Boston Sports Then and Now

The old school Monster.

It stands a bit over 37 feet. It is 231 feet long.

It stretches from left field all the way to the triangle in center.

It is the Green Monster.

A fixture at Fenway Park for decades, the one of a kind wall helps distinguish Fenway as the most unique stadium in the Majors.

The Wall was part of the park when it was originally built in 1912. At first it was constructed to keep spectators who did not pay for admission an opportunity to see the game at no charge.

The original wall was made of wood and burnt down with much of the park in the 1934. It was rebuilt and made of tin upon it’s reconstruction. The current wall we know and love today was built of a hard plastic and was assembled in 1976.

The instillation of the famed Monster Seats.

Up until 1947, advertisements draped the wall. That year the wall was painted green and hence the name the Green Monster  would become synonymous with Fenway Park forever.

There is a manual scoreboard dawning the bottom of the monster.  Originally meant to score the game, it has developed over the years to provide out of town scores, as well as the AL East standings.

A small door gives access to the to the inner sector of the wall where two scoreboard operators perch for the games. They slide in updates during the inning, and in between innings they come out with a ladder to update scores for those that are not accessible from within.

There are a plethora of autographs with the inner bowls of the Monster. Over the years  thousands of players have stepped inside and left their mark. Babe Ruth’s autograph reportedly is somewhere on the walls in there.

A ladder is attached to the wall. The ladder’s use up until 2002 was to fetch balls that got stuck in the net above the wall. However, the net was removed in 2003 but the ladder stayed. It’s another quirky obstacle left fielders must manage. Balls bouncing off of it can come off at any angle.

The net came off in 2003 because of the addition of the famed “Monster Seats.” New Red Sox ownership began a nearly decade long renovation of the facility which began with putting 274 seats above the Monster.

Today's version of the Monster.

Fenway Park would not be Fenway Park without the Monster. Apparent doubles become “Fenway singles”, pop flies that would be outs in other ball parks graze the wall on their way down and become doubles, line drives with clank off of the wall for “wall ball doubles”, and long drives clear the Monster and end up on Landsdowne street.

Long live the Green Monster.