Fenway: A Biography in Words and Pictures

by Dan Shaughnessy

Book Overview

Best-selling author Dan Shaughnessy and Pulitzer Prize--winning photographer Stan Grossfeld teamed up to create this pictorial tribute to Fenway -- the last of the grand old ballparks. With its... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395945569
• ISBN13: 9780395945568
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.9" x 11.2"

Customer Reviews

wonderful

As the old addage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. For fans of baseball, there are a select few "classic" parks left that allow that saying to come to light. Yankee Stadium, replete with all of her splendor and majesty; "The Friendly Confines" of Wrigley Field, her bleacher bums, and the ivy; and, greatest of them all, Fenway Park, the oldest park in the majors left standing.When one sees Fenway park for the first time, one is immediately taken with the GREEN that the park exudes- the well kept grass, the Green Monster, the green bleacher seats, the green of the luxury and broadcast seats behind home plate. One will also be drenched in the history of this grand park- Pesky's Pole, left field (where several of the greatest players of that position donned Red Sox uniforms from Duffy Lewis to Teddy Ballgame to Yaz, and Rice), the left field pole, where Carlton Fisk hit his miraculous home run in '75; the manually operated left field wall scoreboard, complete with the morse code on it stating then-owner Tom Yawkey's name... Fenway Park is a living, breathing archaelogical site.Famed Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy takes the reader of this book to each part of Fenway Park with remarkably clear and bright pictures, as well as choice anecdotes from former Sox greats like Ted Williams, Yaz, and the Eck, to other notables such as Jim Palmer, Stephen King, and Bob Costas.It is the pictures, though, that dominate this great book, and what pictures they are. Focusing mainly on the fans, filled with joy, hope, anticipation, concern, angst, (and a Yankee fan giving us the middle finger) the book captures well what it is to be part of Red Sox Nation on any given day at the park. Add to it photos from outside the park on Yawkey Way, filled with vendors, street musicians, scalpers, etc..and those of the Sox themselves, and this book well encompasses a day at Fenway. The old photos of Williams, Ruth, the Royal Rooters, and "Honey Fitz" throwing the 1st pitch as opening day 1912, remind us to Fenway's rich and storied history, as well.With the future of Fenway Park well in the balance, this book is all the more poignant and worth sitting down and studying. Whether you believe in "progress" or in saving Fenway Park,(I am among the latter) Shaughnessy's book offers the perfect snapshots to either remember Fenway by or to use in your arguments for saving her. Whatever may happen, Fenway Park is an American landmark, and "Fenway" helps to capture her in all her dignity.As author David Halberstam said: "You go to Fenway and you think, 'Something wonderful's going to happen today.'"

A must read for anyone who thinks they're a baseball fan.

It's obvious that Major League Baseball fans love the home run, because they voted Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey, Jr., Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire into the All-Star Game at Fenway Park as starters. No doubt there is great anticipation of seeing four of the greatest sluggers in history take their hacks against the left-field wall known as the Green Monster. And perhaps they can go the other way, toward right field, and land a ball beyond the red seat that marks the longest homer in Fenway's illustrious history - a homer hit by none other than the Splendid Splinter, Ted Williams, more than 50 years ago. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning author and baseball historian David Halberstam, the walk into the park often is as exciting as the game. "I think walking up to Fenway is thrilling," Halberstam said in a new book published about Fenway. "The approach to it. The smells. You go to Fenway, and you revert to your childhood. You go to Fenway, and you think: 'Something wonderful is going to happen today.'" In the book - entitled "Fenway, a biography in words and pictures," published this year - writer Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe and photographer Stan Grossfeld, an associated editor at the Globe, pay tribute to one of Major League Baseball's most storied parks. And, due to construction delays on Milwaukee's new stadium, Fenway will be in the national spotlight for perhaps the final time as it hosts its third All-Star Game. You can't talk about Fenway without talking about the Green Monster, perhaps the most famous outfield wall in baseball history - a wall that Shaughnessy described in his book as a "New England monument, no less so than Bunker Hill Monument, the Old Man of the Mountain or Walden Pond." The wall was built, Shaughnessy wrote, to keep balls in play. But more memorable are the balls that have sailed over it - home runs like the one hit in 1978 by Bucky Dent, whose pop fly in any other park cleared the Monster and gave the New York Yankees a victory over Boston in a one-game playoff to determine the division champion. And because the Monster is only 309 feet from home plate at the left-field foul pole, plenty of balls have been hit over it. It is the shortest fence of any major-league ballpark, and rules today stipulate that no wall in any park be closer than 325 feet from home plate. But, as short as it is, at 37 feet high and capped by a 23-foot screen, the Green Monster can frustrate batters like McGwire and Canseco, who may be able to hit the ball far, but not high. It also can make opposing fielders look bad. Jim Palmer told Shaughnessy about the time Baltimore teammate Don Buford saw a ball skip through his legs, turned around to try and retrieve it and then watched the ball zoom through his legs once again after it caromed back off the wall. It would be difficult to find another sports arena with a feature as famous as Fenway's Green Monster.

Boston Sports History at its Best...

I found this book delightful. It has a wonderful ring of quality, history and pinache. There is a reason why Stan Grossfeld (the photographer for this book) won 2 Pulitzer Prizes for his past work. I highly recommend this and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Green Monster Lives

For every fan who's seen a game at Fenway or dreams of going someday, this book is a rare find. I gave a copy to someone who has "everything" and was greeted with the biggest "thank you" I've ever heard. It will be a great book to thumb through while watching the broadcast of the All Star Game from Fenway this year. Fenway truly is a national treasure! Hat's off to the authors. No bush league effort here.

Grand Slam Home Run

Finally there is a book that captures the spirit of Fenway Park, the oldest and greatest of baseball shrines. This book has stunning and beautifully reproduced photographs and a moving and entertaining text that is better than going to a ballgame. Plus it has Ted Williams definitive word on the ballpark. This joyous book is not just a hit, it's an over the Wall, onto the Pike, Grand Slammer. Thanks to the great Shaugnessy, Grossfeld and The Kid.