WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. We're marking Fenway Park Centennial squeezed into a sliver of the city. It's a cramped and cranky space. It's one of a kind charm has inspired no end of literary giants like Stephen King poet Donald Hall and perhaps most famously. John Updike who described in way as a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark where everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus like the inside of an old fashioned peeping type Easter egg. Today we look at how can we park became fertile ground for so many writers. But first we look at the history of Fenway more than a ballpark. It also had a past as a civic gathering space. We top off the hour with an opera singer who coaches Red Sox fans on maximizing their cheers without wrecking their vocal cords. Up next bases loaded a tribute to Fenway Park. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying the Coast Guard is

cited as saying that a small plane that had been circling the Gulf of Mexico has crashed. Fighter jets had been trying to contact the pilot in recent hours but the person was apparently unresponsive. No word yet on whether the pilot is alive or dead. A series of explosions were set off across Iraq today at least 30 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded. Baghdad Kirkuk and Bakuba were among several cities to be attacked over a period of about an hour. Authorities say half of the strikes appeared to target security forces and government officials. Damascus and the U.N. have agreed to terms for an expanded monitoring mission in Syria. NPR's Kelly McEvers reports their mission is to end months of bloodshed by enforcing a U.N. cease fire. The agreement signed by Syria and the U.N. would increase the number of observers in the country. Right now there is a small advance team of observers in Syria. U.N. officials say at least 200 50 are needed. The Syrian government says observers should come from what it calls

neutral countries namely Russia and China. These two countries have staunchly supported Syria by vetoing resolutions in the U.N. Security Council calling for the Syrian president step down. The aim of the current U.N. peace plan is for both the Syrian army and armed rebels to lay down their guns and begin a political dialogue. But since the ceasefire was supposed to take effect last week dozens if not hundreds have been killed. Kelly McEvers NPR News Beirut. The Department of Veterans Affairs is bolstering its mental health staff to respond to the needs of a rising number of troops coming home from war. Today it announced plans to hire about 600 clinicians and several hundred more support staff. The department says the number of people seeking mental health services has increased 35 percent during the last five years. The National Association of Realtors says sales of existing homes have fallen for a second time in March. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports sales are down 2.6 percent from the previous month and are worse than analysts had

expected. Sales of previously owned homes had been expected to rise slightly. Instead it fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly four and a half million. Home sales had been on an upswing. Boyd largely by a better job market. But both seem to be stalling. The housing Kaname has shown mixed results for March. Housing starts were down but building permits a leading indicator were way up. Still last month existing sales are above the same period last year and the realtors association is still predicting this will be a much better year than last year which was dismal. Interest rates and home prices are still very low and there is pent up demand for housing. Yuki Noguchi NPR News Washington. Dow is down 33 points NASDAQ off 6 S&P 500 all four. This is NPR. Good afternoon from the WGBH radio newsroom in Boston I'm Christina Cohen with some of the local stories we're following. Boston police are investigating the death of a Boston University graduate student.

A police spokeswoman says the man was found in the city's Brighton neighborhood just after 2:30 a.m. this morning suffering from what she described as severe trauma. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police would only say that the victim was an adult male but the university in an announcement on its website that the man was a graduate student who had been shot to death. Police are awaiting autopsy results the victim's name was not released and police are appealing to the public for help in solving the killing. No arrests have been made. State Auditor Suzanne bump is cracking down on nonprofits that abuse taxpayer funds after the state pulled 1.7 million dollars in taxpayer funded disabled services contracts from an embattled Charlestown agency where auditor say executives ran up bills at restaurants liquor stores and Disney World. The Boston Herald reports that bump plans to audit a slew of both nonprofit and for profit state vendors this year. The crackdown on life focus center marks a tipping point in the state's dealings with private agencies that have been found to have top heavy payrolls and questionable spending underwritten by taxpayers. More names have been found of people working for the

Institute for International Sport while also on the University of Rhode Island payroll though the university initially said only two employees were on its payroll. The Providence Journal reports that in response to a recent inquiry by the newspaper The State Personnel Office found others working for the nonprofit Sport Institute who also were on the you are I pay roll your eyes relationship with the institute is the focus of a state police probe since an audit found it could not account for how it spent most of the five hundred seventy five thousand dollar legislative Grant. Support for NPR comes from the vital projects fund supporting the Museum of Modern Art now presenting the retrospective Cindy Sherman more at MOMA dot org. Sunny skies for the rest of the afternoon with highs in the upper 60s right now it's 59 degrees in Boston 69 in wester and 63 in Providence the time is 106 and this is WGBH. Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley. We're listening to composer John Williams one

