Green Monster
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- This article is about the wall at Fenway Park. For other uses, see Green Monster (disambiguation).
The Green Monster (often known simply as The Monster or The Wall) is the nickname of the 37-foot, two-inch (11.3 m) left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox baseball team.
Part of the original ballpark construction of 1912, the wall is made of wood, but was covered in tin and concrete in 1934, and then hard plastic in 1976. A manual scoreboard is set into the wall. Despite the name, the Green Monster was not painted green until 1947; before that it was covered with advertisements.
The wall is the highest in professional baseball, and is famous for preventing home runs on many line drives that would clear the walls of other ballparks. A side effect of this is to increase the prevalence of doubles, since this is the most common result when the ball is hit off the wall (often referred to as a "wallball double"). Some leftfielders, predominantly those with vast Fenway experience, have become adept at fielding caroms off the wall to throw runners out at second base or hold the batter to a single. Compared with other current major league parks, the wall's placement creates a comparatively shallow left field; the wall falls approximately 310 feet from the plate along the left-field foul line. 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. For many years, it was posted as 315 feet. During the Red Sox pennant race in 1975, 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. He determined that the foul pole was just 304 feet from home plate, but the marker on the wall was not changed. Writers from the Boston Globe once snuck onto the field and measured it as 304.7 feet. In 1990, Red Sox management relabeled the distance at 310 feet, though many people still believe it to be closer than that.
During 2001 and 2002, the Green Monster's height record was temporarily beaten by the center field wall at Cinergy Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the construction of Great American Ball Park, located right next to Cinergy Field, a large section of seats was removed from the center field area to make room and a 40 foot black wall was erected as a temporary batter's eye. The entire wall was in play, too. This new wall was often called "The Black Monster." When Cinergy Field was demolished in 2002, the Green Monster reclaimed the record.
In honor of the famed wall, the Red Sox mascot is Wally, a furry green monster.
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[edit] Features
[edit] Duffy's Cliff
From 1912 to 1933, there was a 10-foot-high mound that formed an incline in front of the Green Monster, extending from the left-field foul pole to the center field flag pole. As a result of the mound, a left fielder in Fenway Park had to play the entire 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 1934, 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.
[edit] Green Monster seating
In 1936, the Red Sox installed a 23-foot net above the Monster in order to protect the storefronts on adjoining Landsdowne Street from home run balls. The net remained until the 2002-03 offseason, when the team's new ownership constructed a new seating section atop the wall to accommodate 274 fans. Wildly popular, these "Monster seats" were part of a larger expansion plan for Fenway Park seating. The Sox later added a smaller seating section in 2005, dubbed the "Nation's Nest," located between the main seating section and the centerfield scoreboard.
[edit] The ladder
Comprising yet another quirk, a ladder is attached to the Green Monster, extending from near the upper-left portion of the scoreboard, 13 feet above ground, to the top of the wall. Previously, members of the grounds crew would use the ladder to retrieve home run balls from the netting hung above the wall. After the net was removed for the addition of the Monster seats, the ladder ceased to have any real function, yet it still remains in place as a historical relic.
The placement of the ladder is noteworthy given the fact that it is in fair territory; it is the only such ladder in the major leagues. On at least two occasions, a batted ball has struck the ladder during game play, each time leading to an inside-the-park home run.[1] During a 1950s game, Red Sox outfielders Ted Williams and Jimmy Piersall both tracked a fly ball in left center, but the ball struck the ladder and caromed into center field, giving batter Jim Lemon enough time to round the bases. Later, in 1963, the slow-footed Dick Stuart hit a high fly that ricocheted first off the ladder, and then the head of outfielder Vic Davalillo, before rolling far enough away to allow Stuart to score.
[edit] Notable historical moments
Two home runs that cleared the Green Monster are among the most famous in baseball history:
- During Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, in the bottom of the 12th inning, Sox catcher Carlton Fisk hit a hooking fly ball that hit off the left field foul pole above the Monster for a game-winning home run.
- In 1978, light-hitting shortstop Bucky Dent of the New York Yankees hit a home run that just cleared the top of the Green Monster, providing the key hit in a one-game playoff which decided the winner of the AL East division.
[edit] See also
- Dolphin Stadium, home of the Florida Marlins, has a 33-foot-high "Teal Monster" in left field that is similar to the Green Monster.
- West End Field, home of the Greenville Drive, has a Green Monster as well, as the park's dimensions exactly replicate that of Fenway Park's.
- Hadlock Field, home of the Portland Sea Dogs, the AA affiliates of the Red Sox. This stadium boasts a replica of the green monster, nicknamed the "Maine Monster".
- Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, has a hill in center field as well as a flagpole on the hill.
- Sovereign Bank Stadium, future home of the York Revolution, is slated to have a left field wall that will be six inches taller than the Green Monster.
