The Tall Outfield Wall at Fenway Park in Boston

Throwing you a bender because I just thought you should know...

Seeing the giant American flag cover the wall recently at Fenway Park in Boston got me to reminiscing about the Green Monster itself. Most people call it the Green Monster, but those folks are "young" and part of the modern crowd. In fact, the left field wall at Fenway, over 37 feet high and 231 feet long, was just a tall wall covered in advertisements until 1947.

Most people think it was built to protect cars and businesses on Landsdowne Street but in fact, as there was not much car traffic in 1912, it was built to keep non paying spectators from seeing the game at no charge. The wall was constructed originally with the ballpark in 1912 and has evolved significantly over the past 101 years.

Originally, the Wall had a steep 10 foot embankment that ran in front of it. This was common back in that era and precluded the warning track. An outfielder knew he was close to the wall when he started running uphill and saw ads out of the corner of his eyes.

Fenway was unique in its' infancy as they permitted fans to sit on this embankment and thus, be in play during the game. A rope was implemented to keep the crowd from coming farther onto the field, but skilled Red Sox fans were adept at dropping the rope to allow Duffy Lewis, the Boston left fielder to run amongst the crowd, climb the embankment and field balls that were hit there. The ledge became known as Duffy's Cliff for years and lasted up through 1933.

Upon opening in 1912, the wall was made of wood and burnt down with much of Fenway in 1934. Reconstruction of the wall used tin to prevent further disasters. That has since been replaced by a hard plastic which now makes up the Green Monster. It was completely covered in advertisements originally and wasn't painted green until 1947.

The Monster houses a famous manual scoreboard which was originally designed to score the game. Over the years, it has added out of town scores and the American League East standings. Two operators stay perched within the wall during games to make the updates and come out via a small door in between innings with a ladder to make updates they cannot reach from within.

There is even a ladder attached to the Monster ascending all the way to the top. This was used to remove baseballs that had been hit into the net above the Monster. However, as the net was recently removed and seats added on top of the wall, this is no longer necessary. But the ladder itself has never been removed, remains in fair territory, and outfielders are still forced to play the ball as it bounces crazily off the useless obstacle.

The Green Monster remained entirely green until 1999 when certain advertisements were added back. It even contains Morse Code now as a shout out to former owners Tom and Jean Yawkey.

So architect James McLaughlin had a vision and $650,000 to work with starting in 1911. His vision for a stadium came to fruition and his direction to protect the open area in left field from non paying spectators has left us one of the most recognizable baseball features in any ballpark ever.

All this because I know more about nothing...