The Fenway Foul-Up (7 page)

My two favorite MVPs—Mike and Kate. Next time I hit a home run, it’s for you. Big D
.

Dugout Notes
Fenway Park

Knuckleballs
. The knuckleball pitcher Loopy Lenfield doesn’t exist, but knuckleballs do. They are actually thrown with the pitcher’s fingertips, not his or her knuckles.

The Green Monster.
Fenway’s famous left-field wall really is a monster. It’s a thirty-seven-foot-high wall, the tallest in baseball. It has a huge effect on the games
at Fenway. Line drives that might be home runs in other baseball parks simply bounce off the Green Monster. But since the wall is close to home plate (310 feet), high, short fly balls that might be caught for an out in other parks can become home runs at Fenway. The Green Monster was originally made of wood. Later it was covered in tin and concrete. Today it’s covered in hard plastic. The wall used to be plastered with advertisements. The ads were painted over in 1947. They were too distracting for hitters.

A second home
. Although it’s the oldest major-league ballpark, Fenway Park is actually the second home for the Red Sox. The Red Sox were first known as the Boston Americans. The Boston Americans were one of the original members of the American League in 1901. Before Fenway Park opened in 1912, they played at the Huntington Avenue Grounds. Fenway Park got its name because it’s in the Fenway section of Boston.

A gift from Dad
. Charles Taylor was a Civil War veteran and owner of the
Boston Globe
newspaper. It would be nice to have a dad like him. He bought the Red
Sox for his son, John Taylor, in 1904. Charles Taylor picked the name Red Sox in 1907 and changed the uniform to include red stockings in 1908.

Wally
. Wally is the Red Sox mascot. He’s a large green monster, like the left-field wall, the Green Monster.

The monster and the cliff
. In the beginning, the Green Monster wasn’t alone. From 1912 to 1933, a steep ten-foot hill ran in front of the wall
from the left-field foul pole to the old flagpole in center field. That meant playing left field at Fenway Park wasn’t easy. Left fielders often spent most of the game running uphill to catch balls. The Red Sox left fielder Duffy Lewis was so good at playing balls along the hill that the area became known as Duffy’s Cliff. In 1934, a large part of Fenway Park burned, including the Green Monster. When the team rebuilt the stadium, it removed the cliff.

Green Monster seats
. In 2003, the Red Sox added new seats on top of the Green Monster.

A large scoreboard
. These days, most ballparks have electronic scoreboards. Not Fenway Park. Fenway still has a hand-operated scoreboard. It’s one of the last in the major leagues. During games, people sit inside the wall and post the score with large, three-pound numbers. Each number is sixteen inches square.

Still waiting for a home run
. It’s hard to hit a home run over the Green Monster. But it’s even harder to clear the right-field roof. No one has hit a home run over Fenway’s right-field roof yet. It’s just too far away.

Read on for the beginning of

the next Ballpark Mysteries book,

The Pinstripe Ghost

Excerpt from
The Pinstripe Ghost
copyright © 2011 by David A. Kelly.
Published by Random House Children’s Books,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

M
ike Walsh had always wanted to visit Yankee Stadium. But now that he was there, he just wanted to leave.

“When do you think this will be over?” he asked his cousin Kate Hopkins. The two were sitting in the back row of a press conference at the stadium. “I can’t wait to try out that rooftop pool at the hotel!”

“Soon. You know my mom—super sports reporter!” Kate said. She pulled her long brown ponytail through the back of a blue Cooperstown baseball cap. “She always likes to stay until the end and get in one last question.”

“Just like you,” Mike teased.

Kate’s mother was a reporter for the website American Sportz. She and the kids were at Yankee Stadium in New York City for a spring
weekend series against the Seattle Mariners. They had driven down Friday morning from their home in upstate New York.

At the front of the room, a team official was talking about the upcoming series. The first Mariners–Yankees game was the next day.

Mike drummed his fingers on the side of his chair. He liked action more than talk. And press conferences were
all
talk and
no
action. But at least it was baseball talk.

The official finished answering a question. “That’s it for today,” he said. “Except for one thing. The famous author Mr. Robert Williams will be here all weekend near the main entrance. He’ll be signing copies of his new book,
Ghosts in the Ballpark: A History of Haunted Baseball Stadiums and Supernatural Superstars.
”

“What about the ghost of Babe Ruth?”
Mrs. Hopkins asked. “Will he show up this weekend?”

Kate turned to Mike, her brown eyes wide. “A ghost?” she asked. “How come Mom didn’t tell us about it?”

“Aunt Laura probably wanted it to be a surprise,” Mike replied. Suddenly, he wasn’t bored at all. “
Shh
. I want to hear what he says.”

“Ummmm … I—I don’t know,” the man stammered. He mopped his brow and riffled through his papers. Mike thought he looked like he was stalling for time. “Officially, there aren’t any ghosts in Yankee Stadium.”

“Some people are saying that the stadium is haunted,” Mrs. Hopkins added, “because the original Yankee Stadium where Babe Ruth played was torn down and this new one was built.”

A few of the other reporters nodded.

“I talked to some workers. They have heard strange noises,” a reporter with long blond hair put in.

“Oh, noises,” the official said. He waved a hand. “Yankee Stadium is big. You’ll always have some funny noises here and there. But those stories about a ghost are just that—stories.” He gave a nervous laugh.

“So you have no comment about Babe Ruth’s ghost?” Mrs. Hopkins asked. “Or if he’ll be here this weekend?”