Not only are the Boston Red Sox struggling, but in comparison to the Washington Nationals, they come in a poor second when it comes to stadium tours.

On my recent failed trip to Boston, I finally took the one hour plus tour of Fenway Park.  It was disappointing.

I’ve been going to Fenway since I was seven years old, which figures out to more than 60 years. My wonderful grandfather, Pappy, had nights and weekend seats just behind the Sox dugout, and the best week of my life each year was when school was out in Florida, where I was living, and I’d come to Boston for a week at the park with Pappy.

The players all knew him, called him ‘Pops,’ and that included Ted Williams. You can imagine what going to the park for five or six days in a row, often at 4 PM to watch batting practice and even chat with the players, meant to a kid.

But I had never seen more of the stadium than from the stands, and so I was looklng forward to a behind the scenes tour.

It was not to be.

The entire tour took place outdoors, except for a brief walk behind the club seats as went from the Monster seats to the new right field seats. Mostly, we heard a mixture of the history of Fenway and the Sox, various jabs at the Yankees, and a a number of questionable stories about the park.

Contrast that with a tour I took a year or two ago at the new Nationals’ Park.

There we got to see the locker room, the press box, where the pitchers warmed up at the last minute.

 

We got to sit in the dugout. And we got to throw a pitch in the bullpen.

Now Nationals Park doesn’t have the history that Fenway does, but at least they know how to give you a behind the stands view of their park.

Come on Sox. You can do better.