Fans have been attending baseball games at Fenway Park for close to a century. Over the years, concerts and other live events have been added to the list of entertainment that has taken place at this historic venue. Now pregame ceremonies such as throwing out the first pitch or celebrating championships have become a staple of the Fenway experience.
Dan Lyons has been a major player in the evolution of the fan experience as manager of entertainment and special event operations. Lyons is in charge of planning and executing all of the ceremonies and fan activities that take place at Fenway. His job is to make your visit to the ballpark enjoyable and one that you will remember for years to come.
NESN.com: How long have you been with the Red Sox and how did you get the position?
Dan Lyons: I've been here for 32 years. I started off working in the ticket office and at the time I was working over at the Boston Garden answering phones and taking tickets orders for the events at the Garden. They were using a credit card sale system there and then they started doing that here at Fenway Park. My job was basically a fall/winter job and when that was done I wanted to do something for the summer, so they had a similar position open up here and I worked in the ticket office for 13 years.
I spent the next 10 years working in the private suites and I was also the club manager for, at the time it was called the 600 Club, now it's the State Street Pavilion, for about four years. Then I went into stadium operations and was helping out with the ushers and ticket takers and I was doing all the on-field events when the team was out of town. Then about five years ago, I was asked to help out with the pregame ceremonies and what was a simple little operation became very complex because we do so many things with the ceremonies before the games now.
NESN.com: Talk about the evolution of the pregame ceremonies and when that started?
DL: When the new ownership came in, there was a lot of emphasis on trying to recognize charities or other organizations rather than just coming to a baseball game. There are a lot of people who are Red Sox fans and the ownership wanted to have some sort of time or moment for them to come to the field and let them know about some of the things that are going on whether it's in the community or with new organizations.
I'm going to say it started in 2002 or 2003 and its just kind of grown and grown and grown and anybody who's come to the games and seen some of the ceremonies we've had before, its quite a production now.
NESN.com: What are the biggest ceremonies you put together at Fenway during the year?
DL: I think that the Opening Day ceremonies are always a big production. We really want to put our best foot forward and really put on a great presentation. Then winning two World Series, obviously the ring ceremonies were always a big production. The first time that I was involved with a ring ceremony was in 2008 and the theme to that was The Champions. We wanted to honor all our other teams and their championships so we had some of the alumni that had won championships come to the game and be a part of the ceremony.
We had each organization bring their trophies and obviously the Stanley Cup, which does not belong to any certain team, was the toughest thing to get. But we were able to get that to come and when the all four trophies were together, the vice president of the Hockey Hall of Fame said it was the first time that the Stanley Cup had been together with all the other championship trophies.
There's a picture on the wall in the hallway of all four trophies and when you think back on it, it was quite a day just seeing all these champions and athletes together. I always enjoy watching the guys from football talking to guys in baseball and the hockey guys talking to the basketball guys and just having them all together in one place was pretty special.
NESN.com: How many events do you put on in a year?
DL: There are 81 regular-season games and we do a lot of other events as well. Coming up this week is the Cape Cod League All-Star Game, so we help out with that, and we have the Futures of Fenway coming up in August. We support a lot of the other departments with events here at Fenway Park, whether it's concerts, Picnic in the Park or the Run to Home Base program, which was a big day. We had the race in the morning and the pregame ceremony that night.
We have an event every Christmas time called Christmas at Fenway and that's basically the kickoff to our ticket season where we help try to make that whole day a little more enjoyable for fans rather than them just waiting in line. We put on a little show for them, some of our players and alumni are around and we have games for the kids. It's just part of the whole idea of trying to make everyone's visit to Fenway Park that much more enjoyable and something that when they walk out of here they say, "I had a real good time." When that happens. you know you've done your job.
NESN.com: What has been your favorite moment at Fenway Park?
DL: There have been so many things, I couldn't just name one. If I had to go in chronological order, when I first started we weren't in the playoffs that much, so when 1986 came rolling around and we were going to win the American League East, I was really getting excited. I said I'm going to see them win a division title here and just to be a part of the what the excitement was here at Fenway Park. Anybody who's been around Fenway for any of the postseason activities can tell you it's a different feeling from the regular season. It's almost like the excitement, the intensity, raises just above what a regular-season game is like, so that was special throughout that whole '86 postseason.
The 1999 All-Star game was just outstanding and we had the All-Century Team here. I was in a room with them before they went onto the field and I remember looking around and thinking, "I'm standing among the greatest players in baseball." I just took it all in and thought, "This is kind of special, this doesn't happen every day." The 2004 postseason, especially the Yankees series, was pretty dramatic, very tense, so that was outstanding, and '07 was the same thing too. I would have to say those were the big moments.
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