The Yanks were a short-lived NFL team that played at Fenway Park from 1944 to 1948, which would put it within the time frame of the first photo, and the scoreboard above the bleachers has “Boston” and “Visitor” as the two teams, which suggests this was a professional team that regularly played home games here.

Football at Fenway (1)

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Fenway Park, hosting a football game in 1934. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library.

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The same scene in 2007:

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Football at Fenway may seem strange today, but the park was home to several professional football teams, including the Boston Redskins from 1933-1936, and the Boston Patriots from 1963-1968. The top photo was taken during the Redskins’ time at Fenway, but the game in the photo is actually a high school game – Dorchester High against Mechanical Arts High, on October 12, 1934.

The second photo also shows a lower-level team playing on a major league field – here, the Pawtucket Red Sox are warming up prior to its 2007 Futures at Fenway game. In many ways, Fenway Park is still very much the same as it was in the 1930’s, but one obvious difference is the lack of lights – Fenway would be the second to last MLB park to get lights, in 1947. Another change is the fact that the Green Monster was not yet green, and instead was covered in advertisements. Today, the green color is there, but as of late it has slowly been getting re-covered in ads, as seen in the 2007 photo.

Fenway Park, Boston (3)

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Fenway Park as it appeared in 1912, the year it opened. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Bain Collection.

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Roughly the same view, in April 2006:

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For the first 35 years of its existence, the Green Monster wasn’t green – it was essentially a giant billboard.  And the original Green Monster seats weren’t on top of it – they were at the base, atop Duffy’s Cliff – a steep incline leading up to the wall that was usually in play and was mastered by Boston left fielder Duffy Lewis.  For this particular photo in 1912, the bleacher seats were temporarily constructed to handle the increased crowds for the 1912 World Series.  The original wooden 1912 wall is gone – it was replaced in 1934 by the present-day wall, and the incline was eliminated, making left field several feet below the level of Landsdowne Street, which is located directly behind the Monster.  The other major feature in the 1912 photo – the wooden left field bleachers – are also gone.  They burned in 1926, and since fans weren’t exactly clamoring to get through the turnstiles at Fenway in the 1920’s, they were not replaced until Tom Yawkey purchased the team and extensively renovated the park to its current configuration in 1934.  See posts #1 and #2 to see similar views from 1912 and the present-day.

Fenway Park, Boston (2)

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Another view of Fenway Park from 1912, the year that it opened. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Bain Collection.

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The same view in July, 2011:

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One of Fenway Park’s many quirky features is “Pesky’s Pole,” the right field foul pole that stands a mere 302 feet from home plate, making it the shortest possible home run distance in any MLB park.  Much of this is due to the piecemeal way in which the park was built and modified over the course of 100 years.  See this post for the view of the park from the same spot but looking further to the right.