When planning our first visit to Boston, it felt essential to include a Fenway Park visit to watch the Red Sox play. We had previously enjoyed a couple of baseball games on trips to Seattle and Toronto, so were keen to experience a game in the oldest baseball park in the US. This blog is a tourist’s experience of seeing a Red Sox game in Boston, ideal for those who haven’t been to Fenway Park before, or wanting to know what to expect at a baseball game.
Table of Contents
About Fenway Park, Boston
Home to the Boston Red Sox team since 1912, Fenway Park in Boston is one of the most famous baseball parks in America and the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball (MBL). Known as “America’s most beloved ballpark”, the ground is a pilgrimage for baseball fans, and a big tourist attraction for those visiting Boston.
One of the ground’s claims to fame is that JFK’s Grandfather, John F Fitzgerald threw the first pitch at Fenway Park.
The ground was substantially renovated in 1934 and, due to space constraints, resulted in some quirky features including:
- The triangle – a section of deep center field, where the outfield walls form an odd triangular shape, which makes it challenging for fielders and sometimes results in batters getting to third base, or inside-the-park home runs.
- Pesky’s Pole (named after Johnny Pesky) – the right field foul pole stands just 302 ft from the Home Plate making it the shortest distance needed for a home run in MLB.
- The Green Monster – the 37-foot-2-inch-high (11.33 m) left field wall, with manual scoreboard at the bottom and seats on the top.
The current capacity of Fenway Park is just over 37,000. There have been many calls over the years to build a new ballpark with enhanced capacity elsewhere in the city, although the decision is always to stick with treasured Fenway Park.
Fenway Park takes its name from the Fenway-Kenmore neighbourhood which stands on marshland reclaimed in late 19th century to accommodate a growing city. Today, the Fenway is a vibrant neighbourhood full of green spaces, culture (Museum of Fine Arts, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Symphony Hall), Time Out Market and a lively restaurant scene.
Booking your Fenway visit
Buying tickets from the UK
The baseball season runs between April and October each year, so plan your Boston visit to coincide with a Red Sox home game. A quick google will provide you with the dates of the home games for the year.
Even better if you can book a ticket when the Red Sox are playing the New York Yankees due to the rivalry between the two teams, which always promises an electric atmosphere.
From the UK you can book tickets via Ticketmaster – these are resales from MLB Ballpark, so once tickets have been purchased you need to download the MLB App to access your tickets. This was all straightforward in our experience.
Our tickets were to watch the Red Sox play the Detroit Tigers at 3.05pm on a Sunday.
Where to sit on a Fenway Park visit?
Before booking tickets for a Fenway Park visit, have a look on one of the websites which offers seat views to get an idea of what your seating area will be like and help you avoid booking any restricted view seats behind support posts.
- Grandstand – we booked seats in the Grandstand (section 10 – row 5) which cost £40 each and had a good view over the whole pitch. Also, they were conveniently in the shade as the weather was unexpectedly hot and sunny at the end of September.
- The Green Monster – you could watch the game from the most coveted seats atop of the Green Monster on a Fenway Park visit. These have a fantastic view and unique bar stools (with seat backs) and tables for your drinks and snacks. Unsurprisingly these seats carry a higher cost.
- The Bleachers – locals might however say that you should sit in the Bleachers for the best atmosphere and more banter between the teams’ fans. Historically, the Bleachers were the cheap seats, tiered benches in the sun or at interesting angles.
Note – tickets are generally cheaper for midweek games.
Add on a tour of the stadium
There are a variety of tours which you can book on your Fenway Park visit, offering an opportunity to learn about the history of the ballpark and get see behind the scenes to check out the press box, locker room, green Monster seats.
Some of the tours are Pre-Game tours, where you can have a look around the ballpark before watching a game.
On the day of the game
Getting to Fenway Park
As parking options are limited, it is advised to walk to Fenway Park or use the MBTA public transport system (‘the T’) to get there:
- Take the Green Line C or D trains to Kenmore or Fenway stations, respectively, or the Green Line B to Kenmore.
- Take the Commuter Rail to Lansdowne Station, a short walk away.
Before the ball game
There was a rising sense of anticipation and excitement as we walked towards Fenway Park amongst the Red Sox fans and saw the green stadium appearing on the horizon. If you arrive early, before the crowds build up, you can take a walk around the outside of the stadium to spot the following:
- The Bleachers Bar at Gate A, the main entrance on Lansdowne St – you enter the bar at street level, but the bar is tucked beneath the bleachers with a big window looking onto the centre field.
- Statues of Red Sox Legends outside Gate B – The Teammates sculpture depicts Ted Williams, Johnny Oesky, Boby Doerr and Dom DiMaggio, four Hall of Famers who were teammates for years but friends for life.
- Red Number 34 on David Ortiz Drive – you can find the number belonging to Red Sox Slugger, David Ortiz, to the west of the ballpark, so well regarded they named the road after him.
Good to know before you go
Before showing your tickets and entering Fenway Park, you need to pass through a bag search and security check. Just remember that you can’t take large bags in with you, or any food or drink on your Fenway Park visit.
Cameras with lenses less than 6 inches are allowed, including detachable lenses. My Digital SLR camera had a 6-inch detachable lens which was allowed through.
