the pdf here - Harvey Frommer Sports

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R E M E M B E R I N G FENWAY PARK
AN
ORAL
THE
AND
HOME
NARRATIVE
OF
RED
HISTORY
SOX
OF
NATION
HARVEY FROMMER
STEWA R T,
32
TA B O R I
A N D
CH A N G
|
N EW
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YO R K
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B Y
T H I N K
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page
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1 0 202
Yaz retires. Roger Clemens arrives on the
scene. The Rocket strikes out 20 in one
game. Wade Boggs is a hitting machine.
The Sox lose the 1986 World Series to the
Mets. Morgan Magic is on parade.
21 st c entur y
c h a p te r
MORGAN MAGIC
A N E W E R A AT F E N W AY P A R K
New ownership takes over. The Curse
of the Bambino is broken as the Red
Sox win world championships in
2004, and 2007. Clay Buchholz and
Jon Lester pitch no-hitters. A new
Major League attendance streak is set
at Fenway Park.
page
236
musings
235
1990
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8
THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
Ted Williams homers in his final Fenway at bat. Yaz comes on the scene.
Two games draw less than 500 each
in 1965. Dave Morehead pitches a
no-hitter. Tony Conigliaro is beaned.
The Impossible Dream season of
1967 results in a pennant for the Red
Sox and fan hysteria at Fenway.
EIG HTIES
c h a p ter
S IX TIES
page
2000
The 50th anniversary of Ted Williams
hitting over .400 is celebrated. The
movement to “SAVE FENWAY
PARK” begins. Attendance at Fenway
climbs above a record 2 1/2 million.
The 70th All-Star Game takes place
with the All Century team in place
and star of stars Ted Williams.
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20 2
9
1970
6
“ S A V E F E N W AY P A R K ! ”
1980
7
A three-game series sweep is a “Yankee
Massacre.” The Sox are defeated by
the Reds in the 1975 World Series.
Bucky Dent hits the “pop fly” homer
and the Yankees win the one game
playoff in ‘78. Carl Yazstremski
records his 3,000 hit and 400th home
run in 1979.
1960
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World War II results in diminished talent
and attendance. Ted Williams bats .406 in
1941. The All Star Game is staged at Fenway Park, and “The Splendid Splinter”
torques the 12-0 American League romp.
The Red Sox win the pennant but lose to
the Cardinals in the World Series. Night
baseball debuts in 1947.
NINETIES
A L L T H AT YA Z , A N D M O R E
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STA R S G A L OR E B U T NO C I G A R
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Harry Frazee sells Babe Ruth to the
Yankees. The Sox finish last seven
times. Dramatic ownership changes
and dwindling attendance plague
Fenway Park.
FOR TIES
4
FIRE SALE TIME
c h ap t e r
2
The American League’s first Ladies’
Night is staged at Fenway. Jimmy Piersall
battles Billy Martin. Elijah “Pumpsie”
Green becomes the first black player
on the Red Sox. Mel Parnell pitches a
no-hitter; three days later Ted Williams
records his 400th career homer.
1950
1930
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T W E N T IE S
c h ap t e r
M I D C E N T U R Y AT
F E N W AY P A R K
1940
Tom Yawkey initiates massive changes. Babe Ruth plays his final game
at Fenway and Ted Williams plays in
his first game. Future Hall of Famers
like “Teddy Ballgame,” Joe Cronin,
Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx and Bobby
Doerr strut their stuff.
S EVENTI ES
FIFTIES
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E N T E R T O M YA W K E Y
1920
3
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Major league baseball begins at Fenway Park as the Red Sox play their
first American League game on April
20, 1912. They win their first pennant
and their World Series in their new
ballpark. There are three more world
championships in the decade.
1910
page
the
Vo ices
T H IR T IE S
A NEW BALLPARK
FOR BOSTON
Fo rew o r d
by Joh n n y
Pesky
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18
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20
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c o ntents
AB OUT
THE
AUTHOR
Ac kno wledgments
APTE
1
R
C
H
–TEENS–
A NE W B A L L P A R K
F OR B OST ON
It was damp and chilly throughout New England
for most of the spring of 1912, and in Boston, it took
a few tries before baseball at a brand new ballpark
could be played in decent weather.
On April 9th, the Red Sox and Harvard’s baseball
team met in an exhibition game in football weather
and as one who was there observed, “with a little
snow on the side.” About 3,000 braved the elements.
Boston won the game, 2-0 with both runs driven in
by their pitcher, Casey Hageman.
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check the shortstop and second baseman. Next
thing he knew, Tris Speaker would sneak in from
center field and pick him off.
S is for Speaker,
Swift center-field tender,
When the ball saw him coming,
It yelled, “I surrender.”
