A Fenway Park Celebration Ends When the Yankees Step on the Field


By DAVID WALDSTEIN

BOSTON — In what was surely the largest number of Red Sox ever assembled, 212 former players gathered Friday afternoon to help 36,770 fans celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park. But, as has often happened here, 25 Yankees spoiled the party.

They hit five home runs — two by Eric Chavez — to beat the Red Sox, 6-2, and ruin a long-anticipated day for the hosts.



“Before the game was spectacular,” Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine said. “It was a well-orchestrated, major-league presentation of pride and glory. It’s a downer now.”

An hour before the game, the Red Sox alumni trickled onto the field, in “Field of Dreams” fashion, taking their old positions. One by one, former players like Luis Tiant, Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Bill Buckner and Pedro Martinez emerged from the Green Monster and the Red Sox dugout.

The composer John Williams conducted a piece he wrote to honor Fenway, the venerable green gem on Yawkey Way that hosted its first major league game on April 20, 1912 — with the Red Sox recording a 7-6 victory over the Highlanders, as the Yankees were officially known at the time, the same week the Titanic sank.

Martinez and Kevin Millar, standing atop the Red Sox dugout, led the crowd in a grape juice toast, and there was a ceremonial first pitch, with blood lines to the first pitch in 1912.

Then the Yankees began swatting balls over the walls. In addition to Chavez, Nick Swisher, Alex Rodriguez and Russell Martin homered off the beleaguered starter Clay Buchholz.

Rodriguez’s blast was his 631st, moving him past his former Seattle teammate Ken Griffey Jr. for fifth place on the career list.

For the Red Sox, it was another disappointing day in a string that began during last September’s collapse. Boston fell to 4-9, while the Yankees, at 8-6, moved two games over .500 for the first time this season.

After 100 years of baseball between these franchises in this stadium, the Yankees can even the series with a victory Saturday.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Red Sox hold a 463-462-4 advantage at Fenway, including nine playoff games.

The Yankee offense was supported by starter Ivan Nova, who allowed two runs in six innings to improve to 3-0. He won his 15th consecutive regular-season decision.

Nova is brimming with confidence now that he has a major league slider and a sizzling fastball that, as Rodriguez noted, hit 96 miles per hour on the radar gun.

Nova has not lost a regular-season game since June 3, which is longer than he can even recall.

“I don’t remember,” he said with a laugh. “But if you ask me, who is the best pitcher in the world? I’ll say me.”

Both teams wore 1912 replica uniforms without names or numbers on the backs. The Yankees were in road grays, hiked up pants and blue stirrup socks with two thick maroon stripes.

Boston’s players wore white, with the words Red Sox stitched across their chests.

The day began under a cloudless sky as the scores of players emerged to various levels of applause. The guests also included Nomar Garciaparra, Jose Canseco, Rico Petrocelli and Pumpsie Green, who broke the Red Sox color barrier in 1959, 12 years after Jackie Robinson did it with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Many of the lesser-known players — like Bob Bolin and Reid Nichols — received polite cheers, but stars like Mo Vaughn and Jim Lonborg heard loud ovations.

The former manager Terry Francona, who parted ways with the team after last season’s collapse, might have received the loudest cheers, along with chants of “Tito,” his nickname, from the fans who revere him for leading the team to World Series titles in 2004 and 2007.

The fans also cheered loudly when Johnny Pesky, 92, and Bobby Doerr, 94, were brought out to second base in wheelchairs by the recently retired stars Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield.

Some well-known former players, including Wade Boggs, Curt Schilling, Johnny Damon, Mike Greenwell and Roger Clemens, did not attend. Nor did the former managers Don Zimmer and Grady Little.

Three ceremonial first pitches were thrown out. One was from Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the former president and the great-granddaughter of John Fitzgerald, nicknamed Honey Fitz, the Boston mayor who threw out the first pitch on opening day in 1912.

Kennedy threw her pitch from the first row of seats next to the Red Sox dugout. Her throw to Fisk was high, and Fisk had to turn and jog after it. The other pitches were thrown by Thomas Fitzgerald, a grandson of Honey Fitz, and Thomas Menino, the mayor of Boston. They threw to Rice and Yastrzemski, who caught their pitches.

All the while, most of the Yankees stood on the front steps of the dugout, taking it all in along with the fans.

“It was awesome, whether you’re a Red Sox fan or not,” Swisher said. “I’m a baseball fan. To see all those greats of the game come out and get those ovations — what a great day for baseball.”