When his father’s health issues stopped him from going to the game, this Yankees fan stepped in and brought Fenway Park to him.
Michael Bisono may root for the Yankees, but he won New Englanders’ hearts by building a miniature Fenway Park for his father, a die-hard Red Sox fan who can no longer visit the real one.
“[A friend] said to me, you’re the first Yankees fan that they’re not talking crap about,” Bisono said, laughing. The love and support that they’ve received has been “amazing” for the father-son duo. “We just wanted to share the love with everybody that we have for each other,” he said.
Michael’s father, Antonio Bisono, 77, came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1968 and has been a lifelong Red Sox fan. Michael, raised in Cranston, Rhode Island, strayed from the example after he started doing his homework with a family friend who loved the Yankees.
It’s the rivalry that brings them together, he says. The pair went to the first Red Sox vs. Yankees series each season (which is also the weekend of Antonio’s birthday) and they would switch whose bench they would sit behind every time.
Then, last year Antonio suffered a heart attack. Michael says it was the family’s love of baseball that carried them through the difficult period. Every night he told his father, “The Red Sox did the impossible and came back from 0-3. You will do the impossible too and gain strength. You are my ‘04 Red Sox.”
When Antonio returned home from the hospital, he wasn’t physically able to make the trip to Fenway. “The rivalry didn’t feel the same anymore,” Michael said. But when he saw his father sitting “in his little chair” in the yard, Michael imagined how he might bring Fenway Park home.
Michael started shopping around to make the project come to life, finding color matches, a Fenway Park chair, and signs almost identical to those in the stadium. He began by painting the structure the same shade as the Green Monster.
Antonio thought his son was just doing a few renovations, and pointed out that it was an odd color to use, given how similar it was to the stadium.
“He never had a clue until he walked out. He couldn’t believe it,” Michael said. “He started crying and saying, ‘Do I deserve this?’ I said, ‘You definitely deserve it.’ And I said, ‘This is for you, this is your Fenway Park.’”
The finished structure shows the numbers of their favorite players and, on the left, numbers representing Michael’s father, mother, and grandmother. It features a scoreboard the same as the Sox’s comeback against the Yankees in 2004, a lit-up Citgo sign that can be seen from across the neighborhood, and a Yankees/Red Sox sign that reads, “A House Divided, but Hearts United.”
A month later, the Red Sox invited the father and son to a game. “He made out pretty well,” Michael said, pointing to his father, who sat surrounded by a handful of Red Sox hats—souvenirs Michael had brought home whenever he went to games without him. Antonio was able to add to his collection after attending the game: a signed bat, a jacket, and a commemorative ring gifted by the team.
“I love Boston,” Antonio said.
While Michael originally didn’t know if his father could safely accept the invitation, the Red Sox offered them player parking and handicapped seating on the field.
“It was just such a beautiful moment. I mean, my dad was so excited that he was holding his cane. He wasn’t even using it as he walked into the stadium,” Michael said. “It was just a great, great feeling. It was like reliving his childhood, and watching him so happy was what was important to me.”
Michael is happy the story has touched so many, in particular those who are no longer able to go to a game with their family. “We share the story for the people that can do it and the people that wish that they could do it,” he said. “That’s what we think about.”
“It’s always family first for me, Yankees second, you know? Same thing [for Antonio], family first, Red Sox second,” Michael said. It might be one of the most bitter rivalries in sports, but it’s what has brought them together.
To sign off, Antonio had a prediction: “We’re going to win this year.”
“Now he’s going a little bit too far with that,” Michael said, laughing.