The Lone Red Seat

Lone Red Seat
Lone Red Seat

This feature of Fenway Park is not as easy to spot during a game but, if you can manage to get into the park early or wait until well after the final out or walk-off winning run, look for the mass of people standing in Section 42 of the right field bleachers. About halfway up that section is a red bleacher seat among the sea of green to mark the spot where the longest home run in Fenway Park history was hit by legendary Red Sox player Ted Williams.

In 1946, Williams connected on a pitch from Fred Hutchinson of Detroit and sent a mammoth blast into the afternoon sky. It didn’t come down until it found the straw hat of Joe Boucher from Albany, NY, sitting 502 feet from home plate in Row 37, Seat 21. Boucher was later quoted as saying that, after the ball struck him, he lost all interest in retrieving the souvenir. In 2002, after Williams passed away in early July at the age of 83, the Red Sox, amongst many other tributes to the former great, kept the seat empty for all remaining home games; fans who had already purchased tickets for that spot were given free seat upgrades by the team.