Fenway Park Will Not Play Host to Beanpot

For the last 14 years, four Boston-area college baseball teams have marked off a certain two days on the calendar in the middle of April. On these two days, small-time collegiate kids get a taste of big-league dreams. On these two days, the gates of Fenway Park are flung open to receive the varsity teams of Harvard, Boston College, Northeastern and the University of Massachusetts.

These are the days of the Beanpot Classic. And this year, for the first time, those storied gates will be barred.

Two weeks ago, the coaches of the schools involved were informed that the 15th annual Beanpot would not be held at Fenway Park. Instead, the teams will take the field at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton, Mass., home of the Brockton Rox, members of the Independent Northeast League.

The exact reason for the change is debatable. While the Red Sox claim the move is due to a maintenance issue, the teams suspect that it is matter of funding. Most of all, though, the overwhelming feeling for the players and coaches involved is bitterness.

“The players are just really disappointed,” said Harvard coach Joe Walsh. “It’s a great thrill to be at Fenway Park—we all look forward to it.”

Dr. Charles Steinberg, Executive Vice President for Public Affairs for the Red Sox, said that the change was a result of a need to re-sod the infield grass. Following the winter, two-thirds of the infield grass was dead and had to be artificially enhanced for Opening Day. The scheduled days of the Beanpot, April 20 and 21, fall during a Red Sox away series. According to Steinberg, this is the only time when the field can be re-sodded.

“We offered [the Beanpot teams] the weekend preceding but it didn’t work,” Steinberg said. “It had to be laid.”

The coaches would be sympathetic, though still disappointed, if the move was due to an unforeseeable occurrence like this. Even a scheduling conflict—such as a rescheduled Red Sox home game—would be understandable. But they perceived a different impression of the situation.

According to Walsh and UMass coach Mike Stone, the driving factors appear to be financial. The draw of the local teams and the tradition of the Beanpot seemed to be insufficient to offset the cost of the security and gate personnel required to staff the ballpark.

Harvard coach Joe Walsh said that the college teams involved had been contacted by the ballpark management, who wanted at first to schedule the Beanpot directly following a noon Red Sox game so that all the park staff would already be at the field. Failing this, there was talk of playing at a minor league affiliate. But this also failed to materialize, and the teams ended up in Brockton.

According to sophomore infielder Josh Klimkiewicz, the team was at first elated to hear that they might be playing following the 11:05 a.m. Red Sox-Yankees game on Monday, April 19, the same day as the Boston Marathon.

“Especially on Marathon Monday, if the Beanpot was right after, people would have to stay,” said Klimkiewicz, a Lexington native who also attended a local high school. “Who wouldn’t want to see the four Boston-area teams playing each other? And I’m sure they would have made a lot of money, keeping the concessions stands open.”

When this option proved unfeasible, however, the disappointment was crushing.

“All we heard was that [the Red Sox] couldn’t afford to do it if they couldn’t make money themselves,” Klimkiewicz said.

Steinberg denied that the change was related to funding, and said that he had considered allowing the college teams to play despite the re-sodding. But if the teams played on the recently re-sod grass, he said “it could be dangerous, someone could slip. Safety first, that’s the key ingredient.”

Steinberg said that the Sox had discussed with the Beanpot teams in the past the possibility of playing directly after a Red Sox day game to increase attendance and have all the necessary staff already present.

“It’s interesting to explore after a day game—to find a way to make it work. There’s merit to have the residual crowd of 35,000 stick around to watch,” Steinberg said.

But apparently that was not possible for that weekend.

“If they can’t reschedule it to piggyback, then we seem to be out of dates,” Steinberg said.

Walsh said that the college teams needed to come up with a sponsor to provide the necessary funding for the tournament.

“In the future, these dates are precious to [the Red Sox]—every day has to be used for a big-time charity, or not be a loss for them,” Walsh said. “If we were bringing in 10,000 people to the Beanpot, maybe they would open it up to us.”

Walsh and the baseball coaches of Northeastern, BC and UMass have set up a meeting this July with the Red Sox Special Events Coordinator to discuss plans for the future. Possible options include finding a locally-based sponsor like Dunkin’ Donuts, the current backer for the Hockey Beanpot.

Steinberg said that he was unaware of the proposed meeting.

Walsh expressed doubts about whether the money concerns were more related to the Red Sox organization than to potentially supporting a charity.

“I think during those dates [of the Beanpot] they’re going to be filming a commercial at Fenway,” he said.

UMass coach Mike Stone was also unclear on the reasons for the switch,

“They didn’t really say [why the move occurred], I’m assuming funding is the issue,” Stone said. “They’ve chosen to fund certain things and not others.”

For the players the opportunity to play at Fenway Park, this is—and always has been—one of the highlights of the season.

“Obviously we’re all disappointed, because that’s why we do it,” Stone said. “To have the sponsorship of the Red Sox means so much to every kid in New England.”

Though the Beanpot crowds have never come close to filling the 33,871 seats at Fenway, the empty seats have never detracted from the sheer thrill of playing at one of Major League Baseball’s most legendary stadiums. If anything, the open seats provided a rare opportunity for spectators to watch the games from all over the ballpark, including from the coveted Green Monster seats on top of left field.

And for the players, it is simply a transportation to a higher plane.

“Nothing better than that—granted, the stands are empty, but there’s nothing like it,” said Klimkiewicz. “It’s just amazing to be on the same grass and same field that so many great players have played on throughout history.”

In addition, the Beanpot marks a time when scouts from all over the Northeast come to check out the local talent on a major league stage. While it’s true that the teams and not the arena hold the appeal, Walsh can’t help but feel that something will be lost in the move to the 6,000-person Campanelli Stadium 25 miles southward.

“The teams are the draw,” Walsh admitted, “but it has been this great tradition. Every kid that hits a ball into that left field net—it’s something that will be with them forever.”

Not only that, but the removal from Fenway, if extended, could be a blow to recruiting for the participating schools.

“It’s one of the things that, when I was coming here, they tell you about, at both BC and Harvard,” Klimkiewicz said. “It’s a recruiting tool—they say, ‘you can go anywhere you want, but here you get to play at Fenway.’”

Whether the Beanpot will return to Fenway next year is by no means certain, especially now that the relationship between the teams and the Red Sox seems to have shifted.

“I’m concerned with the way it went about, just two weeks before it’s played,” Walsh said. “I could understand a conflict, but I just didn’t get that feeling right now.”

Steinberg said that he hoped to be able to continue the tradition of the Beanpot being played at Fenway.

“The Beanpot is important to us, and we’d like to preserve it,” he said.

For the teams involved, the overwhelming sense is that the Beanpot just won’t be the Beanpot if it’s not at Fenway Park. “[The UMass players] are shocked that it’s not at Fenway Park—that’s what it’s all about. Hockey is at Fleet Center, baseball is at Fenway Park. It’s supposed to be there,” Stone said.

“It adds a lot more to the game,” Klimkiewicz said. “If we played Northeastern in the Beanpot final at Brockton, it will be the fourth time we’ve played them this season. But playing them for the fourth time at Fenway would make it that much better.”

Regardless of the politics or circumstances behind the change, what it boils down to is that on those two days in April, the Crimson and the other Beanpot teams will not be playing each other on the field that makes the Beanpot what it is.

“It’s a place where dreams come true, and it will be sad to see those dreams end,” Walsh said.

—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.