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Isn't It Time We Said Goodbye To Fenway Park?
The Boston Globe ^ | 4/03/05 | Michael Ryan

Posted on 04/03/2005 3:22:42 PM PDT by raccoonradio

The best movie ever made about baseball in Boston was a 1962 film by the Spanish surrealist Luis Bunuel, called The Exterminating Angel. The plot is twisted: People arrive for a dinner party, enjoy themselves, get drunk, snipe at one another, and trade gossip. Then, when the time comes to go home, they stand up, they approach the door. But not one of them can bring himself to pass through that door. They know that the party's over; they cannot leave it. Soon, this group becomes a sensation in the city. Townspeople gather on the street, staring, wondering why the party won't end, long after it has ceased to be fun.

Think of Fenway Park as that dinner party.

One week from tomorrow, a world champion Red Sox team will take the field here for the first time since 1919. It will be a moment of triumph, the culmination of bold and brilliant decisions by a front office willing to try anything in pursuit of victory, even trading the storied Nomar, a player no one had ever envisioned wearing any uniform but a Boston one. Just two weeks ago, the ownership group announced that it is more committed to Fenway than ever. It's a shame, because, in truth, will there ever be a better time to say goodbye to Fenway than now, when the fabled curse has been lifted, the stadium has at last fulfilled its mission, the fans are more passionate than ever, and the city is embracing its team and its owners as it has no other franchise in history?

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 2004world; baseball; baseballstadiums; bostonredsox; champions; fenwaypark; massachusetts
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Great park, lots of tradition (starring in "Fever Pitch", coming to a theatre near you), but: seats designed to fit the bodies (and fannies) of fans from nearly a century ago. Lousy viewing angle from right field! Cramped seats, tough to get to bathrooms and food, overpriced, etc. Other than that it's great. (And yes, no need to tell me, I'll say it myself: Shut up and enjoy your championship, raccoonradio...) Oh well...all I know is when I go to parks like Jacobs Field in Cleveland, I LOVE the room! How easy it is to get to the food, bathrooms, etc.

Well they paid $700 million for the team so I guess there's no money left over for a new park. Keep Fenway alive, I guess. But still... :)


1 posted on 04/03/2005 3:22:43 PM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio

>>For decades, Fenway Park has turned the heads of visiting sportswriters and broadcasters. "Guys like George Will and Bob Costas come in and want to romanticize Fenway Park," (WEEI talk show host Ted) Sarandis complains. "But how many times have they had to sit in Section 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5? You sit in sections 6, 7, 8, or 9, you could get a crick in your neck from having to turn to the left all the time; you're looking straight at center field."


2 posted on 04/03/2005 3:25:08 PM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio

Save Fenway----The Fleet has never come up to the old Garden.

Some things are sacred and should be left alone----Sox fans aren't wusses,they can take the punishment of the Grand Old Man of ballparks.


3 posted on 04/03/2005 3:36:24 PM PDT by Mears ("The Killer Queen,caviar and cigarettes")
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To: raccoonradio

If ya don't like the seats at fenway, lose some weight. :)


4 posted on 04/03/2005 3:41:06 PM PDT by escapefromboston (manny ortez: mvp)
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To: raccoonradio
I saw the Tigers play a game at old Tiger Stadium and had great seats, behind home plate. It was very cool to be in an old stadium, but there was no leg room, the aisles and halls were narrow and hard to navigate. All ballparks experience functional obsolescence sooner or later.
5 posted on 04/03/2005 3:41:48 PM PDT by socal_parrot (Free Republic, rooms available due to unexpected cancellations.)
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To: raccoonradio
NO!
6 posted on 04/03/2005 3:43:36 PM PDT by TheRedSoxWinThePennant
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To: raccoonradio

The best park in MLB is PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Basement Dwellers, I mean, Pirates.


7 posted on 04/03/2005 3:44:03 PM PDT by steel_resolve
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To: raccoonradio
More accurate headline:

Isn't It Time We Said Goodbye To Pretentious Baseball Writers Who Begin Their Stories With Luis Bunuel References?

8 posted on 04/03/2005 3:44:56 PM PDT by JennysCool (Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.)
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To: raccoonradio

If they tear down Fenway, somebody's going to try to convince the Cubs to tear down Wrigley.

And while Fenway isn't anything special, Wrigley is the perfect ball-park.


9 posted on 04/03/2005 3:45:52 PM PDT by jdege
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To: raccoonradio
Yeah, and while we're at it, let's get rid of the Green Line and Durgin Park and let's develop that useless space bordered by Beacon, Charles, Tremont and Park.

<sigh>The good old Boston Globe.

10 posted on 04/03/2005 3:45:58 PM PDT by cloud8 (I don’t do carrots. --John Bolton)
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To: raccoonradio

Given the way the Big Dig has turned out, a Fenway replacement would cost two billion dollars and line the pockets of every union thug and Democrat politician in Massachusetts.


11 posted on 04/03/2005 3:47:49 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves
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To: Mr. Jeeves

I went to Fenway for the first time last year. It is the best place to watch a ball game that I've ever been to and I've beem to quite a few


12 posted on 04/03/2005 3:52:53 PM PDT by roj
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To: Mr. Jeeves

And the sprinkler system would leak and leave the outfield a soggy mess.


13 posted on 04/03/2005 3:52:56 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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Ted Williams was a " Mexican-American " ? News to me !


14 posted on 04/03/2005 3:55:20 PM PDT by sushiman
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To: TheRedSoxWinThePennant
NO!

A compromise..Tear it down an build a super Wal-Mart!

15 posted on 04/03/2005 4:00:39 PM PDT by ExtremeUnction
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To: raccoonradio

Fenway Park is too small. They should build a new park outside downtown, maybe over by Schenectady.


16 posted on 04/03/2005 4:04:41 PM PDT by RightWhale (50 trillion sovereign cells working together in relative harmony)
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To: JennysCool
"More accurate headline: Isn't It Time We Said Goodbye To Pretentious Baseball Writers Who Begin Their Stories With Luis Bunuel References?"

LOL! And the author doesn't even live in Boston anymore, so why should he care:

"Michael Ryan is a freelance writer in New York who grew up in the Boston area."

17 posted on 04/03/2005 4:16:01 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (L'chaim!)
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To: raccoonradio
Rehab it. Don't destroy it.

Phillip Bess came up with some solid design proposals for doing just that - keeping Fenway, but updating it for the 21st century.

18 posted on 04/03/2005 4:19:38 PM PDT by The Iguana
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To: roj
It is the best place to watch a ball game that I've ever been to and I've beem to quite a few

I'm not much of a baseball fan, but I know it would be insane to touch Fenway Park. About 35 years ago, when I was going to college in the area, I attended a game there just for the heck of it. It turned out to be a great game, with the Red Sox making a terrific 8th inning comeback that just fell short.

If all you want to do is watch a baseball game, you can watch any number of them on TV for free. If you want rich atmosphere and a real live experience, then you go to battered but historic old Fenway Park. Getting rid of Fenway would be like getting rid of Wrigley Field or Lambeau Field -- it would be cutting the game off from its deepest roots.

19 posted on 04/03/2005 4:30:38 PM PDT by dpwiener
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To: The Iguana
Rehab it. Don't destroy it.

Shouldn't that be "Fix It; Don't Nix It?"
20 posted on 04/03/2005 4:34:01 PM PDT by piperpilot
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