Damion Easley had a big hack at Casey Fossum’s fastball, and as the ball shot off his bat, some fans in the left field seats leaned back while others scrambled to grab their gloves and fit them on their fingers.
It was a high, towering drive, climbing clear over the top of Fenway Park and seemingly ticketed for the palm of some lucky patron. A belt-high heater met with a home run cut, and with two outs in the top of the first, it looked for a split second like Tampa Bay was about to take a 3-0 lead.
Then the ball landed in the mitt of Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli, three feet inside the first-base foul line.
It was certainly a forgivable mistake for Fenway fans seated in left field. It was the first time they or anyone, in the 91-year history of the ballpark had seen Boston’s Baseball Nine from seats atop the Green Monster.
‘They couldn’t have done it any better,’ said John Sacco, a Sox fan from Saugus who has been inside the historic wall on several occasions, most memorably for the ceremony celebrating the Hall-of-Fame career of former Sox left fielder Carl Yastrzemski.
‘Three rows of seats and some standing room; it doesn’t get too crowded,’ he said. ‘Now the fans really have a chance to catch a ball. It’s good for the fans, it’s good for the park and it’s good for the team.’
Brought before the City Council in October of last year and approved in February, the idea to build 280 seats is the latest in a series of renovations to baseball’s senior stadium. The seats are designed to expand Fenway’s capacity in order to maximize the revenue for one of Major League Baseball’s smallest and most popular parks.
Fenway’s fourth-highest priced ticket, sold for $50 apiece, the swiveling bar-stool seats are stacked steeply into the three rows of Section M ‘M’ for Monster and will provide the club with an additional $14,000 per home game. Add an additional $162,000 annually from the 100 standing room only tickets sold for $20 each, and the seats alone will generate about $1.3 million per season.
That will pay the man who plays directly in front of those seats, Manny Ramirez, for barely 11 games of the $18 million he’s owed this season.
When he took the field last night, Ramirez, the Sox’ lovable loafer, turned to the crowd and flashed a small smile as he took in the scene 37 feet above him. He was greeted as expected, with cheers and chants loud enough for him to hear quite clearly, and he flashed a pair of waves with his glove hand and went about his business the rest of the night as though the seats had been there all along.
As constructed, it seems that way. Built by Walsh, Bros., the same company building Boston University’s Student Village, the seats fit naturally into the park’s décor. In front of each seat is a 20-inch tabletop, which is lined with programs, gloves and foot-long Monster Dogs last night. The front row features a couple extra feet of safety space between the seats and the wall itself, though fans can reach over the counter and touch the Monster’s façade.
Standing room is located behind the three rows of seats, and extends from the center field flagpole to the left field foul pole. Those may be the premier seats for standing, with the left field warning track within your sight and history within your reach. The recently cropped back wall of Fenway Park, with rusty mortar still crumbling off the bricks, is within an arm’s length of the center field spot, while down the left field line there’s a chance to hug the very spot Carlton Fisk’s 1976 Game 6 homer careened off the foul pole.
Fans in the front row seats can see all but about the nearest 20 feet of left field, and naturally, as the seats go further back less of the field is visible. Even so, the rest of the field is crystal clear, and most fans in the Monster Seats for their uncaging said it was well worth the price of admission.
‘It’s the greatest seat of any stadium I’ve ever been to,’ said Jason Fine, who has sampled about half of the Major League ballparks. He returned to the North End last night with the first-ever home run ball hit into the left-field seats off the legendary bat of former Sox spare-part Terry Shumpert (it fell back down to the field, but was returned by Ramirez).
New York native Mark Savino had never been to Fenway Park until last night, but shelled out double face value to a scalper just to sit in the third row above the Monster.
‘I’m a Yankees fan, but this is a great place to be,’ he said.
His business partner, Dave Smith, also paid $100 for his tickets, and having visited the park before with decent seats, he’s got a new perspective on the best place to watch a game.
‘I would do this in a second,’ Smith said, sitting in Section M2. ‘When we came here, I said I wanted to sit on top of the Monster. I’d rather sit here than sit right behind home plate or sit right on top of the dugout.’
The Red Sox added two concession areas to accommodate customers above the wall, as well as 98 additional bathroom units. The formerly flat face of Fenway now juts out and overhangs Landsdowne Street, but according to Walsh, Bros., carpenter foreman Tim O’Dea, the structure is safe.
‘I’ve seen this thing come out of the ground. I’ll tell you there’s a lot more in the ground than there is out of the ground,’ he said, referring to the piles that drive 40 feet under the street. ‘They hold it up pretty well. It’s been tested and everything. It’s a funky looking structure, too.’
The seats were open to construction workers for Saturday’s home opener, and the following afternoon, they were occupied by Red Sox employees, but last night was the first chance for Red Sox Nation to experience a view only seen in the same dream as a Red Sox world title.
‘It was worth the wait. It’s great,’ said Philip Destefano of Everett, who wrapped himself in blankets outside the Sox ticket window for 18 hours from Sunday afternoon to Monday morning in order to buy 18 tickets, including a pair for last night’s game that got him in the front row.
‘Front and center; I can see the whole field. Name it and you can see it. Every ball that goes in the air, I think it’s coming up here. There’s an endless supply of tradition. All the greats have put their own little dent in the wall, and it’s a great thing.’
Even Everclear frontman Art Alexakis was in on the action, enjoying a front-row view.
‘This is the coolest,’ Alexakis said without hesitation when asked how the Monster Seat stacked up with other spots throughout the country. ‘This reminds me of being a kid in Little League. You’d pay a quarter to go out and work the scoreboard. You were up above it; you were out in left field.
‘We’re excited, man. We’re having a dog, wife’s having a couple of beers. Anytime we come to Fenway I’ve come to Fenway about five times they keep saying they’re going to tear it down. By doing this, I hope they’re just going to make it better. It’s a piece of American history. Not to say it’s not Boston history, but it’s American history. All these old parks are going away and that’s really sad. I love the history of baseball. It’s like the history of America. It’s cool. It’s a great park. Why would you want to get rid of it?’
Last night was the latest indication that Fenway won’t be torn down in the foreseeable future, and that’s fine for Sox fans who want to see their team from a different perspective even if the perspective takes some getting used to.
‘Look at No. 5 [Nomar Garciaparra] down there playing shortstop,’ said Chris Vanderslice of Hull. ‘No one’s ever seen his back before. You can look at his stance, at everything. It’s really amazing up here.’