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40-463: The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the 37-foot-2-inch-high (11.33 m) left field wall at Fenway Park , home to the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball . The wall is 310 feet (94 m) from home plate and is a popular target for right-handed hitters. The wall was part of the original ballpark construction of 1912 , along Fenway's north side facing Lansdowne Street. It

80-546: A ladder is attached to the Green Monster, extending from near the upper-left portion of the scoreboard, 13 feet (4.0 m) 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 remains in place as

120-409: A historic 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 many occasions, a batted ball has struck the ladder during game play, at least twice leading to an inside-the-park home run . During a 1950s game, Red Sox outfielders Ted Williams and Jimmy Piersall both tracked a fly ball in left center, but

160-536: A popular tune, the song gained greater fame when it was adopted as a rallying cry by the Royal Rooters , a collection of loyal fans led by Michael T. McGreevy , informally known as "Nuf Ced" McGreevy, owner of the 3rd Base saloon. McGreevy earned his nickname "Nuf Ced" due to the way he kept peace in his bar: when he grew frustrated with arguments over the Boston Americans (who would later be renamed

200-463: A result of the terrace, when overflow crowds were not seated atop it, a left fielder in Fenway Park had to play the 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 contrast, rotund outfielder Bob Fothergill , known by the indelicate nicknames of "Fats" or "Fatty", reportedly once chased a ball up

240-514: Is a diminutive form used with several names, including Esther , Tess, and Theresa/Teresa. The original version of "Tessie (You Are the Only, Only, Only)" was written by Will R. Anderson and was featured in the Broadway musical The Silver Slipper , which ran for 160 performances between October 27, 1902 and March 14, 1903. The song was about a woman singing to her beloved parakeet "Tessie". While

280-431: Is both the longtime anthem of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Boston Red Sox and a 2004 song by the punk rock group Dropkick Murphys . The original "Tessie" was from the 1902 Broadway musical The Silver Slipper . The newer song, written in 2004, recounts how the singing of the original "Tessie" by the Royal Rooters fan club helped the Boston Americans win the first World Series in 1903 . The name Tessie itself

320-402: Is made of wood and was covered in tin and concrete in 1934 . It was then covered with hard plastic in 1976 . A manual scoreboard is set into the wall, which has been there, in one form or another, at least as far back as 1914 (see photo at right). Despite the name, the Green Monster was not painted green until 1947 ; before that, it was covered with advertisements . The Monster designation

360-558: Is relatively new. For most of its history it was simply called " The Wall ". The Green Monster is the highest among the walls in current Major League Baseball fields, and it is the second highest among all professional baseball fields (including minor leagues ). As of 2007 it was surpassed by the left field wall of WellSpan Park in York, Pennsylvania , which is approximately 6 inches (15 cm) taller. Ballparks occupied by professional baseball teams have often featured high fences to hide

400-491: Is stealing third base, the left fielder must back up the throw from the catcher. Left fielders must also back up third base when a ball is thrown from right field, and back up center field when a pop fly is hit into the pocket. The following are baseball players inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame as left fielders: Tessie#Inspiration for Red Sox mascots " Tessie "

440-406: Is the last of the exceptionally high-walled major league ballparks. Relatively high walls in modern ballparks have been constructed for their novelty rather than by necessity, as Fenway's wall had been. The Green Monster 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

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480-405: Is the most common result when the ball is hit off the wall (often referred to as a "wallball double"). Some left fielders, 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;

520-422: 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 Red Sox later added a smaller seating section in 2005 , dubbed the " Nation 's Nest," located between the main seating section and the center field scoreboard. Comprising yet another quirk,

560-613: The Boston Red Sox are the World Champions. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox have won baseball's world championship. Can you believe it? " - Joe Castiglione The second "Tessie" — which featured backing vocals from Red Sox players Johnny Damon , Bronson Arroyo , and Lenny DiNardo , Red Sox Vice President of Public Affairs Dr. Charles Steinberg; and Boston Herald sportswriter Jeff Horrigan (who co-wrote

600-457: The Green Monster's height record was temporarily beaten by the center field wall at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio . During the construction of Great American Ball Park , located right next to Riverfront Stadium, a large section of seats was removed from the center field area to make room and a 40-foot (12 m) black wall was erected as a temporary batter's eye . The entire wall

640-485: The Red Sox told anyone that would listen that this song would guarantee a World Series victory. Obviously no one listened to us or took us seriously. We were three outs away from elimination in game 4 at the hands of the Yankees and receiving death threats from friends, family, & strangers telling us to stay away from the Red Sox and any other Boston sports team and get out of town. Luckily for us things turned around for

