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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 flyballs 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 313 feet from the plate, allowing a high but short flyball to clear the wall for a home run.
There are two home runs over the Green Monster which are among the most famous in baseball history. The first was Red Sock Carlton Fisk's ball off of the left field foul pole in the 12th inning to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. The second was New York Yankee Bucky DentRussell Earl "Bucky" Dent (b. November 25, 1951), born Russell Earl O'Dey is an American former Major League Baseball player and manager. He earned two World Series rings as the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978, and was the Wor's dinger in the last game of the 1978Events January January 1 The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law. January 1 Air India's Boeing 747 explodes near Bombay 213 dead. January 4 Referendum in Chile supports policies of Augusto Pinochet. season (see: Curse of the BambinoThe Curse of the Bambino was a tongue-in-cheek explanation for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series for 86 years after they sold Babe Ruth, sometimes called The Bambino to the New York Yankees. The flip side of Boston's).
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 LewisBoston Red Sox at Comiskey Park in 1912. George Edward "Duffy" Lewis ( April 18, 1888 June 17, 1979), born in San Francisco, California, was a left fielder and left-handed batter who played Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox (1910-17), New York, mastered the skill so well that the area became known as Duffy's Cliff . In 1934, Red Sox owner Tom YawkeyThomas Austin "Tom" Yawkey ( February 21, 1903 October 10, 1976) was an American industrialist and Major League Baseball executive. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. Yawkey became president of the Boston Red Sox in 1933, and was the sole owner of the team 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.
