Happy Birthday, Fenway Park

Fenway Park is the only building I have known personally that has lasted 100 years. A couple of people, yes, but buildings I have frequented and hung out in, no. Fenway reaches triple digits on April 20, so bring out the cake and ice cream and borrow those wait-people from Red Robin to synchronize the singing of the Happy Birthday song.

It’s probably a tossup which construction project is getting the most attention this month, the Titanic, the ship that was built to last forever, or the ballpark that was built to fill an immediate need for the Boston Red Sox, but did. I’m giving Fenway credit for lasting forever in ballpark years, which are probably somewhere between human years and dog years. So Fenway is probably 300 years old in ballpark years, going strong, while the Titanic is rotting at the bottom of the sea with young girls everywhere saving their pennies to mount search parties for Leonardo DiCaprio’s remains. Of course, the Red Sox have spent nearly as long searching for Babe Ruth’s remains.

One major difference: the sinking of the Titanic after its collision with an iceberg is a sad occasion while the continuing glow of Fenway Park’s lights is celebrated as a baseball happy occasion. By the way, who did the Red Sox beat in the April 20, 1912 opener? The New York Highlanders, 7-6 in extra innings, before they changed their name to Yankees. Yessss!

The Titantic was built to last and didn’t. Fenway has had renovations, additions and modifications, but a bunch of the original is still standing. The odds against Fenway making it to 100 were running pretty high about a decade ago. I remember very well when I read the proclamation that after considerable study and haggling, the owners of the Red Sox had settled on a nearby piece of property to construct a new ballpark.

It would look like the old Fenway, it would still be called Fenway (we thought), but it would have such modern amenities as bathrooms (just kidding). Then the team got sold, the ballpark got rescued and renovated, and now everyone loves Fenway beyond the bounds of reason. In an area with the Old North Church, the Prudential Tower, Harvard, a renovated, replacement Boston Garden and a renovated Faneuil Hall, Fenway Park is every Bostonian’s favorite old building. With the passing of the old Garden, scene of the Boston Celtics’ 11 titles in 13 years and the Bruins’ two Stanley Cups with Bobby Orr, Fenway is the undisputed champ.

Fenway was the site of my first Major League game with my father and grandfather. Fenway bleachers were an inexpensive home for games in my youth. I could hear Fenway crowds cheer in April and September through the open window of my dormitory across Kenmore Square when enrolled at Boston University. Fenway was a must-stop summer visit when I lived in Alaska and came back to town. Fenway was where Teddy Ballgame and Yaz ruled.

I remember home runs into the right-field bullpens, added to shorten the field for Ted Williams’ home run swing. I remember the clunking sound when a hard line drive caromed off the Green Monster, the wall looming over the pitcher’s shoulder that was 37 feet high, 231 feet wide and greener than a leprechaun.

Fenway is two years older than Wrigley Field. It outlasted Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds, Ebbetts Field, Forbes Field, Connie Mack Stadium, Sportsman’s Park, Comiskey Park, Shibe Park, and a host of many younger stadiums deemed obsolete. A century into its life, Fenway Park is not close to out-serving its usefulness. It has been spruced up, expanded a little, gleams from fresh paint, retains its charm and oozes tradition.

Probably all 37,400 fans should sing Happy Birthday on the big day. But the backup band should be the Dropkick Murphys, present and required to send the fans off into that good night with a rendition of “Tessie.” It’s the song the Red Sox rooters loved so much 100 years ago in Beantown and this generation of crooners made it relevant and special all over again.

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