Huntington Avenue American League Base Ball Grounds is the full name of the baseball stadium that formerly stood in Boston, Massachusetts and was the first home field for the Boston Red Sox (known informally as the 'Boston Americans' until 1908) from 1901-1911. The stadium, built for $35,000, was located across the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad tracks from the South End Grounds, home of the Boston Braves.
The stadium was the site of the first World Series game between the modern American and National leagues in 1903, and also saw the first perfect game in the modern era, thrown by Cy Young on May 5, 1904. The playing field was built on a former circus lot and was fairly large by modern standards-530 feet to center field, later expanded to 635 feet in 1908. It had many quirks not seen in modern baseball stadiums, including patches of sand in the outfield where grass would not grow, and a tool shed in deep center field that was actually in play.
The Huntington Avenue Grounds was demolished after the Red Sox left at the beginning of the 1912 season to play at Fenway Park. Solomon Court at Cabot Center, an indoor athletic venue belonging to Northeastern University, now stands on Huntington Grounds footprint. A plaque and a statue of Cy Young was erected in 1993 where the pitchers mound and home plate used to be, commemorating the history of this ballpark in what is now called World Series Way. Meanwhile, a plaque on the side of the Cabot Center (1956) marks the former location of the left field foul pole. Also, The World Series Exhibit Room in Cabot Physical Education Center is devoted to mementos of the 1901-1911 Red Sox era.
The Cabot facility itself is barely over a quarter-mile away to the southwest from another, still-standing Boston area sports facility of that era, Matthews Arena (built in 1910), the original home of the NHL's Boston Bruins when they started play in 1924.
Famous quotes containing the words avenue and/or grounds:
“Play is a major avenue for learning to manage anxiety. It gives the child a safe space where she can experiment at will, suspending the rules and constraints of physical and social reality. In play, the child becomes master rather than subject.... Play allows the child to transcend passivity and to become the active doer of what happens around her.”
—Alicia F. Lieberman (20th century)
“The most disgusting cad in the world is the man who, on grounds of decorum and morality, avoids the game of love. He is one who puts his own ease and security above the most laudable of philanthropies.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)