In August of 1984, I escaped the wasteland of upstate New York’s sports scene and moved to Boston. Before I even moved into my apartment that Saturday afternoon, I parked the (packed-up) car and headed over to Fenway Park to meet my friends in the outfield bleachers. Upon my arrival at the pearly, er, iron gates, I entered via my $4 ticket and made my way into the seating area that would become my sanctuary of choice for the next 15 years.

Four dollars to get into Fenway. Two beers for under a fin. A couple of Fenway Franks for three dollars. Oh, how the times have changed. This column will not be the rant of some old fuddy-duddy lamenting the way it used to be at Fenway, nor will it be laden with reminiscences about the "good ol’ days" and "back-then-it-was-done-this-way" recollections. It will be a straightforward look at how the crown jewel of baseball parks has changed, for better or worse, as we approach the 2003 season.

• The park itself has in some ways been significantly altered in the past 20 years, with some of those modifications happening long before the current ownership team came in and began its reconstruction projects last year. Fact is, the Yawkey Trust gang did some good things with the park that made it more fan-friendly, but they also implemented some changes that have come back to haunt them. The first major change in the ’80s was the construction of the Jumbotron scoreboard in center field, which finally gave fans around the park the chance to see a scoreboard other than the antiquated hand-operated version that continues to reside on the bottom half of the left-field Green Monster. With the addition of the state-of-the-art scoreboard, player photos, stats, and announcements could now be easily conveyed to the faithful (except for those poor souls in the upper reaches of the bleachers, whose view from beneath the monolith was restricted).

The other major change prior to this decade was the 1988 addition of the 600 Club (last summer renamed the .406 Club), the huge seating structure that replaced the minimalist press box behind home plate. The 600 Club offered big-wig fans the opportunity to watch the game through a huge plate-glass window, away from the elements, with movie-theater-style seating and convenient food-and-beverage service (with quality elements not available to the riff-raff down in the grandstands below). The sterile quality of the .406 Club is not for everyone, and except for the piped-in noise from the game itself, it is very quiet and antiseptic — hardly the game experience baseball’s founding fathers would have had in mind. The .406 Club serves its purpose, though, adding much-needed luxury-box space for fat-cat clients that adds to Sox management’s coffers.

Additional seating was added to Fenway for the purposes of increasing capacity prior to the 1999 All-Star Game, but the new owners have continued to look for more ways to add seating, and thereby, revenue. In 2002, two extra rows were constructed from dugout to dugout, with the added seats going for a ridiculous $200 per. More of those types of seats have reportedly been added for this season, which further reduces the already-limited foul territory. But the biggest change — some might say the most colossal aesthetic change in the modern history of the park — is the addition of 312 seats that are now being constructed on top of the 37-foot-high wall in left field. These seats, which will most likely extend over the Lansdowne Street sidewalk, will offer no better view of the game than the bleacher seats do now, but they'll provide another million bucks to John Henry & Co. (based on a reported $40-a-seat price tag). Many will find the spectacle of seating in left field sacrilege, but ownership continues to struggle to put a high-salaried, high-quality team on the field in baseball’s smallest park (attendance will now be around 34,300), and if it is not willing or fiscally able to finance a new ballpark at this time, then adding seats is the only alternative.

• On that same theme, ticket prices at Fenway over the years have skyrocketed. Whereas the majors’ average ticket price is around 19 bucks, the Sox’ ticket average approaches $38 per game. As recently as 10 years ago, Sox tickets averaged just $11.67; they’ve tripled in price since then, with the greatest punch coming prior to the 2001 season, when the bozos running the Yawkey Trust wanted one last gouge before they sold the club, and implemented an across-the-board 27.1 percent increase.

In the years after I first moved here, it was not uncommon for me to pick up 10 to 15 tickets for Opening Day, then invite a whole gang to fill out the dance card. After all, the investment was only around $50–$60 for that whole block of tickets. Now, with most bleacher tickets going for around $20, this kind of pre-season spontaneity is prohibitive, and the out-of-pocket expense is too great to plan a group outing of this nature. Tickets for the good seats — infield boxes and grandstand — continue to be hard to find for the average Joe, yet even if you do track them down, you’ll shell out $70 or $44 respectively to watch the game. Some might argue that that’s what you’d pay for most Broadway-style shows that come to town, but when you’ve got parking and concessions along with that $70 ducat price, and it could be 45 degrees and drizzling at the venue, then it doesn’t seem quite as appetizing, even though you’re on hallowed ground in America’s best park.

• Concession prices have almost become prohibitive as well, but at least the quality and variety of the items available have improved significantly. Nonetheless, it’s still hard to fathom paying $3.50 for a hot dog, four bucks for a bottle of Coke, $4.75 for a watery beer, or $5.75 for a large bag of peanuts. At those rates, a three-hour game will easily drain your wallet of at least 20 or 30 bills in addition to the aforementioned costs. Give the ownership and concessionaire Aramark credit for opening up the choice of foodstuffs, though, since you can now get fajitas, clam chowder, Papa Gino pizzas, chicken fingers, and other assorted culinary delights that were nonexistent in prior decades. Ten additional concession stands have made the waits shorter, too, and Fenway’s restroom facilities, while not yet resembling anything the FleetCenter or Gillette Stadium have to offer, still offer improvements over the "troughs" and long lines that used to be commonplace. The addition of ATMs throughout the newly expanded concourse offers fans an added convenience, although the need for them is heavier because of the outlandish price tag at Fenway Park in 2003.

• The problem of scalpers was supposedly going to be addressed last season, but after the first couple of weeks they were out in force every game day with nary a law-enforcement official in sight. At minimum, it seems like the new ownership is sympathetic to fans’ plight, and may soon offer an area or process whereby ticket-holders stuck with extra tickets can sell them at face value without needing to consort with the nefarious scalpers, and without fear of violating local statutes and being arrested for re-selling tickets. This idea is a long time coming, and certainly would be welcome.

In three months, Fenway Park will open its doors for its 93rd season, and its 84th straight without the benefit of a championship banner-hanging ceremony. In that respect, not much has changed at the ol’ ballyard over the years, but right now, the cosmetic changes are coming fast and furious.

Whether that has an effect on the action taking place on the field remains an age-old question, but in the meantime, Sox ownership continues to take steps to wage the necessary war on the Death Star to the south.

Countdown is 81 days and counting until the Fenway launch on April 11.

May the Force be with them.

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RIP Will McDonough, the Globe sports columnist who passed away on Thursday. Sportswriters and commentators alike will be forever grateful for your insight and the inspirational work you passed along during your four decades in the business.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com, and Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com