With additions such as the EMC Club, the Right Field Roof Deck and new video boards while keeping old traditions such as the manual scoreboard in left field, Fenway is baseball's most unique ballpark. And it definitely beats Miller Park, which won ESPN.com's Battle of the Ballparks.
Although Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, is a great, unique stadium with the left field slide, retractable roof and outfield windows, it doesn't have the classic baseball feel to it that Fenway has. Miller Park is technically an indoor ballpark since it is covered by the windows in the outfield. Surprisingly, the playing surface is grass, which is possible because of sunlight from the windows.
But even some special sunlight does nothing to rival Fenway Park's shine.
The Green Monster seats were installed in 2003 to replace what was just a net to keep home run balls from landing in a parking lot. When Henry, Lucchino and Werner arrived on the scene, they decided that adding seats atop the 37-foot wall would enhance the experience for fans.
They have met their goal. The seats provide a complete view of the playing field and the opportunity to catch home run balls from 37 feet above ground. If that isn't a great baseball experience, then what is? When the seats were first installed, they were the talk of the league, and they have been a great experience since.
The old .406 club, named after the 1941 season when Ted Williams hit .406, is a seating section behind home plate under the press box. It used to be enclosed with plexiglass. These seats were great but not a part of the outdoor Fenway experience because fans who sat there were robbed of the opportunity to catch foul balls. But the glass was removed between the 2005 and 2006 season to give fans the chance to experience baseball's outdoor feel.
Most major league ballparks have more than one video board, but Fenway's takes it to the next level. Almost, if not all, parks have a main center field video board with the batter's information and the box score, but there are other boards with out-of-town scores and baseball news. The old video board at Fenway that had a media screen on the left and the batter's name and information on the right was replaced before the 2011 season. Now, a modern video board sits below the John Hancock sign in center field.
This just adds to the idea of making Fenway more modern but keeping some of its old traditions. Fenway has an old feel to it, but in order to keep that, there was a need to make friendly Fenway a little more modernized and up-to-date with today's technology.
The Budweiser Right Field Roof Deck is another great Fenway feature. Although the tables are expensive, they are worth the price. The 2004 addition features tables that seat four and overlook the playing field. Table seating isn't an uncommon thing for ballparks, but it's another way the ownership group turned an old-fashioned ballpark into a more modern day place to play.
Despite what Rays designated hitter Luke Scott said about Fenway being a dump, that's from a ballplayer's perspective. Don't listen to him — he plays for the Rays and is probably jealous that Fenway is 100 times nicer than Tropicana Field. One thing is for sure — Fenway is a whole lot nicer than Miller Park, and, frankly, it doesn't make any logical sense that Miller Park could be baseball's best ballpark.
