According to legend, Ted Williams hit a homer off Detroit’s Fred Hutchinson on June 9, 1946. The ball hit the straw hat worn by fan Joe Boucher, a construction engineer from Albany NY working in Boston. Boucher was a Yankees fan at the time, but became a devoted Sox fan soon after that day. Not only was it Ted’s longest home run at Fenway, but it was the longest home run hit by anyone at Fenway. Boucher was sitting in bleacher 42, row 37, seat 21. That seat is clearly iconic!
But is it a false icon? I think there is something very fishy about it. And David Ortiz and others agree.
For starters, it is not a historic artifact. There was no red seat there on June 9, 1946, when Ted launched his mammoth home run. One tour guide related a humorous story in which a young fan asked how Ted was lucky enough to hit the only red seat in the bleachers. Owner Haywood Sullivan had the red seatback installed in 1984. Later, the bottom part of the seat was changed to red.
And there wasn’t even ANY seat there in 1946, at least any individual seat. The entire bleachers were constructed with benches in 1934. Seat numbering is not known to me, but images of 1946 World Series bleacher tickets do not show any seat numbers.
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| The fan on the right in row 37 is sitting in the red seat. Note every fourth row has extra vertical rise. |
Fact-checking the legend
Most elements of the legend are obviously true; the home run and its damage to Boucher’s hat were well documented and reported. See Harold Kaese’s article in the Boston Globe on June 10, for example. (Some may wish to debate calling it “the longest home run ever hit at Fenway”; I do not wish to engage that discussion here.) The only poorly documented element is the exact location the ball landed. Location depends on reported information and changes to bleacher seating since 1946.
Kaese reported that Boucher “was sitting in the 33rd row of the bleachers, next to the aisle dividing the first and second sections behind the home bullpen. This was a little more than half way up the slope…” Curiously, this does not match today’s placement in the 37th row. And also, curiously, today the red seat is behind the visitors’ bullpen, not the home bullpen. And, curiously enough, today’s red seat is five seats from the aisle, not “next to the aisle”. Is this a case of inaccurate reporting then, or inaccurate interpretation later? Did the bullpens change places?
Without access to the Red Sox archives, there is little do do further without making assumptions. What was the source for “Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21”?
Supposing we do assume that the specific seat location actually was recorded somewhere and was accurate. Now we can analyze today’s red seat in light of changes to the bleachers since 1946. The key to the legend is the row number — it’s so far up. Today (2018) the bleacher rows go up to 50. 37 is 74% of 50, so row 37 is about three-quarters of the way up, not “a little more than half way up” as was reported.
The explanation of this discrepancy is that the bleacher seats were originally wooden benches in about 60 rows rather than individual seats in 50 rows. Fans were squeezed in tightly, with a pitch of only 24 inches between rows! During the 1960-1961 offseason -- probably in preparation for the 1961 All-Star Game -- about half of the seating (the lower half) was converted to individual seats. Pitch was increased from 24” to 30”. This was done by pouring concrete to make four adjacent rows 6” deeper front-to-back, at which point the fourth row (the bottommost of the four) would be right on top of the old fifth row. So every fifth row disappeared under concrete. That’s why when you look at the empty bleachers, every fourth row has an extra vertical rise, giving fans in those rows a height advantage for a better view.
Fans can see the old bench seat pitch and count the number of bench seat rows by examining the underside of the bleacher structure. Underneath section 43 near the bottom, there is a storage room you can peer into and see the row structure going right down to the ground. It appears that there were 60 rows originally. Where was row 37? My best guess is today’s row 30.
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| The underside of bleacher 43. I am standing under the original row 37. |
A photograph in the on-line Globe for April 4, 1976 shows about 32 rows of lower bleacher seats and 21 rows of upper bleacher benches. Those 32 rows of seats replaced 39 rows of benches. Where would row 37 be? In 1976, five rows above the dividing line. In 1946, two rows below the dividing line.
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| 1976 view shows original bench rows at top and chair seat rows below. |
In 1983, the remaining bench seats were converted to individual seats. This caused the loss of three more rows, in effect pushing Row 37 even further away from the field.
In summary, since there were more rows in 1946 than now, row 37 back then was not where it is now! It must have been closer to the field. Based on the assumption that Boucher sat in row 37 in 1946, I would recommend moving the red seat down to row 30. That would:
— correctly correlate with the concrete evidence (literally!) of the bleacher structure
— make it closer to “a little more than halfway up the slope”
— make it closer to the 450-foot distance reported at the time
— make it a bit less “inhuman” in David Ortiz’s words, a little bit less impossible to hit.
Research questions (If you can answer them, let me know!):
— What is the factual basis for B42/37/21?
— Exactly how many rows of bench seats were there in sections 41-43 originally?
— Were the bench seats numbered in 1946?
— Were the home and away bullpens in 1946 placed the way they are today?
— When was the fence removed separating the bleachers from the right-field grandstand area?
— When were bleacher seats first sold as season tickets?
Bleacher trivia
In 1976 the capacity of the bleachers was 3681 in seats and 3791 in benches.
For most games up until the 1980s (need definite date) the bleachers were general admission (no reserved seats) with the possible exception of season tickets. The tickets were printed on cheap paper with a different shape from regular tickets with seat numbers shown.
One row of bench seating at Fenway lasted well into the 21st century: The Dunkin’ Dugout, section 41 row 50. Tickets for it were given out to youth groups.
Bleacher seating capacity:
1934 8400 (approx.)
1975 7472 (decrease reflects loss of every fifth row in lower bleacher)
1986 6563 (decrease reflects loss of every fifth row in upper bleacher)
Bleacher ticket prices:
1912 $0.25
1946 world series $1.20
1967 $1
1976 $1.25
1986 $4
1986 $5-$6
1997 $10
2003 $10-$20
2004 $12-$20
2005-2006 $12-$23
2011-2013 $12-$28
2016 $15-$32
2017 $20-$36
2018 $25-$38
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