Visit Dates: June 26 & June 28, 2024

There came a point in my life that I started following sports as an obsession.  It was probably around late 2006 as I was turning eight years old.  Everything kinda came together in a way where I couldn’t get enough of it.  The Steelers had just won Super Bowl XL in February, so the fall that followed was the first season I can remember watching every game.  The Penguins had recently added Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal to a roster that already included young cornerstones in Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury and were on a march to the playoffs for the first time since 2001.  And for some reason, the World Series that season between the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals is etched in my brain as the first one I ever followed along with.

Because of the success that these two hometown teams were having (of course there was also the lowly Pirates, and it would take another year or two until I invested heavily into Pitt basketball), I also became engrossed in how the professional sports leagues were structured and the importance that each win brought towards our postseason hopes.  And with that came a fascination with the players themselves.  I watched SportsCenter religiously every morning from 6:00-8:00.  I was buying Madden and MLB: The Show and NHL video games.  I would ask for a pack of trading cards on every trip to the store.  All of this is to say that sports quickly became my biggest passion.  My free time revolved around it.  While it doesn’t take up nearly as much of my time as an adult and my days of watching ESPN are a thing of the past with the garbage programming that now consumes their airwaves, I still dedicate a lot of energy towards cheering on my favorite teams.

I’d like to think it was MLB: The Show that inspired my love of stadiums.  Playing that game, I was able to see firsthand all the nuances that made each baseball park unique.  There’s the Green Monster of Fenway Park in Boston.  The ivy walls in the outfield of Wrigley Field in Chicago.  McCovey Cove beyond the right field fence in San Francisco.  Unlike every other sport that has specific, uniform dimensions, baseball diamonds have few constraints.  And so it was at this age that I made it a goal that I would one day see all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums.

The thing is, I never thought it was a realistic goal.  Until May 2023, I had only been to three stadiums in the first 24.5 years of my life.  If I maintained that pace, then I’d only be at around 30 percent by the time I reached the average U.S. male life expectancy.  Nine stadiums is nothing to snuff at, but I would feel like I missed out on a major dream of mine.  But luckily for me, I married a woman who was willing to make this dream a reality.  At the time of this writing in January 2025, I’ve now made it to twelve!

This Fenway Park article is the first in a series of what will hopefully someday be thirty articles reviewing my thoughts and opinions of each MLB ballpark.  Should I have written these in chronological order of visit?  Probably.  It will eventually get to that point once I’m caught up with all the ones I’ve previously visited.  And I’ll come out with a personal ranking too once I’m there.  Given its history, Fenway seemed like a good starting point. 

So before I get started with my first review, here are the twelve stadiums I’ve been to in order of initial visit:

• PNC Park – Pittsburgh Pirates
• Oriole Park at Camden Yards – Baltimore Orioles
• Progressive Field – Cleveland Guardians (then known as the Indians)
• Wrigley Field – Chicago Cubs
• Citizens Bank Park – Philadelphia Phillies
• Great American Ball Park – Cincinnati Reds
• Nationals Park – Washington Nationals
• Fenway Park – Boston Red Sox
• Oracle Park – San Francisco Giants
• Oakland Coliseum – Oakland Athletics (RIP)
• T-Mobile Park – Seattle Mariners
• Comerica Park – Detroit Tigers

Boston was the first leg of a cross-country stadium tour in Summer 2024.  I’d imagine that even the most casual baseball fan would have Fenway Park somewhere on their bucket list.  The oldest operating park in the majors, its first game was played in 1912.  It’s certainly seen a great deal of memorable moments.  Carlton Fisk waving the ball fair in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.  Ted Williams throwing out the first pitch at the 1999 All-Star Game.  The miraculous comeback from down 3-0 in the 2004 ALCS.  David Ortiz’s speech after the Boston Marathon Bombing.  Even the NHL Winter Classic.  So many players have established their legacy in the century since the stadium opened, and I’m sure countless more will follow.  It’s a shrine in baseball lore, an iconic landmark not only to the game it’s helped to define but also to the sports world as a whole.

Martha and I made plans to meet up with a friend from Connecticut who has been to Fenway a handful of times before and could show us around the place.  Taking his advice, we made sure to avoid sitting in the infield grandstand sections since you risk sitting behind poles that would obstruct your view of the field.  Plus, since the Red Sox are such a historic franchise, tickets aren’t cheap throughout the park compared to what you might find in other cities.  In the end, we bought tickets for the outfield bleachers in right field (Section L42), which luckily were actually wooden seats with backrests and not metal bleachers.  We chose Wednesday, June 26th, against the Toronto Blue Jays since it was the much cheaper option over the Friday game against the San Diego Padres.  But this will come back into play soon.

