Sometimes tradition is just fine

The word from Boston today is quite welcome, bucking the trend of late in professional sports the Boston Red Sox will apparently not leave the hallowed grounds of Fenway Park. And that is a very good thing, having been to Fenway myself its truly one of the great sports gathering places on the continent. Every baseball fan should find a way to make the pilgrimage to Yawkey Way once and if the story in today's Boston Globe is true, we'll have many more years ahead to travel to baseball's version of Mecca.

It's expected that later today the Red Sox management will announce that they will not be looking to demolish one of the most fabled sports venues in contemporary history, instead they will continue to call Fenway Park home for the foreseeable future.

Fenway Park with its Green Monster is the thing of legend and it seems only fitting that it will live on for a new group of fans to enjoy. In an era where many of our arenas and stadiums have given way to the modern and many say sterile forms of concrete, Fenway will at least be a place where the fan can claim to have won a battle.

But while the Red Sox have shown an uncommon sense of history, they of course are not about to be foolish economically, part of the quid pro quo for keeping Fenway alive will be rejuvenating the area that surrounds it. The Sox will ask the city to fund a couple of new parking garages, some sidewalks and a new subway station. But they won't ask for public monies for increased seating in the park itself.

But Bostonians will probably gladly offer up their dollars to the Sox, even if the Red Sox are probably the most profitable Baseball team outside of the Empire of George in New York. With a World Series under their belts and the smiting of the mighty Yankees both in one year all the Sox need do is ask and the Red Sox Nation will come, cheque books in hand.