BOSTON — If Fenway Park is a version of heaven for baseball fans, then Rich Mankewich was even closer. He was at Fenway Park. He was 37 feet off the ground. He stood atop the Green Monster, the most famous wall this side of China.
The lifelong Boston Red Sox fan and his wife had seats for Thursday night’s Game 2 of the World Series and were two of the lucky 174 people who had tickets atop Fenway’s left- field wall. As he looked out at the green expanse, seemingly atop the left fielder and close enough to touch third base, he paused and contemplated his lot in life.
“It’s an incredible experience up here,” he said. “That’s for sure.”
And this was batting practice.
For those baseball aficionados who have visited most major-league baseball stadiums, a seat in Fenway’s left field, called Monster Seats, truly tops them all. There is the view high along the first-base line at San Francisco’s AT&T Park with the vistas of the skyline and bay. There’s anywhere in Chicago’s Wrigley Field bleachers where you feel the ivy so close you can smell the leaves.
But the view atop the Green Monster is a majestic melding of perfect sightlines and history. At 37 feet off the ground in the first of three rows, you appear to hover over the infield. You can track the trajectory of every curveball, of every line drive, of every ground ball through the infield.
Fastballs look 150 mph. You actually look down as line-drive homers buzz past your head and by the two giant Coca-Cola bottles above you. At 310 feet from home plate, the left-field wall is a racquetball wall for sluggers.
“Unbelievable,” said Ken Husler, a Red Sox fan from Jacksonville, Fla., who flew up to watch Games 1 and 2 from the Monster Seats. “You’re sitting right on top of everything. You’ve got a great perspective on how deep a ball’s hit, and you’re really close like you’re sitting on the left fielder’s shoulder.
“I can’t imagine a better place to watch.”
There are some negatives. You miss Boston’s Manny Ramirez maneuver on the warning track, which is always an adventure. If you do see it, you can lean too far over and become a stadium casualty too gruesome for SportsCenter.
The view down seems high enough to bungee jump.
“If you want to get the real feel for the caliber of the team with David Ortiz and Manny, this is where to sit,” said Joey Cowan, 38, of Boston, who merely came up for batting practice. “You get a lot of home run balls.”
That’s what management thought when they seemingly did the unthinkable. Desecrate the famed Green Monster with seats? Why not put a giant blacklight poster in the Louvre? But with only about 36,000 seats and needing more revenue to catch the filthy rich and, well, in Boston, merely filthy Yankees, the Red Sox saw the Green Monster could be green in other ways.
In 2003 they installed 174 seats atop the wall, charged $140 per game and made them available only online before the season opener. They’ve sold out for five years. Do a little math and that little pocket of seats brings in $1.97 million a year. In today’s market, that will buy a utility infielder, but it’s part of an overall refurbishing that included new club suites.
Take it for what it’s worth, but in 2004 the Red Sox won their first World Series title since 1918. In that sense, a desecration might’ve been worth it. To these once long-suffering Red Sox fans, they don’t have to be atop the Green Monster these days to feel on top of the world.
Boston magazine called them the best seats in Boston. While the face value for the World Series, established by Major League Baseball, is only $75, scalpers in the World Series are asking $3,000-$4,000.
“They should’ve done it years ago,” said Marty Feeney, 36, of suburban Quincy and Cowan’s friend. “You only had a net up here. If you didn’t get into the game, the ball had to be over the net. Now you get the real feel of a home-run shot. The camera’s on you. You get your one minute of fame.”
The idea was John Henry’s. When the Yawkey family put the club up for sale, the ownership group of Tom Werner, Larry Lucchino and Henry was the only one bidding that wanted to preserve Fenway, built in 1912. When they took over in 2002, Henry had an idea.
“John Henry was the most vocal among those when we started making improvements: ‘What if we put seats on the Green Monster?”‘ said Charles Steinberg, Red Sox executive vice president for public affairs. “Certainly there were raised eyebrows: ‘You’re what?”‘
They’re building the best seats in baseball. That’s what.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
