Baseballs, gloves, and bats will soon be traded in for pucks, pads, and sticks as Fenway Park readies to host the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers on New Year’s Day in the third installment of the National Hockey League’s Winter Classic.  Grounds crews have already installed a rink over the Fenway infield and the puck is set to drop 01 January at 1:00 PM.  After the success of last season’s installment at Chicago’s Wrigley Field between the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks and the first Classic between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Buffalo Sabres at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY in 2008, expectations are high in this match-up between two storied NHL franchises being played in the oldest active ballpark in baseball.

In addition, two NCAA college games will be played one week later.  The doubleheader features the first-ever NCAA women’s outdoor game between the University of New Hampshire Wildcats and the Northeastern University Huskies.  The other contest will feature the Boston College Eagles and the Boston University Terriers, the 2008 and 2009 NCAA Men’s Hockey Champions, respectively.

Tags: Boston Bruins, Fenway Park, hockey

Dom DiMaggio, a seven-time All-Star Red Sox center fielder who played with the likes of Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Bobby Doerr, passed away Friday morning at the age of 92. Known as “the Little Professor” due to his glasses and his small frame, DiMaggio was the youngest of three brothers who played in the Major Leagues, which included Hall of Fame outfielder Joe DiMaggio and Vince DiMaggio. He played eleven seasons in the majors, all with Boston, and like Williams and Pesky missed three years between 1943 and 1945 serving with the US Armed Services during World War II.

While his brother Joe is remembered for a 56-game hitting streak that remains unbroken since 1941, DiMaggio holds a record of his own – a 34-game streak set in 1949 – that still stands as the water mark for Boston. In his career, he batted .298 and finished with 1046 runs scored, 87 home runs, 618 RBI, and an OBP of .383; his best season came in 1950, when he batted .328 and led the league in triples (15), stolen bases (11), and runs scored (131). That same year, on 30 June, he and Joe both homered in the same game playing against each other, only the fourth pair of brothers to accomplish the feat, in a 10-2 win for Boston over New York in the second game of a doubleheader at Fenway Park. In 1946, after returning from active duty, he made his one World Series appearance following Boston’s first pennant in 28 seasons, and batted 7-for-27 with two runs scored and three RBI, including a two-run double that tied the score in the top of the eighth inning of Game Seven of the series. DiMaggio was also part of the inagural class enshrined in the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1995, where he again joined his teammates Williams, Pesky, and Doerr.

Tags: Bobby Doerr, Boston Red Sox, Dom DiMaggio, Fenway Park, Johnny Pesky, Ted Williams

The Boston Red Sox announced Tuesday that, prior to Friday night’s game at Fenway Park against the New York Yankees, the team will retire number 6 in honor of former shortstop Johnny Pesky, whose name has been synonymous with the club for decades since lacing up his cleats as a rookie in 1942. With his number posted on the façade above the right field grandstand, Pesky will join Bobby Doerr (1), Joe Cronin (4), Carl Yastrzemski (8), Ted Williams (9), Carlton Fisk (27), and Jackie Robinson (42) as the only players to have received this honor from the club. The honor will also be made one day before the legendary Red Sox figure celebrates his 89th birthday.

The move came as a surprise for most familiar with Boston’s long-standing policy for awarding this honor. Until yesterday, numbers have only been retired by the Red Sox if a player spends at least ten seasons in Boston and is then elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. (Media outlets continue to state that a third criterion – a player had to finish his playing career with Boston – needed to be met. However, this was dropped to allow Fisk to have his number retired even though he spent the second half of his career in Chicago with the White Sox. A quick check of the official policy at redsox.com confirms this.) Team president Larry Lucchino, in acknowledging that an exception was being made in this instance, stated:

We inherited a set a rules that applied to this question of retiring numbers and we have looked at that and considered that to be useful but as guidelines rather than firm rules… Johnny Pesky’s career cries out as exceptional and its length of term and the versatility of his contributions – on the field, off the field, in the dugout, etc. – are such that we considered Johnny a worthy exception to the rules that were set down before.[1]

As a rookie in 1942, the 22-year-old shortstop amassed an eye-popping 205 hits, tops in the majors, and batted .331, second only to teammate Ted Williams; his efforts were enough to place him third in voting for the American League MVP. After putting his career on hold and serving in the Navy for three years during World War II, Pesky returned in 1946 along with fellow veterans Williams and Dom DiMaggio to help his team finish first in the American League with a record of 104-50. His time away from the diamond had not diminished his abilities; he led the league with 208 hits and batted .335 that season, the third best average in the American League, to finish fourth in the MVP vote. In eight seasons with Boston, he batted .313 and amassed 1227 hits.

