Fenway Park and Boston Harbour

Hi all,

We didn't sleep that well last night as sadly our room faces a hospital, so we basically have sirens on ambulances going all through the night right outside. As I'm typing this Rob is somehow asleep while the sirens are going continuously. It's enough to drive you mad.....!

Regardless, we set off today around 9am for Fenway Park via train. Fenway Park is the home of the Major League Baseball team the Boston Redsox. In the early 1900s their owner, John Taylor, wanted a new ballpark for the club. Land was purchased on what was at the time a swamp, and Fenway Park was built and named in honour of the surround 'Fens' area. These days, as well as hosting baseball, the stadium hosts different activities and sports on approximately 280 days of the year. These include but are not limited to American football, ice hockey, hurling, concerts, top golf, graduations and even ski jump qualifiers for the Olympics.

I had visited the outside when I last visited Boston, but it was the day of a continually worsening snow storm. I remember walking around the exterior with snow blowing into my face, no one else around, and my hair being frozen by the snow that had settled into it. I've included a couple of photos from that day in today's post so you can see the comparison!

Today, Rob and I joined the 10am tour with about 40 other people, and each tour we saw seemed to have this many on it. Due to Taylor Swift, the Boston Celtics vs Miami Heat playoffs and tourist season beginning, Boston is heaving this weekend. Our guide was clearly very passionate, but I'll be honest, he spoke so fast I had trouble following along, especially as the stories he told assumed that his audience knew a fair bit about baseball already. Today it was Rob's turn to further explain things to me like I did yesterday about the revolution to him (he used to play baseball).

Apart from the stadium opening in 1912, the Redsox also went on to win the World Series that year. Apparently at the time there was a horse stable adjacent to the dressing rooms and the players had to get changed there ready to play. Can you imagine them doing that these days!? Back in 1912, season ticket holders could attend 77 out of the 154 games the team played for an annual fee of $64 US (approximately $95 AU). These days, tickets are in the hundreds and even the thousands depending on the game just for one game. Again, I found myself thinking today of how lucky we are to (mostly) be able to attend sports affordably at home. It really is disgusting here with ticket prices not geared towards every day people at all for most major sports. In 1918, many players went off to war and in the 1920s the park started to fall apart. Thankfully over time it was kept afloat with the most recent renovation occurring in 2002/2003. During this renovation the apparently famous 'Green Monster' was built, the highest wall in a baseball stadium in the country at 37 feet. This is to limit baseballs flying out into the street as like every stadium we have seen over here, Fenway Park is right amongst roads with cars, metro etc. I much prefer the anticipation of walking towards the G through all the parkland with the building crowd. We got to sit in the seats in a few locations around the stadium, but the view from the seats at the Green Monster was particularly impressive. Other seats of note were some original ones from a 1933 restoration. Despite the big green wall, balls often still fly over. Apparently last weekend when the Seattle Mariners were playing Boston, a car's windscreen in an adjacent lot was smashed and this is a common occurrence on game day.

Unfortunately despite us booking four nights here, the Redsox played a few days before we arrived, and don't return here for ten days as they're off playing in San Diego. However, the guide told us about a charity college ball match on this evening that is just $15, so we decided to attend. More on that later in the post.

Aside from seeing the 40,000 seat stadium itself, we also passed a rooftop vegetable garden that Fenway Park grows vegetables in for food that is sold in the stadium, and passed through the press rooms. The cards were still labelling the seats from the Mariners games. We then went to a short exhibition about other sports and events they have on here (fun fact - Liverpool FC are owned by Fenway Group and usually play here once a year in an exhibition match too).

Afterwards, when we came back out into the street there were people EVERYWHERE due to a few graduation ceremonies going on in the same street. The vibe couldn't have been more different to the freezing and deserted one I experienced in January 2017. We caught the train back into the CBD and alighted at Government Centre. Here we walked to Quincy Market near Faneuil Hall where we sat and ate lunch. I had some delicious New England clam chowder (or "clam chowda" as they pronounce it here!) and Rob had a calzone. We were entranced by a fantastic busker playing modern songs on her violin along to a backing track. It reminded me of how they sneak modern songs into 'Bridgerton' in the same way.

After the market we walked along Boston Harbour, eventually arriving to where the Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773, so it's the 250th anniversary of it this year. This involved those supporting the revolutionary movement dumping millions of dollars worth of tea into Boston Harbour because the English were taxing them too much at the time. We ended our afternoon by walking to Boston Common and sitting and lying down for a while in the grass. We then went past the 'Cheers' pub which was the inspiration for the TV show, walked through another park and headed back to the hostel for a rest.

This evening we headed back to Fenway Park on the train and attended the 'Strikeout ALS' charity game between the Boston College Eagles and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. This is the 11th ALS charity game, and Boston College always play in them. This is due to a previous captain of theirs, Pete Frates, who was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in 2012 and died in 2019 at the age of 34. If you recall the 'Ice Bucket Challenge' a few years back, this was done to raise money for that disease and Pete was involved. The Eagles smashed the Irish, we saw a few home runs which was good. It got pretty cold but we still had a good time together. I particularly enjoyed seeing Pete's daughter start the match by throwing the opening pitch. Rob once again explained the rules to me because playing baseball in primary school PE and watching a game here in 2005 with my family is the only knowledge I have. I was surprised by how much I remembered!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox