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Driving Players Up The Wall

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By JOEY JOHNSTON

jjohnston@tampatrib.com

Published: October 13, 2008

When the Rays and Red Sox began the American League Championship Series, the focus was on Tropicana Field - and its infamous catwalks.

Now it shifts to Fenway Park - and to the Green Monster, Boston's iconic 37-foot-high left-field wall.

"The catwalks affect the game in ways that nobody wants," Rays outfielder Gabe Gross said. "The Monster is part of the game."

An unmistakable part of the game's heritage.

It's where Carlton Fisk's 12th-inning homer bent into the foul pole - as he frantically waved it fair from home plate - in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.

It's where Punch-and-Judy hitter Bucky Dent popped a three-run homer into the screen during a one-game playoff in 1978, helping the Yankees eliminate the Red Sox.

It's part of popular culture - "Is Fenway the one with the big green wall in left field?" Annie Kinsella asked her husband in "Field of Dreams" - and baseball history (there are thousands of wall indentations, dating to the days of Babe Ruth).

The Green Monster giveth.

"I think some hitters can get a little obsessed with it," Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan said. "You hit one over the wall and you think it's easy. And it's not. Thinking about it too much can actually mess you up as a hitter."

The Green Monster taketh away.

"I was thinking if that wall wasn't there, I would have had a triple," said Rays rookie outfielder Fernando Perez, who smacked a double off the Monster on Sept. 9.

And it's now the path - or the obstacle - between the Rays and a World Series appearance.

"You think you can reach out your hand and touch it," Rays first baseman Carlos Pena said. "It's cool because it's unorthodox. It's famous. It's the Monster."

THEY SAID IT

BY THE NUMBERS

FENWAY FACTS

•The Green Monster originally was made of wood. It was covered in tin and concrete in 1934, then hard plastic in 1976.

•Because too many storefront windows were broken on Landsdowne Street, a 23-foot screen was put on top of the left-field wall in 1936 (the screen was removed in 2003, when the franchise's new ownership constructed 274 seats above the Green Monster).

•The wall was covered in advertisements until 1947, when it was painted green.

•A ladder (in fair territory) is attached to the Green Monster. Previously, the grounds crew would use it to retrieve home run balls from the screen. The new seats made that obsolete, but the ladder remains as a historic relic (and potential complication for an outfielder).

•In 1993, teams of employees from area companies paid $5,000 for the right to take swings at the Green Monster. More than $150,000 was raised for charity.

•In 1995, the left-field corner distance was changed from 315 feet to 310 after Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy entered the field unannounced. With the help of an assistant and a 100-foot Stanley Steelmaster Long Tape, Shaughnessy marked the distance at 309 feet, 3 inches.

•There's a hand-operated scoreboard in the Green Monster, where Christian Elias and his staff work in a tiny corridor, using 15-by-15-inch plates of metal for the numerals. Hundreds of players have squeezed into the room to the sign the walls (within the wall).

1912

The year when Fenway Park opened (and as it did, the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic).

37

Height of the Green Monster in feet.

38

Number of gallons of green paint needed for the Green Monster (it's repainted every other year).

420

Width of the Green Monster in feet.

2010

The year the ACC Baseball Tournament will be held at Fenway Park.

Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353.

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