hundredth anniversary Fenway Park composition. This hour we're paying tribute to the beloved baseball stadium. I'm joined by writer Christopher Klein the author of many books including The die hard sports fans guide to Boston a spectator's handbook. Chris Klein welcome back. Thanks Kelly great to be here. Well as always whenever I read anything that you write I just learned so much about particularly the sports history in Boston. I know you were in fin way walking around this week. So first question did you just absorb that hundred year history. Well there you know I mean every time you walk in there you're just surrounded by the history so they've done some special things in terms of putting up some old newspaper accounts and they have some artifacts that are in there so you can get a better sense of the history that's in there. You could spend a lot of time just walking around and looking at the artifacts that they have in there and reading different newspaper accounts but every time you go in there you're always surrounded by the history whether it's 100 feet or you know anytime you go in to watch a ballgame

we should mention that today is OPEN HOUSE day. Red Sox are hosting that all day so people can go over and interact with us. Old timers are veterans and see a lot of the stuff that you just mentioned. So there's so much about the history of Finn and I think that's not known for me at least I didn't realize that it was someplace else at one time. Well they were the Red Sox did not start their their careers in Fenway Park they played for about 10 seasons in a ball park called the Huntington Avenue grounds and that is located right where Northeastern University is right near the. Right near the Teesta right near the Ruggles T station so the Red Sox when they first started out they played in this wooden ball park wooden grandstands and they played there. Notably it was the site of the first ever World Series in 1903. Young pitched a perfect game there. So there are some Red Sox history that's there. The ballpark though is just because it was made of wood it was very susceptible to

fire. And the owners want to build a bigger ball park so they built the steel and concrete. Fenway Park you know it's hard to think of it these days but you know sort of the state of the ballpark back then for all the Boston baseball fans. Because you had the Huntington Avenue grounds for the American League team and literally right across the railroad tracks or if you picture being across the orange line where the Ruggles T station is that's where the Boston Braves the National League team had their wooden baseball stadium the south and ground so you had to ball park sort of in that area of Boston until the Red Sox moved over for the one thousand twelve season to Fenway Park. And it seems that when they moved then it was just a moment in time before it became this sort of iconic place that it has become. Yeah. It's you know it's certainly filled with all that history and we see it as an icon. I think what's important to remember too is that you know we sort of view it as the city's baseball cathedral but there are certainly many times along history where people want to get rid of it they want a new

stadium certainly many people feel that way. To so it sort of took some time to grow into that iconic stature that we think of it to be today. And those people who want to get rid of it it was just about modernization it wasn't about we don't need it anymore what was it about. Yeah it was basically just to have more modern amenities and still be you know the debate to be out there today is when you go to different ballparks around the country and you just see the different you know it's just more comfortable. The fan experience to be at a game obviously when you go to a ballpark that's being built today versus one that was built 100 years ago for people's bodies that were shorter and less wide than they are today too so it's definitely more comfortable fan experience to go to a different ballpark so that's the ongoing debate that comes and goes during you know every decade or so is you know do you build a new ballpark that makes it a better fan experience maybe has more seat too because we're only fitting in about 37000 people in the ballpark. You could probably many nights easily sell 50000

seats. So you know do you sort of open up the supply of seats to people who want to go to more games than they do now as well. Chris Klein What's a fun fact historical fact about thin away that probably a lot of people don't know. I think what's the most interesting thing about family part that most people don't realize is that it really was more than just a baseball stadium to the city to the people who live here and Boston really was a civic gathering spot. And you know we think of it as being the home of the Red Sox but when you go through just the litany of different events that have been held at the ballpark it's amazing in just starting from the sports angle. It was home to Boston University and Boston College played their football games there. They were called the Boston Patriots at that time but our current New England Patriots they played six seasons in Fenway Park. There was a whole litany of professional football franchises that played in there even today's Washington Redskins they got their start in Boston and played in Fenway Park for a few seasons so you had football that was played

there you had soccer matches they were played there there was a team called the Boston beacons that played at Fenway in the 1060. And certainly were more familiar in recent history of the Bruins playing there a couple years ago with hockey and they brought it back this last winter. Basketball though is also played there. Yeah the Harlem Globe Trotters played three different times at Fenway Park so if you can imagine they put down a makeshift basketball court over where the infield is and the first game of the Globetrotters played there was in 1054 naturally they won. You know don't worry about that. But there was part of a basketball doubleheader the Globetrotters took on a group of college graduates and be a All-Stars and beat him pretty handily and they came back twice more. The most interesting sport to call a sporting event may be in quotes but professional wrestling actually was at Fenway Park in 1969 they had a wrestler and I was yeah like 900 Well they did

it have some wrestling when professional wrestling actually was you know right let's say scripted as it is today. So they did have those in the 1930s where they had matches that would go on for maybe a cup even a couple hours. But in 1969 they had you know sort of the four runners of the current crop of you know WWE stars so you had. George the animal Steele and Bruno Sammartino took on killer koala ski in a no holds bar match where you know they're carrying on a stretcher and he stages a miraculous recovery all of a sudden the fans are pouring beer on him gets back in the ring. So if you can imagine sort of the hallowed turf of Fenway Park being the side of professional wrestling it was back to back then and I guess that lectures and other kinds of stuff going on there I mean it was beyond sports there were other things happening in this yes so it's sort of this is the civic gathering spot you know really the biggest spot in Boston for people to gather together for a long time so you do have in its early years

you had different military masses that were commemorating the veterans of the Spanish-American War. Political rallies were held there a number of times. So you have FDR in his last campaign speech in 1904 which would then turn out to be his last campaign speech of his political career. You know he comes out in Fenway Park they drive in his big automobile through center field he does a lap around the park and they drive up on to this day and this is one thousand nine hundred four. They don't even have the lights and they're the Red Sox are not going at nighttime there so they have flood lights that are in there to light up. Roosevelt he speaks to the crowd there and also they have a nationwide radio audience listening in as well so this is three days before you know he's elected to his fourth term. Goldwater spoke there Eugene McCarthy spoke there they had a rally for Irish independence way back in 1900 they had 60000 people come in to rally for Irish independence so you do have these

political and religious ceremonies that are held at Fenway Park. That's my guest Christopher Cline who is the author of the die hard sports MAN'S GUIDE TO BOSTON a spectator's handbook. It seems to me that once been we park became the place for the Red Sox and baseball. There are very few other parks that I can think of that seem to bring to mind as much history maybe I'm just too indoctrinated by Boston. I think about Wrigley Field in Chicago but that's about it. Yeah a whole generation when they moved from the wooden ballparks into the steel in construct structures all you're left with in the major leagues is Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. Built one thousand twelve thousand nine hundred fourteen the next oldest stadium after that you have to go into 1906 with Dodger Stadium and those West Coast stadiums are built out there so really those Wrigley in Fenway are really only two throw back to that sort of time in the early 20th century you know one ball one ball parks moved into the new steel and concrete era and baseball really was the reigning

sport in America that time so it is definitely unique in that respect. Red Sox were the last team to integrate major league team to integrate. How much of that history play into you know the the whole history of Finley park and in a lot of people's minds outside of Boston. Yeah I mean it's I think that's sort of more associated with the Red Sox and the owner of the team but not really not necessarily the place what's interesting actually would it that I saw going back in history in the history of Fenway Park during the 1940s they actually staged a few Negro League games in there and Satchel Paige when he was when the new year we had pitched there against some local teams that they put together so they were sort of these barnstorming games that allow the Negro Leaguers played and they had a few of those games in Fenway Park so even before the green became the first African-American on the Red Sox there were African-Americans who were playing baseball inside

Fenway Park so at least you know there is a least a little bit longer that history with Fenway than there is necessarily for the Red Sox. What's unique about Finley park to fans and to players. The most unique aspect is just the field itself. So if you're a fan it's the fact that for the most part it's a single level stadium. It is pretty into it. The sight lines are. You can be pretty low down so you have a sort of a unique view of the field that you don't get in maybe a more modern bar ballparks that are built more vertically. It is depending on where you're sitting in intimate place you can be pretty close to the action. There's not a lot of felt territory so the fans are sitting pretty close to the feel itself so that makes it pretty unique. But then just the dimensions of the field itself then make it a very different place for a baseball game to even be played so you just start with having that giant green monster there the thirty seven foot

high wall so it's stated as three hundred ten feet down the line which is extremely close to dimensions for baseball but it's unique because the very high. Fly ball may go out at Fenway Park it may have been just a fly out in a different kind of ball ballpark whereas a very sharply hit ball but very lower much lower to the ground. I could go out in different ballpark but not in Fenway so it changes the way the games played There are a lot of very different angles or sort of a triangle out there and center field by the way that the wall just sort of moves around a very spacious right field which you don't find in a lot of other ballparks so the dimensions are such that a ball game at Fenway can play out a lot more differently than it would in another ball park. Chris Klein What do you love about Fenway and what's your biggest gripe about Finley.

Well the thing I love the most is the history just to know that you are sitting in the same seat that someone 100 years ago sitting is nice in some respects the history is nice. It's nice to look down that field and know the DESA same feel that Ted Williams played in that Babe Ruth played on the scrims he played on a lot of the great moments in baseball history of unfolded. So it's sort of this living museum of baseball history that's great. The gripes. Let's get back to the seat. It's it's nice in some respects to be sitting in the same seats as your four followers. But again where generally taller wider people. There's not a lot of leg room. It makes the middle seat of an airplane seem very spacious. If you sit out in right field the seats are pointed directly at the green monster so you know book a good chiropractor good point the next morning if you're going to particularly long game because you're going to be turned 90 degrees to try to follow the action. So you know there are serious flaws to watching the game at Fenway and we

have this tendency to remand to size everything sort of like you know just being a perpetual puppy love where the flaws are just these. Well there just these quirks you know. But you know it definitely is not the easiest place to go to watch a ballgame depending on where you're sitting in the ballpark. Well there are definitely quirks tomorrow anyway for the 100th birthday and today for the open house at Fenway Park. Thank you so much Chris Klein for talking to us about the history my partner. We're marking Fenway Park Centennial and I've been speaking with writer Chris Klein about all the parks rich past. Chris Klein is the author of many books including The die hard sports fan guide to Boston a spectator's handbook. Coming up we continue the 100th birthday conversation with a look at why thin weight park has been such fertile ground for our great writers. This is eighty nine point seven WGBH Boston Public Radio. We love our contributors. That means you. And the valley group builders of Ames Brook

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Next week here on eighty nine point seven. WGBH. Stretch your dollar from many towns in western Massachusetts a fishing village in China to a small island in the South Pacific and keep your entire community connected to what's happening around the corner and across the globe. All it takes is a few minutes and a dollar a day. As a member of the WGBH leadership circle the world is getting smaller. See how far a dollar can take you. Visit WGBH dot org slash leadership. By O'Donovan every Saturday at 3 for a session. Well just like that on a Celtic sojourn here on eighty nine point seven w h. Welcome back to the Calla Crossley Show that Sweet Caroline. If you're

just tuning in we're marking Fenway Park Centennial with a focus on why this baseball stadium has long been a favorite topic for so many of our great writers. I'm joined by George Mitchell the chairman of the great sin way Park writer series and Dick Flavin Fenway Park poet laureate. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you thank you. George I have to start with you. I've learned so much history about fin weight during this whole centennial celebration. I had no idea there was a writer series there. It's been going for seven years. Tell us how it got started. Well it goes back to when Larry Lucchino was in San Diego as president of the padrone. And one of the reasons he came to San Diego from Baltimore was the Potteries needed a ballpark and I chair the Citizens Committee. We had an initiative that passed overwhelmingly which in a conservative place like San Diego was pretty surprising. And we became friends. And when Mr. look you know came to Boston to

join the new ownership group headed by John Henry and Tom Werner our friendship continued in the Red Sox. Unfortunately. Had a very races history and it was the intent of the new ownership to change that dynamic and to change it dramatically. And since Jackie Robinson had had a tryout here in 1045 it was a bogus trial. They were going to sign him. Charles Steinberg Mr Latino and I came up with the idea to honor Jackie on his birthday which is January 31 and we have just completed our 10th celebration of Mr. Robinson's life. One of the most if not in my judgment the most important African-American in American history. And since I'm the president of the City Club of San Diego in the Denver forum which are public forums the Writer's Series evolved out of that so where we are in our seventh year as you said we've done somewhere around 60 programs. The Writer's

Series is the only such series of its kind ever sponsored by a professional sports team and to me is kind of a quasi cider in your mitts. I think it's totally appropriate because this is Boston this is the Commonwealth This is New England and Boston is the Athens of America so why should the Red Sox have a literary series. Oh it makes perfect sense to me. Essence of America indeed and so many writers get their start right here. And on top of that so many writers have been inspired by thin away I just want to name a few. Here is Donald Hall who is the nation's poet laureate and lives in New Hampshire now. He's written about it. Maine's most famous resident writer Stephen King and of course John Updike. Dick Flavin wrote a lovely piece which is on display at it and you know many people think of John Updike might have written a book about Fenway Park and of course he wrote an essay and in the New Yorker and it wasn't about Fenway Park was about Ted Williams Fenway Park was a part of it but that that one

phrase that lyric little bandbox which has caught the spirit of. That piece of property over there or near the Fenway that the that the Taylor family decided to put a ballpark on all those years ago 100 years ago as of tomorrow it will be official. It really has caught the imagination of so many writers and that has translated into the movies. Now you know William Kinsler wrote in should list Joe Jackson about this Field of Dreams and they made it into a movie the field of dreams and the Ben Affleck movie last year at the town. That's from a from a book called. Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan. But there are so many books on Fenway Park you go into any bookstore now. There are all kinds of coffee table books on the ballparks and the greatest of which team itself is put out which is which is a