Merchandise and food
There are lots of food and merchandise stands on the ground level so that you can get kitted out with Red Sox gear – hats, t-shirts, and obligatory foam hands!
The Seats at Fenway Park
The blue wooden seats in the Grandstand are very old, dating back to the refurbishment year of 1934. These seats look lovely but have no padding whatsoever. As baseball games can be long 2.5-3 hours, then you’re likely to get a ‘numb bum’.
Tip – after we tired of taking photos with our foam hands, and waving them at key moments in the game, we used them to sit on which provided some welcome padding.
Snack Vendors
There was a constant stream of snack vendors coming up and down the aisles selling lemonade, Italian ice, cotton candy and “Fenway Franks” (hotdogs). These snacks are an important part of the ballgame culture, I guess because the games are long, and you might not want to leave your seat and miss any of the action on the pitch.
As we were tightly packed into the seats, a communal effort was required when someone at the far end of the seating row wanted to buy a snack:
- Step 1 – gesture to the snack vendor that you want a hot dog.
- Step 2 – the snack seller sends the hotdog down the line of spectators to you.
- Step 3 – you send your money up the chain of spectators to the seller.
Everyone on the row was involved and very helpful!
Nut Allergy Alert – my son has a severe nut allergy and so I tend to notice everywhere that sells peanuts. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like he could make a Fenway Park visit as peanuts are one of the main snacks being sold and at the end of the game the floor was covered in disregarded peanut shells. Allergy sufferers beware!
The fans
Unlike at British FIFA football games, the fans of the different baseball team were sitting together, so we had both Red Sox fans and Detroit Tigers fans in the seats around us.
We didn’t see any trouble between fans, or hear any bad language on our Fenway Park visit, which made a refreshing change from some of the edgier football games back home – just a healthy competition and fun banter.
Audience participation
The great thing about baseball games, is that there is plenty to keep you occupied during the long games. In-between innings, you might be:
- Captured on the Smile Cam.
- Joining in with a rousing rendition of Sweet Caroline.
- Competing in a Dance Off competition to win a pair of trainers.
It feels like the fans are on the screens almost as much as the players at times!
The Mexican Wave kept travelling around the ground, and we had a fan behind us leading a chant (with clapping) of “Let’s Go, Red Sox” throughout the entire game. Well done for him keeping that going for 2.5 hours…
Take me out to the ball game (7th inning stretch)
After the 7th innings to help stretch legs, everyone stood up to sing ‘Take me out to a ball game’. This song was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer, despite them never having set foot in a ballpark. It features Katie Casey, a young woman who loves baseball and wants to go to a game. When a suitor offers to take her to see a show, she rejects his offer and asks him to take her to the ball game instead.
The song has become an anthem at baseball games, and I remember it from the Seattle Mariners and Blue Jays games which we had seen previously. It even lent its name to a 1949 film featuring Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.
Note – Fenway Park is one of the organ ballparks with a resident organist who provides live music, and a nostalgic feel. The association of organ music at ballparks goes back 80 years.
Action on the field
With so much else going on around us, at times I would find myself watching the audience and not the game (sorry hard core Red Sox fans!). These are the things I remember from our Fenway Park visit:
- The game kicked off after a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.
- A service man was honoured, and everyone waved their caps in respect.
- The electronic scoreboard (from 1934) used red lights for strikes, and green lights for balls, making it easy to keep track of what’s happening with the batting.
- Someone kept the hand-operated scoreboard at the bottom of the Green Monster updated after each innings (like at the cricket in England).
- The players all have walk up songs before they bat. My question is – why does Red Sox player Jarren Duran not have a Duran Duran walk up song? Wild Boys would have been perfect (just saying).
- We only witnessed one Home Run during the game.
In terms of the rules, we understood enough to get by, relying on the Rounders we used to play at school. However, occasionally something would happen that we didn’t understand, but then the game moved on.
You don’t have to be a baseball expert to enjoy a Fenway Park visit as there is so much going on – it’s just fun to sit and soak it all in.
The Red Sox won this game, and so the crowd was in good voice at the end of the game and leaving the ballpark.
Dinner at Citizen Public House
If you want dinner after the game, then head to Citizen Public House for a cosy bar environment. We sat in wooden booths and enjoyed great burgers. It’s just outside Fenway Park, so make sure you book a table.
Final thoughts….
For me, going to a baseball game is akin to watching a game of cricket back home because, at the start of the game, there is no sense of jeopardy with so many innings ahead of you, so you can dip in and out of the action, chat to family and friends and enjoy some snacks. Then, as the innings start to disappear, it can get very exciting as the game hurtles towards a conclusion.
It feels like a completely different experience to a British football game, which can be edgy and raw, with somewhat feral language at times. If you take kids to a football game in Britain, you’d book tickets in the family stand, whereas Fenway Park felt much more family orientated.
Before our Fenway Park visit, we didn’t anticipate staying for the duration of the game, however 2.5 hours flew by and at no point did we think about leaving early. Also, with 2.5 hours of entertainment, £40 a ticket was excellent value for money.
I loved my experience at Fenway Park, which felt nostalgic given the environment of the older stadium – a true slice of American Sporting culture and history. This was definitely one of my favourite 10 things to do in Boston on our trip.
So, take me out to the ball game, but make sure it’s at Fenway Park!
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