The history behind Boston's CITGO sign

For all the notable slices of uniqueness inside of Fenway Park -- from the Green Monster to the triangle to Pesky’s Pole -- there is one every bit as notable just outside the ballpark that literally serves as a backdrop to every Red Sox game.

When a batter belts a towering shot into the night that skies way over the Green Monster, the baseball sometimes looks as if it’s headed toward the iconic and blinking CITGO sign in Kenmore Square.

If legend has it that a right-handed masher like Jimmie Foxx or Jim Rice or Manny Ramirez actually hit a baseball off that sign, you’ve been told a tall tale.

The iconic sign is estimated to be about 1,200 feet from home plate. So it would actually take about three separate home runs to make it that far. Due to the size of the sign and the neon lights, it almost feels like it is right behind the wall.

No visiting player loved hitting in Fenway Park more than Joe Carter, who had three-homer games at Fenway in 1986 and ’87. Perhaps it was around that time Carter told a reporter that when he watched some of his deep drives fly out of Fenway, he actually felt like the sign was saying to him, “C IT GO.”

Many players and fans who look up at that sign on a nightly basis probably wonder about its origins. The sign first appeared in 1940 as a Cities Service sign above that company’s regional headquarters. It was in 1965, when that company was rebranded, that it turned into the CITGO sign.

The sign is 60 feet by 60 feet -- there for all of the Back Bay to see if they are looking at it from the correct angle.

There was one period of time, from 1979-82, that the sign stayed dark. That was due to the oil crisis tied to the Iranian revolution. Red Sox fans, and most Boston residents, missed seeing the familiar blinking lights at night -- particularly while games were going on at Fenway Park.

CITGO had plans of taking the sign down in 1982. But in a classic case of absence making the heart grow fonder, Bostonians recognized their love for the blinking lights when they were no longer blinking. There was an outcry to turn those lights back on, and, in fact, preserve the sign as a historical landmark. That would be a process that would take decades.

On Aug. 10, 1983, many people got their wish, as the sign was finally relit.

There were some bumps along the road -- most notably in 2008 when the sign caught fire, which caused about $5,000 worth of damage. There was even a char mark to serve as a remembrance of that burn.

Not to worry though -- the sign received another renovation in 2010 with lights that were more environmentally friendly.

Although Boston Mayor Marty Walsh vetoed the Boston Landmark Commission’s vote to make the sign an official city landmark in 2018, he made an agreement at the same time that insured the sign will stand for decades to come. Citgo Petroleum Corp and developer Richard Beal signed a 30-year term to keep the sign in Kenmore Square.

Thanks to that agreement, there will be many more hitters who send moonshots over the Monster and “C IT GO” as they round the bases.