The Green Monster in 2004, showing the manual scoreboard and Green Monster seating

For other uses, see Green Monster (disambiguation)

The Green Monster is the nickname of the 37 foot, two inch left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox. It was not painted green until 1947. Prior to that it was covered with advertisements.

Part of the original ballpark construction of 1912, the wall was made of wood, but was covered in tin and concrete in 1934, and then hard plastic in 1976. Encased in the wall is a manual scoreboard. In 2003 additional seating for spectators was added to the top of the wall, though the seating area was considered home run territory and "out" of the playing field.

The wall is the highest in professional baseball, and has the characteristic of preventing home runs on many fly balls 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 (although some Red Sox leftfielders have become adept at fielding caroms off the wall to throw runners out at second base or hold the batter to a single). However, compared to current major league parks, the wall is placed fairly shallow, at 310 feet from the plate at the left-field foul line, allowing a high but short fly ball to clear the wall for a home run.

Profile of the Green Monster in 2004

There are two home runs over the Green Monster which are among the most famous in baseball history. The first was Carlton Fisk's ball off of the left field foul pole in the 12th inning to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series for the Sox. The second was New York Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent's dinger in the last game of the 1978 season (see: Curse of the Bambino).

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 centerfield 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.

The Red Sox' mascot is Wally, a furry Green Monster, in homage.

External links

• Fenway Park photo (http://www.ralphb.net/JDMS/fenway/2660monster.jpg)
• Fenway Park photo (http://www.redsoxconnection.com/images/monster.jpg)