Since the end of his playing career in 1954, he has served in several capacities for the club, including stints as manager, broadcaster, coach, and scout. These days, he continues to serve as a special instructor and as an unofficial club ambassador, well-regarded today by fans young and old. He also has the distinction of having a Fenway Park feature, the right field foul pole, affectionately named “the Pesky Pole” in his honor.

Regarding the announcement, a clearly-humbled Pesky said:

I’m very flattered about the whole thing because I didn’t think I was in the Ted Williams or Bobby Doerr class. I played with some good guys and I’m quite flattered by this announcement and I’m really going to enjoy it.[2]

[1], [2] Sox to retire Pesky’s number Friday. Boston.com, 23 September 2008.

Tags: Bobby Doerr, Boston Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Fenway Park, Joe Cronin, Johnny Pesky, retired numbers, Ted Williams

On top of Boston’s come-from-behind, 5-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday afternoon, the fans at Fenway Park helped the club make history; with 37,373 in attendance for the game, the team matched the longest consecutive major league sellout streak of 455 games, originally set by the Cleveland Indians. Between 12 June 1995 and 02 April 2001, every game at Jacobs Field, now named Progressive Field, sold out as the Indians won two American League pennants. Fenway’s current streak began uneventfully on 15 May 2003 with a 12-3 win over the visiting Texas Rangers; since then, Boston has played every game in front of a capacity crowd of Red Sox supporters, in part due to the recent on-field success of the team, which includes two championships following an 86-year drought.

Since the start of the sellout streak, Fenway Park has set new attendance records every season. In 2002, the park averaged 32,726 fans per game and the team sold 2,650,862 tickets; in contrast, on its way to the 2007 World Series title, the Red Sox sold a record 2,970,755 tickets and averaged 36,675 each game through the turnstiles. In addition to the on-field success of the team, the surge of interest in the team may also be attributed to the addition of approximately 6,000 seats discretely added by ownership which took control of the team in 2002. No longer officially the smallest park in the majors – Pittsburgh’s PNC Park holds that distinction with 38,365, though Oakland’s McAfee Coliseum, capable of holding over 50,000 fans, seats just over 35,000 due to the closing of the third deck – Boston’s home field now boasts a day-time of 39,195 and a night-time capacity of 39,605.

With the Red Sox going on the road for a brief three-game series in Texas against the Rangers, the team expects to set the new consecutive game streak of capacity crowds on Monday against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays, with all games officially sold out through the end of the season. With Boston vying for another post-season berth and consecutive world championships, the sellout streak is expected to continue into 2009 and beyond.

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park

Twice in the span of less than two weeks, the Boston Red Sox, whose pitchers have thrown the last two no-hitters in Major League Baseball, have nearly found themselves the victims of one themselves. On 29 July, Los Angeles Angels pitcher John Lackey came within two outs of a no-no at Fenway Park before Dustin Pedroia ended Boston’s drought at the plate with a single to left; Lackey and the Angels eventually settled for a complete-game, 6-2 victory over the Red Sox Then, on Monday night in Chicago, White Sox pitcher John Danks retired the first 17 Red Sox batters he faced and then surrendered his first hit with one out in the seventh to Kevin Youkilis, as Boston eventually won 5-1 to earn a split of the four-game series at U.S. Cellular Field. In club history, Boston pitchers have combined to throw 18 no-hitters, including a perfect game by the legendary Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young; that is the most thrown by a single franchise. On the flip side, the team has also suffered at the hands of 11 opposing pitchers who managed to keep Red Sox batters from recording a hit over the course of a game.

The first pitcher to throw a no-hitter against Boston was Bob Rhoads of the Cleveland Naps on 18 September 1908. Cleveland actually trailed Boston at one point 1-0 thanks to a walk, a sacrifice, an error, and a wild pitch, but the Naps managed to score single runs in the fourth and eighth to give Rhoads a 2-1 win. The most recent no-hitter against the Red Sox was thrown by Seattle Mariners pitcher Chris Bosio on 22 April 1993. Bosio walked the first two batters of the game, then retired the next 27 Boston batters as Seattle won 2-0 behind his no-no. New York Yankees pitchers hold the mark for the most no-hitters thrown against the Red Sox by a single club; the most recent came in 1983, when Dave Righetti yielded just four walks to Boston batters in a 4-0 for the Bombers at Yankee Stadium on 4 July. The White Sox and the Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins) have each managed the feat twice against Boston; one was thrown by Hall of Fame pitcher Walter “Big Train” Johnson on 1 July 1920, the only instance in which the Red Sox lost a no-hitter by a 1-0 score. Also of interest: the last opposing pitcher to manage the feat at Fenway Park was another Hall of Fame pitcher, Jim Bunning, who no-hit Boston 3-0 at Fenway Park in the first game of a doubleheader on 20 July 1958.

