How tall green monster

Players want to know what's inside it. Fans are willing to travel from all over the country -- the world, even -- to see it in person. Which is why it's so ironic that the Monster was first built expressly to keep people out. The story begins in the winter of , when then-Red Sox owner and local businessman John I. Taylor decided his ballclub needed a change of scenery. The old Huntington Avenue Grounds had been the team's home since its inception in , but it had seen better days -- there were patches of outfield where grass wouldn't grow and a shed just sort of hanging out in deep center.

So, with just a year left on the lease, Taylor began to look elsewhere. He landed on the corner of Lansdowne and Ipswich streets in Boston's Fenway neighborhood, a previously undeveloped bit of swampland that had been cleaned up significantly since the late 19th century. The area was ripe for growth, and architect James McLaughlin had drawn up some state-of-the-art plans for a steel and concrete marvel that, according to the Boston Globe, would "improve the grounds so that for capacity and character, the accommodations will be second to none in the country.

There was just one problem: He was worried about fans getting a free view from beyond the left-field wall. Typically, outfield fences at the time were just a few feet high remember, this was the Deadball Era, when even hitting a ball that approached the wall was a rarity.

But Lansdowne Street just happened to house a few buildings that were fairly high, which -- at least in Taylor's mind -- would enable fans to catch a game from their window or rooftop. Consequently, although the wall turns some line-drive homers into doubles, it also allows some high yet shallow fly balls to clear the field of play for a home run.

The distance from home plate to the Monster has long been disputed. During the Red Sox pennant race in , an overhead photograph of Fenway Park was shown to a man who had analyzed reconnaissance photos in preparation for bombing missions in World War II. Writers from the Boston Globe once sneaked onto the field and measured it as During and , the Green Monster's height record was temporarily beaten by the center field wall at Cinergy Field in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The entire wall was in play, too. This new wall was often called "The Black Monster. In honor of the famed wall, the Red Sox mascot is a furry green monster, named Wally. This earthwork formed a "terrace", a common feature of ballparks of the day, whose purpose was to make up the difference in grade between street level and field level, as with Cincinnati's Crosley Field. And likewise, to double as a seating area to handle overflow crowds, another common practice of that era. As a result of the terrace, a left fielder in Fenway Park had to play the territory running uphill.

Boston's first star left fielder, Duffy Lewis , mastered the skill so well that the area became known as Duffy's Cliff. In contrast, rotund outfielder Bob Fothergill , known by the indelicate nicknames of "Fats" or "Fatty", reportedly once chased a ball up the terrace, slipped and fell, and literally rolled downhill.

In , Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey arranged to flatten the ground in left field so that Duffy's Cliff no longer existed and became part of the lore of Fenway Park. The scoreboard was added in It forms the lower half of the Green Monster and is still updated by hand from behind the wall throughout the game, one of only two stadiums that are still done this way. The American League scores are also updated from behind the wall. The National League scores need to be updated from the front of the wall between innings.

Yellow numbers are used to represent in-inning scores and white numbers are used to represent final inning tallies. The numbers of the current pitchers weigh three pounds and measure 16 by 16 inches. The scoreboard, being below street level, occasionally attracts subterranean dwellers. Carlton Fisk 's "body English" when he hit is game-winning home run in Game 6 of the World Series , "waving" the ball fair, was captured on a TV camera stationed in the scoreboard.

It was said at the time that the camera operator had abandoned his post when he saw a rat scurry by, and the camera remained trained on Fisk instead of trying to follow the flight of the ball. The Morse Code that appears from top to bottom in the white line of the American League scoreboard are the initials of former owners Thomas A.

Yawkey and Jean R. All rights reserved. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. Many thanks to him. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. Talk Contributions Log in Request account.

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Categories : Nicknames Boston Red Sox. This page was last edited on 3 July , at About the BR Bullpen Disclaimers.