Sample Pages - Boston

baseball
n 1954, French-born historian Jacques Barzun wrote: “Whoever
wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.” Well,
the same sentiment holds true for Boston.
Since the sport’s inception, Boston has had a love affair with baseball, and in
particular with its beloved boys of summer, the Boston Red Sox. It’s perfectly
logical, of course, that the city where America was born would have an enduring
attachment to this quintessential American sport.
Television ratings for Red Sox games consistently outdraw network programs,
blockbuster trades are front-page news for the city’s papers, and playoff games
dominate local television newscasts. Between April and September (and hopefully
October), Red Sox games provide the soundtrack to everyday life in Boston. You
could wander Boston on a summer day and not miss a pitch. The crackle of the
radio play-by-play emanates from taxi cabs, variety stores, and package shops.
Even during the winter, the Hot Stove League draws more attention in Boston
than the regular season does in many other cities.
It’s not just the Sox that have a hold over Bostonians and New Englanders—but
the very sport itself. From big cities to small towns, from storied Fenway Park to
small high school fields on Cape Cod, fans across New England spend their summers packed around baseball diamonds. Old men diligently score each pitch in
their programs while young children scoop ice cream out of their helmet sundaes.
Perhaps it’s the bitter winters that draw the region to baseball. Fans relish each
one of those precious summer days and savor the sport that matches the pace of
the season. By focusing on each individual pitch, each relay throw, each bunt,
or each lazy fly ball before the days grow short and the weather turns cold, New
Englanders live the baseball season deliberately, in the finest tradition of Henry
David Thoreau.
The region’s intense attachment to baseball and its unceasing fixation on the
fortunes of its beloved teams is nothing new. Boston is the only city that has had
a major league baseball team continuously since 1871, and even in the nineteenth
century, legions of fans were obsessed with Boston’s local nines. From the cheering
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THE DIE+HARD SPORTS FAN’S GUIDE TO BOSTON
“cranks” (the old terminology for baseball fans) that formed the Royal Rooters
at the turn of the twentieth century to today’s Red Sox Nation, which is actually
a global phenomenon, Boston is crazy about baseball.
The sport of baseball has its roots in cricket and similar games that were brought
to America by English immigrants. Even back in the early 1600s, the first European arrivals to New England played some form of bat-and-ball game called stool
ball that was popular in the west of England. William Bradford, the governor of
Plymouth Colony, confiscated balls and bats as the merriment didn’t sync with
the Pilgrims’ way of life.
By the 1850s, baseball as we know it began to emerge, and in 1854, the Boston
Olympics formed the first baseball club in the city. Games were played across New
England in village greens and city parks, including Boston Common (see page
X). Even in the 1850s, it was not unusual for the ballgames on Boston Common
to draw thousands of spectators.
When baseball began to come of age before the Civil War, two sets of rules
emerged: the “Massachusetts game,” which was popular in Boston, and the “New
York game.” Under the rules of the Massachusetts game, the batter stood halfway
between home plate and first base, there was no foul territory, and fielders could
get a runner out by hitting him with a thrown ball. The New York game, which
was first played on Boston Common in 1858 by the Tri-Mountain Club, ultimately
won out, even in Boston. The modern sport developed from the New York game
although elements from the Massachusetts game, such as catching a ball for an out
and overhand pitching, also found their way into today’s rules. Unfortunately, the
triumph of the New York game wouldn’t be the last time that the Big Apple would
prevail over Boston on diamond-related issues. (Vintage baseball games played
under nineteenth-century rules are regularly played throughout the summer on
Georges Island, part of the Boston Harbor Islands national park area.)