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Cy Young, Dustin Pedroia, Fenway Park, Kevin Youkilis, Walter Johnson

25 June 1988 – On this day twenty years ago, a solid, if uneventful, 10-3 Boston win over Baltimore at Fenway Park begins a home winning streak that would stretch into August, a span of 24 games that saw the beginnings of “Morgan Magic.” After losing the first game of a three-game set to the Orioles, which puts them at 34-34 and fifth in the American League East, the Red Sox win the next five by a combined score of 40-11 over Baltimore and Cleveland. However, following a 4-8 road trip leading to the All-Star break that puts them at 43-42 and nine games out of first place, management decides that they have had enough. John McNamara, the 1986 American League Manager of the Year who had led that Red Sox squad to the World Series, is fired and replaced by interim manager “Walpole” Joe Morgan.

Morgan had managed Boston’s AAA club in Pawtucket for nine seasons between 1974 and 1982, then served two years as a scout before being brought on as a coach for Boston in 1985; this was to be his first and only major league managing position. Boston’s post-All-Star break schedule starts off with eleven games at home; the Sox win in Morgan’s debut, 3-1 over Kansas City, and then proceeded to come out on top night after night at Fenway. When the homestand ends, Boston has moved into third place and sits just 1-1/2 games out of first place; the Sox have also strung together 16 straight wins in front of the home crowd. Boston then takes the first game of a quick road trip to Texas before a 9-8 loss to the Rangers end the 12-game win streak for the Sox.

The defeat does nothing to slow down the Red Sox or Morgan, who has the interim tag removed by the front office. Taking two-of-three against Texas, Boston returns home and wins six straight to improve to 19-1 under its new manager; these efforts on the field also moves the club into a tie for first place with Detroit while the Fenway faithful have enjoyed 22 straight wins at home. Morgan Magic becomes synonymous with the resurgence of a team who seemed out of the race for the postseason only one month earlier.

Back on the road, Boston slips for the first time under Morgan with seven losses in nine games, including four straight in Detroit to start the trip, but the Red Sox exact revenge a week later, opening a three-game home series with a 9-4 win over the Tigers. The next day, 13 August, Boston thumps its American League East rival by a score of 16-4, and the result gives the Red Sox an unprecedented 24-game winning streak. Though Boston’s stretch of luck ends the next day with an 18-6 loss in the series finale, the Red Sox go on to take the American League East title for the second time in three years.

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, Joe Morgan, John McNamara

10 June 1938 – On this day seventy years ago, Boston Red Sox rookie pitcher Bill LeFebvre makes his major league debut a memorable one as he hits a home run on the first pitch he sees over the left-field wall at Fenway Park, the only one of his career. LeFebvre, who had just recently graduated from Holy Cross College, is less effective on the mound, however; he goes four innings in relief and gives up six runs on eight hits, including two gopher balls, as Boston is bested by the Chicago White Sox, 15-2. LeFebvre returned to the minors shortly after that and would not be called up again until the following summer. On the mound, he would eventually finish his career with a 5-5 record and a 5.03 ERA over four seasons, two with Boston in 1938 and 1939 and two with the Washington Senators in 1943 and 1944, appearing as a major league replacement player during World War II. His bat proved only slightly more effective, hitting .276 in 87 career at-bats with eight runs scored, 11 RBI, and a .382 OBP.

In Red Sox history, only two other players have hit home runs in their first professional at-bat. On 22 April 1946, Eddie Pellagrini, a 28-year-old rookie shortstop and Boston College alumnus, comes in during the fifth inning to replace an injured Johnny Pesky and then goes deep in the seventh inning to break a 4-4 deadlock as the Red Sox win 5-4 over the Senators. On 19 May 1962 versus the Los Angeles Angels, catcher Bob Tillman also sends one out of Fenway Park in the fourth inning but Boston loses 6-5 in ten innings. Officially, the freshman had appeared as a pinch-hitter four days earlier in Baltimore in the ninth inning and then led off the bottom of the second that day but, in both instances, Tillman had drawn a walk, meaning that he had no official at-bats to that point.

