Fenway Park retrofit gives Red Sox players taste of luxury (boxes)

A pitching mound in a picnic area. Exercise bicycles in the concourse. Lockers in the luxury suites.

Banished from their spring training complex in Florida to their cozy home, the Red Sox are squeezing any space they can out of Fenway Park for summer camp, the reboot of spring training.

When players arrived last week, they found their lockers set up not in the traditional home clubhouse but in the upper-deck luxury suites along the first base line.

“It’s pretty cool eating breakfast in the suite looking out into the field,” first baseman Mitch Moreland said.“I don’t know if we’ll move back.”

Major league teams, including the Red Sox, have elaborate complexes at their spring training homes to help them prepare for the season, with enough lockers for everyone still trying to make the team and extra fields. But the century-old Fenway Park never had space for too many modern conveniences, let alone the social distancing demands of the pandemic. So the Red Sox had to find the room in unusual places.

The area under the first base stands became a workout room, with artificial turf over the cement walkway usually trod by fans and a batting cage blocking concession stands. A mound for pitchers to warm up is under the bleachers. Part of the players’ parking lot is used for intake testing.

“You can tell they put a lot of thought and consideration into the way they set this up,” OF Jackie Bradley Jr. said, adding he had never been in the luxury boxes before. The suites usually rent for as much as $14,300 per game, but with no fans expected this season they’re suddenly available.