by Tom Stewart

Created on: April 21, 2010

The Green Monster is the affectionate name for the left field wall at Fenway Park, the home field of the Boston Red Sox. The towering target, only 310 feet from home plate, is a favorite of right handed batters who have been hitting doubles off its surface for many years. The left field wall was built during the original ballpark construction in 1912 and was erected to make homeruns more difficult in the short length of left field. Originally made of wood and covered with advertisements, it was later resurfaced with tin and concrete in 1924 and then a hard plastic in 1976. It actually wasn’t painted green until 1947 and was originally nicknamed ‘the Wall’.

As the tallest wall in Major League Baseball and second tallest in all of professional baseball, it is peppered with dimples from all of the baseballs that have ricocheted off of its face. The wall is also home to a small storage area on the inside, along with a few reported rats, and a manual scoreboard that was installed in 1934. It is one of two Major League Baseball Stadiums that still has a manual scoreboard in operation; the other being the Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field. However the scoreboard at Fenway is changed manually from inside of the wall where at Wrigley the score keepers must run out to the wall in between half innings to update the score. If you look closely at the scoreboard you might notice some dashes and dots in the white lines of the American League scoreboard that spell out the initials of the club’s former owners Thomas A. and Jean R. Yawkey (TAY and JRY respectively) in Morse code.

Playing left field has always been a daunting task for visiting left fielders having to play the position so shallow and worrying about which way a ball will bounce after it hits the wall. Red Sox veterans like Ted Williams, Carl Yaztremski, and Jim Rice often used the wall to their advantage after having learned all of its ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ spots. It also allows fielders with weaker throwing arms to receive more assists than fielders playing in most other ball parks with deeper left fields. Also adding to the difficulty of playing left field at Fenway Park is a ladder that is affixed to the ‘Green Monster’ which will sometimes effect which direction the ball will go. The ladder was originally used to climb to the top of the wall and retrieve baseballs hit during games or in batting practice from netting installed to protect pedestrians and vehicles on the street behind the wall. But in 2002 the Boston Red Sox removed the netting and installed a special section of seating on top of the wall now affectionately called the ‘Monster Seats’.  The ladder, while no longer needed, still remains on the wall as relic of the past.

The ‘Green Monster’ has also been a major part of advertising revenue for the team, especially in modern times.  Coke bottles adorn the light tower above the ‘Green Monster’.  Volvo and Sports Authority have advertised on billboards above the wall.  A Citgo sign has always been visible behind the wall where a new neon one now stands.  And sponsors like W.B. Mason, Bob’s Store, and Covidien also have ads on or near the scoreboard. The wall has also been used to advertise the All-Star game, The Jimmy Fund, and has often been the backdrop for giant American Flags during ceremonies at Fenway Park. Today tickets for seats on top of the wall are some of the most sought after in all of baseball. The view and experience from the top of the ‘Green Monster’ can’t be beat.

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