Home of the Boston Red Sox.

Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Jimmy Collins, Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski, are just a few of the players that played in Fenway. Fenway Park is actually the second home for the Sox. In 1901, the Boston Pilgrims became one of the charter members of the newly formed American League. The Pilgrims played ball at the Huntington Avenue Grounds for eleven years. Now it is a part of Northeastern University's campus.

Boston Globe owner General Charles Henry Taylor, a Civil War veteran, bought the team for his son John I. Taylor in 1904. In 1907, Taylor changed the club's name from the Pilgrims to the Red Sox. In 1910, tired of the leasing arrangement for the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Taylor made a big announcement: he would build a new ballpark for his Red Sox. Taylor dubbed the new ballpark Fenway Park because of its location in the Fenway section of Boston.

 Circa 1920

Fenway Park was built in 1912.  Opening day was April 20, 1912.  The park opened the same week the Titanic sank. Its seating capacity of over 35,000 made it one of the largest ball fields in the majors.  At Fenway’s  first game,  the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders 7-6 in extra innings (The Highlanders would later become the New York Yankees).  The Red Sox won the American League (A.L.) pennant and went on to win the World Series defeating the New York Giants. 

 April 21, 1912

 October, 1912

The 1914 World Series was played at Fenway although the Athletics took the pennant that year.   The Boston Braves (who later went to Atlanta), won the N.L. pennant and played their World Series home games at Fenway because Braves Field was being renovated.  Ironically, because Fenway had less seats,  in 1915 and 1916,  the Red Sox played their World Series home games at Braves Field.

On May 8, 1926 a fire took out the left field bleachers.  After that, you could buy tickets to stand behind the outfield fences where you could catch home run balls.  Left field had a steep, sloping embankment.  Sox player Duffy Lewis played it so well that it was nicknamed "Duffy's Cliff."

In 1934, Tom Yawkey bought the Red Sox (hence Yawkey Way -  one street Fenway sits on – the other is Landsdown Street).   His extensive renovations removed Duffy's Cliff so the Boston Redskins could play football there.  Erected in its place was a 37-foot wall in left field. On January 5, 1912 during construction, a fire broke out taking the new wall with it.  It was rebuilt in time for Opening Day that year.

 1934

In 1940, bullpens were added. This brought the deep outfield fences 23 feet closer to Red Sox hero Ted Williams. The new bull pens were referred to as “Williamsburg.”  Metal advertising signs completely covered the left field wall until 1947.  The ads were then painted over with green paint and the “Green Monster” was born. Fenway saw its first night game this year as well. 

 1942

In 1984 roof seats were added.  In 1988 the .600 Club was completed, renamed the .406 Club in 2002. Turnstiles were first used in 2002 which included Yawkey Way part of the park on game days. In 2003 seats over the Green Monster and right field roof, were added.  However, the park still looks much the same as it did in 1934.

Fenway remains the smallest Major League park with a seating capacity of 36,000.   Other than the additions, Fenway Park for the most part is unchanged. With its manually operated scoreboard, its geometrically peculiar shape (including the only ladder in play in the majors) and the stories of the legends that have played there for more than eight decades, Fenway remains a link to the legends of baseball's past.

Other teams played at Fenway as well. From the National Football Leaugue, from 1933-1936 the NFL’s Boston Redskins played at Fenway before moving to Washington in 1937.  Another NFL team, the Boston Yanks, played at Fenway from 1944-1948.  They moved to New York, then Dallas, then Baltimore and now Indianapolis as the Colts. The American Football League Boston Patriots played there from 1963 to 1968 before getting their own stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Significant Baseball Events:

Ted Williams' 1941 season when he hit .406, making him the last player to hit above the .400 mark;

Ted Williams' home run in the final at-bat of his career in 1960;

Carl Yastrzemski winning the 1967 Most Valuable Player award and the "Triple Crown" (leading the league in home runs, runs batted in, and batting average: a feat that has not been accomplished since) while leading the team to the World Series

The 1975 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, and particularly Game 6 (widely considered the best World Series game in history), when Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk hit a dramatic home run off the left field foul pole to win the game;

Bucky Dent's pop fly home run over the Green Monster, giving the New York Yankees the win in a one-game playoff in October, 1978;

Roger Clemens setting a still-intact Major League record of 20 strikeouts on April 29, 1986.