Fenway Park - a Cultural Icon

As of July 18, 2008 at 7:00 AM
Steps: 4,023,458
Miles: 1687.23


Fenway park is not far from "Mr. Smoot's Bridge"
- shown circled in Red Sox red

Fenway Park is the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club. The park, the oldest of all current Major League Baseball stadiums, opened in 1912. The name Fenway Park comes from the stadium being located in the Fenway (swamp) district of Boston. Because of its age and constrained location in an urban neighborhood, the park has some unique features, most notably the famous Green Monster in left field.



Being the oldest ballpark in the country, it's stories and legends are legion. I would do a disservice to them trying to summarize them - and my Grandfather, in his own "Oh be that way!" manner of his, was a Boston Braves fan even though he lived only blocks from Fenway Park.

That club was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1871 as the Boston Red Stockings. (What is with this fetish with footwear anyway?) That team moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1953 and became the Milwaukee Braves. In 1966, that team moved to Atlanta. That team's tenure in Atlanta is famous for Hank Aaron's breaking of the career home run record in 1974; the new record stood until 2007.

The original Boston Red Stockings (Braves) team and its successors can lay claim to being the oldest continuously playing team in American professional sports. The only other team that has been organized as long are the Chicago Cubs.

But I digress... My grandfather's offspring, my mom, and my cousins that were born and raised in the shadow of Fenway Park, all say they have their priorities right, and wear and bleed Red Sox red.



Who could ever forget Carlton Fisk's homer in the 6th game of the World Series in 1975?

Or Baseball Hall of Famer Ted "the Splendid Splinter" Williams with his career batting average of .344, hitting .409 in 1941 and being overshadowed by (that *$@*! Yankee) Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak that very same year?

Or Carl Yastrzemski, Freddy Lynn, Jimmy Rice, Roger Clemens, or Wade Boggs?



The Curse of the Bambino was one of the storied legends surrounding the Beantown Red Sox. The curse was cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 until 2004.

The curse was said to have begun after the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth, sometimes called The Bambino, to the New York Yankees in the off-season of 1919-1920. Before that year, the Boston Red Sox had been one of the most successful professional baseball franchises, winning the first World Series in 1903 and amassing five World Series titles. After the sale, the once-lackluster Yankees became one of the most successful franchises in North American professional sports.



The curse was put to rest in 2004 when oddball Manny Ramirez (MVP) and his teammates pulverized the Saint Louis Cardinals in four games.

I hope I've not blotched this entry too badly for those Red Sox fans.