Boston was home to the first professional team and the first baseball dynasty—
the Red Stockings—who won four of five National Association pennants between
1871 and 1875 with stars George and Harry Wright and Albert Spalding. The Red
Stockings played their games at the South End Grounds (see page X), located at
the present site of the MBTA’s Ruggles Station in Roxbury. Over the years, the
team’s name changed from Beaneaters to Red Caps to Doves before it officially
became the Boston Braves. The Braves played at the South End Grounds until
1914. Between 1888 and 1894, the ballpark featured a grand pavilion that looked
like a fairytale castle with its medieval-style turrets. It was Boston’s only doubledecked ballpark. Unfortunately, the Great Roxbury Fire of 1894, which started
in the right-field bleachers during a game, destroyed the pavilion and 177 surrounding buildings.
While the South End Grounds was being rebuilt, the team played their games
at the Congress Street Grounds, located on a site crossed by Thompson and Stillings streets in the Fort Point Channel area of Boston. (The Dartmouth Street
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The Babe in Boston
Grounds, located at the present-day site of Copley Place,
was also home to baseball teams in the 1880s.)
The Braves moved in 1915 to Braves Field (see page X),
which was built on the site of the Allston Golf Links, a
little more than a mile away from Fenway Park. (The South
End Grounds would endure until 1929.) The home of the
Braves was the largest baseball stadium in the country
when it opened, and the Red Sox actually played their
home games in the 1915 and 1916 World Series at Braves
Field because the stadium had a larger crowd capacity
than Fenway Park. (The Red Sox also played Sunday
games at Braves Field between 1929 and 1932 as the blue
laws prevented them from using Fenway Park because of
its proximity to a church.)
By the time the Braves slinked out of town and moved
to Milwaukee on March 13, 1953—right before the start
of the season—the Red Sox had played in one more World
Series in the Braves’ ballpark than the home team had.
Today, the site of Braves Field has been converted into
Boston University’s Nickerson Field, but some vestiges
remain. The right-field bleachers were incorporated into
the grandstand of Nickerson Field, and a portion of the
exterior right-field wall still stands along Harry Agganis
Way. The stucco ticket office down the right-field line is now a child-care center
and campus security office, and a plaque behind the building commemorates
Braves Field.
Of course most fans know that Babe Ruth’s major league debut was with the
Red Sox, but many forget that the Sultan of Swat ended his career in the Hub as
well, this time with the Braves. Ruth only played a handful of home games at
Braves Field before retiring in 1935. Earlier in his career he pitched a 14-inning
gem there during Game 2 of the 1916 World Series. The game ended in a victory
for the Red Sox.
From 1901 to 1911, before the Bambino showed up in the Hub and the Red
Sox moved to Fenway Park, Boston’s American League franchise played at the
Huntington Avenue Grounds (see page X), just a tape-measure shot from the
South End Grounds. Today it is the site of Northeastern University, but back in
1903 it was the site of the first World Series between Boston, the American League
champion, and Pittsburgh, the National League champion. Boston won the inaugural fall classic in eight games (it was best of nine at the time) and ushered in
baseball’s modern era.
Along a footpath named World Series Way, a bronze statue of Cy Young, crouching
down with his five-fingered glove resting on his left knee, stands outside Northeastern’s Churchill Hall. The statue marks the spot of the ballyard’s old mound. A
Between 1922 and 1926, Ruth also
owned Home Plate Farm, a 155-acre
farmstead in Sudbury. Although
technically a Yankee ballplayer at
that time, it’s not surprising that the
Babe was ill-suited to be a Yankee
farmer. All that remains of Home
Plate Farm is the old farmhouse
at 558 Dutton Road. Believe it or
not, the Curse of the Bambino is
strangely related to this private residence. The ghosts of the Bambino
that haunted the Sox seem to have
been exorcised during a 2004 game
at Fenway when a Manny Ramirez foul ball struck the face of Lee
Gavin, who lived in Ruth’s old Sudbury farmhouse.
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THE DIE+HARD SPORTS FAN’S GUIDE TO BOSTON
home plate marker is embedded in the grass, sixty feet and six inches away from
the Flamethrower, at the same spot where home plate rested in the old ballpark.
