Gunny Highway: Annnnnd I was supposed to get out of work at 1:00 today so I could watch the game but someone called out sick. 6:30 to 8:00 it is. Thank goodness for the internet.

Well I hope your "sick" coworker enjoys the day at Fenway.

Fenway's not getting torn down. It's on the National Register of Historic Places (as of 2007).

It should, however, be turned into a Red Sox museum and be retired as an active MLB ballpark. Keep it open as a museum/year-round event location and build a new stadium (with logical public transportation and parking design).

Maybe play a couple games there during the year for nostalgia's sake. The collegiate Frozen Fenway is awesome and should continue. Other than that - rent it out.

/misses affordable Fenway - haven't gone to a game since the late 90s.

Yanks_RSJ: Gunny Highway: Annnnnd I was supposed to get out of work at 1:00 today so I could watch the game but someone called out sick. 6:30 to 8:00 it is. Thank goodness for the internet.

Well I hope your "sick" coworker enjoys the day at Fenway.

If she was at the game I wouldnt be so pissed. Such is life though.

Publikwerks: What they should do(IMHO):

Build a new stadium just outside Boston. Maybe right around where 90 hits 128 in Auburndale. Could use 90, 95 and commuter trains to get people in and out. Plus, more room to work with out there. Could build a nice parking garage and everything. And then call it "Ted Williams Park"

Then, return Fenway to 1912 condition and play a few games there a season. Let little leagues use it, make it a landmark.

My plan was always to raze Logan, put a new ballpark in East Boston along the water, and build a new airport out in MetroWest somewhere. That way you kill two birds with several billion dollars worth of stones...

elemenopy: /misses affordable Fenway - haven't gone to a game since the late 90s.

I paid 33 bucks for 2 seats. The beer and shiat is expensive but if you are there to watch the ball game and a beer, it is 50 bucks for two people.

Publikwerks: FiendishFellow05: I was in Fenway Park *yesterday*. There are plastic seats where I remember old wooden and metal ones being. They have, in fact, replaced some things. And if you think a baseball stadium that hosts 80ish games a year - plus concerts - isn't up to code, you're an idiot.

There is a difference between swapping the materials and putting new seats in. Hey, I'm not an architect, but my brother in law is, and this is what he told me.

Listen, if you think Fenway is up to code, man you are on crack.
Example :

[upload.wikimedia.org image 640x480]
[www.jdbaseball.com image 640x426]

Notice some differences, such as those thingies in the walkways called handrails. Been required since, oh, I dunno, forever. Pretty sure the steps are not to code either.

From what I was told the seats in the area between first and third base have to remain in place due to the width of the seats and the space between each row (front to back). If they remove the seats they'd have to replace them at modern standards and they'd lose a couple thousand seats in the process. They can replace the material in the seats, such as the springs that fold the seats up when nobody is in them (a minor miracle in itself, used to be quite painful walking into an empty seat that was down). But any wholesale changes are impossible without losing an incredible amount of seats.

As for the fire code, I believe it has to be essentially up to code in that regard or they'd never allow 30,000+ people in there. They might get a break here and there as far as egress widths or something, but it's not like the place is another Coconut Grove waiting to happen.

Gunny Highway: notmtwain: Fenway is a beautiful place for the few people who can get good seats. Many of the seats are terrible.

The place should be bulldozed.

I keep hearing this and I dont get it.

Not to mention the fact that it can't be because it is a historic site.

Gunny Highway: I paid 33 bucks for 2 seats. The beer and shiat is expensive but if you are there to watch the ball game and a beer, it is 50 bucks for two people.

In the past ten years, I've never seen tickets that cheap. Maybe it's my timing or I'm not looking in the right places, but it has not happened. Cheapest I've found is about twice that - $60 for a pair.

In my case, need to add on $7.50 for parking at Providence's train station ($5, if I drive to South Attleboro), plus two round trip zone 8 (or 7) train tickets ($28.50-$30)... or pay for parking in Boston ($17-40, depending on where I park, plus gas)

So no, it's not $50 for me, even if I found those tickets you're finding.

Granted, if the Sox keep going the way they're going, I may find cheap seats again.

Publikwerks: elemenopy: Gunny Highway: I paid 33 bucks for 2 seats. The beer and shiat is expensive but if you are there to watch the ball game and a beer, it is 50 bucks for two people.

In the past ten years, I've never seen tickets that cheap. Maybe it's my timing or I'm not looking in the right places, but it has not happened. Cheapest I've found is about twice that - $60 for a pair.

In my case, need to add on $7.50 for parking at Providence's train station ($5, if I drive to South Attleboro), plus two round trip zone 8 (or 7) train tickets ($28.50-$30)... or pay for parking in Boston ($17-40, depending on where I park, plus gas)

So no, it's not $50 for me, even if I found those tickets you're finding.

Granted, if the Sox keep going the way they're going, I may find cheap seats again.

Ehh, seeing the Sox now is too expensive to go to really. I go to the AA Sea Dogs, and it's what Baseball is supposed to be.

But, next year I will take my son, because he loves the Sox.

33 bucks to go see a game during the week against the Mariners. I realize this isnt doable for everyone (travel, family) but you can see a game for a reasonable price.

Minor league games are awesome.

elemenopy: Gunny Highway: I paid 33 bucks for 2 seats. The beer and shiat is expensive but if you are there to watch the ball game and a beer, it is 50 bucks for two people.

In the past ten years, I've never seen tickets that cheap. Maybe it's my timing or I'm not looking in the right places, but it has not happened. Cheapest I've found is about twice that - $60 for a pair.

In my case, need to add on $7.50 for parking at Providence's train station ($5, if I drive to South Attleboro), plus two round trip zone 8 (or 7) train tickets ($28.50-$30)... or pay for parking in Boston ($17-40, depending on where I park, plus gas)

So no, it's not $50 for me, even if I found those tickets you're finding.

Granted, if the Sox keep going the way they're going, I may find cheap seats again.

Heck, forget going to Boston, McCoy Stadium is right there and much, much more affordable. I'm considering moving out to the southwestern suburbs and if/when I do I'll be ditching the Sox tickets and going to PawSox games instead...

It's the Jewel of the American League, friends.

Why, yes, many jewels are flawed.

I've sat in every section of that ballpark-for-dwarves over the past three-plus decades, and not only have the seats improved (from intolerable to barely tolerable to enjoyable with sufficient wallet-sodomy), but the overall experience has grown steadily better. I remember getting contact highs and lingering breathing troubles back in the day from nearby fans, and watching fights break out on what seemed like a regular basis.

Publikwerks: They have not touched the seats. They can't, because they would have to bring the whole place up to code. All the new areas are up to code, but the old areas are grandfathered in. But once they change them, they would be forced to go all out. Do you know how many things are out of compliance with fire code or ADA regulations?

Hogwash. They've gutted the place, and just about every seat is newer than the park. Observe how many bona fide "original Fenway seats" have been sold by the team store in the past few years. I was there this past December, and entire sections were seatless due to renovations, and the seats they'd removed were on sale downstairs. I even found one in which I had sat last year-- it had distinctive graffiti and gum-markings.

I believe your information is faulty, friendo. Unless you have information on specific codes being violated, then I will continue to harbour my doubts.

My, what a bunch of assholes some of you are. At least your hate is aimed at a peaceful pastime.

R Kelly's Doo Doo Butter:

YOU. You're going down in fantasy. SOON.
[i2.kym-cdn.com image 640x436]

I very highly doubt I'll be going down. I have Clay Bucholz pitching today.

[us8.memecdn.com image 373x511]


No more KKKKKKKKKKKKing Felix starts for you. Game over man.


just need a-roid to pop a homer

Publikwerks: FiendishFellow05: I was in Fenway Park *yesterday*. There are plastic seats where I remember old wooden and metal ones being. They have, in fact, replaced some things. And if you think a baseball stadium that hosts 80ish games a year - plus concerts - isn't up to code, you're an idiot.

There is a difference between swapping the materials and putting new seats in. Hey, I'm not an architect, but my brother in law is, and this is what he told me.

Listen, if you think Fenway is up to code, man you are on crack.
Example :

[upload.wikimedia.org image 640x480]
[www.jdbaseball.com image 640x426]

Notice some differences, such as those thingies in the walkways called handrails. Been required since, oh, I dunno, forever. Pretty sure the steps are not to code either.

Hey, listen to this, from the Red Sox own webite:

"In 2010, the blue grandstand seats were replaced with new seats temporarily for the 2010 season. The completely refurbished seats will be installed before the start of the 2011 season."

The website also details all the renovations done over the last decade. Including the replacement of pretty all the other seats at Fenway, save for those 5500 wooden ones.

