The Sox Should Smarten Up - Save Fenway Park

There are some places in sports that will always be a part of history. When you think of famous stadiums in baseball, the one that should immediately come to your mind, along with Yankee Stadium, is Boston's Fenway Park.

The Red Sox organization, however, wants $665 million in public subsidies to build a new park next door to look just like Fenway. It is no wonder they are having trouble getting this issue passed. Fenway is one of the most beloved, not to the mention the oldest, parks in baseball.

Now, it is no secret that Fenway has some problems, such as electrical and plumbing difficulties and cramped seating, but how can anyone want to eliminate such an important part of baseball history? There is an abundance of famous and fond memories of Fenway that people still cherish, such as Carlton Fisk homering off the left-field foul pole, or Ted Williams hitting over .400.

Of course it would be expensive to refurbish Fenway Park, but no matter how much the cost would be, it would be money well spent in preserving a historic symbol of Major League Baseball. When Yankee stadium was recently renovated, it cost the club $100 million. So even though fixing up Fenway would involve a considerably larger amount of work, the cost would have to be below $665 million.

In an ESPN column, Chicago architect Philip Bess provided insight on the philosophical question of when Fenway is no longer Fenway. "The quirkiness and intimacy that has always been a part of Fenway Park would be preserved," Bess said. "That doesn't happen in the new Red Sox proposal."

Fenway was built in 1912, the same year the Titanic went down. This stadium has been around for a long time, but its tradition has only grown as the years have gone by. The Red Sox are arguing that the ballpark is to too old, and that there is limited space for vendors to help increase revenue. But the question at stake shouldn't be whether the organization can make a little more money, but rather whether or not it is worth it to keep the current Fenway. The prestige and historical significance of the park should be enough evidence to show that Fenway should never go.

Take, for example, the seat in the right field bleachers where Ted Williams' 502-foot home-run landed. If a new park in Boston was built, there would be a seat that commemorated the spot where the blast would have landed. To me that just doesn't sound like the same genuine thing as the actual seat, in the original stadium.

How can you recreate the experience of seeing a game at Fenway? There will always only be one Fenway with the Green Monster, a manually operated scoreboard, and unique field dimensions.

So, suppose the Red Sox get the money for a new ballpark and propose to build it rather than fixing up the current Fenway - how are Boston fans going to feel about that? In my opinion, it would be never be the same thing. The only way the Red Sox can preserve the memories of Fenway is to renovate the stadium in small doses, section by section, so the team won't have to leave the stadium for a season.

This is the last year for Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, and Tiger Stadium in Detroit has already been replaced. Now is a better time than ever for an organization to stand up for what true baseball fans really want - a rejuvenated Fenway Park, not an entirely new stadium.

I have never been lucky enough to see a game at Fenway, but it gives me a good feeling when I can say that I saw the last game ever played at Cleveland's Memorial Stadium. It is for this reason that fans shouldn't have to say that they saw the last game at the "old Fenway Park," or that they have tickets for the first game in Fenway II. Consequently, I can't even imagine the experience it must be to see a baseball game in Boston for the first time.

A friend of mine from the Boston area told me, "Fenway is the kind of place where you can get beer spilled on you, and you just say, eh, oh well."

Just as no other experience is like sitting in the right field bleachers for a game at Yankee Stadium, no other is like getting your beer spilled on you and watching Pedro Martinez pitch from the same mound Babe Ruth did so many years ago. Since Fenway is such a great part of baseball's history, why tear something down and attempt to recreate it when it is sitting right in front of us?

Fenway Park's last renovation was in 1934, and 66 years later, it's time for one more.