A plaque on the exterior of Northeastern’s Cabot Physical Education Center
(400 Huntington Avenue. 617-373-2672), commemorates the 1903 World Series
and is located approximately on what was the stadium’s left-field foul line. A
display case on the center’s second floor houses a small collection of artifacts,
including old photographs and wool jerseys.
When the Huntington Avenue Grounds closed in 1912, the infield dirt and
grass was moved to the team’s new ballyard, Fenway Park. Boston baseball fans
are absolutely blessed to have such a jewel of a ballpark in their midst, and they
know it. No other baseball stadium in the majors is so intimate and filled with
such history. Since Fenway Park opened, the Red Sox have won six World Series
titles and experienced consistent championship success—well, with the exception
of that one 86-year drought between 1918 and 2004.
The one downside of the team’s recent championship success for Red Sox fans
has been that tickets are as tough to find as ever. The team set a major league record
Royal Rooters:
The Founding Fathers of Red Sox Nation
Boston’s Royal Rooters—a group of baseball “cranks,” as fans were known at the turn of the
twentieth century—were the founding fathers of today’s Red Sox Nation. Those cranks were just as
passionate as today’s rabid baseball fan base, even if the dress code has changed slightly. Instead
of suits and derby hats, today’s rooters are more apt to wear uniforms of their favorite players or Tshirts not-so-eloquently disparaging their New York rivals. But with their buttons, signs, and chants,
the Royal Rooters, who followed both the city’s National and American League franchises, were the
original die-hards. They even hit the rails to take in road games and spring training, and their exploits
were breathlessly covered in newspapers of the day.
Headquarters for the Royal Rooters was the saloon owned by Michael McGreevey. The mustachioed son of Irish immigrants earned the nickname “Nuf Ced” for the words he would shout to end
any argument in the tavern. McGreevey’s bar became known as the Third Base Saloon. (It advertised
itself as “the last stop before you go home.”) Baseball players, such as Babe Ruth, politicians such as
John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, gamblers, and cranks all hung out at the saloon, which might have been
America’s first sports bar. Its walls were plastered from floor to ceiling with baseball photographs and
memorabilia. Game bats from stars such as Nap Lajoie, King Kelly, and Cy Young were transformed
into electric lighting fixtures attached to frosted glass spheres that resembled baseballs.
McGreevey’s saloons were strategically located near the South End Grounds and Huntington Avenue Grounds at 940 Columbus Avenue and then 1153 Tremont Street. Alas, the enactment of Prohibition
in the 1920s brought about the ultimate demise of McGreevey’s business. However, the spirit of “Nuf
Ced” was revived in 2008 when Dropkick Murphys’ lead vocalist Ken Casey and other investors opened
McGreevy’s Third Base Saloon on Boylston Street (see page X).
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for consecutive sellouts, beginning in May 2003. And even if you’re lucky enough
to score a ticket, the amount you’d spend on tickets, parking, Fenway Franks, and
watered-down beer may match the payroll of the Tampa Bay Rays.
A great alternative to Fenway are the three minor league affiliates of the Red Sox,
all within easy driving distance of Boston: the Single A Lowell Spinners (see page
X), the Double A Portland Sea Dogs (see page X), and the Triple A Pawtucket Red
Sox (see page X). You might be lucky enough to see a Sox player on a rehabilitation
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THE DIE+HARD SPORTS FAN’S GUIDE TO BOSTON
assignment, or just consider it a scouting trip to see future Red Sox stars on the
road to Fenway. The minor league teams provide affordable and family-friendly
entertainment, and additional teams in the area include the Brockton Rox (see
page X) and Worcester Tornadoes (see page X). But in this baseball-crazy area
of the country, even minor league games can sell out.
Not only do the pros pack the fans into ballparks around New England, but the
amateurs do as well. The Cape Cod Baseball League (see page X), the premier
Michael McGreevey, owner of the Third Base Saloon, and Red Sox players at Spring Training
in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1912. Courtesy Boston Public Library, McGreevey Collection.
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