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Fenway Facts


It's in the Fenway section (of Boston), isn't it? Then call it Fenway Park.

- John I. Taylor


Built: 1912, remodeled in 1934
Capacity: 36,945 (day), 37,373 (night)
Surface: Bluegrass
World Championships: 1912, 1915*, 1916*, 1918, 2004, 2007, 2013

* Home World Series games in 1915-16 were played at Braves Field.



Bleacher panorama



Fenway Firsts:

First game: 4/20/1912, Boston defeats New York, 7-6, 11 inn.
First home run: 4/26/1912, Hugh Bradley, over LF wall
First no-hitter: 6/21/1916, Rube Foster vs. NY, 2-0
First Sunday game: 7/3/1932, NY defeats Boston, 13-2
First All-Star Game: 7/9/1946, AL defeats NL, 12-0
First night game: 6/13/1947, Boston defeats Chicago, 5-3
First playoff game: 10/4/1948, Cleveland defeats Boston, 8-3



Retired Numbers:

9 4 1 8 27 6 14 45 26 42

• The original criteria for having a player's number retired by the Red Sox were the following: He must be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he must have played at least ten years with the Red Sox, and he must have finished his career with the Red Sox.

• When Fisk's number was retired in 2000, he met the final requirement since he worked as a Special Instructor with the Sox after retiring as a player. (As of 2007, the Red Sox website no longer listed finishing his career with the Red Sox as a requirement.)

• When Johnny Pesky's number was retired in 2008, he became the first honoree who is not in the National Hall of Fame. Pesky spent over sixty years in the Red Sox organization, as a player, coach, manager, broadcaster, and special instructor.

• Jackie Robinson's #42 was retired by all Major League clubs in 1997. It's blue to match his uniform with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

• The numbers originally hung on the right field facade in the order in which they were retired, 9-4-1-8. It was pointed out that if it was read as a date, 9/4/18 was the day before the start of the 1918 World Series, so in the late 1990's they were rearranged to hang in numerical order. For the 2012 season, they were put back in the order in which they were retired.



Capacity Breakdown:


Box seats: 13,650
Grandstand: 11,929
Bleachers: 6,022 (day), 6,474 (night) EMC Club/State Street Pavilion levels: 5,419
Green Monster: 269
Right field roof deck: 208

Total: 37,497 (day), 37,949 (night)

The Red Sox cover 452 seats in Sections 34 and 35 of the bleachers for day games to provide a solid batter's eye backdrop for the hitters. If a night game is rained out and made up during the day, the Red Sox usually reseat the patrons in Sections 34 and 35 or, on rare occasions, give out dark green colored t-shirts for them to wear.



Miscellany:

• The largest crowd at Fenway was 47,627 on 9/22/1935 for a doubleheader vs. NY.

• There have been 48 inside-the-park home runs by Red Sox players at Fenway Park. The most recent was Kevin Youkilis's on 5/28/2007. Tris Speaker hit 8 in 1912.

• Mo Vaughn is the only Red Sox player to have two career 3-homer games at Fenway Park.

• Kevin Millar hit the 10,000th home run in Fenway Park history in 2003.

• The longest game ever played at Fenway began on 9/3/1981. It was suspended at at 1:16 am the end of 19 innings, according to the old curfew rule that an inning couldn't begin after 1 am. The game resumed the next day, and the Red Sox ended up losing to Seattle 8-7, in 20 innings. Jerry Remy had 6 hits, to tie the American League record.

• Ten Red Sox players have hit for the cycle at Fenway Park. The first was Bobby Doerr on 5/17/1944, and the most recent was John Valentin on 6/6/1996.

• Nine Red Sox pitchers have thrown no-hitters at Fenway. The most recent was Jon Lester on 5/19/2008. There has only been one perfect game pitched at Fenway Park, by Ernie Shore on 6/23/1917.

• John Valentin (7/8/1994) and George Burns (9/14/1923) are the only two players to turn an unassisted triple play at Fenway Park.

• The longest homer ever hit at Fenway was 502 feet by Ted Williams on 6/5/1946. Manny Ramirez hit a 501-foot homer over the Green Monster on 6/23/2001.



Did you know?

The older and shorter of the two John Hancock buildings (on the left in the picture below) uses red and blue lights in its beacon to give a local three-hour weather forecast.

The John Hancock buildings The following rhyme reveals the code:

Steady blue, clear view.
Flashing blue, clouds due.
Steady red, rain ahead.
Flashing red, snow instead.
Flashing red is also used in the summer to mean the Red Sox game has been rained out.

And in October 2004, the tower used flashing blue and red together for the first time, to commemorate the World Series win:

Flashing blue and red, the Curse is dead!



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