114 replies to this topic

[OttoC]

I really wanted to photograph the interior of the wall but by the time I got there there were 76,311 people on the field moving at a pace of one step every 2.5 minutes. So, I checked out some places I hadn't been. I'll eventually get some pictures posted.

Nice shots.

[Freddy Linn]

As always, your photos are absolutely incredible. The picture from the ladder and the tattoos on the Monster are particularly fantastic - my eight year-old is totally digging them as he is mesmerized by the recent PBS special.

[Laser Show]

Pedroia is supposedly signing at 3. Not sure where exactly. Anyone know if its EMC or State street?

I don't think he ended up signing anywhere. I waited in line at State Street for an hour+, getting into the room at 3. They then told me that he was not signing there. I hurried down to the EMC level and didn't see him there either... I saw that Lowell was supposed to be signing at State Street at 2:30, but I didn't see him either.

The whole autograph thing seemed really messed up. None of the employees I talked to had any idea where or who was signing and they changed out at weird intervals.

[saintnick912]

Didn't go because I figured it would be a mob scene with school vacation on. Hope to get some shots of the flyover tomorrow, since decent tickets seem to be in "World Series Game" range.

[mrsbeasley]

I don't think he ended up signing anywhere. I waited in line at State Street for an hour+, getting into the room at 3. They then told me that he was not signing there. I hurried down to the EMC level and didn't see him there either... I saw that Lowell was supposed to be signing at State Street at 2:30, but I didn't see him either.

The whole autograph thing seemed really messed up. None of the employees I talked to had any idea where or who was signing and they changed out at weird intervals.

He ended up at EMC from about 3-4. I waited with my 10 year-old niece, got right to the entrance after waiting an hour and as we were walking in a Fenway Employee informed us, and the hundreds of people behind us that Pedroia had "just left" and no one else was coming and we had to leave NOW. I asked him why when we had asked the many employees we saw while waiting in line, one of them didn't tell us we were wasting our time so we could go elsewhere and he snapped at me that he didn't make me wait in line and I needed to leave. My niece was great about it (although his attitude kind of soured her on Fenway Park for the time being) but there were younger kids sitting there sobbing while the guy was barking at their parents to leave so they could set up for some event.

It was a wonderful thing to do for the fans but given all the time they had to plan for it they really could have done a much better job communicating with us.

[Boggs26]

I don't think he ended up signing anywhere. I waited in line at State Street for an hour+, getting into the room at 3. They then told me that he was not signing there. I hurried down to the EMC level and didn't see him there either... I saw that Lowell was supposed to be signing at State Street at 2:30, but I didn't see him either.

The whole autograph thing seemed really messed up. None of the employees I talked to had any idea where or who was signing and they changed out at weird intervals.

I risked a guess and went with EMC. After waiting in line for 2 hours (much of which was within the EMC club) Pedroia arrived and was very quickly inundated. My wife and I each got an autograph and Petey seemed to be in a great mood.

All in all this was a great day. I'll post my photos when I get home after tomorrow's game.

[joyofsox]

They say tomorrow's game is starting at 3 PM because that is when the April 20, 1912 game began, but this re-posting of the Globe's story notes the game began at 1:10.

http://miscbaseball....-april-20-1912/


Boston’s beautiful new ball park in the Fenway was yesterday opened before a crowd of 24,000 spectators.

There was no time wasted in childish parades. Mayor Fitzgerald dignified the occasion by tossing out the new ball and the Speed Boys and Highlanders were soon at it, starting the game at 1:10 and closing the entertainment at 4:20, when Tristram Speaker, the Texas sharpshooter, with two down in the 11th inning and Steve Yerkes, on third, smashed the ball too fast for the shortstop to handle and the winning run came over the plate, making the score 7 to 6, and the immense crowd leaving for home for a cold supper, but wreathed in smiles to see the Speed Boys come from behind and by dint of staying prowess land the victory.

[drtooth]

FYI--There are some scattered singles available on redsox.com. Found one in the bleachers

[Rooster Crows]

They say tomorrow's game is starting at 3 PM because that is when the April 20, 1912 game began, but this re-posting of the Globe's story notes the game began at 1:10.

http://miscbaseball....-april-20-1912/


Boston’s beautiful new ball park in the Fenway was yesterday opened before a crowd of 24,000 spectators.

