And for the players, it is simply a transportation to a higher plane.

“Nothing better than that—granted, the stands are empty, but there’s nothing like it,” said Klimkiewicz. “It’s just amazing to be on the same grass and same field that so many great players have played on throughout history.”

In addition, the Beanpot marks a time when scouts from all over the Northeast come to check out the local talent on a major league stage. While it’s true that the teams and not the arena hold the appeal, Walsh can’t help but feel that something will be lost in the move to the 6,000-person Campanelli Stadium 25 miles southward.

“The teams are the draw,” Walsh admitted, “but it has been this great tradition. Every kid that hits a ball into that left field net—it’s something that will be with them forever.”

Not only that, but the removal from Fenway, if extended, could be a blow to recruiting for the participating schools.

“It’s one of the things that, when I was coming here, they tell you about, at both BC and Harvard,” Klimkiewicz said. “It’s a recruiting tool—they say, ‘you can go anywhere you want, but here you get to play at Fenway.’”

Whether the Beanpot will return to Fenway next year is by no means certain, especially now that the relationship between the teams and the Red Sox seems to have shifted.

“I’m concerned with the way it went about, just two weeks before it’s played,” Walsh said. “I could understand a conflict, but I just didn’t get that feeling right now.”

Steinberg said that he hoped to be able to continue the tradition of the Beanpot being played at Fenway.

“The Beanpot is important to us, and we’d like to preserve it,” he said.

For the teams involved, the overwhelming sense is that the Beanpot just won’t be the Beanpot if it’s not at Fenway Park. “[The UMass players] are shocked that it’s not at Fenway Park—that’s what it’s all about. Hockey is at Fleet Center, baseball is at Fenway Park. It’s supposed to be there,” Stone said.

“It adds a lot more to the game,” Klimkiewicz said. “If we played Northeastern in the Beanpot final at Brockton, it will be the fourth time we’ve played them this season. But playing them for the fourth time at Fenway would make it that much better.”

Regardless of the politics or circumstances behind the change, what it boils down to is that on those two days in April, the Crimson and the other Beanpot teams will not be playing each other on the field that makes the Beanpot what it is.

“It’s a place where dreams come true, and it will be sad to see those dreams end,” Walsh said.

—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.