Fenway Park

New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox
August 31, 2003

Yankees 8, Red Sox 4

W: Roger Clemens
L: Tim Wakefield
S: Mariano Rivera
Attendance: 34,482
Time of Game: 3 hours, 13 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Boston, MA
First Game: April 20, 1912
Capacity: 36,298 (was lower in 2003)
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

After a fun couple of days in New York, Pete and I headed east towards Boston. We stayed in a hotel in a northern suburb of Boston and took a train into the city on Sunday morning. We were in for quite a treat on this day, because we had coveted tickets to the Red Sox game at Fenway Park against the hated Yankees. When I planned out this trip, I knew tickets would be almost impossible to come by for this game, so I wound up purchasing two standing room only tickets on eBay well in advance. I paid twice face value for them, but they were worth every penny.

This was my second trip to Fenway Park, with the first being when I was six years old. I obviously don't remember much about my first visit, except that we had seats underneath and behind the center field scoreboard (yes, behind). You can actually see about where I sat for that game in the external photo below, which is the backside of the center field scoreboard. Coincidentally, that game was against the Yankees too.

Fenway Park is the oldest stadium in Major League Baseball. Built in 1912, it has seem many modifications and improvements over the years, but has an undeniably old feeling to it. It was clearly built into an existing city neighborhood, with the outer perimeter running up against the neighboring streets and buildings. This causes the park to have the most unique playing dimensions in all of baseball. The neighborhood isn't exactly downtown Boston, but is very much a happening area, especially when Red Sox games are going on. We checked out a couple of the nearby watering holes before and after the game.

The stadium is probably the smallest in the league in physical size, and definitely the smallest in terms of capacity. There is an upper deck, but not much of one. Almost all of the seats in the park are in the lower level, with an extraordinary amount of seats in right field. There are beams supporting the upper level, but they are far enough back that a good percentage of the seats are not obstructed.

Obviously, the most famous aspect of Fenway Park is the Green Monster in left field. The 37 foot wall is enormous, but necessary considering the short distance it stands from home plate. I was there the first summer after they added the seats above the Green Monster. While it would have been awesome to sit up there, I wasn't quite willing to pay those prices.

The short dimensions to left isn't the only unique aspect of the playing field at Fenway. The right field foul pole (Pesky's Pole) is only 302 feet from home plate, but the wall shoots out immediately to create a larger than normal right field, all the way out to a 420 foot corner in deep right center. This park is a right handed hitters dream, but good lefties have plenty of space to drop hits in too. It is certainly a difficult place to pitch and play defense for those unfamiliar with the unusual quirks.

As I mentioned, we had standing room only tickets. We picked out our spot early enough to get a good spot on the first base side behind all of the lower level seats. Coincidentally, I stood next to a fellow White Sox fan. We were probably the only two Sox fans of the white variety in the entire park for this Yankees/Red Sox game. I believe he was a student at MIT originally from Illinois.

As if the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry wasn't enough to make this a huge game, it had even more significance because the starting pitcher for the Yankees was former Red Sox great Roger Clemens. He had already announced his intent to retire at the end of the 2003 season, so this was supposed to be his last start ever at Fenway Park. As we all know, that retirement didn't exactly happen, so he pitched later games at Fenway including a post-season start that very season in the ALCS. But obviously none of us knew that at the time of this game. The knuckleballer, Tim Wakefield, got the start for the Red Sox. This was the rubber match of the three game series, in which the two potent offenses dominated the first two games. The Red Sox played this one a little short-handed as Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez were both nursing minor injuries.

The Yankees got to Wakefield early. A hit batter, a walk and four singles led to three Yankees runs in the top of the first inning. The Red Sox got two back in the third, with a second run scoring on a single by Todd Walker. Gabe Kapler, filling in for Damon in center field, had a rough fifth inning. He bobbled a Derek Jeter base hit, allowing Jeter to reach second. Later in the inning, he picked up another error when he dropped a deep fly ball hit by Hideki Matsui. The Yankees increased their lead to 5-2. The lead ballooned to 8-2 in the top of the seventh in another ugly inning for the Red Sox.

Clemens had been in a groove, but the wheels started to fall off in the bottom of the 7th. He was pulled from the game after loading the bases with two outs. The Red Sox crowd gave their former hero a standing ovation and a curtain call after he left the game, probably the only time a Yankees pitcher has received either at Fenway Park. The Red Sox cut the lead to 8-4 after seven. Things got a little dicey for the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth. Jeff Nelson gave up two singles and a walk, so Mariano Rivera was brought in to get the final out, which he did successfully, ending the game as an 8-4 Yankees victory.

As I mentioned in the Yankee Stadium article, the 2003 Yankees wound up losing in the World Series. But before that, these two teams met up for one of the more memorable playoff series of the last decade. The Yankees won that ALCS in seven games, with the series clinching run coming on a home run by Aaron "F-ing" Boone (as Red Sox fans would later dub him) in the bottom of the 11th inning of Game 7. The series also featured Pedro Martinez's throw-down of Yankees coach Don Zimmer.

While the Yankees and Red Sox have always had a heated rivalry, the most recent chapter really got going in 2003, so it was pretty cool to be part of that history. Plus, getting to see any game in Fenway Park is an awesome experience. I don't think the Red Sox are in any hurry to build a new park. Why mess with the good thing they've got going right now?

Finally, I should mention that after the game we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening exploring Boston. It is a very historic and exciting city... one I wish I had more opportunities to visit. For me, the stop in Boston was probably the highlight of this very fun trip.

Photo Album

From Boston

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From Boston

Next stadium: SkyDome, Toronto