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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.

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.

-Alex

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Comments

HourlyB

We love a stadium with a bit of quirks; honestly it's kinda why outside of the product on the field, football (gridiron or association) has never been too interesting in that regard, outside of indoor/outdoor and grass/astro all the fields follow the same requirements for measurements. And even outside of the double enabling; these quirks inspire that much more of a cultural tie for the team/fans. Fenway with the monster and Giants fans have McCovey. Racetracks also benefit massively from this too; Indy has a different culture from Laguna has a different culture from Daytona.

HungryDrawers

Always thought they should adorn the wall with sporadic McDonald's emblems that would gift everyone in attendance with a mcdouble if a ball hit off the emblem resulted in a double. That's only like 16 bucks worth of burgers for good advertising.

John Pazniokas

I expected Earl Webb to come up, who is otherwise absolutely forgotten beyond being the single-season record-holder with 67 doubles, 3 more than anyone else and one of only 6 sixty-double seasons. Of course, with the Red Sox. Although his splits are not as insane as some of the others mentioned: he had 39 at Fenway, 28 on the road. Only 58% at home. Still...

David James

As a brit, who got into baseball the last few years cos of you and Jon's videos (I even went to the London Series games a couple years ago, Mets vs Phillies, which was amazing to see in person) I really really love the strangeness and uniqueness of baseball stadiums. They're all unique and quirky, they never are just a rote copy of other stadiums like so many association football (soccer) stadiums end up being. it's the same in cricket, to an extent. Cricket stadiums have all sorts of weird quirks, different shapes, that sort of thing. There's even literally MULTIPLE cricket stadiums that have a tree in the middle of it. Like, imagine if it was a baseball field, that there's just a tree sitting in the middle of the outfield. That's what these cricket stadiums are like. It's bizarre and I love it. I believe there's also ground rules regarding them, like I think you get an automatic 4 runs if you hit the tree.

Brandon Rahhal

Abnormal baseball stadiums might be my favorite thing about the sport. Most professional fields/courts/stadiums are obsessed with standardization. Ostensibly it's about literally levelling the playing field, but it has another function, and that is to create a uniform commercial product; you see a game on one stadium, you'll see largely the same game in another stadium. Baseball's full of goblin-energy men doing outlandish things, and the place they call home field has more character than any multi-million dollar arena. I hope this becomes a mini-series; Diamonds in the Rough, or some such thing.

Matthew Weinstock

The Red Sox suck at hitting road doubles cuz they’re the only team that doesn’t get to play any road games at Fenway Park