wonderful book and as I really have to get a book what is the name of that book George as a whole does. Well it's celebrating the 100 anniversary of Fenway America's most beloved Bowl Partlet make since. And let me just say it is a very heavy book I carried one volume back to San Diego to give to the president of the San Diego Padres who is a great admirer of the Red Sox front office and Mr. look you know and I told him his name is Tom Garfinkel I said Tom I'm only bringing one of these back a trip because they're just to help me. That's how much history as as my first guest is as outlined is so much a history of that part. Dick Flavin you're the poet laureate for the Red Sox. Why do you think as a writer yourself that this space has inspired so many has been a muse for so many writers. I think it's the history of the things that have happened in there I don't think that anyone could have guessed 100 years ago as of 3 o'clock. Tomorrow afternoon no and Honey Fitz who wrote the first pitch

neither he nor anyone else could have guessed the history that would unfold there in the ensuing century. Mostly baseball was a baseball park but it's been used of course for so many other things. You know if the guy made the last political speech you have a made a noise. I just learned that from my previous guess. Why baseball. George Mitchell what do you think baseball is inspiring to so many writers. Well I think that baseball of Eugene McCarthy I had the privilege of his friendship even though I'm a Kennedy guy. But the senator said to me once baseball is a game for intellectuals which I repeated to our daughter who used to go see the Padres play at Qualcomm Stadium and when I told her that the senator said baseball is a game for intellectuals she said Oh Dad. The senators never sat in the left field bleachers. I think what it is is it's a game of conversation. You know you gab

between pitches what this guy going to throw next what's going to happen next. So you can think all kinds of great thoughts while things are well things are going on there and I think that's what inspires so many people inspires the writers. There are no great literary books or even phrases on football or hockey for example that's a good point. Well I. Had the friendship of George Plimpton and Plimpton and I were in agreement on almost everything except one thing. Plimpton said that the smaller the ball the better the writing. And I disagree I think that the best writing is about baseball and I think the best book ever written about sports not just baseball but sports was Roger Kahn's the boys of summer about the Brooklyn Dodgers and Sports Illustrated said it was the second best book. They said that the sweet science by A.J. Liebling was number one but I disagree I think really and

truly the boys of summer and when I finished the book I was actually sad because I wanted it to continue. And the thing about baseball is it's so inexplicable. Mr. Flavin will tell you and I will tell you as I think any baseball fan will tell you that every time you go to a bowl game at whatever level. Little League pony league high school college. Minor league Major League you will probably see something you have not seen before in I don't. I mean to me baseball is trends Sunda over all other sports and it is really the sport that defines America the great scholar. Explore zones that if you would know America you must know baseball. Nobody said that about football or hockey or any other sport. And we have a long history in Dick Flavin and I are a gentleman of a certain generation and can tell you that for a very long time baseball was the sport. And

when Mr. Robinson broke the color your color barrier in 1987 really there were no other options for young black athletes growing up in this country and it wasn't until the famous overtime game at Yankee Stadium between the Baltimore Colts and the New York football Giants that football began to pro football begin to extend itself but for the longest longest time baseball was the America's game. Well you know George can he can vote for a road the boys of summer which is a great book. I'm not objective but I vote for the team mates by David Howe but yes I was going to be I said is what was your favorite and that's your favorite teammates. Yeah. Well he is he has a major I was in that house. Yeah. Yeah well. I mean seriously that was a wonderful book and written by our late friend in the great yes great great journalist David Halberstam. It's a bestselling book about how Bush jam overrode Vala great iconic books that have won all these international prizes a groat and the teammates was that he was a bestselling book

he ever wrote. It's really hard it's really hard to believe that it outsold David Halberstam his book on the history of the Los Angeles Times and a few other things he got some pretty good books. George Mitchell bench chairman of the great Fenway Park writer series What are some of the things that the writers series have done I was looking at some of the past speakers but just give us a sense of some we have had Supreme Court Justice Stephen Brier. Bill Keller one who's executive editor of The New York Times Mike Gordon the military correspondent of The New York Times Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Bobby and Ethel's eldest child who wrote a book about faith and religion was our guest at the writers series. We've obviously done a number of baseball books. Dan Shaughnessy is been our guest on several occasions as have other Boston writers who I mean you have to write a book basically.

But my favorite is Gloria Steinem Gloria and I have been friends for a very long time. And I asked her I said would you come and give a speech to the writers series knowing by the way that she's not a baseball fan but loving Gloria Steinem and she said sure if I'm in Boston I'll do it. So about a week later I get a call from her assistant saying Gloria's going to be in Boston and we're going to have to put something together. So we very quickly put together a luncheon at Fenway Park. And I sent out a notice to all of the subscribers subscribers anyone can subscribe to our newsletters or letters and to the first person I heard from was Larry Lucchino the Red Sox president. And so he said what does Gloria Steinem have to do with baseball. And I said Well Larry if you go to Google and type in Gloria Steinem's name it comes up two million eight hundred and thirty thousand

times. And look you know if you type in your day it only comes up one hundred sixty three. So so Gloria came and we put her in a Red Sox jacket which she wore throughout her speech. Larry Lucchino came sat with her Dwight Evans a Hall of Fame Red Sox outfielder was there and Larry stayed until the very end meaning through the Q&A which he normally doesn't do. And then he had his photograph taken with Gloria. And so that was actually for me that was what did she talk about. Well she talked she didn't talk about sports. OK I can tell you a quick story. When I was a press secretary to Senator Charles Goodell of New York I was in New York with Richard Reeves of the New York Times the chief political correspondent and he had I a Gloria were writing across town in a taxicab and for some reason. Reeves and I were talking about the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies whiz kids and I was doing the lineup. I could do it then I could do it now but I won't.