There was a palpable energy that surrounded the stadium as we made our approach.  While the area outside of Fenway didn’t quite have the same modern “stadium district” that you see with Wrigleyville in Chicago and the newer ballparks, theirs had a quaint, no-frills charm of a bygone era.  It’s more or less surrounded by alleyways, and we entered down Lansdowne Street.  Bars and vendors flanked us on the left and the seats atop the Green Monster hung over us to the right.  It was a step back in time that I truly enjoyed.

I like to arrive at least an hour before first pitch so I can take in all areas of the place with a couple laps.  Because of the historical nature of Fenway, I figured two hours might be needed.  Well, on this day, everyone else had the same idea as me, as there was a huge line on the right side waiting to get in.  Then we noticed that almost every person was a woman in her early 20s, which felt slightly out of place.  Why would all these women want to get to a Red Sox game so dang early.  Unbeknownst to me, one of the most successful women in podcasting, Alex Cooper (who I had never heard of until this moment), was throwing out the first pitch that day and additionally, they were giving out a limited amount of “Unwell” jerseys for “Big Al’s Daddy Gang”.  I feel ridiculous having typed that out.

So then we had to navigate the concourse through throngs of people.  But if I recall correctly, we couldn’t actually go up to our seats yet.  They were simply letting people inside to help fight the rush.  Luckily, our friend had a buddy who works at the stadium and was going to show us around a little bit, so he let us throw a blocked off area and eventually took us over to the team store on the historic Yawkey Way.

After checking out the views from the third base line, the real highlight came when he escorted us up to the Green Monster and allowed us past the roped area and into the seats above the most famous wall in sports!  Knowing how exclusive that section is on gameday, I found myself speechless as we towered over the field below.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment that I will never forget.

Had it not been for that though, I’m not sure how I would’ve viewed my overall experience at Fenway.  It’s certainly picturesque from all angles, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the look of the press box behind home plate in particular.  The tucked away concourses and narrow passages were also charming.  But because of their similar ages and legacies, I couldn’t help comparing it to Wrigley the entire time, a stadium I absolutely adore (and one that I will have a review of eventually too).  There was still that unmistakable, classic feel to the entire place.  However, I felt it was a step down.  Maybe it’s because of Wrigley’s recent upgrades, but it’s not like Fenway was a dump.

Ultimately, I think it came down to the energy and behavior of the crowd for me.  The Alex Cooper thing was unavoidable, and I can’t blame Fenway and their ushers for that.  In a crazy turn of events, beautiful blue skies turned to ominous grey clouds right before first pitch.  After only one inning, a torrential downpour opened up directly over the stadium.  We waited out the entire hour and 48 minute delay in hopes that the game would resume, but it wasn’t meant to be.  The concourses under our seats, while dry enough, were completely packed with people.  No one had any sense of their surroundings and were blocking all available paths.  We were all standing on top of each other.  As time went on, this thankfully cleared out.  And we ended up getting leftover food for free from the concession stand!  By waiting things out, the rain also lightened up quite a bit, making the commute back to our hotel via foot and the subway much easier.

Martha and I decided to come back for the Friday game against the Padres so we could say we’d actually seen a game.  The Red Sox ticket office was nice enough to give us a refund for our original tickets since we couldn’t return for the makeup date in August.  We sat one section to the left from where we were before since we enjoyed the view it gave us.  It ended up being a beautiful night for baseball, with barely any clouds in the sky.  It was a dud of a game though.  San Diego scored nine runs in the 5th inning and won by a final of 9-2.  Because we sat across the way from the red Ted Williams seat out in right where he hit the longest homer in Fenway history, I made sure to get a picture with it after the game.

Oddly enough, even though Daddy Gang wasn’t at this game, I actually found the crowd to be significantly worse.  There were a lot of other young people around us, likely due to the cheaper cost and the Samuel Adams terrace bar above where we sat.  The problem though was that these people didn’t actually have seats in this section!  They just kept sliding into these spots because they appeared to be open, but then would have to get up shortly after when someone would show up to claim their seat.  Not only that, but the overall conduct and character shown was atrocious.  The ushers continually turned a blind eye, and that to me was the worst part.  It was one of the worst baseball crowds that I’ve ever been a part of, and that was enough for me to drop Fenway down my list lower than I thought it would be.

In the end, there is an amazing nostalgia surrounding these hallowed grounds.  I loved getting to walk around the stadium, eat countless Fenway Franks, and take in the sights and sounds of the place.  But I didn’t fall in love with it despite my preconceived notions that it would be an indisputable top-3 park for me.  Luckily, I got that opportunity to stand on top of the Green Monster, as that likely saved it from being another spot lower.  Is it still a great stadium?  Yes.  Has it stood the test of time?  Absolutely.  Reputation alone should not be the determinant for how I rank Fenway Park.  The gameday experience (on two separate occasions!) was poor for a variety of factors outlined above, and while it might be a matter of circumstance, it’s something to consider should you ever make a trip to the Boston landmark.

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