Fenway Park Facts: 52-100
BOSTON (CBS) – Fenway Park turns 100 on Friday, and the Red Sox have a big birthday bash planned for one of America's favorite ballparks.
To get you ready for the big day, we're bringing you 100 interesting, stat-filled and a few downright crazy Fenway Facts.
Read: Fenway Facts 1-51
Here is the rest of the list!
The Green Monster
52. The Green Monster stands 37.167 feet tall and is only 310 feet from home plate.
53. The wall was originally made of wood until 1934, when it was covered in tin and concrete and the famous scoreboard was added. The wall was covered in hard plastic in 1976.
54. Any ball hit into the scoreboard, on the fly or on a bounce, is a ground-rule double.
55. The Green Monster was not actually painted green until 1947.
56. The man who came up with the famous Fenway Green is Emil Disario of East Boston.
57. There are morse code messages written on the Green Monster scoreboard. The initials of Tom Yawkey and Jean Yawkey appear vertically on the white stripes that separate the columns of the American League scores.
58. A 23-foot net was installed in 1936 to protect stores on Landsdowne Street from home runs.
59. In 2002, seating for 274 fans was put atop the Monster.
60. A ladder sits atop the upper-left portion of the scoreboard on the Monster, 13 feet above the ground. It was used to retrieve home run balls from the net, but still remained after the Monster seats were installed.
61. It is untrue that a ball that gets stuck in the ladder is a ground-rule triple. It is ruled a ground-rule double.
62. Sox mascot "Wally The Green Monster" was introduced on April 13, 1997.
The Foul Poles
63. The foul pole in right field was dubbed "Pesky's Pole" by pitcher Mel Parnell after one of Pesky's six career homers at Fenway won a game for him.
64. "Pesky's Pole" stands 302 feet away from home plate, making it the shortest porch in the majors.
65. The Red Sox officially dedicated the pole to Pesky on his 87th birthday in 2006.
66. In 2005, with the Reds in town for the first time since the 1975 World Series, the left field pole was renamed "Fisk Pole." (See Fenway Fact #74)
Fenway Firsts
67. Hugh Bradley hit the first Home Run at Fenway on April 26, 1912.
68. George Davis of the Boston Braves threw the first no-hitter at Fenway in 1914.
69. The Yankees Babe Ruth was the first opposing player to hit a home run over the wall in left (it wasn't green yet) in 1934.
70. The first Sunday game at Fenway was played on July 3, 1932. Fenway was too close to churches to have Sunday games, and the Red Sox played their Sunday games at Braves Field until the law was changed.
71. The first night game at Fenway was June 13, 1947.
72. The first American League playoff game at Fenway took place on October 4, 1948 with the Red Sox losing 8-3 to the Cleveland Indians in a one-game playoff.
73. Tony Conigliaro homered in his first Fenway at bat on April 17, 1964.
74. The first night World Series game was played at Fenway on October 21, 1975. It's better known for how it ended though, with Carlton Fisk guiding his walk-off home run fair in the 12th inning.
75. J.D. Drew hit the first playoff Grand Slam in Fenway history in the Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS against the Cleveland Indians.
Listen: Mary Blake's "Fenway Hits 100″ Series
The Splinter At Fenway
76. Ted Williams hit his first home run at Fenway on April 23, 1939 into the right field bleachers. He was only the sixth player to do so at the time.
77. Many say the bullpens were moved to help Ted Williams' home run numbers. The addition of the bullpens reduced the distance from home plate to 23 feet, and became known as "Williamsburg."
78. Williams has the most career home runs at Fenway, clubbing 248 of his 521 career home runs at Fenway Park.
79. There is one single red seat in right field; section 42, row 37, seat 21. It marks a 502-foot home run hit by Ted Williams in 1946, the longest one hit in Fenway history.
80. On April 30, 1952 in his final game before joining the Marines to serve in Korea, Williams hit his 324th career home run in his final at-bat. Many thought it would be the final at-bat of his career.
81. In his actual final at-bat of his career, Williams blasted a home run into the bullpen on September 28, 1960.
82. While he was used to hitting shots into the bullpen, in May of 1957 Williams used a shotgun to shoot at pigeons from the Red Sox bullpen
Famous Fenway
83. The Red Sox hit 8 home runs against the Blue Jays at Fenway Park on July 4, 1977. Fred Lynn and George Scott each had two homers in the 9-6 win.
84. Carl Yastzremski collected his 3,000th career hit with a single to right field on September 12, 1979.
85. Yaz ended his career at Fenway on October 2, 1983. He jogged around the park thanking fans, and gave his hat to a young fan beside the dugout.
86. The longest game in Fenway history went 20 innings in 1981. It began on September 3 and was suspended at 1:16am after 19 innings. When the game resumed the next day, the Red Sox lost 8-7. Jerry Remy had six hits in the game.
87. Roger Clemens set a major-league record by striking out 20 Seattle Mariners on April 29, 1986.
88. Clemens' 20 K game was only attended by just over 13,000 fans, with the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks playoff game capturing the attention in Boston that night.
Fun With Numbers
89. 10 Red Sox players have hit for the cycle at Fenway. Bobby Doerr was the first in 1944, with John Valentine the last in 1996.
90. Red Sox pitchers have thrown nine no-hitters at Fenway Park. George Foster threw the first in 1916, with Jon Lester throwing the most recent on in 2008.
91. Fenway Park has played host to three All-Star Games; 1946, 1961, 1999
92. Rogers Clemens has the most all-time wins at Fenway with 100. Tim Wakefield is second with 98.
93. Clemens registered 1,398 of his career 4,672 strikeouts at Fenway Park.
94. Pedro Martinez had six 15+ strikeout games at Fenway Park.
95. Only 58 of Pedro Martinez's 219 career wins came at Fenway.
96. Dave Roberts has just six career stolen bases at Fenway, but one is the most famous steal in Red Sox history - in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees.
One And Only
97. Fenway has the only ladder in play in the majors.
98. Earnie Shore has Fenway's only perfect game, on June 6, 1917.
99. Mo Vaughn is the only player to have two three-home run games at Fenway.
100. On August 6, 2001, Scott Hatteberg did something against the Texas Rangers not only unique to Fenway, but never before done in baseball. Hatteberg hit into a triple-play, only to follow that up with a grand slam in his next at-bat.
