Score! A Look at Boston's Unknown Athletic Landmarks

Sports culture seeps from every corner of the city. Here’s where to catch a glimpse of the area’s lesser-known sports landmarks.

FOR: THE BASEBALL FANATIC

WHY: The site of the first World Series
WHERE: Behind Cabot Cage on the campus of North eastern University
WHAT: The first World Series was in Boston, but not at Fenway. It was here, formerly known as Huntington Avenue American League Baseball Grounds, in 1903, between the Boston Pilgrims (now the Red Sox) of the new American League and National League champion Pittsburgh Pirates. There’s a statue of Pilgrims pitcher Cy Young and a piece of home plate-shaped granite in the precise spot of the original.
FUN FACT: So, who won the first World Series? Boston.

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FOR: THE SCANDAL-LOVER

WHY: The site where the Black Sox Scandal was hatched
WHERE: The Hotel Buckminster
WHAT: It was in a room of this Kenmore Square hotel where a Boston bookmaker named Joe Sullivan made a deal with Chicago White Sox first baseman Chick Gandil to throw the 1919 World Series.
FUN FACT: Gandil was one of the eight Chicago players forever banned from baseball, including the beloved “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, as depicted in the movie Eight Men Out.

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FOR: THE GRIDIRON FAN

WHY: The site of the first American Football League game
WHERE: Nickerson Field at Boston University (formerly Braves Field)
WHAT: The first regular season game of the AFL was played here on Sept. 9, 1960, between the Boston (now New England) Patriots and the Denver Broncos. The stadium had been vacated by Boston’s baseball team, then known as the Boston Braves, when they left for Milwaukee in 1953 (later they moved to Atlanta). Today, the historic field is owned by Boston University.
FUN FACT: Braves Field was the site of three World Series, as well as Major League Baseball’s longest game, which was between the Braves and the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 1, 1920 and lasted 26 innings.

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FOR: THE GOLFER

WHY: The Massachusetts Golf House and Museum
WHERE: TPC Boston Golf Course
WHAT: Considered the father of American golf, Francis Ouimet was a 20-year-old caddy at the Brookline Country Club in suburban Boston when he won the 1913 US Open. This new, free museum has Ouimet’s jacket, medals, clubs and other historic memorabilia from his Cinderella run at that year's Open.
FUN FACT: The son of a French-Canadian father and an Irish immigrant mother, Ouimet was the first American to be elected captain of Scotland's Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

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FOR: THE BARFLY

WHY: McGreevy’s
WHERE: 1,200 steps east of Fenway Park
WHAT: Co-owned by the founder of the baseball-obsessed Irish-punk band Dropkick Murphys, McGreevy’s is modeled after a 19th-century forebear called the 3rd Base Saloon. McGreevy’s proclaims itself to be America’s first sports bar and the birthplace of Red Sox Nation. Every inch of it is a shrine to Boston sports.
FUN FACT: The light fixtures are made of baseball bats contributed by Red Sox players. The Guinness barbe cue wings aren’t bad, either.