Tags: Bill LeFebvre, Bob Tillman, Boston Red Sox, Eddie Pellagrini, Fenway Park, Johnny Pesky

Should baseball institute instant replay for disputed calls on the field? The rash of missed or disputed home run calls this week has only intensified the argument for bringing baseball into the twenty-first century and more in-line with its football and hockey brethren. It isn’t a question of the abilities of the crew in blue; it takes unparalleled focus to handle an intense nine-inning contest that may last well over three hours. More so, the sole purpose would be to give umpires a fifth, unbiased view of the play to ensure that there would be little doubt left on the field.

Former Boston outfielder Gabe Kapler may be one major league player in favor of replay, as it may have added another home run to his career total if the technology was in use three years ago. Back on 10 August 2005, in an eventual 16-5 laugher over the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park, Kapler launched a pitch off Kenny Rogers towards the Monster Seats on top of the Green Monster. The ball hit the top of the wall above the home run line, bounced on the small ledge protruding from the wall, and then fell back into play as the crowd went crazy. However, third baseman Derryl Cousins ruled that the ball had not cleared the line and Kapler ended up standing on second. Arguments from the Red Sox bench did nothing except to get Trot Nixon, who was on the disabled list for Boston at the time, ejected from the game.

Baseball would be best served to follow a simple system that limits reviews only to select plays, like home runs and close plays at the plate; replays would not be instituted for balls and strikes. As in football, each team would be given two opportunities to ask for a video replay; for extra inning games, each team would be given an additional chance to call for a review. The purpose for the replay would be announced to the crowd and either the home plate umpire or the crew chief would have the responsibility of making the final call within a given time frame.

Will Bud Selig, the owners, and the players eventually reach an agreement to institute such a system? Most likely, there will be a few more on-field injustices to players and teams and unjust criticism levied on umpires before the obvious conclusion is reached.

Tags: Fenway Park, Gabe Kapler, Trot Nixon

Besides winning the final game of a home series against the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park this afternoon, 11-8, to complete a four-game sweep, the game also featured grand slams from Boston Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew and third baseman Mike Lowell in the second and sixth innings, respectively. Drew’s home run came after Manny Ramirez, Lowell, and Kevin Youkilis hit consecutive singles off starter Brian Bannister, his third career grand slam. Lowell’s base-clearing blast came with two outs after the Royals intentionally walked a struggling Ramirez, who remains stuck on 498 career home runs; it was Lowell’s sixth career slam and his third since joining Boston.

It marked the first time since 2003 that the Red Sox hit two grand slams in a single game when Bill Mueller hit grand slams from both sides of the plate on 29 July, the first player in major league history to accomplish the feat. The last time two separate Boston players hit grand slams in the same game was in 1995 when former infielder John Valentin and first baseman Mo Vaughn did it on the road at Yankee Stadium on 02 May, accounting for the only runs in an 8-0 shutout of New York. The last time it happened at Fenway was nearly 24 years ago when Bill Buckner and Tony Armas each hit one off Detroit Tigers pitcher Jack Morris in the first and second inning, respectively, of a 12-7 win.

Tags: Bill Buckner, Bill Mueller, Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, J.D. Drew, John Valentin, Kevin Youkilis, Manny Ramirez, Mike Lowell, Mo Vaughn, Tony Armas

15 May 1999 – On this day nine years ago, Red Sox ownership, led by CEO John Harrington, announces plans to replace 87-year-old Fenway Park with a brand-new complex that features near-identical dimensions across Yawkey Way by 2003; however, plans never got off the ground and new ownership announced the abandonment of any such plan in 2005. The design was to have followed in the spirit of retro-style ballparks like Camden Yards in Baltimore and Jacobs Field in Cleveland, while the old ballpark would have seen new development built in place of what is now center field, the bleachers, and first-base side of the ballpark. However, plans also including turning part of the old Fenway Park into a baseball museum and park. The new plan would also have allowed construction of the new park to take place as the Red Sox played their final games in its historic ball yard.

Ownership claimed that with the current structure, the Red Sox would be unable to stay competitive as player salaries increased; the new stadium, which would be financed by the team, would include 10,000 more seats including luxury boxes and premium seats. All the team asked in return from the state was improvement to the local infrastructure, such as the building of parking garages and improved transportation. However, city, county, and state legislators balked at the idea and, after the sale of the team by the JR Yawkey ownership group in 2002, the idea was scraped as the new ownership, led by John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino, instead poured money into renovations, such as expanded concourses, added bathroom facilities and concessions, and innovations such as the Monster Seats and Conigliaro’s corner that have added close to 6,000 seats to bring the park’s present capacity to just under 40,000. In March of 2005, all plans for a new facility in the foreseeable future were abandoned as the club announced their commitment to remain at Fenway.

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park