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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
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APRIL 2012
21
DISPATCHES
ILLUSTRATIONS BY PETER OUMANSKI
DANAVANFLEET
remembers being invited
by a friendwhoworked at Boston’s Fenway
Park to check out a luxury suite one night
a er a game. He doesn’t get inside the park
very o en—he’s usually pouring beers in
his family’s bar across the street, the Cask
’n’ Flagon, which is always packed with
Fenway faithful on game nights—so he
jumped at the chance.
While the burly Van Fleet is not the
sentimental type, he says it felt like being
in a cathedral a erMass had let out. “I just
sat there thinking how cool it was that
Babe Ruth pitched from there, and Ted
Williams hit that home runover there, and
Carl Yastrzemski ba ed from there.”
Prepare tohear similarly reverent stories
all season, asAmerica’s oldestmajor-league
ballpark marks its 100th anniversary. The
first game at Fenway was played on April
20, 1912, the samedayTiger Stadiumopened
inDetroit. The la er closed in 1999 andwas
later torn down. Fenway nearly suffered
the same fate, but locals raised sucha stink
that the plans were abandoned. The new
owners who took over in 2002 recognized
the park’s appeal andmade improvements,
widening concourses and adding seats and
concession stands. More important, the
Red Sox won two long-awaited champi-
onships that made grown men weep over
their fathers’ graves and finally quieted
Field Day
Major League Baseball’s oldest park turns 100
BY JONMARCUS
BOSTON
the taunts of any Yankees fans with the
temerity to set foot in the Cask.
Everygame since 2003has beena sellout,
but visitors can still take tours year round,
or buy one of 300 same-day tickets that
are made available two and a half hours
before the first pitch, at the li le-noticed
Gate C. As for the park’s centennial, it’ll be
commemoratedwith, among other things,
“Throwback Days,” during which players
wear period uniforms, and, better still,
an open house on April 19. “People from
around the world come to Boston just to
go to Fenway,” says Van Fleet. “If not for
a game, then for a tour. Or just to take a
picture.” Or hoist a beer across the street.