Fenway 1912 - The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year

A 2012 Top Ten Sports Book as selected by Booklist, winner of the 2011 Seymour Medal and Larry Ritter Award from the Society for American Baseball Research, and finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction, Fenway 1912 is the remarkable story of Fenway's very first year.

Even people who aren't fans of baseball know Fenway Park. More than just a ballpark, it is a part of American culture, and has been for nearly one hundred years. From the long winter when locals poured concrete and built the park, to the ragtag Red Sox team that embarked on a journey to the World Series while the paint was still drying and the grass still coming in, Stout tells the stories behind the park's notorious quirks like the Green Monster, and of the designers, builders, managers, and players who made Fenway's first year unforgettable.

For all that has been written in tribute to the great Fenway Park, no one has ever really told the behind-the-scenes true story. Drawing on extensive new research, the esteemed baseball historian Glenn Stout delivers an extraordinary tale of innovation, desperation, and perspiration?capturing Fenway as never before.

List of contents

Introduction • ix
Prologue • xvii

1911 • 1
HOT STOVE • 26
HOT SPRINGS • 51
OPENING DAYS • 73
THE WALL AND THE CLIFF • 100
HOME STAND • 121
THE BIG TRIP • 139
HOME SAFE • 161
HEAVYWEIGHTS • 182
GIANTS ON THE HORIZON • 213
THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS • 237
HOME SWEET HOME • 259
GIANT KILLERS • 281
LAST STAND AT FENWAY PARK • 301

Epilogue • 331
Acknowledgments • 348
Bibliographic Notes and Sources • 349
Notes • 355
Boston Red Sox 1912 Statistics • 370
Index • 380

About the author

Glenn Stout is a writer, author, and editor, and served as series editor of The Best American Sports Writing, and founding editor of The Year’s Best Sports Writing. He is also the author of Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid, Fenway 1912, Nine Months at Ground Zero, and many other award-winning and best-selling books. He also served as a consultant on the Disney+ film adaptation of Young Woman and the Sea. Stout lives in Lake Champlain in Vermont.

Summary

A 2012 Top Ten Sports Book as selected by Booklist, winner of the 2011 Seymour Medal and Larry Ritter Award from the Society for American Baseball Research, and finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction, Fenway 1912 is the remarkable story of Fenway's very first year.

Even people who aren't fans of baseball know Fenway Park. More than just a ballpark, it is a part of American culture, and has been for nearly one hundred years. From the long winter when locals poured concrete and built the park, to the ragtag Red Sox team that embarked on a journey to the World Series while the paint was still drying and the grass still coming in, Stout tells the stories behind the park's notorious quirks like the Green Monster, and of the designers, builders, managers, and players who made Fenway's first year unforgettable.

For all that has been written in tribute to the great Fenway Park, no one has ever really told the behind-the-scenes true story. Drawing on extensive new research, the esteemed baseball historian Glenn Stout delivers an extraordinary tale of innovation, desperation, and perspiration??—??capturing Fenway as never before.

Additional text

"Stout imbues his account with a unique vibrancy and a razor-sharp intelligence. A wonderful sports book." -- Booklist, starred review "A valuable addition to baseball history . . . Baseball diehards and historians, and of course Red Sox fans, will find much of interest in this paean to one of sport’s most famous venues." -- Kirkus Reviews "Fun and informative . . . A well-constructed tribute to Fenway on its upcoming 100th anniversary." -- Publishers Weekly"This is a book for anyone who cares about the storied Boston Red Sox, about their 100-year-old bandbox of a stadium, about the remarkable championship season of 1912, about the street-level history of Boston, and about why baseball will forever be the all-American pastime. This is a book for all of us." – Larry Tye, author of SATCHEL: The Life and Times of an American Legend "Glenn Stout has done the impossible: he has put an end to the seemingly bottomless genre that is Fenway Park books. We now need no more. We get not pomp and circumstance, but the bones and blueprint of a legendary ballpark — topped with a star-filled World Series that still endures. He doesn’t pretend history is straw hats and cigars, but gives you real people, real baseball and (the best part) real Boston, the way any real writer should." – Howard Bryant, ESPN, and author of The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron

Product details

• Authors: Stout Glenn Stout, Glenn Stout
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.09.2012
• EAN: 9780547844572
• ISBN: 978-0-547-84457-2
• No. of pages: 432
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 203 mm x 26 mm
• Weight: 372 g
• Subjects: Guides > Sport > Ball sport; Humanities, art, music > History > Cultural history; SPORTS & RECREATION: Baseball / History, HISTORY: Military / World War II, SPORTS & RECREATION: Baseball / Essays & Writings