The First Game at Fenway
After two rain delays, Fenway Park finally hosted its first professional baseball game on April 20, 1912.
(The first official game played in Fenway actually occurred on April 9 when the Sox beat Harvard
University, 2-0.) The Red Sox defeated the New York Highlanders (later known as the Yankees) before
27,000 fans,7-6 in 11 innings. The event would have made front page news if it had not been for the
sinking of the Titanic only a few days before. Even after the Sox made Fenway their home, they didn't always play their
games there. Occasionally, the Red Sox scheduled their "big games" at Braves Field to accommodate larger
crowds (like those that were over 42,000 people for Games Three and Four of the 1915 World Series. Boston
won that year, beating the Philadelphia Phillies. Fenway Park's peculiar dimensions were not intended
to provide a tempting target for home run hitters, but to keep non-paying customers out of the park. In
left field, there was a steep 10-foot embankment that ran in front of the wall where fans were allowed to
sit. The Sox' Duffy Lewis was so skilled at playing balls hit to the ledge that it became known as
Duffy's Cliff. |
