The Fenway Park Red Seat: A Tribute to Home Run History
A closer look at the Fenway Park red seat, an eye-catching reminder of Ted Williams’s record-setting home run.
Todd Balf
Flying My Flag | First Person
An outdoor adventurer refuses to give in to disability.
Finding Juno | First Person
In a famed Revolutionary War town, a darker history comes to light.
A Lobster Trap Menorah Shines in Gloucester, Massachusetts
From the ashes of a fire that destroyed a Massachusetts city’s lone synagogue arose a symbol of community across different faiths.
The Most Famous Fish Shack in the World | First Light
Behind its picturesque facade, this little red building in Rockport, Massachusetts, holds meaning and memories.
The Way Back
When an athlete and adventurer can no longer even stand up, what can he do? A memoir of fatherhood, losing hope, and finding it again from Todd Balf.
If we were born to run, why do our knees hurt so much? | The Big Question
Harvard medical researcher Irene Davis, Ph.D., believes that our knees hurt because a lot of what we understand about running is wrong. She also believes something else the world might not be ready for: that a person can be retrained to run differently to lessen the chance of injury, not to mention ridicule. Dr. Davis, […]
Ship’s Cabin | The Most Unusual Room in New England
On the top floor of the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts, is a once-secret room soaked in the legacy of the sea and the ships’ captains who sailed into history. [slideshow post_id=”554455″] On Columbus Day weekend 2013 my friend John Wigglesworth meets me in downtown Salem, Massachusetts, outside the historic Hawthorne Hotel. He’s taking me […]
Artist Oliver Balf Remembered | My Father’s Canvas
When the family of artist Oliver Balf combed through a lifetime of paintings, they discovered truths about the artist’s passion, and themselves. October 2010: I remember his being tired but relieved after a long day of international travel. The spare kibbutz “guest house” that we arrived at in advance of a family wedding amused us […]
Best 5 Mountain-Bike Trails
Longtime Yankee contributor and Massachusetts native Todd Balf, who has ridden mountain-bike trails from New Zealand to Venezuela. We asked him to share his picks for the best 5 mountain bike trails in New England. Great Brook Farm State Park (Carlisle, MA) Twenty miles of trails beyond the red farm buildings at the entrance to […]
Racing with Henry
Sometimes a miracle happens–a parent can become a hero again.
Around Cape Ann With a Paddle
The 20-mile Blackburn Challenge, “the East Coast’s premier open-water human-powered boat competition,” is named for a Gloucester fisherman who famously froze his fingers to his oars in order to row back from God knows where in the middle of winter in 1883. The good news is he survived. The bad news is he lost enough […]