Visiting Fenway: Baseball's best stadium

In the eighties the Seattle Mariners were terrible. So, despite growing up near Seattle, I was a Red Sox fan. I watched every Sox game I could find on TV, checked their box scores daily in the paper, had Sox pennants, coffee mugs, posters and other memorabilia throughout my room.

Basically, I was a pretty good Sox fan before becoming a Mariner's fan in 1995. With that in mind, last Friday, I crossed off an item on my bucket by attending a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. And I fell in love.

For any baseball fan, there is something special about the moment you walk from the hallway towards your seats and catch that first glimpse of the field. My first glimpse at Fenway was the best first glimpse I have ever experienced.

It wasn't my favorite because I had a surreal feeling of seeing the Green Monster for the first time in person. Instead, it was my favorite for the completely opposite reason. Despite being my first time in the park, I felt like I had been there a million times before. The park was as cozy and comfortable as walking into Grandma's house when you were a kid. 

I immediately noticed the Green Monster with the famed giant Citgo sign rising above it in the distance. I then walked out to left field, up 37 rows to the lone red seat, in a see of green, where Ted Williams hit the longest homer, 502 feet, in the park's history. No marker, no plaque, just a lone red tribute to the best to ever don a Sox uniform. 

Fortunately, I had a much closer seat during the game, about 25 rows from the field, halfway up the third base line. Unfortunately, this is 2011 and the stadium was built in 1917. I'm guessing not too many people were 6'5 in 1917. Luckily, no one sat next to me and I was able to stretch my legs a little and enjoy the game.

The Sox gave up four quick runs to Oakland in the first inning, but ended up coming back to win the game 8-6. Seeing the Sox win made the night better, but the outcome was a bonus to the main attraction of seeing a game at the best stadium in baseball.

The seats were small and tight. The sight lines weren't always perfect and the concourses were small, while the bathrooms were hard to get to. Lighting could have been better in the hallways and finding food could have been a lot easier.

Ya know what though? None of that mattered. If I wanted cushy seating and easy access to bathrooms and drinks, I would have gone to the closest megaplex. I flew across country to experience a baseball game in park that holds memories of days when baseball was still America's national pastime.

I walked the freedom trail through the city and saw sites that marked the beginning of the American Revolution. I visited the campuses of Harvard and MIT, home to some of the world's brightest minds and greatest academics. My experience at Fenway fit right in with the prestigious and historic feel of the entire city. I got exactly what I went for. 

Fenway Park is far and away the most enjoyable baseball experience I've had of any of the ten or so stadiums I've been to.

My father, a Yankees fan, bought me a book for Christmas titled "100 things Red Sox fans should know and do before they die". Reading that book was the impetus for my trip, as experiencing a game at Fenway was on that list.

Thanks Dad. Great gift.