680-652: The Red Sox) and the Boston Braves (who would later move to Milwaukee and, eventually, Atlanta), he would pound his hand on the bar and declare "'Nuff [enough] said!". Boston mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald , grandfather of President John F. Kennedy , was a member of the Royal Rooters. After the first four games of the 1903 World Series , Boston was down 1-3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates . (It

720-603: The Rooters and to put the Red Sox back on top." The goal of the Dropkicks was realized when later that year the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years. The song is also featured as the bonus track on their June 2005 release The Warrior's Code with a lead-in from the WEEI broadcast of the final play in the 2004 World Series : " Swing and a ground ball, stabbed by Foulke . He has it. He underhands to first. And

760-581: The Wagner stanza. They also wrote a stanza on Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez: Yankee captain Derek Jeter also got a stanza. In 2004, the Boston-area celtic punk group Dropkick Murphys recorded a cover of "Tessie", released on an EP of the same name . In the music video, Tessie the "broom girl," was played by Colleen Reilly. The Dropkicks said it was their intent to "bring back the spirit of

800-400: The ball as far to prevent the advance of any baserunners. The left fielder still requires good fielding and catching skills, and tends to receive more balls than the right fielder because right-handed hitters tend to "pull" the ball into left field. The left fielder also backs up third base on pick-off attempts from the catcher or pitcher and bunts, when possible. Moreover, when a runner

840-412: 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. One common myth perpetuated is that if a ball strikes the ladder and then bounces over

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880-544: The field from external viewers, particularly behind open areas of the outfield where bleacher seating is low-lying or non-existent. The wall might also reduce the number of "cheap" home runs due to the barrier's relatively tall height above the playing surface. Fenway's wall serves both purposes. Past ballparks of Fenway's era or even later which featured high fences in-play included Baker Bowl , Washington Park , Ebbets Field , League Park , Griffith Stadium , Shibe Park , and more recently, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . Fenway

920-407: The left light tower were a target for power-hitters when they were placed in 1997. These 3D advertisements were taken down before the 2008 season, when an LED sign was built above the new left-field upper deck seats. As a lead up to his 500th career home run, Manny Ramirez 's home run count was tallied on the bottom of the light tower. Ads beside the manual scoreboard were added when the scoreboard

960-437: The left-field foul pole to the center field flag pole. This earthwork formed a "terrace", a common feature of ballparks of the day (where a dirt-surfaced warning track would normally be today), whose purpose was to make up the difference in grade between street level and field level, as with Cincinnati's Crosley Field . It also served to double as a seating area to handle overflow crowds, another common practice of that era. As

1000-501: The lower half of the Green Monster and is still updated by hand from behind the wall throughout the game. The American League scores are also updated from behind the wall. The National League scores need to be updated from the front of the wall between innings. There is also a board which shows the current American League East standings. There are 127 slots in the wall and a team of three score keepers move around two-pound (0.9 kg), 13-by-16-inch (33 by 41 cm) plates to represent

1040-564: The new lyrics with the Dropkick Murphys) — has become a theme song for the Red Sox and tells the story of the Royal Rooters singing the original "Tessie". The song is featured in the soundtrack to the 2005 movie, Fever Pitch , and is the song used in the closing credits to the VHS and DVD review of the 2004 World Series, a video that was produced by Major League Baseball Productions. The video game MVP Baseball 2005 features

1080-664: The original "Tessie" goes: The fans began inventing their own lyrics to taunt the Pittsburgh players, such as: etc. The Rooters stopped singing in 1918. The Red Sox won the World Series in 1918 but then endured an 86-year drought before winning again in 2004 , the same year a re-release of "Tessie" was issued by the Dropkick Murphys . In the 2000s a group of Red Sox fans recreated the track with those lyrics and an additional two stanzas in addition to finishing

1120-470: The same as in left), but 380 feet (120 m) at its deepest. The bullpen was added along the right field wall in 1940 to shorten the distance for left-handed slugger Ted Williams ' home runs to clear the fence. For years afterward, the bullpens were known as "Williamsburg". In 1936 , the Red Sox installed a 23-foot (7.0 m) net above the Monster in order to protect the storefronts on adjoining Lansdowne Street from home run balls. The net remained until

1160-471: The score. Yellow numbers are used to represent in-inning scores and white numbers are used to represent final inning tallies. The numbers of the current pitchers weigh three pounds (1.4 kg) and measure 16 by 16 inches (41 by 41 cm). Carlton Fisk 's "body English" when he hit his game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series , "waving" the ball fair, was captured on a TV camera stationed in

