Fenway: A Biography in Words and Pictures

Shaugnessy and photographer Stan Grossfeld combine to offer an often-spectacular visual tribute that looks both back in time and into the heart of all the park's odd nooks, crannies, shadows, and hiding places. They go inside the hand-operated scoreboard on the fabled Green Monster. There's even a lovely picture of a pastoral Fenway covered in snow. Shaughnessy's text--"When they raze Fenway, it'll be like cutting down an old tree. Count the rings. There's one for each celebration and heartache suffered by Red Sox fans"--is affectionate and quite personal. He adds to it with a series of short, lyrical reminiscences from those who've mused about the field-- David Halberstam, Bob Costas, Stephen King, and Doris Kearns Goodwin--and those who've played on it: Don Zimmer, Bucky Dent, Dennis Eckersley, and Carl Yastrzemski. Fittingly, Ted Williams pens the foreward. The result of the amalgamation is an altogether splendid celebration of a landmark about to be pushed by progress into memory. --Jeff Silverman

Product Description
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 ominous Green Monster, the lone red seat that marks Ted Williams's record-setting longest home run, the hand-operated scoreboard, and the fishbowl-style luxury "600 Club," Fenway Park has inspired more lavish praise and outrageous comparison than any American sports arena in history. And it has broken more hearts. Said David Halberstam, "You go to Fenway and you think, 'Something wonderful's going to happen today.' " Beautifully illustrated and including reflections from an illustrious list of fans, coaches, and players as well as a host of fascinating Fenway facts, FENWAY: A BIOGRAPHY IN WORDS AND PICTURES creates an experience almost as magical as walking through the gates on game day.

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.'"