The Official $12 Fenway Park Tour

When dads have enough neckties, Dave Barry books, and an endless supply of Old Spice, the Father's Day present can be a tough find. So, instead of looking to the department stores, this year we took dear ol' dad out to Fenway Park. No, not to see an actual game. (How the hell are we suppose to get tickets?) Shelling out $12 per person and joining a group of 60 other Sox fans (with one idiot in a Yankees jersey), the family took our first Fenway Park tour.

Leaving every hour on the hour seven days a week, our tour was led by a blond shaggy haired lad who was quite knowledgeable in everything Fenway. He started out by taking us to the press room, which is actually the biggest press box of any MLB parks. We had the opportunity to sit in the New York Post seats and of course picked up the phone that was sitting in front of us and then hung it up. A few minutes later, we learned that each of the phones was directly connected to that media outlet's sports editor. So, we like to assume that the Post's editor wasn't too pissed that we called (and that we ignored the glaring sign saying "do not pick up this phone.")

From there, we made our way over to the impressive State Street Pavillion seats which were just added this past year. With cushioned seats and cup holders, this section of the park is a nice improvement and we'd gladly take these seats over the much hyped but not that comfortable Budweiser roof deck seats. Our guide then got into some Fenway specifics including the fact that the Fenway Green paint is trademarked and owned by John Henry himself. Sure, there's Peskey's Pole but we learned that the left field foul poll is referred to as Fiske's Pole. Then he went into each number that's retired at Fenway and some of the "fun facts" of the history.

While friends of ours got to go in the dugout when they took their tour, the field was completely off limits the day we were there. Since the Sox were away for 2 weeks, the grounds crew had been laying sod. Despite the fact that we never got field level on the tour, we were able to sit in those Monster seats which were pretty impressive. Although a dozen or so people have gotten broken noses sitting in them, the view is pretty cool and would be worth the money for just one game.

After snapping some photos and grabbing a Watermelon Ale across the street at Beer Works, we'd have to say that dad was a hell of a lot happier than last year when we presented him with a homemade free carwash coupon.

Tickets for Fenway Park Tours are $12 for adults, $11for senior citizens 60 and older and $10 for children between the ages of 2 and 15. Fenway tours are held seven days a week, rain or shine.