OGDEN NASH, SPORT MAGAZINE, JANUARY 1949
The scheduled official Opening
Day match on April 12th,however, was rained
out. Finally on April 20th, the weather improved
a bit, and Fenway’s first major league game:
the Sox versus the Yankees (then known as the
Highlanders), was set to be played before a crowd
of 27,000 on soggy, lumpy grounds and infield
grass transplanted from the Huntington Avenue
Baseball Grounds, the team’s former home.
Boston Mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald
threw out the ceremonial first ball. The man,
whose grandson would become the thirty-fifth
president of the United States, was an ardent
member of the “Royal Rooters” - a group of Red
Sox fans who staged pre-game parades accompanied by the singing of “Tessie” and “Sweet
Adeline.”
Ordinarily the game would have been the stuff
of front-page headlines in New England dailies.
Six days earlier, however, the largest passenger
ship in the world had struck an iceberg and gone
down in the icy waters of the Atlantic. The news
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of the sinking of the Titanic on
its maiden voyage and the accompanying loss of
1,517 lives would eclipse all other stories.
Nevertheless, it was good news in
Boston that the Red Sox finally had a modern
ballpark. The original field that the team -- then
known as the Boston Somersets -- played on was
a former circus lot where sand covered much of
the outfield and a tool shed sat in the middle of
centerfield.
Owner General Charles Henry Taylor, a Civil
War veteran and owner of the “Boston Globe,”
had decided back in 1910 to build a new ballpark in
the Fenway section bordering Brookline Avenue,
Jersey Street, Van Ness Street and Lansdowne
Street. It would cost $650,000 (approximately
$14 million today), and seat 35,000. Ground was
broken September 25, 1911.
An attractive red brick façade, the first electric baseball scoreboard, and 18 turnstiles, the
most in the Majors, were all features being talked
about. Concrete stands went from behind first
base around to third while wooden bleachers
were located in parts of left, right, and centerfield. Seats lined the field allowing for excellent
views of the game but limiting the size of foul
territory.
Elevation was 20 feet above sea level. Barriers
and walls broke off at different angles. Centerfield
was 488 feet from home plate; right field was 314
feet away. The 10-foot wooden fence in left field
ran straight along Lansdowne Street and was
but 320 ½ feet down the line from home plate
with a high wall behind it. There was a ten foot
embankment making viewing of games easier for
overflow gatherings. A ten foot high slope in left
field posed challenges for outfielders who had to
play the entire territory running uphill.
page 26: Opening Day crowd, 1923
above: Fans crowd the Polo Grounds,
the Yankees’ home before 1923
opposite: “The House That Ruth Built”
under construction
This was the Opening Day Lineup for the 1912
Boston Red Sox.
Harry Hooper
Steve Yerkes
Tris Speaker
Jake Stahl
Larry Gardner
Duffy Lewis
Heinie Wagner
Les Nunamaker
Smoky Joe Wood
RF
2B
CF
1B
3B
LF
SS
C
P
The Sox, with player-manager first baseman
Jake Stahl calling the shots, nipped the Yankees,
7-6, in 11 innings. Tris Speaker -- who would bat
.383, steal 52 bases and stroke eight inside-thepark home runs at Fenway -- drove in the winning
run. Spitball pitcher Bucky O’Brien got the win in
relief of Charles “Sea Lion” Hall. The first hit in
the park belonged to New York’s Harry Wolter.
Umpire Tommy Connolly kept the ball used in
that historic game, writing “Opening of Fenway
Park” and brief details of the game on it. In 2005,
descendants of Connolly offered the ball at auction at New York Sothebys.
Hugh Bradley hit the first home run in Red
Sox history over the wall on April 26th in the
sixth game played at Fenway Park. “Few of the
fans who have been out to Fenway Park believed
it was possible,’’ the Boston Herald noted. That
would be Bradley’s only dinger in 1912.
As a youth Joe Cashman spent a lot of time
at Fenway Park and went on to become a long
time sportswriter in Boston. He especially studied the “Golden Outfield” of Tris Speaker, Harry
Hooper and Duffy Lewis. Hooper wore the first
sunglasses used in baseball; they were purchased
from Lloyds of Boston.
“Outfielders never played near the wall in
those days,” Cashman explained. “Few balls were
hit out there. There was no one Tris Speaker’s
equal going back for a ball. He was like a fifth
outfielder. A base runner on second base would
“Harry Hooper,” Cashman continued,” played
in a tough right field, worst in the majors. Duffy
Lewis in left never bounced the ball. It was in
the air all the way in. The sun would come in over
the top of the single decked stands – Lewis had to
play the sun field.”
