BOSTON (AP) – There was a bulldozer in front of the Green Monster in left field, a pickup truck by the Pesky Pole in right field and mounds of dirt where there once was grass.

The Boston Red Sox are rebuilding their antiquated playing field just weeks after they buried another part of their history by winning their first World Series in 86 years.

“We will have a drier, safer, better-looking field next year,” club president Larry Lucchino said Tuesday.

That and other changes at Fenway Park should be completed by Opening Day. The Red Sox’ first home game is April 11 against the New York Yankees.

The field dimensions won’t change and no seating will be added for next season, but improved drainage will allow the infield to be flatter by removing a crown that helped water drain toward foul territory. Rain delays and postponements should be decreased, and centerfielder Johnny Damon won’t have to splash through puddles to track down fly balls.

“This will put us in the modern age” of playing fields, director of grounds Dave Mellor said. “Some front lawns were better than this.”

The makeover in the stadium that opened the week the Titanic sank in 1912 extends to the Red Sox clubhouse, which will be more than doubled in size, and the addition of a batting tunnel and video room directly behind their dugout.

“The depth and extent of this effort is, we believe, the most significant in decades, perhaps ever,” Lucchino said. “The changes will affect our ballplayers so that we will gain some competitive advantage.”

The club also will complete installation of a new electrical power system.

“There was a moment in time two seasons ago where (the concessionaire) asked to install an additional pizza oven,” said Janet Marie Smith, the Red Sox vice president of planning and development. “We literally could not say “yes’ to it because the power was so tapped out here at Fenway.”

The new field will have a drainage system topped by 3 inches of gravel and 9 inches of sand through which water can seep away from the surface. The old field was built more than 30 years ago on more tightly clumped dirt.

Barring weather delays, workmen will start laying infield sod on Saturday and all the grass should be down by next Tuesday, completing the reconstruction. The Red Sox finished their sweep of St. Louis in the World Series on Oct. 25. Mellor’s crew then spent 4 days excavating the old field – from which four million pounds of soil were removed -and 13 days preparing the new one for laying sod.

“Two of my dreams were the Red Sox winning the World Series and a new playing field,” Mellor said.

Lucchino estimated the cost of the field work at $1.5 million to $2 million.

“If we can save one rainout a year,” he said, “we will essentially pay for the cost of the better drainage system and the new field.”

Lucchino became president when John Henry took over as majority owner before the 2002 season. The club added seats and made other improvements in the past two offseasons, but Lucchino said no decision has been made on whether to replace it with a new stadium.

“That depends on our long-term ability to make the kind of changes that we think need to be made both to the ballpark and the neighborhood,” he said. “We are working on that (long-term) master plan but we haven’t completed it.”

The team plans to add about 1,000 seats for 2006.

The current clubhouse is the smallest in the majors, covering 6,000 square feet, Smith said. The main section will remain the same but 7,500 square feet will be added for workout, training, rehabilitation and other support areas. The new 13,500 square foot clubhouse is still smaller than those in new stadiums.

Players requested specific improvements and the World Series victory helped the club go ahead with some of them. The team also raised ticket prices for next season by an average of 7 percent.

“One of the commitments we made to them during the course of the year was that if you win we will do a lot of the things that you’re talking about,” Lucchino said. “We’ll have the opportunity to generate additional revenue if you win and some part of that revenue will go to the facilities.”

AP-ES-11-23-04 1747EST