Community's chest swells with pride for Fenway

Move over, Park Place.

Fenway Park is where the high-rollers live, at least in the world according to Monopoly, where the ballpark is the second-priciest property in a new version of the board game unveiled yesterday. Fenway will cost $3.5 million to buy, but if competing players land on it, they will have to pay $350,000 in rent or $15 million if there is a hotel on it.

Fenway's elevation on the Monopoly board was the result of an online poll conducted by Hasbro, the East Longmeadow-based game maker that owns Parker Brothers, the company that made famous the world's best-selling board game. The results were actually more a testament to the popularity of Boston, which bested 20 other US cities. On the new Monopoly board, Fenway is worth more than the White House, Hollywood, and Waikiki Beach.

And first place? Here, some bad news: New York City crushed the competition, with Times Square selected as the new Boardwalk, the most valuable spot, at $4 million.

Lest Monopoly purists grow alarmed, Mark Blecher, Hasbro's senior vice president of marketing, was quick to point out that the ``Here & Now" edition that goes on sale tomorrow will not replace the original. Hasbro created ``Here & Now" Monopoly to answer the question of what the game of armchair capitalism would look like, if it were introduced today rather than in 1935.

The new version comes with updated player pieces, including a Toyota Prius hybrid car, a box of McDonald's french fries, and a sneaker by local shoemaker New Balance, which allowed game designers to create a tiny, silver version of its made-in-New England 992 Heritage running shoe. Hasbro officials said they wanted the player pieces to represent key facets of American pop culture. The New Balance shoe, said Blecher, stands for running and physical fitness.

The new game has 2006 prices rather than 1935 ones, replaces railroads with airports, and has money in larger denominations.

RAJA MISHRA