Fenway Park Tour 2012

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I spent the finale of my 30th birthday trip in Boston. Feeling like I didn't get enough of Fenway on my previous trip 14 months earlier, I booked another tour. 2012 marked the 100th Anniversary of Fenway Park. What made this trip so much better than the previous one was that the Red Sox were out of town so I got to see more of the stadium then I did the year before. After purchasing tickets at Gate D, we proceeded to the team store prior where all Fenway Park Tours begin. I'm still not sure what can compare to spending over an hour in this legendary ballpark on a brisk fall day in September. Taking a page out of previous stadium tours that I had been on, it's usually a good thing to tour the stadium when the team is out of town because you get to see the goodies which the stadium has to offer.

Once everyone had arrived, the tour departed from the Red Sox Team Store and into Fenway Park. Our first stop was in the portion of the stadium that runs along third base. The tour guide made it known that this was the portion of the park where the movies Ted and The Town had been filmed at. Next we were taken up to the wooden seats that are located next to the left field foul pole which is next to the Green Monster. Here our guide made his rounds asking which teams everyone supported, while making it known the Red Sox were still the best in baseball. During this stop on the tour, many interesting facts about the stadium and the team were explained. While I knew some history about Fenway, I never knew how many changes that the stadium has undergone over the years. Up next was the famed Green Monster seats atop left field. The Green Monster has served as the manual scoreboard for Fenway Park that employees operate through-out the game. Until recently, the Green Monster was never accessible by fans until a seating section was added. The monster is made up of several historical elements including morse code along the American League portion of the scoreboard containing the initials of the Yawkey Family and the hard-to-miss ladder which was previously used by workers to retrieve home run balls prior to the addition of its seats.

The famed Press Box was up next on the tour after we made our way through the halls that contained history from all of the years the Red Sox had been a team. The press box sits above home plate and offers an exceptional view of the stadium and nearby Boston Back Bay. On any given day, the Red Sox employee who runs the press box determines whether or not the windows will be opened or closed for the duration of the game. Due to its close proximity from home plate, foul balls are frequent in this location. As an unexpected surprise, this tour was given the opportunity to visit several behind the scenes areas of the ball park that included the visitors dugout, warning track and Red Sox dugout. Being the fan that I am, having the opportunity to walk into the locker room where many legendary and Hall of Fame players was a very surreal experience. Not to take away from the opportunity to walk on the field and sit on the dugout benches, the locker room easily took the cake. While on the warning track, fans were allowed to have their photo taken by the teams official fan photographers, Fan Photo that they could purchase for a small fee at the end of the tour.

In addition to the major highlights of the tour, our guide also shared several stories about the park including the famed Pesky Pole, The Lone Red Seat that signifies the longest home run hit at Fenway by Ted Williams on June 9, 1946 and ending with a visit to the publicly visited Red Sox Hall of Fame.