OH JOY - Fenway Park will be around for another 40-50 years...

Red Sox ownership met with the press today in Ft. Myers and Larry Lucchino said that Fenway Park is going to outlive many of us.

The Red Sox have finished 10 years of improvements to Fenway Park, spending $285 million to renovate, improve and in some areas rebuild the old ballpark.

Team president Larry Lucchino said the major projects are done. Engineers have told the ownership group that the structure has 40-50 years of life remaining.

In other words, if you're waiting for a new ballpark you're going to be waiting for a long time. "There is nothing in the plans," Lucchino said.

I must admit I have mixed emotions about this. On one hand the place that I went to games with my late Dad and brother will survive. My son who is 19 may live to see the end of Fenway but I doubt I will make it to 2051. I will be spared seeing Fenway torn down and I know how it hurt to see Boston Garden fall in 1998.



In 1991 I remember gasping when I drove by Comiskey Park in Chicago as it was being torn down.


So Fenway survives....BUT


Saying all the major projects are done means the team has no plans to improve the 'cheap seats', especially the upper grandstand and right field areas.

The grandstand seats are a challenge to sit in....they may have been fine in 1934 when they were installed but not now. I would love to see John Henry, Tom Werner or Larry Lucchino watch ONE game from these seats. JUST ONE



The view from the RF seats are perhaps the worst of any seats in any MLB park....


Much of the $285 million was spent building seats on the roof and those seats are among the most expensive in the park.



To be fair, Fenway Park is not a dump like Wrigley Field in Chicago is. That ballpark is in horrible shape, but at least a few years ago they replaced all the seats so it is not uncomfortable to sit in them.

Long Live Fenway...

Fenway Park - Winter Wonderland - February 2, 2011

 

VIDEO Snow blankets Fenway Park just a few days before pitchers and catchers report to Ft. Myers

Tax Break To Widen BULLPEN???? Fenway Park snafu smells more rotten than Boston Harbor

On Thursday the Boston Herald ran a story saying that the Red Sox have for now postponed a proposal to widen the bullpens in right field and thus move in the fences.

The story explains why

But the Red Sox struck out with the Massachusetts Historical Commission , which determined the project would not score a special tax break.
Historical Commission director Brona Simon said in a letter to the Red Sox that widening the bullpen fails to meet the eligibility criteria for federal historic rehabilitation standards. As a result, she wrote, the Sox would not win tax credits.

I was over at Fenway last week and the park is a beehive of activity as major work is being done to the grandstand in right field and the videoboard above the bleachers is being replaced with a new larger HD model.

BUT...

In the scheme of things I would thing simplay widening the bullpen would not be that expensive as it would be not much more than moving in the fences. The Red Sox need a tax break for that?


The old video board is now history and they are starting to install the new framework for the new HD boards.


The structure for the previous board was built after the 1975 World Series and the board was updated twice - it became color in 1988 and then replaced with a new model in 2001.

Notice the Ford and Dunkin' Donuts signs are gone for now as is the John Hancock sign which will return.

Seriously - A tax break for a new bullpen????

Anyhow - TRUCK DAY is one month away (February 8th)


Of course looking ahead - that is the Tuesday after the final NFL Game of the season will be played in Arlington, Texas - so could Truck Day meet a Duck Boat Parade?

NO! NO! NO! Leave Fenway Park playing field as it is

On Tuesday the Red Sox announced some major changes in the park for the 2011 season.

The team will install not one but THREE new HD Scoreboards over the bleachers

(Click HERE for VIDEO)

But the team also said there is a good chance that new bullpens will be built in right-center and they would be 6-8 feet closer to home plate and also the right field corner past Pesky Pole would be move closer to install more box seats past the foul pole.

THIS CAN NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN

The playing field has not seen any major changes since 1975 when the flagpole was moved behind the CF fence and CF was reduced to 379 feet from 390. In 1940 the bullpens we know were installed simply to help Ted Williams hit more home runs.

Mike Silverman in the Boston Herald echoes my thoughts exactly.

Death Valley in right-center has been a part of Fenway lore for decades and it is part of what makes Fenway special.

So to John Henry, Tom Wener and Larry Lucchino I ask that you bite the bullet. If you need to expand the bullpens then simply knock out 2 or 3 rows of the bleachers. I am sure you can make up the lost seating there somewhere on the roof.

This ownership has done a fantastic job in rebuilding Fenway Park. In 2000 under John Harrington the park was ready to fall down and it was in the same kind of condition that Comiskey Park in Chicago and Tiger Stadium in Detroit had become ( both of which are long gone now )

Fenway will be around now for another 30-40 years and we will be spared the heartbreak of seeing it torn down like we did with Boston Garden in the late 90's.

However PLEASE leave the field as is.

Thanks from an old fan.

Why isn't Fenway Park on the ballot???

The US Mint is at it again and they have asked Massachusetts to submit one preferred and three alternate Massachusetts national sites to be featured on the reverse of a quarter. Beginning in 2010, the Mint will release five new quarter designs annually based on the order in which the selected sites gained federal designation.



