Photos

Yesterday Craig (macjake) asked if there were any pictures of Fenway Park's Green Monster in the offing. There weren't, but I do happen to have some. So, Craig, ask and ye shall receive!

The Green Monster is the most iconic feature of Boston's Fenway Park, the oldest stadium in all of Major League Baseball and the home of my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. Fenway Park was opened in 1912, 100 years ago this past season - in fact, the news of its opening was overshadowed by that of the sinking of the HMS Titanic!

The Wall has changed a great deal over the years; while it has always had the hand-operated scoreboard at its base, in its early days it was covered with advertising, as was the style at the time. In the middle of the 20th century it was stripped of those ads and remained blank and green for some time.

Fenway Park, sadly, languished in disrepair for much of the latter half of the 20th century. There was talk of replacing it in Boston, which would have destroyed one of the game's jewels. But in 2002, the Red Sox were pruchased by new ownership, who committed themselves to the park. They refurbished it, cleaned it up, and turned it not only into a historic park but also a great place to experience. They took down the ugly net over the Green Monster and installed seating; they added amenities, redid the field itself, and installed new scoreboards with great capacity of stats and information. Fenway is now a wonderful place to watch a ballgame - I just wish the team that played there this year had been better!

This weekend I'm heading down to Texas for a wedding - I'll look forward to catching up on people's posts on Tuesday!