1200-475: The scoreboard. The Morse Code that appears from top to bottom in the white lines of the American League scoreboard are the initials of former owners Thomas A. Yawkey and Jean R. Yawkey . Fenway's left-field distortion is offset by the odd shape and generous size of right field, which is 302 feet (92 m) (although its actual distance has been disputed over the years) along the foul line (almost

1240-653: The song. In addition to "Tessie", the EP includes " Fields of Athenry ", " Nut Rocker " (an instrumental rock version of the Boston Bruins theme song), "The Burden" as performed live on WBCN , "Tessie (Old Timey Baseball Version)" in which the song is accompanied primarily by a ballpark organ, as well as a music video for "Tessie." Proceeds from the sale of the EP went to benefit the Red Sox Foundation. ("Nut Rocker" inspired "Nutty" by The Ventures , which

Green Monster - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-419: The terrace, slipped and fell, and rolled downhill. In 1934 , Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey arranged to flatten the ground in left field so that Duffy's Cliff no longer existed, and it became part of the lore of Fenway Park. Long after the much-higher location manual scoreboard from c. 1914 existed (as seen in the 1914 photo), the placement of the modern "ground-level" manual scoreboard occurred in 1934. It forms

1320-426: The wall falls approximately 304–310 feet (93–94 m) from the plate along the left-field foul line. With this short distance, many deep fly balls that could be caught by the fielder in a deeper park rebound off the wall for base hits. And while the wall turns many would-be line-drive homers into doubles it also allows some high yet shallow fly balls to clear the field of play for a home run. During 2001 and 2002 ,

1360-584: The wall or out of play, the batter will be awarded a ground-rule triple. There is no such rule in the ground rules at Fenway, nor in any major league ballpark. After the wall was painted green in 1947, advertisements did not appear on the wall until 1999, when the All-Star Game at Fenway was being promoted. Various ads have appeared above the scoreboard since then, such as the Jimmy Fund , W.B. Mason , and Granite City Electric. The Coke Bottles on

1400-520: Was a best-of-nine series; five wins were needed to win the series.) The Royal Rooters began rallying their team with every song they could think of; ultimately "Tessie" helped win the day. There are stories that the Royal Rooters actually traveled to Pittsburgh and hired a band to play "Tessie" to annoy the Pirates on their home field . Pittsburgh outfielder Tommy Leach credited at least part of Boston's win to "that damn 'Tessie' song." He continued: "It

1440-518: Was a real hum-dinger of a song, but it sort of got on your nerves after a while." Boston won Game 5 and went on to win Games 6, 7, and 8 to win the Series. The Boston fans remembered "Tessie" fondly through the years; Burt Mustin , who decades later became a prolific "old man" character actor in movies and television, was still regaling audiences with "Tessie" stories while in his nineties. The chorus to

1480-565: Was expanded. Above the manual scoreboard, where a Jimmy Fund advertisement had remained for many years, the logo for Foxwoods Resort Casino is now a prominent aspect of Fenway Park. Outside of Fenway in Kenmore Square , but able to be seen in the view above the left-field wall, is the Boston Citgo sign . Left field Of all outfielders, the left fielder often will have the weakest arm, as he generally does not need to throw

1520-427: Was in play. This new wall was often called "The Black Monster". When Riverfront Stadium was demolished in 2002, the Green Monster reclaimed the record. In honor of the famed wall, the Red Sox mascot is a furry green monster named Wally the Green Monster , joined in 2016 by his younger sister Tessie . From 1912 to 1933 , a 10-foot-high (3.0 m) mound formed an incline in front of the Green Monster, extending from

1560-466: Was long associated with the Boston Bruins hockey team, as it was the theme song for Bruins telecasts on WSBK-TV.) "Tessie" is the second of three songs played after every Red Sox win at Fenway Park , the first being " Dirty Water " by The Standells . The third is " Joy to the World " by Three Dog Night . Trot Nixon used "Tessie" as his at-bat intro music when he played for the Red Sox. "Tessie"

1600-629: Was played at the end of regulation, prior to the start of overtime during the National Hockey League 's 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park. A synthesized version of "Tessie" is used by Red Sox ticketing, as the signal a customer has been selected from the team's virtual waiting room to purchase tickets during busy periods. The Dropkick Murphys tell this version of the story in the liner notes of their album The Warrior's Code : We recorded this song in June 2004 and after giving it to

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