At the end of which when I had completed the Philadelphia Phillies lineup Gloria Steinem said this is the most useless conversation I've ever been subjected to a lot. And but no she talked about about women she talked about this extraordinary crusade. And I think Crusades an appropriate word that she and other women have led the fight still goes on as we only to painfully know and to me Gloria Steinem is one of the heroic figures of our country and it's because she's a person of social conscience a person who believes in equality and who believes that women are in every way equal to men. Oh great. Dick Flavin I mentioned earlier that Donald Hall who is the nation's poet laureate has written about that Finley park in baseball. But you are the poet laureate for the Red Sox What does that mean.

It means that I get paid somewhat less than a utility infielder would be paid today but I pay great Actually there is no pay grade which isn't so bad because it cuts down on competition for the job. Who are you. I just love writing these little poems is too highfalutin a word to stuff it in even medium pollutant. But it's versatile posy. And it scans in it and it rhymes and I just love doing it. Cali all my life really. From the time I discovered Robert Service and Kipling and Ogden Nash and all those people and I just found it's a way to express yourself that that is that is unique and people tend to remember and I have a good time doing it. Are there parts of the park that inspire you to write or is it just the whole

essence of the essence. It's the playing field. It's the things that I have seen more than 60 years ago I went to my first game there and the things I have seen there and that I have read about that happened before my time I just find inspiring you know baseball in this part of the world as. It's like a religion. You know people's fathers pass it on to them and their fathers had their fathers pass it on to them and you know when you think of. Hundred years ago Honey Fitz are going out that first pitch probably dreaming that one day he might take grandsons to that ball park and those grandsons weren't yet born yet but he had a daughter Rose it was seeing an ambitious young banker from East Boston named Kennedy. Maybe that would produce something and it produced five daughters and four grandsons. Honey Fitz to take to the to the ballpark and he did many times and now they're

all part of history. But there are still progeny as of then that come out every year and honey Fitz's great great grandson is is running for is running for Congress and he's part of Fenway Park too. It just inspires me that way. Well you've been inspired enough to write a very special point for this centennial called Long live Fenway Park and we couldn't go out without your giving us a preview of the three that you're going to give tomorrow. Yeah. For a hundred years she's stood here heard cheering seen our tears through all the good times and the bad Fenway perseverance she's baseball's great crown jewel a treasure. This is why look out there on her field you'll see the ghosts of games gone by this Babe Ruth standing on the mound Ted Williams at the plate. Someone's great grandfather just came in through the gate that he has patrolling in left field and center Freddy Lynn Cronin's playing shortstop a pesky is coming in.

Louis Tionne whirls and spins and then he lets it go and there's another leaping catch by Dom DiMaggio Jim Rice lines one off the wall miles on comes in to score put drafty a makes a diving stop. Or is that Bobby Doerr Fisk hits one deep into the night. Will it be foul affair. It caroms off a foul pole in the cheers still fairly air. Dewey Evans right. Just cut a runner down. There's Tony C still young and strong. The toast of his hometown. Robert steals another bass pinch running from the law. There's Lomborg Raddatz Jamie Fox and Pedro and Nomar. Look closely you can see they've all come here every day. Fenway was and is their home is where ghosts still play and in the dugout by first base it's just the current squad. Someday they will take their place was all of Fenway gods. That's why this place is magic. Why she's made such a mark. She's 100 and still

going strong. And long live Fenway Park. Hooray hooray. Thank you both so much. And we have been talking about the relationship between Fenway Park and our great writers and that was the great Dick Flavin. I've been speaking with George Mitrovica chairman of the great Finn way Park writer series and Dick Flavin Fenway parks poet laureate. Tonight the writer series is hosting a special event at Fenway Park. Fenway Park in my life. A panel discussion featuring Mike Dukakis Charles Ogletree Ed Markey among others to learn more visit our website WGBH dot org slash Kelly Crossley. Up next more Fenway Park talk with our person there and voice expert Elena Zucker but she'll teach us how we can root for the Red Sox without wrecking our vocal chords. This is WGBH Boston Public Radio. The.

