Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium
Two veteran venues still slugging
Boston's Fenway Park shares honors as baseball's oldest existing park with Detroit's Tiger Stadium -- both opened April 20, 1912. Babe Ruth figures at Fenway, too -- Boston's Red Sox have not won a World Series since they traded the home run king to the Yankees in 1918.
Fenway's famed "Green Monster" is a 37-foot high wall in left field, with a 23-foot screen above it to protect windows along Landsdowne Street outside the park. The original wall was destroyed in 1934 when fire gutted Fenway, then undergoing renovations.
Little has changed during Fenway's 85-year history, but the park's condition is deteriorating. The famed home of Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski has seen better days, and the Red Sox -- seeking more revenues from luxury boxes and the like -- plan to be in new digs by 2001.
It may seem unbelievable, but the House that Ruth Built -- Yankee Stadium itself -- may be destined to meet the wrecking ball. Rumors abound that the Yankees may abandon their storied home for a new facility, possibly domed. Their 30-year lease expires in 2002. The 74-year-old stadium is arguably the most famous house in baseball.
Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris, Lou Gehrig, Casey Stengel, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto -- all wore the Yankee pinstripes and added their weight to the Bronx mystique. It's a legacy Joe Torre's Yankees carried to victory in the 1996 World Series, and one the team will likely carry to wherever owner George Steinbrenner may take them.
And there's no better place in the park to experience Yankee legends than the stadium's Monument Park, a collection of plaques and monuments behind left-center field. Manager Miller Huggins, who took the Yanks to six American League pennants and three World Series titles, got the first honor in 1932, and 18 other Yankee greats have been so honored since.
An interesting piece of trivia: The monuments were once in the field of play, prompting then-manager Stengel to shout "Ruth, Gehrig, Huggins, someone throw that darned ball in here now!" when a center fielder had a little trouble fielding a ball.
It's baseball's living museum -- a stadium that saw the Yankees play in more than 30 World Series, winning 23 of them.
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