And here's the webpage from the company that did the work: http://americanseating.com/architectural/case-studies/fenway-park

And if you read that, they tell you exactly how many of those wooden seats(which no longer look like the picture you posted) are left: 5500. Out of 37,493 total(if it's a night game). The rest of the seats are newer, plastic ones. And the refurbished wooden ones have new paint, new self-rising mechanisms(no more smacking your legs on open seats!), and replaced wood where necessary. And again, they represent a minority of the seats at Fenway Park.

Some news for my fellow RIers:

The daughter of former Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci was found dead on Federal Hill, GoLocalProv has learned.

mrtoadswildride: /Nah screw it....here's sweet caroline!!!!

The people who have picked that out to complain about have always baffled me. The team has fans who weren't there in the lean years and they like to sing this even though it has nothing to do with the Sox? Oh perish the thought! Execute them!

FiendishFellow05: And the refurbished wooden ones have new paint, new self-rising mechanisms(no more smacking your legs on open seats!), and replaced wood where necessary. And again, they represent a minority of the seats at Fenway Park.

At least one minority is represented at Fenway.

/here all week etc...

Publikwerks: Wow.
Time for Buddy to bust out the makeup and get on tv.

Buddy's brief statement.

since ive wanted to see a game at fenway since i was 8 years old, and this being the centennial, we bought a pair of seats in box 109 for 125 a piece. its a saturday night game against the rays. gonna be awesome.

xpisblack: It's the Jewel of the American League, friends.

Not sure if serious

Nana's Vibrator: craigzy: since ive wanted to see a game at fenway since i was 8 years old, and this being the centennial, we bought a pair of seats in box 109 for 125 a piece. its a saturday night game against the rays. gonna be awesome.

Are you bringing James Earl Jones?

hell no, those seats are right behind the sox dugout.

What a bunch of stiffs they're parading out there.

Not the old guys-- I just looked at today's line-up.

noooooomahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

when do they cart out williams's head?

The theme from Jurassic Park seems like an odd choice.

Wow, Mo Vaughn hasn't skipped many meals.

Jurassic park?

Mo!

"As Commissioner, you're supposed to be objective. It wasn't much of a secret, though, that I loved Fenway - especially how it made you a participant, not a spectator." - Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn

"As I grew up, I knew that as a building (Fenway Park) was on the level of Mount Olympus, the Pyramid at Giza, the nation's capitol, the czar's Winter Palace, and the Louvre - except, of course, that is better than all those inconsequential places." - Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti

"Everything with me is normal except when I pitch (in Fenway Park). When I pitch here it's a little different. There is a little more anxiety to go along with the nostalgia because this is the park I grew up with as a kid. This is the park I dreamed of playing Major League Baseball in and no other ballpark has that feeling for me. There are a lot more family and friends here than in my normal starts and I want to pitch well here." - Tom Glavine in the Boston Herald (July 9, 2001)

"Fenway is the essence of baseball." - Tom Seaver in the Christian Science Monitor (July 1999)

"Fenway Park is one of the most historic, beloved, and revered ballparks in the nation. In fact, [tourism statistics] indicate that Fenway Park attracts more visitors to Boston than any other single attraction." - C.H. Johnson Consulting, Inc. in The Johnson Report (1999)

"I'm helplessly and permanently a Red Sox fan. It was like first love...You never forget. It's special. It's the first time I saw a ballpark. I'd thought nothing would ever replace cricket. Wow! Fenway Park at 7 o'clock in the evening. Oh, just, magic beyond magic: never got over that." - Art Historian Simon Schama in History in Brilliant Brushstrokes (1999)

"I've always noticed how the Fenway fans get behind the pitcher, especially late in the game if you're having a good game, or if you have two strikes on a hitter, they really start to chant and anticipate a strikeout. And that's the best part about playing in Boston and at Fenway. There are knowledgeable fans who anticipate the flow of the game and they can really help out the pitcher." - David Cone in the Boston Herald (May 28, 2001)

"I've moved from the newest ballpark in the country (Miller Park) to the oldest. It's the dream of my life. It's the best place in the world to be. Fenway Park." - Groundskeeper Director David Mellor in the Boston Globe (April 7, 2001)

"Let me get this straight. We're bulldozing real vintage ballparks like Tiger Stadium and Fenway Park to put up fake vintage ballparks?" - Sportswriter Rich Reilly in Sports Illustrated (1999)

"Love of Fenway itself may be as much a part of the Sox' 2.6 million annual attendance as Pedro (Martinez), Manny (Ramirez) and Nomar (Garciaparra)." - Sportswriter Michael Gee in the Boston Herald (July 10, 2001)

