Boston’s Fenway Park: What’s Special About the Blue Grandstand Seats

History can be uncomfortable. Sometimes, history can be painful.

Take, for example, Boston's historic Fenway Park. Have you ever sat in those blue, wooden grandstand seats for nine innings? Ay, caramba!

Fenway Park's blue grandstand seats were installed the year my father was born. Pop celebrated his 90th birthday (posthumously) on October 5, 2024.

A recent UMass Boston news article, "Uncharted: Fenway Park," reports, "Fenway Park, constructed in 1912, remains mostly original with the facade and blue grandstand seats from 1934."

The New England Sports Network says, "Fenway Park's blue grandstand seats are the only remaining wooden seats in baseball."

I believe it. Watch out for splinters!

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Rateyourseats.com says, "The grandstand seats demonstrate the charm of Fenway Park better than any other area." The site says, "The overhang, the support poles, and the old-timey seats are a throwback to baseball in the first half of the twentieth century."

Since 1912, Fenway Park has been home to the Boston Red Sox. It is the oldest active park in Major League Baseball.

Fenway Park underwent substantial changes in 1934. Fenway adopted the "Dartmouth green" color of today. The "Green Monster" (left field wall) grew from 10 feet to 37 feet, a hand-operated scoreboard was added and some 7,000 new seats were installed, among other things.

A fire in 1934 caused extensive damage to the new seating areas in left field and the center field bleachers. Replacement seating – the blue grandstand seats – was added in time for opening day.

That's the story of Fenway Park's old, wooden blue grandstand seats. The single red seat in the bleachers is a whole other story, and it's a good one.