Boston’s first star left fielder, George Edward
“Duffy” Lewis out of San Francisco, played for
the BoSox from 1910-1917. Duffy mastered the
art handling the incline named for him - “Duffy’s
Cliff.” “At the crack of the bat,” he explained,
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”you’d turn and run up it. You had to pick up the
ball (with your vision) and decide whether to
jump, go right or left, or rush down again. It took
plenty of practice. They made a mountain goat
out of me.”
Before an overflow crowd on May 17, 1912 was
formally dedicated, but the home town fans had
their day spoiled as the White Sox trimmed the
Red Sox, 5-2.
ARTHUR GIDDON: I went to Fenway from time
to time. Living right in Brookline, I’d take the
subway and was down at Kenmore Square in
ten minutes. You didn’t need to buy tickets
in advance; you could get all the tickets you
wanted.
Hall of Fame-hurler-to-be Walter Johnson, on
a 16-game winning streak and en route to a 33-win
season, was in Boston with his Washington
teammates on Sept. 6, 1912. Clark Griffith, the
Washington manager said that Red Sox ace
“Smoky” Joe Wood would be a coward if he did
not face Johnson. No coward was Wood – he
was ready on short rest. A 22-year-old from the
Kansas plains and the mining towns of Colorado,
Wood -- it was said -- could throw a baseball
through a two-by-four.
Walter Johnson was asked if he could throw
harder than “Smokey” Joe, his reply was - - “Can I
throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen, my friends,
there’s no man alive can throw harder than Smoky
Joe Wood.”
The Wood-Johnson match up was one of the
most dramatic of all time by two top of the tier
hurlers. Built up like a championship boxing
match in the newspapers, hype and hullabaloo
preceded it.
“They gave our weight, biceps,” Wood said.
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The idea was to build up the challenger versus
the champion in order to build up the house.
An estimated 30,000 showed for the battle of
the superstar pitchers. It was the first and only
time fans were allowed to ring Fenway’s infield
walls.
“The playing field,” wrote sportswriter
Manville E. Webb, Jr., “was surrounded by a triple, even quadruple, rank of humanity, at least
3,000 on the embankment. So thickly were the
spectators massed, and so impossible was it for
the squadron of police to keep them back, that
the players’ pits (dugouts) were abandoned, the
contestants bringing their war clubs out almost
to the baselines.”
Possessor of a 13-game winning streak, Wood
gave up six hits. Johnson allowed five. But the
“Big Train,” as he was called, yielded a sixth-inning, two-out ground-rule double to Tris Speaker.
Duffy Lewis flared a ball to right that skipped off
the glove of the Senators’ right fielder. Speaker
scored. Wood concluded the dramatic 1-hour,
46-minute contest with his ninth strikeout for
his 14th straight win. The 1-0 triumph was one of
10 shutouts he hurled that season. Wood would
win 34 games, strike out 258, post an earned run
average of 1.91 and be the horse of the Red Sox
staff – the favorite of fans at Fenway.
Business in Boston virtually shut down on
September 23 as 100‚000 cheered the Red Sox
returning from a western trip by train into South
Station. So popular and so successful were the
Sox that on the Boston Common, Mayor “Honey
Fitz” Fitzgerald gave the team the keys to the
city.
That 1912 team was loaded with talent, especially in pitching talent. In addition to 34 game
winner Joe Wood, Buck O’Brien and Hugh
Bedient were 20 game winners.
Boston posted its second best home record in
history, 57-20, .740 winning percentage. Winning
a record 105 games, losing just 47, the Red Sox
glided to the American League pennant. Their
competition in the World Series was the Giants
of New York.
Additional wooden bleachers were in place
in center and right-center. Seats on the slope
cost one dollar, the same as for the left field
bleachers.
The Boston Royal Rooters, Red Sox fanatics
to the core, traditionally paraded on the field
before games in step with the rhythms of a big
brass band. Now, on the eve of Game One of the
World Series, having traveled down to New York
City, hundreds of them accompanied by two brass
bands and led by Mayor Fitzgerald and by “leading man” “Nuff Ced” McGreevey, they marched
around Times Square in Manhattan, singing to
the tune of Tammany:
Carrigan, Carrigan,
Speaker, Lewis, Wood, and Stahl,
Bradley, English, Pape, and Hall,
Wagner, Gardner, Hooper, too;
Hit them! Hit them! Hit them! Hit them!
Do boys, do.
The word in the street was that if John J.
McGraw’s Giants could beat Joe Wood, they could
win the series. Before the opening game, Wood
received death threats in letters postmarked New
York. One, written in red ink and adorned with
a drawing of a knife and gun, proclaimed: “You
will never live to pitch a game against the Giants
in the World Series. We are waiting to get you as
soon as you arrive in town.”
But the 22-year-old right-hander who threw
“smoke” was not the type to be intimidated.
Pitching and prevailing, 4-3, in Game One at
right : The Sultan of Swat in a serious
mood, weapon in hand
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