Editing Green Monster (section)

==Overview==
[[File:Green Monster 1914.jpg|thumb|right|The original ad-covered wall in 1914, with overflow fan seating in front of the wall's base on "Duffy's Cliff"]]
[[File:View of Fenway Park from the top of the Green Monster.jpg|thumb|right|View of Fenway Park from the atop the Green Monster in 2022]]
[[File:FenwayParkDimensions.svg|thumb|right|upright=.8|Fenway Park dimensions, in feet as measured from [[home plate]]]]

The wall was part of the original ballpark construction of 1912, along Fenway's north side facing Lansdowne Street.  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, 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 is relatively new. For most of its history it was simply called "'''The Wall'''".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hickey |first1=David |last2=Keene |first2=Kerry |last3=Sinibaldi |first3=Raymond |last4=Lonborg |first4=Jim |title=Images of America Fenway Park |date=2012 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |location=Google Books |isbn=978-0-7385-7688-6 |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZyUKAwAAQBAJ |access-date=19 June 2020}}</ref>

The Green Monster is the highest among the walls in current [[Major League Baseball]] (MLB) fields, and it is the second highest among all professional baseball fields, including [[Minor League Baseball]]. In 2007, it was surpassed by "The Arch Nemesis"—the left field wall of the [[independent baseball league|independent baseball]] [[WellSpan Park]] in [[York, Pennsylvania]]—which is approximately {{convert|6|in|cm}} taller.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ballparkdigest.com/2021/11/18/yorks-arch-nemesis-undergoes-facelift/ |title=York’s Arch Nemesis undergoes facelift |website=ballparkdigest.com |date=November 18, 2021 |accessdate=May 16, 2025}}</ref>

Ballparks occupied by professional baseball teams have often featured high fences to hide 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 (baseball)|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. In modern ballparks, some relatively high walls have been constructed for their novelty rather than by necessity.

During 2001 and 2002, the Green Monster's height record was temporarily surpassed by the center field wall at [[Riverfront Stadium (Cincinnati)|Riverfront Stadium]] in [[Cincinnati, Ohio]].  During construction of the adjacent [[Great American Ball Park]], a large section of seats was removed from Riverfront's center field area to make room and a {{convert|40|ft|m|adj=on}} black wall was erected as a temporary [[batter's eye]]. The entire wall 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 wall, the Red Sox' mascot is [[Wally the Green Monster]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Wally the Green Monster {{!}} Boston Red Sox |url=https://www.mlb.com/redsox/fans/mascots/about-wally |access-date=2022-04-07 |website=MLB.com |language=en}}</ref>