Fenway toasted by Red Sox old-timers

(CBS/AP) BOSTON - All the big names are here for the 100th birthday of Fenway Park.

More than 200 former players and coaches were at the majors' oldest ballpark on Friday to celebrate its anniversary. The "lyric little bandbox" opened on April 20, 1912, for a Red Sox game against the New York Highlanders (who later became the Yankees).

Carl Yastrzemski, Johnny Pesky, Mo Vaughn and others walked out on the field for a pregame ceremony. Former Red Sox manager Terry Francona took the field to chants of "Tito!"

They were joined by the current players, who took the field in uniforms replicating the ones worn in 1912.

The Yankees also wore throwback uniforms.

Fenway, its weird dimensions crammed tightly into a vibrant neighborhood, has been home to all sorts of history — fanatics, flakes, fires and flameouts — since the Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders in the opener on April 20, 1912.

Last year's September collapse came after two World Series championships, the Red Sox first since 1918, in seven years.

This year, the Yankees, the successor to the Highlanders, and Red Sox are off to slow starts, the Yankees at 6-6 before facing Minnesota on Thursday night and the Red Sox at 4-8.

"I'll always remember the first time I hit a home run over the Green Monster," Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said. "It was my second year in the big leagues and I'm like, `Wow, that's pretty cool."'

Teammate Derek Jeter has mixed feelings about the wall.

"That's what makes it different than anywhere else," he said. "I still aim for the wall. ... That's been my problem."

The Red Sox invited all uniformed personnel who they were able to track down to Friday's pregame ceremonies.

Former manager Terry Francona was there after initially declining the invitation because of lingering bitterness over the way he was let go following last season and the aftermath. Pitcher Curt Schilling, the "bloody-sock" hero of the 2004 championship, said it will be "impossible" for him to participate because of business at his video-game company.

"Please understand that should in no way indicate my love and passion for Red Sox Nation," the outspoken Schilling, who already has criticized new manager Bobby Valentine, said in a statement.

The Red Sox beat the Highlanders in the Fenway opener 7-6 on an 11th-inning RBI single by Tris Speaker. Boston went on to win the World Series that year.

In January 1934, a five-alarm fire damaged seating areas along the left-field line and the center-field bleachers during a construction project to refurbish the park. The work was finished in time for the season, with the addition of the 37-foot high left field wall, the Green Monster.

But in the `90s, there were numerous calls for the wrecking ball. Advocates of a new stadium, including then owner John Harrington, contended that Fenway was too old and decrepit to be saved.

But after John Henry and Tom Werner became the primary owners in February 2002, they embarked on a program of annual upgrades that added seats above the Green Monster and on the right-field roof, upgraded concourses and seating areas and took other steps to insure that Fenway would flourish well into the new century.

"There'd be a revolution in this town if they got rid of Fenway Park," said Gary Bell, a pitcher on the 1967 "Impossible Dream" team that won the AL pennant after finishing ninth the previous year. "They can't ever get rid of this place. Look at it. It's like a cathedral."

And, said longtime fan Dolores LeGeyt of Medford as she stood on the warning track, "it's like walking on history."

Well-known diehard Red Sox fan, actor and comedian Denis Leary told CBS News he was 5 or 6 years old when he visited the ballpark for the first time. Leary grew up a Red Sox fan in nearby Worcester, Mass.

"When you see those guys when you are a little kid, they seem huge," Leary said. "When I got older and I started to go to other ballparks, that's when I knew how special the place was."