Fenway Park
Authors: John Powers
Christian Elias, right, a 17-year veteran of the inner workings of the Green Monster, manned the left-field scoreboard with the help of Nate Moulter in May 2007. Players and scoreboard operators have left their mark on the walls for decades.
© 2012 by the Boston Globe
Published by Running Press,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
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This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher
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ISBN 978-0-7624-4204-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011925148
E-book ISBN 978-0-7624-4490-8
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Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing
Cover and Interior Design: Joshua McDonnell
Timelines Design:
Boston Globe
Editor (Running Press): Greg Jones
Editor (
Globe
): Janice Page
Photo Director (
Globe
): Susan Vermazen
Research (
Globe
): Stephanie Schorow
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“The game opens in other stadiums in the country, in those giant modern saucers, and the day is a joyous, modern, klieg-light event. The game opens here, and it is a continuation. It is a pleasant click on the calendar. It is a celebration of the past, the present and everything in between. It is newly painted history.”
—Leigh Montville, Boston Globe, Opening Day 1982
DEDICATION
To George, who knows every inch of the lyric little bandbox and who preceded me at the typewriter.
—John Powers
To Kathi, Molly, and Meg; and to our first Fenway forays: doubleheader Sundays in the mid-1960s, when the ballpark truly was the star.
—Ron Driscoll
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The histories of Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox have been intertwined with the
Boston Globe
from the outset, and also with the Taylor family, which owned the
Globe
for much of the newspaper’s first 125 years, and which played a key role with the team and its ballpark at various times. Thus we would like to especially thank the Red Sox, present and former staff members of the
Globe
, and the Taylor family for their involvement in helping to create 100 years of Fenway Park history, and in making it come alive for readers and sports fans in New England, and increasingly, around the world.
A huge thank you as well to Janice Page, the
Globe
’s book development editor, who masterfully guided the project from start to fruition; to
Globe
editor Martin Baron, publisher Christopher Mayer, deputy managing editor Mark Morrow, and the entire Sports staff, especially columnists Dan Shaughnessy and Bob Ryan and editor Joe Sullivan. Our appreciation also goes to the book’s keen-eyed photo director, Susan Vermazen, as well as Jim Wilson, Leanne Burden, David Ryan, Jim Davis, Stan Grossfeld, and all members of the photo department, along with graphics staffers Daigo Fujiwara, Javier Zarracina, and David Schutz. Thanks as well to the indefatigable Lisa Tuite and the library staff for their research efforts, and Stephanie Schorow (research and fact checking), Alan Wirzbicki (fact checking), Richard Kassirer, Paul Colton, William Herzog, Jim Matte (proofreading), and Ray Marsden and John Ioven (imaging).
At Running Press, special thanks to editor Greg Jones, designer Joshua McDonnell, and every exacting copy editor who had a hand in these pages.
Cheers to Ben Taylor, for sharing both memories and memorabilia, and to Jim Lonborg, who’s just as classy off the field as he was on it.
As always, we are grateful for the support of Lane Zachary and Todd Shuster at Zachary, Shuster, Harmsworth Literary Agency. We also thank the good people at the Boston Public Library (Jane Winton, Tom Blake, Catherine Wood), Tim Wiles of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and our friends at Dorian Color Lab in Arlington, Massachusetts. And we especially appreciate the generosity of Dan Rea, Susan Goodenow, David Friedman, and everyone in the Fenway Park front office.
