STAFF EDIT – Sox put tradition off Yawkey

Say goodbye to great sausage and souvenirs on Yawkey Way before Red Sox games — unless you have tickets.

Yawkey Way has been abounding in ambiance since Fenway Park opened in 1912. But with its Thursday closure to non-ticketholders, gone are the days of the street’s natural charm, filled with vendors making sausage and peddling everything from baseball caps to foam “#1” fingers. Replacing the street’s original draws are exorbitantly priced hot dogs and beer and cheesy commercial attractions. And the purpose? All in the interest of making a buck.

The Red Sox will close Yawkey Way, the street bordering Fenway Park along the south side of the stadium, starting three hours before all games, allowing ballpark staff time before gates open to set up turnstiles and food carts. Turnstiles will be set up 75 feet from either end of the street, allowing some space for ticket lines and pre-game gatherings outside the ballpark. The street will be closed before the rest of this season’s 18 games as a pilot program to test the closure’s effect on the area.

The main problem with the Red Sox plan is its replacement of independent vendors with Aramark, the team’s official food sales service. While the team will add fan-friendly attractions, such as a stand serving Cuban delicacies run by Luis Tiant, their move will uproot peanut carts and cheap beverage stands that have scented and flavored the areas outside the ballpark for years. Red Sox officials have said they will only move vendors to other streets bordering the ballpark. But they are still moving them, and placing expensive, corporate replacements in their stead.

The move will also add more pre-game traffic problems to the already cramped Fenway streets. Huge crowds and lines gather outside ballpark gates before every game. Add to that rush hour traffic for evening games, and both the Red Sox and city officials may have a congestion problem on their hands that has nothing to do with a bad hot dog.

Red Sox officials yesterday said the team is looking for a general effect much like that of Eutaw Street at Camden Yards in Baltimore, home of the Orioles. There is one key difference, however: Yawkey Way has existed independently of the Red Sox for the long life of the ballpark, while Eutaw Street was built with Camden Yards in the early 1990s. The Red Sox closure of Yawkey will change something that has been part of pre-game rituals for years.

The main reason behind the Yawkey takeover is money. With the city’s rejection of any plan to replace Fenway Park with a larger, more modern baseball stadium, Red Sox ownership is searching for ways to make one of the smallest ballparks in the league more fiscally solvent. The Red Sox have made a large financial commitment to fielding a competitive team, and they do deserve a chance to at least break even.

But taking over Yawkey Way before ballgames will not solve their problems. It will only replace one of baseball’s best ballpark attractions with even more Major League commercialism.