There was no time wasted in childish parades. Mayor Fitzgerald dignified the occasion by tossing out the new ball and the Speed Boys and Highlanders were soon at it, starting the game at 1:10 and closing the entertainment at 4:20, when Tristram Speaker, the Texas sharpshooter, with two down in the 11th inning and Steve Yerkes, on third, smashed the ball too fast for the shortstop to handle and the winning run came over the plate, making the score 7 to 6, and the immense crowd leaving for home for a cold supper, but wreathed in smiles to see the Speed Boys come from behind and by dint of staying prowess land the victory.

I guess they are making up for the parade now. "Speed Boys" - love it!!

All sarcasm aside - thanks for the great photos and memories all - brings back so many of my own. HAPPY BIRTHDAY FENWAY! . . . And for all those attending, what a great day for a ballgame - hope you feel the same way at the end of the day.

[Hendu's Gait]

Don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but if I was LL/Henry/TW/Kennedy/Dentist,

why not have a paid/ticketed celebration in the afternoon and then the game at night? Earn so more cash to pay off the Drew/Lackey/Jenks/Crawford etc. mistakes.

[HangingW/ScottCooper]

Including Ted William's plaque from the Hall of Fame:

Interesting that the Hall of Fame loaned this to the Red Sox. I wasn't aware that these ever left - could it be a reproduction? Initially I though it was the original plaque that Williams didn't like, but it isn't. This appears to be the one from the Hall of Fame.

[Buzzkill Pauley]

Nomar and Merloni busting on Carlos Baerga's hair and predilection for greenies is awesome, awesome radio.

[LoweTek]

Pedro and Millar on MLB Network TV now.

[941827]

Don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but if I was LL/Henry/TW/Kennedy/Dentist,

why not have a paid/ticketed celebration in the afternoon and then the game at night? Earn so more cash to pay off the Drew/Lackey/Jenks/Crawford etc. mistakes.

Drew was not a mistake. Replace his name with Lugo in the litany and your point is valid.

[Hildy]

Interesting that the Hall of Fame loaned this to the Red Sox. I wasn't aware that these ever left - could it be a reproduction? Initially I though it was the original plaque that Williams didn't like, but it isn't. This appears to be the one from the Hall of Fame.

It is--I have friends who went to Cooperstown this week and were disappointed to discover that Williams' plaque, along with Yaz and one other I forget, were on loan to the Sox.

[JBill]

Have to hand it to the Dentist and co., that was really well done. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did.

[scotian1]

I really enjoyed it as well. There were several players who brought tears to my eyes but none more so than Bobby Doerr who despite serious health problems made it to Fenway from the other side of the continent for this day. He is a true Red Sox hero.

[Red(s)HawksFan]

I enjoyed it overall, but NESN's coverage could have been better. They emphasized the music rather than the crowd noise, and, at least for my taste, there were far too many crowd shots and not enough shots of the players as they entered the field. Seemed like every time a tougher to recognize player came out, they would cut away just as the name on the back of the jersey was about to come into the shot. I didn't expect them to be able to throw up graphics identifying everyone or anything, but the few they did have graphics for were the ones that needed no identification anyway (Eck, Nomar, Remy, Rice, etc).

Seemed like I spent half the ceremony either saying "is that...?" or "now who is that ovation for?" because they were showing some mook in the Monster seats or the grandstand instead of the guys on the field. Other than that, it was awesome.

[amh03]

Interesting that the Hall of Fame loaned this to the Red Sox. I wasn't aware that these ever left - could it be a reproduction? Initially I though it was the original plaque that Williams didn't like, but it isn't. This appears to be the one from the Hall of Fame.

It is the actual plaque...they brought that and a few other items out, for the 100th Anniversary celebration.

[Rudy Pemberton]

Great shots, thanks for posting.

[Lefty on the Mound]

Has anyone seen a list of all the players who came out during the ceremonies? As stated above, the NESN telecast was lacking in identifying the non-obvious ex-players.

Alan Embree had a very bushy chin beard going on and Scott Schoeneweis looked like a hippy. I'm interested in who the older players were, particularly the guys who had to be brought out in wheelchairs (other than Pesky and Doerr).

Even though the toast part was pretty lame, I thought the overall ceremony was among the best of the dentist's work.

[joyofsox]

Extra Bases has a link to a PDF to an alphabetical list of the players who attended.

http://cache.boston....950994_1055.pdf

[xjack]

I would have liked to have seen Mark Bellhorn. Of all the '04 heroes, Bellhorn seems the most underappreciated.... As much as I love Dave Roberts, he stole one base. Bellhorn won games 6 of the ALCS and Game 1 of the World Series with home runs (and also had big hits in game 7 of the ALCS and game 2 of the WS).

