Before The Green Monster

Fenway Park - 1917

A few differences between now and then, and even between 1917 and the major reconstruction in the early 1930s.

In Left Field is a wall, but not the Green Monster we know and love.  In front of the wall you'll notice the outfield seems to slope upwards.  That's not an optical illusion, it actually is a 10-foot slope on which the ball is still in play.  It was placed there when the park was constructed in 1911-12, to accommodate overflow crowds would could sit there and because of the slope see over each other.  It was rarely used and most of the time posed a challenge to outfielders.  The area became known as Duffy's Cliff for Red Sox outfielder Duffy Lewis who patrolled left field from 1912 through 1916 and became a master at handling balls hit towards the slope.

As you go to center, you'll see that where there are now grandstands there is a great hole making straight-away center very, very deep.

As we move to Right Field there are no bullpens in front of the bleachers, making home run hitting very difficult for a left hander.  Indeed, the greatest slugger of the day, left-handed Babe Ruth hit only 11 of his 49 home runs between 1914 and 1919 at Fenway and over his career the Babe's slugging percentage at Fenway was the lowest of the nine ballparks in which he played the bulk of his career.