Green Monster

The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the 37'2" (11.33 m) high left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox baseball team. The wall is only 310–315 feet from home plate, and is a popular target for right-handed hitters.

Overview

The wall was part of the original ballpark construction of 1912. It 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. Despite the name, the Green Monster was not painted green until 1947; before that it was covered with advertisements. The Monster designation is relatively new. For most of its history it was simply called "The Wall".

The wall is the highest among current Major League Baseball fields, and is the second highest among all professional baseball fields (including minor leagues), falling approximately 6 inches short of the left field wall at the PeoplesBank Park in York, Pennsylvania.

Ballparks occupied by professional baseball teams have often featured high fences hiding 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 close distance from home plate. 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 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.

Green Monster (novel)

Green Monster is a 2008 novel by American author Rick Shefchik. It was published August 1 by Poisoned Pen Press.

A mystery/thriller set initially in Boston, Massachusetts, it follows the former Minneapolis police detective, now private investigator, Sam Skarda, as he is called in by the owner of the Boston Red Sox to investigate an anonymous note that claims the 2004 World Series was fixed. It is the second in a series about Skarda and his adventures investigating crime in the sports world. The first, Amen Corner came out in March 2007.

Notes

Green Monster (automobile)

The Green Monster was the name of several vehicles built by Art Arfons and his half brother Walt Arfons. These ranged from dragsters to a turbojet-powered car which briefly held the land speed record three times during 1964 and 1965.

The land speed record "Green Monster" won the land speed record three times during the close competition of 1964 and 1965. It was powered by an F-104 Starfighter jet engine with four-stage afterburner.

Early dragsters

The first "Green Monster", in 1952 was a three-wheeled dragster powered by an Oldsmobile six cylinder engine, and painted with left-over green tractor paint. The name was applied on the car's first outing by the track announcer, Ed Piasczik (Paskey), who laughingly said "Okay folks here it comes; The Green Monster", and it stuck to all Arfons' creations. The car only reached 85 miles per hour (137 km/h), 20 miles per hour (30 km/h) short of the fastest car, but by 1953 the Green Monster Number 2, a 20 foot (6 m) long six wheeled car powered by an Allison V12 aircraft engine, was hitting 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) in the quarter mile.