Fenway Park Opened in Shadow of Titanic Disaster

Fenway Park, the fabled ballyard celebrating its 75th season this year, opened in the Titanic’s shadow and has been host to a team whose history is nearly as dismal.

The ballpark’s grand opening on April 20, 1912, did not even make Boston’s front pages. The ocean liner Titanic’s tragic sinking on its maiden voyage a few days earlier still ruled the news.

The Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders (later the Yankees), 7-6, on Opening Day, and went on to win the 1912 World Series, but the Fenway faithful have since suffered through three-quarters of a century of disappointment.

Boston’s last World Series championship was in 1918. With the Kansas City Royals in town Monday to christen Fenway Park’s 75th campaign, not even the most hopeful dreamers expect a championship in Beantown anytime soon.

Built in Boston’s Fens section, an area surrounded by colleges and museums, cozy Fenway Park (capacity 33,583) is a spectator’s delight. Natural grass. Unusual dimensions. Very little foul territory separating fans from field.

“Some days you might not feel well, but you get to Fenway and there’s 30,000 people there with their arms open, waiting to love you, and you feel great,” said Ken (Hawk) Harrelson, a fan favorite during his Red Sox years (1967-69).

“When a fan first walks into Fenway Park it takes his breath away,” said Red Sox General Manager Lou Gorman. “It’s the most moving, true ballpark in baseball. I get bored by the symmetry of the new ballparks. They’re almost plastic in their sameness.”

What really separates Fenway from the other great old ballparks is the Green Monster, the 37-foot-high left-field wall that made Fenway famous. And it wasn’t always green.

The Wall, topped in 1936 by a 23-foot net to protect windows on Landsdowne Street, was covered for many years with advertisements--dominated by Gem Blades (“avoid 5 o’clock shadow”) and Lifebuoy soap (“the Red Sox use it”).

The ads were removed in 1947 and a paint job created the Green Monster of today.

And while not forever green, The Wall has always been an envious target of right-handed batters.

“I report a part of a New England heritage that is as familiar as the New Hampshire primary,” a Boston columnist wrote in March when the Red Sox obtained slugger Don Baylor in a trade with the Yankees.

“One more power hitter, one more big guy, taking shots at the wall. I am at page 1 of any primer on Boston sports. What could be more basic? The Red Sox always will look for a big right-handed guy who will hit homers over the wall.”

Many Red Sox critics claim the team’s preoccupation with The Wall (and the short 315-foot leftfield foul line) have made Boston a one-dimensional squad, stressing power at the expense of pitching, defense and speed.

“I think that’s happened in Boston over the years,” said Harrelson, now vice president for baseball operations with the Chicago White Sox. “In my opinion, you’re better off in Fenway trying to build a pitching staff to keep the other team from hitting home runs.

“You don’t have to be a big strong guy to hit it over the wall or off the wall in Fenway,” he said.

Bucky Dent proved that to Red Sox fans’ dismay. In a one-game playoff for the AL East title in 1978, the Yankees’ shortstop beat Boston with a three-run homer over The Wall. Dent hit only .243 with five home runs that season.

Last year, when the Red Sox finished a disappointing fifth in the AL East with a record of 81-81, Boston led the league in hitting at .282. But the team was last in stolen bases (66) and the bullpen recorded only 29 saves, just above Cleveland’s league-low 28.

Gorman defended the Red Sox defense and said the club has some speedy minor-league players “a year or two away from the big leagues.” But he acknowledged the team’s historic stress on power.

“Playing in Fenway Park, the natural inclination is to find a few guys who can knock it off the wall or into the net,” the general manager said. “The park’s conducive to right-handed power hitters.

“Fenway is an exciting ballpark. You know the lead can change hands at any time. You can be up by five runs or down by five runs in the ninth inning, and you’re still in the ballgame.”

Despite the lure of The Wall, Fenway has not always proved a home run hitter’s ballpark.

Many believe the number of high flies blown over The Wall by stiff breezes is outpaced by the number of line-drive doubles off the wall, shots that would have cleared the fences in most parks.

Last season, for instance, there were 162 home runs hit in Fenway Park, just a bit above the American League average of 155. The Red Sox, a team supposedly tailored to Fenway’s friendliness, hit just 73 homers in Fenway compared to 89 on the road.

The record shows, furthermore, that many left-handed hitters have feasted on Fenway, including Boston’s two greatest stars, outfielders Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski.

Williams hit 33 points higher (.361 to .328) at home. Yastrzemski was 42 points higher at Fenway (.306 to .264), while Fred Lynn hit 80 points higher at Fenway (.350 to .270) during his six seasons in Boston. Wade Boggs, AL batting champ two of the past three seasons, has a career average of .383 at Fenway compared to .317 on the road.

And while Fenway is generally considered a southpaw hurler’s nightmare, a few Boston left-handed pitchers have been effective at home.

Lefty Grove was 55-17 at Fenway from 1934 to 1941, including 20 consecutive home winning decisions. Babe Ruth, who made his major league debut at Fenway, was 48-18 at home during his years as a Red Sox pitcher (1914-19). Mel Parnell was 70-30 at Fenway from 1947-56, and John Tudor was 23-13 at home during his four seasons with Boston (1979-83).

The Fenway Park of 1912, when the Red Sox won 105 games, was the first ballpark to have a screen behind home plate to make foul balls roll back on the field.

Its other major feature was Duffy’s Cliff, a 10-foot mound along the foot of the left field wall, which was the domain of Red Sox left fielder Duffy Lewis, who made fantastic catches while balanced at its summit.

Fenway’s early years included such memorable moments as the famous muff by Fred Snodgrass in Game 7 of the 1912 World Series, which gave Boston a victory over the New York Giants. Washington Senators’ great Walter Johnson pitched his only no-hitter at Fenway, in 1920.

Tom Yawkey bought the Red Sox in 1933, and the ballpark underwent a major renovation in time for the 1934 season. The grandstands and bleachers were done over, and Yawkey eliminated Duffy’s Cliff.

In 1940, the right field bullpens were added, and the area was immediately dubbed “Williamsburg.” The bullpens shortened the distance to the fence by 23 feet, helping the home run bat of young slugger Ted Williams.

The right field foul line at Fenway is only 302 feet, but the low wall slants dramatically outward so the fence is 380 feet from home plate just a few feet from the foul line, creating Fenway’s right field “belly.”

Debate still rages over how many home runs Williams and New York Yankees right-handed slugger Joe DiMaggio would have hit if they had traded locales, Fenway for Yankee Stadium, with its short right field fences.