Vix Dubs

Since the left field wall was erected in 1934, any baseball player who steps onto the Fenway field for a game has the opportunity to sign inside the Green Monster. As do the musicians who play shows there, visiting celebrities, employees … it’s a big list. As such, when you step into the Monster, it’s quite the treasure trove for the autograph junkie.

As I’ve been told, Ted Williams, however, never signed inside the wall. Which is funny to think about, given all the years he spent trolling left field—and being the single greatest baseball player to don a Red Sox uniform. I like to think that this fact is true—I never saw his signature whenever I was in there—because it’s pretty typical of the way the man was.

My favorite inside-the-Monster story, however, still manages to pertain to Ted.

If you ever make your way into the wall, look to your immediate right. You’ll be looking down the length of the hallway. To your right, you’ll see the slits in the wall and the step on which you can perch. To your left, you’ll see the numbers and the occasional sloping ceiling.

At the first concrete support structure in front of you, you’ll see names. You’ll also see a series of x’s. Above them, these words: TED’S HOMERS OF 1951.

The scoreboard operators during that season kept a running tally of Ted Williams home runs at Fenway. Each homer got an x. And there were a lot of them.

It is, in my opinion, one of the coolest tracking devices I’ve seen in the game. Each time I went into the wall, I made sure to check it out. Such as the last time, as seen here: