April 3, 2008 Fenway Park gets a facelift Play video

(NECN: Boston, Mass.) - Did you think the players were the only ones working hard to start the Red Sox season? At the age of 96, Fenway Park needs a little spa treatment every now and then and on Thursday, Boston Mayor Tom Menino was given a guided tour of some of the changes at the old ballpark.

Remember the coke bottles on the lights? Gone. Instead, there is the Coca-Cola corner in left field which adds to the 875 new seats at Fenway. Also gone: the traditional trash cans, lifted in favor of the new solar-powered trash compactors at the park.

There are new stairwells, concessions, renovated bathrooms and structural upgrades -- all things the Sox say are needed to compete with their nemesis on the field -- the Yankees, who next year will move into a new stadium designed to boost their already enormous revenue system.

First pitch at Fenway is set for Tuesday -- only four days away. That means, the race to finish the upgrades is as tight as the race the players usually find themselves in around mid-September.

NECN's Josh McElveen has more.