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anyway. Good afternoon I'm Cally Crossley If you're just tuning in we're marking Fenway is 1 100th anniversary. I'm joined by opera singer and voice expert Alain Azuba raver. She is a voice coach to screaming Red Sox fans late as a bar ever. Welcome back. Hi Kayla I am so delighted to be back. And we're delighted to have you here. So tell everybody how you use your skills as an opera singer to teach fans they're often screaming Red Sox fans how to protect their vocal chords. Well it's false it was me when I couldn't bear anymore to hear their damaged voices off to the game because I happened to leave right close to the Fenway Park. And so I decided to do this class. So basically I'm teaching them to be a

little bit of a single song be just a tiny bit gently on their voices because truth be told if you scream even if you do it correctly you still damage your voice a little bit bought if you know at least a few good tips you can minimize the damage and I think that's what's really important. I'm going to play a sample of some Red Sox fans and then I want you to tell me how you do the sing a song a thing. So here's a sample of some Red Sox fans doing their thing what was. Right. That's the. Facts right. OK that's not as loud as they could be but still. But you know what you did was pretty good. That's pretty good yes that was excellent except those hi hey you know this weird business. But when they were really singing that's exactly how they should be screaming. And in fact last spring Good Morning America filmed me doing this class right on the stadium. And I checked how much projection they could get if they really use their

frontal resonators and if they really tried to project their voice and try to do this waterfall with a song so to speak. So it does work. Give me an example. Well for example if I would be screaming like this rat's ass that's a horrible damage because that is actually how I can develop polyps on my vocal chords which is yet you know. But if I will be screaming right. It's most in the song do you see that. Yes I think it's a little bit closer to what we opera singers do. And I could do this for hours with my voice so severely. That's what I'm trying to teach them. So in the part where they're saying hey hey you said that's bad now what about that. Well that's precisely because. You know that's what they were doing. It's a lot a lot talk which is at this very severe bursting of your vocal folds against the child. They didn't breathe and they didn't use their facial resonators so they just use their threads. And imagine say you have to run

right and you probably would do some stretches and you would money right how your body feels. People don't do it with their voices. They think that their voices will stay with them forever without any protective measures. So you just explain why people leave the ballpark and other places where they've been screaming why they can't talk. And it's really exhausting it. It feels bad. Yeah. And so one of the things that we want to make clear is that this may seem like a small thing but it's not that this is a big issue really nationally about people damaging their voices in these small ways but regular ways and in fact when I was talking to my collaborator Dr. Phillips song at an ear and Doctor Peter no design at Boston University they would stress that you know there is indeed an issue national wide issue in America with this speaking in screaming voices. People do damage it without realizing the damage. Say indeed somebody would go to a sporting event screamed there and then the next

day you don't really have the voice that's OK in a few days the voice will come back. But it's a little raspy over there but you know I can deal with it. But in fact it could be a symptom of our the polyps or with tall I'm. We never know it could be throat cancer. But people don't even go check their voices they could live for years with chronic hoarseness. In fact there was a very disturbing I think study done at Duke University two years ago when they discovered that out of all the Americans millions of them who live daily with voice problems two thirds of them wouldn't go and check because although they think that it's not serious you know whatever or they think it will go away. But it could be indeed a sign a very very serious medical condition could be life threatening even. What who's most at risk women or men. Great question. Men and women have different issues when it come to voices man. We call it classic sports fan syndrome. They

usually go for sporting events scream there and then they have problems but polyps polyps could be removed by surgery so actually it's not that bad if I may say unless you don't want surgery or even Unfortunately in this country in particular we call the cheerleader voice syndrome typical scenario is this a young woman would go to a chill ridden squat right at the age of say 16 scream there and then by the time she's Sochi the vocal folds and the whole mass there thickens. And then she forces the voice to come out. That is how she can develop no tools and no tools. Khan very moved by surgery. Also the women in this country I always talk about it you know how politically incorrect they could be. The women of this counter try to speak way to leue because they want to project authority. And it is cold. Buggered buckle syndrome because by doing this women develop oftentimes muscle tension and this muscle tension could lead to

chronic coarseness. So you mean Bogart and Lauren Bacall the actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall the actors absolutely would you believe this and that's the real name for the syndrome or a medical name. Yeah. OK so who have you coached. And is there a difference between baseball let's say hockey or football fans and how they scream. It's a great great question. I coached only baseball fans as well as hockey fans. I was asked last summer during the Stanley Cup finals to coach some Bruins fans. I would say that the best would be the baseball fans and basketball fans. The worse could be hockey fans. These ones really really damage their voices and I don't know why whether they're demographics of some other reasons. But that is my professional expertise and opinion on that. So I believe baseball fans and basketball fans could breathe you know deeply and nicely because they're not in that danger to be honest with you but Bruins

fans should really watch out. Maybe it's because in hockey fans it seems you're screaming more. Whereas there are periods of time where you're just watching and maybe baseball and basketball actually you're right I never thought of it. Probably exactly right. Yeah and also you know the more they scream the more excited they get. And then it's a snowball effect. So that's probably it. I'm going to let you listen to the Red Sox fan singing you know the eighth inning strategical song Sweet Caroline a maid you can evaluate what you're hearing there. So here are the Red Sox fans singing eighth inning song Anthem Sweet Caroline. Thank you. Thank you. Good. To go. All right what do you think it is no the bands I expected the worst and who was really nervous here.

