Antonio and Michael Bisono don’t let one of sports’ oldest and most historic rivalries get in the way of their bond as father and son. Like the “magic mud” that lines baseballs themselves, the sport helps hold them together. And this emotional glue is now connected with a bit of real glue.
After going to games together for over 20 years, Antonio (a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan) could no longer make the trip up to Fenway Park to watch the team take on his son Michael’s beloved New York Yankees.
“I remember it like it was yesterday. Juan Soto signed with the Yankees and it was one of the biggest games. He was coming to Fenway for the first time,” Michael Bisono tells Popular Science. “A couple of days prior, my father had a heart attack, and it was horrible. He was in a hospital bed for two months and he basically had to learn how to walk and everything else.”
When Antonio began spending a lot of time in his backyard walking and regaining his footing, an idea struck Michael.
“I was looking at his yard, and it was just so plain. And I said to myself, ‘He’s always out here. He can’t go to Fenway Park, so I would love to build something for him.”
Michael, who works for the United States Postal Service and for a traffic sign company, got to a different kind of work. He studied Fenway Park’s signage, took lots of pictures of his dad’s backyard in Cranston, Rhode Island, and watched construction tutorials on YouTube. Ultimately, he was trying to customize their own little Fenway in the backyard so that the pair could have that feeling of being at a game without leaving home.
“One of the chairs was a simple chair, but I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to go buy an artificial turf, and I’m going to measure a piece of plywood, cut the plywood, put the artificial turf on top, and then drill the chair together so he could get the feel of just the grass, and then it’ll feel better on his feet,’ So, things like that,” Bisono explains.
Crucially, he found a way to bring in the 113-year-old ballpark’s signature colors.
“I was looking at Fenway colors and I noticed that Benjamin Moore has the Fenway color green, and they have the color Fenway red,” laughs Bisono.
That green hue also almost gave Bisono away while he was working on the project. Antonio saw some of the green paint and commented that it looked a lot like the Green Monster–the iconic 37-foot-2-inch-high left field wall. Michael brushed it off, saying that he just chose the color because he likes green. Fortunately, that deflection worked.
An authentic New England feel was also central to the project, as Michael is adamant in his support for local businesses and vendors.
“It didn’t have to all be local, but all from New England,” he says.
That commitment to sticking with New England vendors paid off. Jim and Kelly Boudreau from the Etsy vendor Winni Made in Gilford, New Hampshire re-made the iconic Fenway Park sign that hangs on the front of the backyard ballpark.
“I wanted it to look like the Fenway Park sign, where it was faded. She put the epoxy on it, carefully wrapped it for me, and even did one of the Green Monster seats,” says Bisono. “Even the pillows were from Etsy.”
The actual building part was not all fun and games. Bisono faced some general difficulties working with the plywood he used to build out the structure and custom scoreboard. No ballpark is complete without lighting, so he needed to climb up on top and clip all of the lights together in the right place. He also needed to install proper drainage so that the Rhode Island weather didn’t do too much damage to the passion project.
“Basically the hardest thing about it was trying to do something that I’ve never done before,” says Bisono. “I’m hands-on, but I’m not a hands-on construction builder-type guy. It was a new thing, but I’ll tell you what, out of love I was definitely going to make it happen.”
The love is even visible in an Easter egg you won’t see at a Red Sox game. Retired Red Sox numbers are on the right side of the park as they would be in Fenway, but a set of numbers you won’t see in Fenway lines on the other.
“On the left hand side are three numbers, 5, 11, 13,” he says. “The 5 is dedicated to my grandmother who passed away. The 11 is for my mother since her birthday is September 11. And then the 13th is for my father. His birthday is June 13.”
One important final touch: installing a TV so that the pair could watch the games together.
“This is about us. It’s about sharing our story and how much I love my father, how much I love my family,” Bisono reflects.
He plans to add something new to their own slice of Fenway every year. He’s working on fixing up the roof. Once that is fixed, Bisono wants to add a large logo, “so if a drone goes by or somebody flies by, you can see the Big Red Sox logo on top.” While he hasn’t quite figured this part out, he also would like to add in a yellow pole to stand in for the Peksy Pole–Fenway Park’s right field foul pole.
For any other hobbyists or tinkerers hoping to create something similar to this backyard ballpark project, Bisono offers some practical advice.
“If you love it, do it. Get creative. Think about it, and don’t cut it short. What I mean by don’t cut it short is, if you put your mind to it and you want it, nothing is too big. I wanted to start off with a small project, and then I loved it so much that I kept on expanding on it,” he says. “When you have a hobby and when you are creative, it takes a lot of mental stress away from you. Sometimes you need time for yourself, and I think this is a good outlet.”
It also helps when it is a true labor of love.
“The project was made from the heart and [for] someone that I care for daily,” Bisono says. “For me and for everyone else, it could just be something where it’s a hobby. But your creation can change the course of someone’s life.”
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