Ballpark Digest

But the big issue is how Fenway Park will fare over the next ten years. Red Sox management openly complains about the small size of the park and the lack of luxury suites. But these complaints are really a red herring: the team draws very well even while charging some of the highest prices in the majors, and the combination of the Red Sox and NESN is a cash cow for the team owners. In the end, it's highly doubtful that the Red Sox will ever move from Fenway Park: it is truly a national treasure and a Boston landmark, and in a city where change occurs slowly, it's unimaginable that Boston would ever allow the construction of a replacement stadium.

When it was built, Fenway Park (so named because of its location in the Fens section of Boston) wasn't even the largest ballpark in Boston -- Braves Field, home of the Boston Braves (forerunners of the Milwaukee Braves and the Atlanta Braves) sat 42,000, and occasionally the Red Sox would rent Braves Field when large crowds were anticipated, such as games 3 and 4 of the 1915 World Series.

Though Fenway Park's basic configuration has remained unchanged since it opened, there have been several alterations and improvements over the years. The Green Monster -- the huge wall in left field -- was there in one form or another since the opening of Fenway Park, but it featured large advertisements until 1947, and originally there was a 10-foot embankment in the front where fans could sit. This mound was called Duffy's Cliff, named so for a Red Sox player named Duffy Lewis. (By the way, the ladder on the Green Monster is in play.) This is the third incarnation of the Green Monster: the original was a 25-foot-high wall, which burned down in 1934 (more on that in a second), the second was a 37-foot-high wall made of tin stretched over railroad ties, and the current Green Monster plastic wall was built in 1976. A series of fires ended up dictating changes in Fenway over the years. Originally there were wood bleachers down the left field line, but these were burned down on May 8, 1926, and for many years the team merely cleared away the area, leaving a huge foul territory. Another fire on Jan. 5, 1934, led to all the wooden grandstands being replaced with concrete and steel. At that time capacity at Fenway was increased from 27,642 to 33,817. Two years later the net was added above the Green Monster to prevent home runs from landing on nearly Lansdowne Street.

The bullpens, known as Williamsburg because of all the long flies hit by Ted Williams, were originally in fair territory in right field until 1940, when the fences were moved in and the bullpens moved behind the fence. The scoreboard is still a manual scoreboard.

There were roof boxes built in 1942, but true luxury boxes didn't make an appearance at Fenway until 1983, and another premium seating area, the 600 Club, was added in 1988. The 600 Club was removed prior to the 2006 season, replaced by the open-air EMC Club.

Other teams that called Fenway Park home include the Boston Braves (who played a World Series there in 1914), the Boston (later New England) Patriots, and the Boston Redskins, an NFL team that later became the Washington Redskins.