Behind the Lens: An Insider’s View of Fenway Park

Fenway’s Pesky Pole (photograph courtesy of Anne Gardner)

With Boston’s “Boys of Summer” finishing on the bottom rung of the American League East, it was a tough stretch for Red Sox fans in 2020. Luckily, or unluckily depending on your point of view, there was no front row seat to the team’s fall from grace. The pandemic kept us from all that; from the harried rush to the turnstiles, from bags of peanuts whizzing overhead, from Eck’s press box plea to “throw ’em the gas!”

The ride to this year’s 24–36 record was certainly an agonizing spiral, but that won’t be all that we remember about this truncated season. No, it will be the strange silence that hung over our beloved ballpark. Hidden from all but a precious few.

Despite the sea of empty seats that surrounded them, the players still played. But without the buzz of the crowd, the kinetic energy of baseball all but disappeared. Given the plodding pace of the average game, our national pastime needs the “game within a game” that fans provide. Fans hollering at opposing players, belting out “Sweet Caroline” and grousing about the cost of beer keep the stands a beehive of activity, the perfect mirror to baseball’s deliberate and subtle on-field ballet.

But this year, devoid of any background noise, the games hardly felt real. Thankfully the bevy of photographers roaming our hallowed cathedral of green breathed life…