On a cold, rainy weekend in September 2000 Pat O'Connor and a handful of his friends gathered in his backyard to dig a set of four foot holes in the ground - thirty nine of them. Pat took out his Little Fenway blueprint (a coffee stained napkin he & Bill Livingstone had scribbled on) and pointed on the ground where each of the holes needed to be. Just one week earlier Pat had contracted with a local business to bulldoze and level an overgrown field in his backyard with an area of approximately 10,000 square feet. But on this day Pat's team ran into a major construction obstacle on holes one through five. They hit ledge about two feet below the surface. It was the perfect opportunity to call it quits, chalk it up as one stupid idea, cut their losses. After a few guys cracked some jokes about how this project ranked up there as one of the most bizarre, crazy endeavors they had ever witnessed (they were too kind to walk out), the team decided to skip the first few holes and dig the rest. Fortunately they only met resistance from some large rocks...no more ledge.
The following weekend Pat rented a powerful jackhammer and blasted away enough of the ledge to achieve the necessary depth for the first five holes. These holes were the Construction Picturefirst step toward building the Green Monster, and the centerfield wall, and the shorter right field wall. Thanks to an engineering team at IBM Pat knew how deep the sixteen foot pressure treated wooden poles needed to be and how much support was required on the back of the Green Monster to protect it against the heavy winds and inclement weather.
With the aid of a hundred bags of concrete the wooden walls went up followed by the foul poles. Paint specialist Brian Stevens cleverly scraped some paint off the Red Sox dugout at Fenway Park so the construction crew could match the color at a local paint store and use true Fenway Green. By the time Bernie Carbo, Red Sox home run hero in the 1975 World Series, showed up to play a game with some of the neighborhood kids in October 2000 you could detect a glimmer of what Little Fenway was to become.
After a typical long, cold Vermont winter with plenty of snowfall it was time for phase two of the construction effort. April through June in 2001 included cutting the infield, laying sod, installing a scoreboard that looks identical to the Fenway Park scoreboard of Board2001, and adding the coke bottle and citgo signs. It took seveal trips to New England rock quarries to identify dirt with the same color and granularity as several samples of dirt scooped up from the infield and track at Fenway Park by a friendly groundskeeper.By Opening Day, July 4th, 2001, Little Fenway looked spectacular. It was ready for.... you guessed it... a Yankees vs. Red Sox game.
The Jack Hammers, led my coach Jack Shadduck, surprised 23 other teams to run the table at the 7th Annual Travis Roy Foundation Wiffle ball tournament in August 2008. They won 6 straight games including a comeback victory over Nite Feeders in the Championship Game 6-5. Jack Shadduck was named the Tournament MVP. Over $175,000 was raised for the Travis Roy Foundation bringing the 7 year total to just under one-half million dollars.
Bill Currier and the University of Vermont Baseball Cats visited Little Fenway on Saturday, September 20, 2008, for a Fall team-building Wiffle ball tournament. Many of the strong Catamount hitters went deep at Little Fenway as the wind was blowing out. Home runs at Little Wrigley were fewer and far between with the wind blowing in. Captain Dean Strong and the University of Vermont Hockey Cats visited Little Fenway on Sunday, September, 21, 2008, for some pre-season training. The rain held off and they enjoyed an afternoon of Wiffle ball at both fields.
Little Wrigley opened for action on the first day of the 2007 Travis Roy Foundation's annual WIFFLE ball tournament. 2008 has been the first full season of games and when Tom O'Connor put in the last brick (a real brick from Wrigley Field) on July 4, 2008, our hope was it would break the 100-year curse on the Chicago Cubs, just like we had done for the Red Sox at Little Fenway. So far there is still hope for the Cubs as baseball's second season starts next week. Pictures of the new field can be viewed at www.littlewrigley.com. A special thanks goes out to everyone who contributed to the field. We look forward to many years of fun Wiffle ball games.
Little Fenway can be viewed on Google Maps here. Construction of Little Wrigley had not commenced when the photos were taken.
The Blue Bulls defeated Shake & Bake 7-2 in the championship game of the 2nd annual Blue Bulls Invitational on June 2nd. Many thanks to the Blue Bulls for their major contributions to the construction of Little Wrigley. On Sunday, June 3rd, the Blue Bulls team helped remove rocks and spread topsoil and seed on Little Wrigley to help prepare the field for the grand opening in August 2007.
