Date published: July 25, 2011

WELCOME TO FENWAY PARK
Panorama’s guide to the quirks and landmarks of America’s most beloved ballpark
by Josh B. Wardrop

Since 1912, the Boston Red Sox have played their home games within the cozy ballyard that author John Updike famously dubbed “a lyric little bandbox” in 1960: Fenway Park. While some, over the years, have called Fenway uncomfortable, small and dated, and even lobbied for it to be replaced with a new state-of-the-art facility, they’ve been all but drowned out by passionate fans of the park who travel from all around the world to take in its distinctive charms and savor an authentic old-time baseball experience. Here’s our look at just a few of the unique features that help cement Fenway’s place in baseball lore.

THE GREEN MONSTER:
Towering 37 feet over the field of play and standing just 231 feet from home plate, Fenway’s left field wall is the park’s most recognizable feature and has been a popular target for right-handed hitters for generations. Installed in 1934 after a series of fires and painted green in 1947, the wall featured a manual scoreboard that’s remained in place ever since, making it one of just two hand-operated scoreboards still used in Major League Baseball. Other distinctive features of “the Monstah” include: A. the ladder above the scoreboard, which the grounds crew once used to climb up and gather home run balls hit into the netting above the Monster until the addition of; B. the Monster seats, rows of seating that were added in 2003 and remain the most sought-after seats in the park; and C. the Morse code symbols that run vertically down the scoreboard—they spell out the initials of Tom and JeanYawkey, owners of the Red Sox and Fenway Park from 1933–1993.

PESKY'S POLE:
Fenway’s right field foul pole is named for Johnny Pesky, a light hitting infielder who played for the Sox from 1942–1952. Located a scant 300 feet or so from home plate, the pole first got its name—according to Pesky—from Sox pitcher Mel Parnell after Pesky won a game by slapping a cheap home run just inside the pole in 1948 (this would be one of just six career homers Pesky hit at Fenway).The name caught on with fans in the 1980s and 1990s, and it was in 2006—Pesky’s 87th birthday and his 64th year with the Sox as a player, manager and coach—that the team officially dedicated the pole as Pesky’s Pole.

THE RED SEAT:
The most famous seat in Fenway Park is undoubtedly Seat 21, Row 37, Section 42. This is where, in 1946, Ted Williams hit what’s officially recognized as the longest home run ever hit at Fenway Park—502 feet from home plate. In a sea of green bleacher seats, the landing site of the mammoth blow is painted red to commemorateWilliams’ impressive feat.

THE CITGO SIGN:
Not actually a park of the park itself, this petroleum company’s towering neon sign with the red triangle has been visible over the Green Monster since 1965. Fans today tell stories of watching homers to left field and cheering“C-It-Go!”

THE TEAMMATES:
Outside of Gate B, at the intersection of Ipswich and Van Ness streets, stands one of Fenway’s newest additions: a bronze statue erected in 2010 by sculptor Antonio Tobias Mendez of The Teammates—Red Sox legendsWilliams, Pesky, Bobby Doerr and Dom DiMaggio,who played together for seven years during the 1930s and 1940s. The quartet remained great friends for 60 years until Williams’ death in 2002 and DiMaggio’s passing in 2009.

"SWEET CAROLINE"
As much a fixture at Fenway as either the Monster or the Pole, Neil Diamond’s 1969 pop ballad was adopted by the Sox PA staff in the late ’90s, and it’s been played during the eighth inning of every Sox home game since 2002, always inspiring a massive crowd singalong.