“The ballpark is the star. In the age of Tris Speaker and Babe Ruth, the era of Jimmie Foxx and Ted Williams, through the empty-seats epoch of Don Buddin and Willie Tasby and unto the decades of Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice, the ballpark is the star. A crazy-quilt violation of city planning principles, an irregular pile of architecture, a menace to marketing consultants, Fenway Park works. It works as a symbol of New England's pride, as a repository of evergreen hopes, as a tabernacle of lost innocence. It works as a place to watch baseball.” AgeLostStarsCitiesPrinciplesWatchesCrazyPrideEmptyBaseballEnglandMarketingDecadesArchitecturePlanningSymbolsErasInnocenceParksSeatsWorking ItSpeakersViolationRiceBabeMenaceEpochNew EnglandConsultantsRuthTrisQuiltsBallparksCity PlanningEvergreensEmpty SeatsFenway Park Author:Martin Nolan