Boston Red Sox's Carlton Fisk, left, watches his 12th-inning home run against the Cincinnati Reds to win the sixth game of the World Series at Fenway Park in Boston, Oct. 22, 1975.
(Credit: AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)On April 20, 1912, two iconic baseball stadiums opened their doors - Tiger Stadium in Detroit and Fenway Park in Boston. The former closed down in 1999 and was demolished three years ago, but Red Sox fans are still packing Fenway 100 years later.
Back on that day in 1912, when John F. Kennedy's grandfather threw out the first pitch, few could have imagined that the stadium would one day be added to the National Register of Historic Places (as it was last month). But Fenway Park has been the venue for more iconic moments than any other current baseball stadium in America.
Fenway's history is forever intertwined with George Herman Ruth. Two years after the stadium opened, the burly ballplayer known as "Babe" made his Red Sox debut as a pitcher. But in 1919, he was traded to the Yankees, worked on his swing, rewrote the baseball record books and sparked 86 years of misery for Red Sox fans. The team's failure to win a World Series - the "Curse of the Bambino" - would shadow Fenway until 2004.
Ruth was far from the only legend to grace Fenway's field. Ted Williams made his legacy there, winning two Triple Crowns and hitting an unmatched .406 in 1941. Other Red Sox names are etched in Fenway lore: Fisk, Yastrzemski, Rice, Doerr, Cronin, Pesky. Even icons outside the sports world made headlines in the shadow of the Green Monster: In 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his final campaign speech there.
Fenway Park: This diamond is foreverThe Red Sox have sold out more than 700 consecutive games at Fenway, the longest such streak in Major League Baseball history. As the iconic park marks its centenary on Friday, here are some of Fenway's most memorable moments.
