Fenway Park isn’t just MLB’s oldest ballpark, it’s also its quirkiest. Born before the existence of stainless steel or Richard Nixon, it continues to operate as the home of the Boston Red Sox, the foremost subject of its peculiarities.
Welcome to the Doubles Factory
And none of those peculiarities is bigger -- literally or figuratively -- than a 37-foot Monster sitting just 310 feet from home plate. That’s just one of the reasons why Fenway has become what amounts to a laboratory for doubles. No other venue even comes close to fostering an environment so conducive to the two-bagger.
However to fully understand and grasp the depths to which this dynamic manifests itself, I think it’s necessary to use charts to capture the doubles production of the BoSox, both at Fenway and, for a comparison, on the road. Also, throughout their rich history of employing so many amazing players, which individual Sox turned out to be the biggest beneficiaries of their time spent getting to play in this doubles lab? I wouldn’t have ever figured it existed to the sort of extent it has, where even guys that seemingly couldn’t hit a double on the road to save their life mashed one at Fenway every time you turned around.
But that’s the Fenway effect for ya. It’s the gift that for 115 years and counting has kept on giving and giving, with hopefully no end in sight.