[Scott Cooper]

I'm in NY and watched on MLB.com....very pissed they took the audio feed of the music instead of the crowd. Is there a link now on line to watch the players come in and hear the ovations?

[Lose Remerswaal]

Great event. Wish they had been able to introduce every player individually, even if it was only 5 seconds/player, instead of the mass of humanity towards the end.

I saw more Soshers at this event than anything other than a Bash. IIRC:

Tonyandpals
BSL and Clemente38
Behindthepen
OBPercent
BostonCyberSox (and wife and baby!)
Sittingstill
and a few others that I will soon recall.

Posting some pics shortly

Edited by Lose Remerswaal, 21 April 2012 - 09:46 AM.

[Lose Remerswaal]

In the tunnel



Buckner



Tiant and Oil Can



Pitchers and Catchers



Spaceman




Maestro #1




Maestro #2



Flyover



Eck isn't the longest hair alum



Nomaahhhh!!

Edited by Lose Remerswaal, 21 April 2012 - 08:46 AM.

[Infield Infidel]

Great shots Lose

I just watched this on redsox.com. It's amazing how many of these guys I haven't thought of in years, and then seeing them made me smile

I was kinda hoping they would have Seiji Ozawa just for the local connection.

[Jim Ed Rice in HOF]

Alan Embree had a very bushy chin beard going on and Scott Schoeneweis looked like a hippy. I'm interested in who the older players were, particularly the guys who had to be brought out in wheelchairs (other than Pesky and Doerr).

The only good shot I got of one of the wheelchair participants

[Lose Remerswaal]

I like the neck tattoo of the guy on the right side of my Nomar picture. I also got some good shots of Lucier (whoever he is) from under the bleachers. Was a great lineup of the players (other than the biggest stars) after the event from the Garage Door in CF, heading over toward the stairs near the Players Club Royal Rooters Lounge

[Jim Ed Rice in HOF]

<sub>View from over the wall in section 36 of guys waiting to come in.




100th anniversary on 4/20 - Bill Lee must've been in Heaven.




Rico looking thrilled to be hanging out.



Nice neck rolls on Corsi.



None of that horseshit keep the label on the hat for these guys.



Pedro as always having a good time.



Looie and Can embracing.</sub>

[Infield Infidel]

It was also really cool seeing Pumpsie Green get a moment with a round of applause.

[Rooster Crows]

It was also really cool seeing Pumpsie Green get a moment with a round of applause.

Yes, I agree - I was able to catch a little of that on the mlb feed before it froze on me. Glad to see Foulke there - hope he got a good round of applause, and agree - Bellhorn would have been nice.

Many thanks to all of you for posting your photos - sitting here in NYC, it made me feel for a few moments like I got a taste of the day. Watching the players come out - those I could identify - I was amazed at the different phase of my life they brought to mind so vividly. What a day!!!!

. . . .Except that music overwhelming the the sounds of the park - would have liked to hear what was actually going on. It certainly was produced to make a video, rather than making a video about the production. Nice day anyway.

Edited by Rooster Crows, 21 April 2012 - 11:12 AM.

[Boggs26]

Haven't had a chance to go through then all yet, but my shots from the bleachers (sec. 41, row 30) are up at www.photobucket.com/Fenway100

Long telephoto made for quite a few blurry shots, but there are some good ones in there too. More to come later and once I dig out the best ones I'll post them directly.

[amh03]

Lose & Jim...really fun pics...I didn't see the players waiting! Very cool perspectives!

Edit: Boggs26...just went through yours...well done too...your long lense even captured me in a couple of the Catchers group shots at home plate!

Edited by amh03, 21 April 2012 - 01:08 PM.

[OttoC]

Here's a few pictures I took Thursday. By the time I got there it was so crowded I didn't see things I wanted to see, so I ad-libbed.

Pennants honoring Red Sox players on the outside of Fenway Park


A view of part of the crowd waiting to view the Wall


A view from the Red Seat (with the zoom set to 1:1)


A look at the Green Monster from the center field bleachers


Bats of Yaz and Tony C


Ted Williams's 1949 MVP plaque


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I didn't want to embed this video because of its size, but if anyone cares to look I did a video panorama of the outfield (20 seconds). See http://ottoc.zenfoli...52083/e298a2df8

[amh03]

Cool shots, Cliff! Jeez it got crowded! What time were you landing there?

[OttoC]

Thanks. I got there around quarter to twelve. I got a late start because a truck had overturned and was tying up traffic. When I got to Boston the traffic once I got off Storrow Drive was abysmal. I talked to one of the people in crowd control and he said that there were people waiting in line at 6 a.m. and they were in and out in 20 minutes.