Bot there are two issues that they really should perhaps pay attention to one when the resists verse or the line that starts with all they use again the hard lot lot TOG they should and should be more law. Because how do you know that it's not oh I realize I'm pretty much so. That's OK because you know what a lot lot talk is such a pattern especially here in the north of America in Boston and New York. And it should be avoided. People should start gently when they start their lawn with balls and finally they should breathe which they probably don't. At least that's what I hear. Physically how do we do that so that we're breathing and getting the out as we should. We actually should read like we smell the roses which also grate right so you smell the roses and you should feel a ton expansion the your ribcage in low abdominal. Don't raise your shoulders and scan yourself for any attentions they shouldn't be any tensions in your neck in your facial muscles area. They should be nicely relaxed and keep

the smile which actually happens if you smell like you smell the flowers. That is the best way to breathe both in singing and speaking and screaming. How do you do that when you're so tense and Red Sox fans let's say it's a Yankee game forget it. They're really tense. What I know and I know it is difficult but believe it or not the chutes still have tiny part of the brain controlling their bodies even when they're completely in the game. Otherwise what next day they could lose their voices and I have seen careers and even marriages destroyed by the damage done to the voiceless. So I think some part of the people should still try to control. OK on the marriage thing was somebody screaming at the wife or the husband. It actually does happen in fact believe it or not once I heard this dispute between husband and wife right out of my window. So I went out and talked to them both and I said excuse me you know would you mind you know

sorry to bother you but actually you're both damaging their voices and since you know this weird person with a foreign accent you know what the heck do I have to call 911 or something. But they were caught so I had the time to explain to them what they doing wrong. And it was funny actually start to chill off and you are I think also helped to resolve the conflict. But I remember once I got a very very sick e-mail from a gentleman who told me that he divorced his wife because he couldn't at some point. Bare to hear that shrillness in her voice which actually got to worsen with time which I suspect when people psychologically tense they start to really using so-called habitual pitch which is either high or low than they should be the optimal pitch level of their voice. So probably poor woman was speaking higher and higher. She should have gone to voice their opinion or take some voice classes might have saved her marriage but maybe she's

happy now you know divorced. All right for those fans who are going to be on that field tomorrow at the 100th centennial celebration all revved up. But should be tense should be a happy occasion. That's what we what do you say to them. Please drink eight glasses of water every day and prefer the wrong temperature. Note she try to avoid alcohol I don't know how you can do that but I'm sure all I too must salt your facial muscles in the morning do for your gentle humming exercises like. Before you go to game and then think about your voice as a waterfall imagine it goes DOA onto the field and try to be slaw actually sing the song. That probably should help. So it's like Santi birthday. Everybody knows they found a way. I mean. People are going absolutely you can do in law if you wish to hand me about their phone but it's still fine as long as you do it in this wall to fall.

Man I know just from your throat I can't close without noting that you your talent has been noted by the movies now and you're going to be an upcoming project with one half of Brangelina. Yes. Tell us about it. Yes indeed. I'm in the new Brett ph movie which is called World War Z and it's about zombies which I had no idea about. I actually have a voice problem. Actually believe it a lot. They get attracted by the voices so all I will be there in a crucial battle scene singing an aria which in the beginning will be just attraction for the zombies you see they will become I mean their sound is that. And then my voice will become an inspiration for the piece character and all the people fighting the zone this is a very spectacular very beautiful scene. And you'll be saying Go away zombies. Yes. You are. Right. That I should have because I was so scary two of them that I am that frightening I actually can't imagine anybody going to movie theater and music at that for two hours.

All right so Red Sox fans should a woman come up to you to say your screaming. Oddly and wrongly pay attention. Thank you so much Elaine thank you so much. We've been marking Fenway centennial with voice expert and opera singer Elena Raba. She's also a voice coach to screaming Red Sox fans among others who want to hold on to their voice and to learn more about Elaina and her voice classes. You can visit our website at WGBH dot org slash Cali crossly. You can also follow us on Twitter and become a fan of the Calla Crossley Show on Facebook today show was engineered by Alan Mathis produced by Chelsea murders will Rose live. Abby Ruzicka with special thanks to our arts and culture contributor Alicia and Stan are in PV always hits it out of the ballpark where production of WGBH radio.