Happy birthday, Fenway Park! The iconic home of the Boston Red Sox commemorates 100 years of baseball today with an afternoon game that pits the Sox against their bitter rivals, the New York Yankees, and fans are happy as ever to take their seats, even if they’re the most expensive in the league.
“It’s the Sistine Chapel of baseball,” Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy told USA Today. It was also considered a technical marvel in 1912: Fans couldn’t believe the electronic scoreboard, which, although manually operated, received scores relayed by telegraph. The success of the park’s first resident team helped pay to increase seating capacity by roughly 38,600 people.
By 2002 Fenway was feeling its age and in disrepair, leading to calls for it to be demolished and replaced. But the Sox spent $285 million on fixing up the home of the green giant, and a century later, it’s a pure classic.