"New England's parlor, a region's nightclub, and the Olde Towne Team's hearth. To generations of Americans, going to Fenway Park has been like coming home." - Curt Smith in Our House : A Tribute to Fenway Park (1999)

"That moment, when you first lay eyes on that field - The Monster, the triangle, the scoreboard, the light tower Big Mac bashed, the left-field grass where Ted (Williams) once roamed - it all defines to me why baseball is such a magical game." - ESPN Analyst Jayson Stark (March 30, 2001)

"That's the magic of Fenway Park. That's why people love it so. Come to think of it, at Fenway almost every year is a wonder year." - Red Sox Announcer Ned Martin (1977)

"The ballpark is the star. In the age of Tris Speaker and Babe Ruth, the era of Jimmie Foxx and Ted Williams, through the empty-seats epoch of Don Buddin and Willie Tasby and unto the decades of Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice, the ballpark is the star. A crazy-quilt violation of city planning principles, an irregular pile of architecture, a menace to marketing consultants, Fenway Park works. It works as a symbol of New England's pride, as a repository of evergreen hopes, as a tabernacle of lost innocence. It works as a place to watch baseball." - Martin F. Nolan in A Ballpark, Not A Stadium (1999)

"This is the place to be. Baseball town. The intimacy of Fenway, the toughness of it. I like that. I'm used to it. I need it. If I went somewhere else, it might have been a bit of a letdown. I like the edge." - David Cone in the Boston Globe (February 13, 2001)

"To me, the feeling is what you get from standing on this field. It's the memories, the history - you get a great sense of the players who played here over the years. What made Camden Yards a gem was re-creating the atmosphere that a place like Fenway already has." - Cal Ripken, Jr. in the Boston Globe (September 25, 2000)

"We love Fenway Park because we love antiques, be they rocking chairs or ballparks. But we love it even more because the eccentricities of the place mirror our own. It is, like us, difficult and cranky. And this makes it a mighty hard place for a player to play in. Too bad. Players come and go, but Fenway Park may become an American Pyramid." - Boston Red Sox Sportscaster Clark Booth in Fenway by Dan Shaughnessy

"When we lose Fenway, we lose that sense that somebody sat here and watched Ted Williams hit." - Broadcaster Bob Costas on Fox Game of the Week (1999)

"You can say, 'Well, if they tore down Fenway Park, we can build a new one.' But you wouldn't build it right. It's better to make the accommodations, to save the old ballparks. If Fenway Park needs sky boxes to bring in the poverty-stricken owners enough money to save the stadium before they tear it down and move it someplace else, then build the damn sky boxes. If Wrigley Field needs lights to survive, put up the damn lights.... Make the damn structural improvements, but save the ballpark because when you try to rebuild a cathedral five hundred years too late, it doesn't come out the same." - Sportswriter Tom Boswell in The Story of America's Ballparks (1991)

"Welcome to instant prepackaged, brand-new oldness. Camden Yards was baseball's first attempt to bring its past back from the dead. Evocative, nostalgic, and unleashing of a frenzy of building the newest old stadiums man could build, which now, in a total perversion of the idea of actual architectural history, threatens Fenway." - Broadcaster Keith Olbermann on Fox Sports (August 27, 2000)

"When the Red Sox win (at Fenway Park), the P.A. system immediately blares forth 'Dirty Water,' a No. 11 hit for The Standells back in 1966. It's usually little more than pleasant background music as we make our slow way toward the exits. But after a dramatic win - and tonight marked the Red Sox' third walk-off win in their last eight games - a good percentage of the fans hang around and sing, 'I love that dirty water... Oh, Boston you're my home.'" - Sportswriter Rob Neyer on ESPN (August 7, 2000)

"Why? Why should the bond between a people and their baseball team be so intense? Fenway Park is a part of it, offering a physical continuum to the bond, not only because Papi can stand in the same batter's box as Teddy Ballgame, but also because a son might sit in the same wooden-slat seat as his father." - Sportswriter Tom Verducci in Sports Illustrated (December 2004 Issue, "Sportsmen of the Year")

Baseball Almanac

The Bestest: Wise_Guy: The theme from Jurassic Park seems like an odd choice.

..was about to comment on that myself.. it seems like they hit the end of their John Williams playlist...

ovation for Mo Vaughn? You guys miss him that much?

I would imagine there are a lot of 20-something's there. Mo was a highlight as a kid

Did the Red Sox ever have names on the back of their jerseys at home? Or did they just buy these guys the horrible replicas to wear?

I can't watch the ceremony (work), so can anyone tell me who got a bigger ovation: Yaz or Francona?