[LoweTek]

In Boggs' photos, number 732, there is an elderly player using walker and being escorted. I had never heard of him so I looked him up. His name is Harley Hisner and he's 85 years old.

At age 24 he started the last game of the 1951 season against the Yankees. It was his only appearance in Major League Baseball, ever. He faced a Yankee lineup with 5 Hall of Famers.

He allowed 3 runs and 7 hits over 6 full, striking out 3 (including Mantle twice), walked 4 and took the L. He had a hit in two trips so he left the game with a lifetime batting average of .500.

I think we can be assured they in fact invited everyone who ever appeared in a Red Sox uniform.

[Lose Remerswaal]

Closest thing to Moonlight Graham we have!

[Jim Ed Rice in HOF]

In Boggs' photos, number 732, there is an elderly player using walker and being escorted. I had never heard of him so I looked him up. His name is Harley Hisner and he's 85 years old.

At age 24 he started the last game of the 1951 season against the Yankees. It was his only appearance in Major League Baseball, ever. He faced a Yankee lineup with 5 Hall of Famers.

He allowed 3 runs and 7 hits over 6 full, striking out 3 (including Mantle twice), walked 4 and took the L. He had a hit in two trips so he left the game with a lifetime batting average of .500.

I think we can be assured they in fact invited everyone who ever appeared in a Red Sox uniform.

There's a bunch of these guys who played very briefly either with just the Sox or MLB. It's a rainy Sunday and since Redsox.com isn't helpful in having biographies for the players who showed up I'm in the process of writing something up on the one and done type guys. It's better than thinking about the current team.

[Boggs26]

In Boggs' photos, number 732, there is an elderly player using walker and being escorted. I had never heard of him so I looked him up. His name is Harley Hisner and he's 85 years old.

At age 24 he started the last game of the 1951 season against the Yankees. It was his only appearance in Major League Baseball, ever. He faced a Yankee lineup with 5 Hall of Famers.

He allowed 3 runs and 7 hits over 6 full, striking out 3 (including Mantle twice), walked 4 and took the L. He had a hit in two trips so he left the game with a lifetime batting average of .500.

I think we can be assured they in fact invited everyone who ever appeared in a Red Sox uniform.

Thanks for that background on him, I was very interested in who the old guys were. There were a lot of names I didn't recognize but I figured I'd get shots of everyone (I think I succeeded - although some were blurry) and I'd be able to sort out who they were after the fact.

[jkempa]

Sorry for the rotten quality (especially after amh03's beautiful shots) but thought this might amuse some of you.

Edited by jkempa, 22 April 2012 - 05:06 PM.

[Lose Remerswaal]

I think this is Hisner

[amh03]

Both of those last two pics are awesome, though for completely different reasons!! That one of Jose is hilarious, jkempa!! That guy is nuts.

And yours, Lose - well that one just totally warms the heart!! What a thrill for everyone!!

[JohntheBaptist]

Lose, considering the background on Hisner I think that's officially my favorite shot from the whole event. So many great pictures in here...

[joyofsox]

Closest thing to Moonlight Graham we have!

Che-Suan Lin played one inning in CF a week ago (April 14), never touched the ball and did not bat. (I hope he returns and avoids the Moonlight nickname!)

[mabrowndog]

I think this is Hisner

That's a fantastic shot, Pete, but it's of 94-year-old Lou Lucier. Boggs26 got a pic of him from the back.




Harley Hisner was using a walker, not a wheelchair. In the video Infield Infidel linked upthread, he's coming onto the field just after the 18-minute mark.

Edited by mabrowndog, 22 April 2012 - 09:32 PM.

[amh03]

Just so there's no confusion, I think the video Mark is referring to is the link that Infield Infidel posted - Post #77.

[mabrowndog]

Oops... Thanks, Anne!

I also love this one from Boggs26 of Reggie Smith and Jim Lonborg sharing an embrace.

Edited by mabrowndog, 22 April 2012 - 09:33 PM.

[LoweTek]

Man, I miss Reggie Smith. What a shame they traded him away. He should have been a lifetime Red Sox. I loved the guy.

You gotta feel for a guy like Harley Hisner. I imagine it's the first time he's heard from the team in what, 60+ years?? Imagine him sitting somewhere and getting this envelope from Yawkey Way? He must have gotten a huge kick out of it. Remember, his start was at NYY. He never played at, and for all we know had never been in, Fenway Park. Someone in the media should have picked up on all of these stories. There must have been some great ones walking onto the field that day.