So Governor Patrick's website is polling the citizens which is fine



The website says

We have taken the liberty of reducing the list of thousands of potential sites down to the possibilities below based on their local and national significance.
How to Vote
The voting is now open. Please note that you can only submit one site at a time, but you can vote as often as you would like until 5:00 p.m. February 26, 2009. If your preferred site does not appear on this list, you can still vote for it by calling 1-800-227-MASS [6277].



I must ask the question.



Why isn't Fenway Park on this list??????

We have become worse than the Yankees

Tom Yawkey must be singing this from his grave
with apologies to Melanie

Look what they've done to my park, Ma

Look what they've done to my park

Well it's the only thing I could do half right

And it's turning out all wrong, Ma

Look what they've done to my park

I have been going to Fenway Park for over 50 years. My first game was on August 8, 1956 and the Red Sox defeated Baltimore 7-2 and Ted Williams hit a home run. What I remember the most about that night was the vivid colors inside the park as all I knew about baseball before that was from black & white television. However at the age of 6 a lifelong love affair began.

By 1966 my interest in the team had fallen off. Fenway was a ghost town where on a good night 10,000 people would be there to see bad baseball. Nobody cared about the team anymore and there were warnings in the paper that Tom Yawkey might move somewhere else. Then came 1967...

The team has been for the most part very good the past 40 years and came very close to winning it all several times but until 2004 it never happened. Now they are defending champions again and also the favorite to win in 2008. I wish I could enjoy it but I despise what the Red Sox have become. We are now worse than that team 206 miles away on I-95.

One thing about the Yankees that you have to respect. They have NEVER taken their fans for granted. Sure they charge top dollar but they don't come even close to being as shameful as the Red Sox have become.

The Yankees have no problems selling tickets and with this being the final year of the stadium most game will be sold out. Yet they still offer many promotions and giveaways to their loyal fans.

2008 Yankees Promotional Schedule

How can you resist a Final Season Snoopy Yankees Doll Night that they will give away on September 17th against Chicago. Meanwhile let's see what the Red Sox will do for their loyal fans.

Outside of giving out magnetic schedules on Opening Day...NOTHING

This is not a case of being cheap since I am sure the Red Sox would have no trouble attracting corporate sponsors to underwrite the giveaways. It is obvious that they do not want to cheapen the Red Sox brand by giving anything away. Even the Disney people are not that shameful.

Today just going to a game requires the planning similar to a vacation at Disney World and it almost costs as much. Gone are the days a group of friends would meet after work and somebody would say "Hey the Indians are in town let's go" and you would hop the subway over to Kenmore and buy tickets at the window. Now to get tickets we have to set aside an entire Saturday in January to stare at this for hours

Now I will concede that this ownership has done wonders in improving Fenway from the sorry state it was in the last few years of John Harrington's watch. Widening the concourses above and under the grandstand have made the park easier to deal with. The new seats on the roof and on top of the Monster are wonderful but the team still hasn't addressed the biggest problem at Fenway which is the narrow wooden seats in the upper grandstand that date back to 1934. The seats in right field face the Citgo sign instead of home plate and after a game you need a chiropractor for your neck and knees. So what have they decided to do for 2008?

MORE SEATS ON THE ROOF

You know there was a reason why Fenway didn't have an upper deck when it was first built in 1912 and then rebuilt in 1934. The park is built on filled in swampland that used to be part of the Back Bay. It was believed at the time that the foundation could not carry the weight of an upper deck. I trust there is no safety issue here but that roof is getting awfully crowded which negates part of the reason it was so attractive to sit there in the first place to be away from the crush of humanity downstairs.

Finally I have to address what the fanbase has become. This Red Sox Nation garbage has to stop as we are becoming the the most hated fanbase in perhaps all of sports. We are not just hated in New York but everywhere especially in Chicago not by Cubs fans who are in their own little world but by the hardscrabble fans of the forgotten Chicago team the White Sox. They didn't mind when the world went bonkers over us winning in 2004 but they were furious when the national media ignored them when the won in 2005. We got the cover of Time Magazine and they couldn't even get a full cover in Sports Illustrated having to share it with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Seems like most of the nation was rooting for the New York Giants in the Super Bowl because they are fed up with Boston teams and fans.

But besides hating us they are also laughing at us. Last week Red Sox Nation hit a new bottom when Jerry Remy was sworn in as 'President' of Red Sox Nation by United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at the Court in Washington. It would be one thing if it happened in Boston with Mayor 'Mumbles' or Governor Patrick. The Supreme Court????

I can not believe we have to put up with another season of Sox-Appeal. If it was just on after a game I could happily choose to ignore it but we are going to be forced to listen to Orsillo and Remy babble about each date in real time as they tape the show. Can you imagine Curt Gowdy, Ken Coleman or Ned Martin doing this? Mercy!!

I am also not looking forward to another season of Jerry Remy shilling the 'The Remy Report' every chance he gets. It really has gotten old.

Still I know that at 6 AM on March 25th I will be watching when the season opens in Tokyo.

even if I hate what they have become.

GO SOX!!!!