Fenway Park

Fenway Park is the home stadium for the Boston Red Sox baseball club. It is located near and named for the Fenway region in the heart of Boston, which in turn is named for the nearby fens, or marshes. It opened on April 20, 1912, the same day as the now-defunct Tiger Stadium in Detroit. This makes it the oldest ballpark in active use in Major League Baseball.

The stadium is most famous for the "Green Monster", the imposing, 37-foot-tall (11 meters) left field wall, only 303 feet (92 meters) from home plate down the left field line. For its first two decades, Fenway's left field sloped gently up as it neared the wall; this hill was known as Duffy's Cliff in honor of Duffy Lewis, Sox leftfielder in one of baseball's greatest early outfields, which had Harry Hooper in right, and the Grey Eagle, Tris Speaker, patrolling center.

Other notable features include "The Triangle", a region of center field where the walls form a triangle 420 feet (128 meters) from home plate, and "Pesky's Pole", the foul pole down a shallow right field line. The power alleys are 378 (?) feet (115 meters) from home plate in left field and 380 feet (116 meters) from home plate in right. It is a hitter's ballpark, especially during July and August when the wind blows out to left field, carrying balls up to and over the Green Monster.

The park holds approximately 34,000 spectators. This number has increased over the years as seats have been added in what was once foul ground and throughout the upper decks. Some people have proposed increasing the seating capacity by up to 10,000 more seats through the expansion of upper decks, while others have proposed tearing down the stadium and rebuilding a similar one nearby.

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External link:

• satellite photo (http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=10&x=1636&y=23451&z=19&w=2)