“Fenway Park” It is the bottom of the eighth inning and the Red Sox are down five runs to one run. David Ortiz steps to the plate and with one swing hits a grand-slam. Fenway Park erupted with cheer. As I looked around at the crowd celebrating, I began to admire Fenway Park. It was chockfull of banners and memorabilia. Fenway Park appeared simple in architectural design, but little did I know how much history existed here. In today's society some of the best things are ones that change little and remain basically the same as they have for decades. Fenway Park is an example of this as the Boston Red Sox have remained committed to staying at this classic ballpark that they have called home since 1912. It is the oldest major league ballpark in use and still retains the same feel and characteristics as it did when it opened on April 20th 1912. Newspaper coverage of the opening was overshadowed by continuing coverage of the Titanic sinking a few days earlier (National Geographic 2010). On March 7, 2012, the park was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The park is considered to be one of the most well-known sports venues in the world. (BCC 2010).
The park's address was originally 24 Jersey Street. In 1977, the section of Jersey Street nearest the park was renamed Yawkey Way in honor of longtime Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey. The park's address is now 4 Yawkey Way. The Red Sox moved to Fenway Park from the old Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds. In 1911, owner John Taylor purchased the land bordered by Brookline Avenue, Jersey Street, Van Ness Street and Lansdowne Street and developed it into a larger baseball stadium (Foulds, Alan E. 2005). Taylor claimed the name Fenway Park from its location in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. Like many classic ballparks, Fenway Park was constructed on an asymmetrical block.
Anyone who knows about Fenway Park heard about the famous “Green Monster”, but no literature could have prepared me for what I saw. Sitting behind home plate allowed me to really appreciate the 37 feet high famous Green Monster. This fixture is one of a kind and helps to distinguish Fenway as the most unique stadium in the Majors. The Wall was part of the park when it was originally built in 1912. At first it was constructed to keep spectators who did not pay for admission an opportunity to see the game at no charge. It was made of wood and burnt down with much of the park in the 1934. The wall was rebuilt and made of tin upon its reconstruction. The current wall is built of a hard plastic and was assembled in 1976. Up until 1947, advertisements draped the wall. That year the wall was painted green and hence the name the Green Monster would become synonymous with Fenway Park forever. In honor of the famed wall, the Red Sox mascot is a furry green monster, named Wally The Green Monster (Desberg, Carl 2010) Another noticeable and very unique structure to Fenway Park is the manual scoreboard which dawns at the bottom of the monster. Even though there has been an electronic scoreboard above the bleacher seats in center field at Fenway Park for many years, people still look to the base of the Green Monster at the manual scoreboard to keep track of the action on the field and at other parks around the league. This feature was installed in 1934 and it is one of the few remaining manually-operated scoreboards in baseball. During every home game, there are three operators to keep the scoreboard as up-to-date as possible. Green and red lights signal the number of balls, strikes and outs. 16-inch-square numbers are used to indicate runs and hits, and 12-by-16 inch square numbers are used to show errors, innings, and the number of the current pitcher. You will also find the initials of former owners Thomas A Yawkey and his wife Jean R. Yawkey written in Morse code (Fenway Park History).
Another unique landmark that I noticed at Fenway Park was the “Citgo Sign”. As simple as it looked, little did I know that even this had some sort of a history behind it. The electrically lit Citgo sign could be seen from inside Fenway, located outside the park, in the view above the left-field wall. The famous sign, located atop the building housing the Barnes and Noble Boston University bookstore on nearby Kenmore Square, was erected in 1965, replacing a "Cities Service" sign (Citgo's old name) that had been there previously.
The sign was built over a Cities Service divisional office in 1940 and said to be the largest sign in New England, the CITGO sign is double-faced and measures 60 feet by 60 feet. During the day, the CITGO sign is an impressive monument. Its bright colors are visible for miles around from its perch in Kenmore Square. And Red Sox fans can't see past left field at Fenway Park without taking in this majestic sign. In the Boston night is when the sign truly comes alive. It has been called the 'crown jewel of Boston' and surges in a hypnotic pattern of ruby red, blue and white neon. It illuminates and mesmerizes in a steady rhythm and dance.
In 1979, at the urging of then Governor Edward J. King, CITGO turned off the sign as a symbol of energy conservation, even though it used only $60 per week worth of power. After that the sign remained off for four long years, then CITGO decided to dismantle the deteriorating sign, but when the work crew arrived, defenders of the sign stopped the demolition. Even the Boston mothers played an important role in the protest. At one time, the sign was visible from the maternity ward at Beth Israel Hospital, where mothers-to-be timed their contractions by its pulsing flash in the evening sky. (Bostonpsttime/citgo)
This sign has withstood five hurricanes with winds over 80 mph. In 1983 the sign was deemed an “Object d’ Heart” by Time magazine, photographed in Life magazine and featured in the New York Times. In 1968, the critically acclaimed short film “Go, Go CITGO” captured honors at the Yale Film Festival. The flick featured the sing along with music by the Monkees and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar. In 1987, an animated film was made by a local artist to immortalize Kenmore Square’s “neon god.” Inspired by Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” the three-minute film “CITGO Dance” won an award from the Artists Foundation’s Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Program and last but not least, every time a baseball player hits a home run over the left field wall at Boston’s Fenway Park, CITGO is seen by thousands of fans at the stadium and on television and that’s why the CITGO sign is kept as a landmark in the city of Boston. (Citgo.com) Fenway Park is not just home to a legendary baseball team. It is the place where Babe Ruth made his major league debut and Ted Williams set records. It is also a public space that is vital to the city of Boston. From the very beginning, Fenway hosted all sorts of events, including other sports, masses for World War I soldiers, a 1919 rally for Irish independence ,and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s last presidential campaign speech.
Unlike the cheerful memories that Feway Park host throughout history and present day, this memory wasn’t close to being happy. On April 15 near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, three people were killed and more than 260 wounded in a bombing. Throughout the season, a giant “Boston Strong” has been cut into the grass at Fenway Park and from the start of this unlikely season, the Boston Red Sox have been inextricably linked with the Boston Marathon bombings. (Filipov, David . 2013) Fenway Park became the venue where, throughout the summer, crowds cheered the victims and the healers as they walked or assisted to the mound for the ceremonial first pitch. Like the New Orleans Saints team that brought a Super Bowl victory to a city devastated by Hurricane Katrina, or the New York Yankees’ World Series run a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, this year’s Red Sox have embodied the way sport can bring together a community sundered by disaster. Even a nation, at times, united to the strains of “Sweet Caroline” in ballparks across the country.

Work Cited

"CITGO.com, Company History, Sign Facts." CITGO.com, Company History, Sign Facts. N.p., 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/SignFacts.jsp

"FENWAY PARK." Fenway Park. N.p., 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. .

Rawlings, Nate. "U.S." US Boston Marathon Bombing Survivors and Victims Honored at World Series Comments. N.p., 25 Oct. 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.

"National Geographic Special: Inside Fenway Park: An Icon at 100". PBS. March 2012. Retrieved March 28, 2012