Tom Messner, Chief Meteorologist for New Channel 5, gave his television weather forecast at Little Fenway prior to Game 1 of the World Series between the Red Sox and the Rockies. He also hit a home run over the Green Monster.
The Boston Red Sox victory over Cleveland in the ALCS on Saturday, October 20th, was viewed on 16x 9 foot HDTV picture on the Green Monster.
Little Fenway now has a blog where visitors can leave feedback and comment on the field as well as the site! Click here to visit the blog.
Game Point Productions has produced a 20 minutes DVD about the Real Field of Dreams: Little Fenway. To buy the 20 min DVD and contribute to this unique event and great cause email:
gamepoint921@yahoo.com
gamepoint924@yahoo.com
The trailer can be viewed below:
The Echo hosts a brief multi-media story on Little Fenway. This article, produced by a St. Michael's College student, includes the latest shots of the field plus the first (brief) shot of Little Wrigley and drainage.
Nearly $70,000 was raised this past weekend for the Travis Roy Foundation at the 5th annual Travis Roy Foundation Wiffle ball tournament. Tournament MVP Billy Doyle led the Boston Beef to a 5-3 victory over the Blue Bulls in the Championship game on August 13th. 16 teams competed with the Boston Beef, Blue Bulls, RussWood All-Stars, and the Hockey Monkeys advancing to the playoffs. Eric Sutherland, alias "Big Papi", hit a 3-run walk-off home run for the Turfmonsters in their final game. Bill "Spaceman" Lee pitched home run derby before pitching the second game for the Turfmonsters. Next year's tournament will be held on the weekend of August 10-12, 2007. More details on www.travisroyfoundation.org.
The 1st annual Jarred Williams Foundation Wiffle ball tournament was held September 9-10 at Little Fenway. Ten teams competed and the Blade Runners defeated the Turfmonsters 6-5 in the championship game. Over $8,000 was raised to benefit the Jarred Williams Foundation. This foundation was set up in memory of Jarred Williams, a 13 year old Richmond, Vermont boy who died in 2001 from a brain tumor. The money raised benefits families of children who have a chronic illness. Next year's tournament will be held the second weekend of September, 2007. More details on the event at www.jarredwilliamsfoundation.com.
A small groundbreaking ceremony for Little Wrigley was held Aug 14, 2006. The success of Little Fenway in raising funds for charities like the Travis Roy Foundation has inspired the development of a 2nd field to extend this Wiffle ball dream.
Little Wrigley drainage has been installed, the field has been leveled, and the seed was planted on August 31, 2006. Construction on the outfield fence begins October 7th and the ivy will be planted March 2007. Having two Wiffle ball fields, in the likeness of major league baseball's oldest active ballparks, will enable more teams to play in the Travis Roy Foundation tournament starting in August 2007. Opening Day will be August 10, 2007.
Little Fenway, Essex Vermont --- "The next best thing to taking batting practice at Fenway Park"..."it's the eighth Wonder of the World"..."the Green Monster, the manual scoreboard, the Citgo sign, the tomato plants in the bullpen, all this place needs is a World Series banner." These are a few of the quotes from baseball enthusiasts who have visited the miniature ballpark known as Little Fenway, located in the valley of the Green Mountains in Essex, Vermont.
Little Fenway is a one-fourth scale replica of Boston's famed Fenway Park designed for WIFFLE ball. The Green Monster is 12.5 feet tall with a six foot net attached above the wall (Monster seats may be added in the future). Built in 2001, Little Fenway is situated in the backyard of Pat & Beth O'Connor about 3.5 hours north of Boston. It has served as the site for numerous charity and community events including a WIFFLE Ball game to benefit the September 11th disaster relief efforts, an annual tournament for the Travis Roy Foundation to benefit research into cures for spinal cord injuries, and weekly charity games sponsored by Vermont's number one radio station, CHAMP 101.3 FM.
"WIFFLE ball is the great equalizer," says Little Fenway owner Pat O'Connor. "It doesn't matter how skilled you are. Men, women, boys and girls can all play WIFFLE ball at the same time and have a lot of fun and laugther. We have had all sorts of folks here - Little Leaguers, youth camps, high school and college athletic teams, professional athletes, former major league ball players, businesses, and even a group of 70-90 year olds from an elderly day care. I never imagined this idea would grow into something which provides so much enjoyment for so many people. We are very blessed. I guess you could call it an east coast Field of Dreams."
Local commercial for Heritage Ford Toyota filmed at LittleFenway in 2008.