Fenway 1912 by Glenn Stout Read Free Book Online Page A

impressed. The grandstand at the new park was designed to hold nearly 11,400 fans. Although that was less than half the number that baseball's biggest existing park, the double-decked Polo Grounds, could hold, it was nearly five times the number that could sit in the grandstand at the Huntington Avenue Grounds. There would be room for as many as another 8,000 in a separate, roofed pavilion and space for perhaps 5,000 more fans in the center-field bleachers, making the park's official seated capacity 24,400. Even if the new team failed to draw much more than the half-million or so fans who attended games at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in 1911, the Sox would be able to charge them much, much more than before. The plans, although modest in many ways, still spelled profit, and that was a language everyone understood (see illustration 2).
    Still, there were
t
's to cross and
i
's to dot, cigars to smoke and cables to be sent back and forth to the Chicago investors, so it took another day, until the afternoon of September 15, for a final agreement to be reached. By then McAleer had to rush off to rejoin his team before missing any games, while Johnson and McRoy hustled back to Chicago, smugly satisfied.
    The sale was announced by proxy in a written statement distributed by the Taylors. It read:
Negotiations connected with the sale of an interest in the Boston American League Baseball Club have resulted in the purchase of a half interest by James R. McAleer of Washington and Robert McRoy of Chicago.
As both these gentlemen have been actively engaged elsewhere they will not be able to come to Boston until the beginning of the year 1912. At that time they will come to Boston to live and join in the active management of the Red Sox. Both are versed in baseball and have marked ability, and they ought to greatly strengthen the organization.
Plans for a new ball park which will be a credit to Boston will now be formulated and the work pushed ahead at a rapid rate.
RED SOX DEAL GOES THROUGH
McAleer And McRoy Buy Half-Interest
    In English that meant that because McAleer was still the manager of the Senators he would not take over until the club was officially reorganized under the laws of the state of New Jersey, where the Red Sox were officially incorporated, but in practical terms he would begin making most decisions as soon as the season was over. The sale price for the half-share was reportedly $150,000, meaning that the Taylors' original $135,000 investment in the team had more than doubled. While they would still retain a half-interest in the team, they would essentially become silent partners. They would, however, build and own a new ballpark. While that plan had previously been just a rumor, it would now become a reality. The ink was hardly dry before work began on the new park, beginning with clearing the Jersey Street property. The site was virtually empty, home to only a small church and the Park Riding School on Ipswich Street. Although a series of garages occupied the north side of Lansdowne Street, the lots immediately to the west, south, and east were completely unoccupied, the land as open as the Great Plains.
    The only other item of interest concerned the manager of the team. It was widely believed that Donovan was done and that McAleer—or perhaps just McRoy and Johnson—would name a new manager. It was not long before the name on everyone's lips was Jake Stahl. His return would solve two issues. Upon his retirement he had still been one of the best first basemen in the league, and the current Sox first baseman, Clyde Engle, was the lightest-hitting man on the team. Even though there had been no public announcement concerning Stahl's investment in the club, it did not take long for the rumor mill to get going, and McAleer acknowledged that Stahl "is the man I want and I intend to see him after the World's Series is over." McAleer even admitted that "I have sunk line, sinker and hook into the Red Sox club and if my