Eagan's homage to Fenway Park's Green Monster
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Eagan High School's own Green Monster. Photo: Kyle Stokes/Axios
The Green Monster at Boston's Fenway Park may be legendary, but one Minnesota ballpark's outfield wall stands just as tall.
Zoom in: The left field wall at Eagan High School is about 37 feet high.
- That's roughly as tall as the "Monstah," MLB's highest outfield wall.
Catch up quick: The wall was likely the brainchild of the late Bob Sadek, who became Eagan's first baseball coach after the school opened in 1989.
- Brett Sadek told Axios his dad loved baseball — and loved that field, fussing over details like the infield dirt and the color of the bases.
What they're saying: The wall "was definitely taken from the Fenway look and how Fenway has nooks and crannies," Brett Sadek said.
- In earlier days, the wall included a vintage-style hand-operated scoreboard, just like the original Green Monster. (Sadek said his dad would give students extra credit to run it.)
The big picture: Eagan's field isn't the only Green Monster imitator.
Between the (foul) lines: Eagan's dimensions echo baseball's history of weirdly-shaped ballparks.
- Eagan's Green Monster is 300 feet from home plate, and right field also features a "Pesky Pole"-esque short porch — but the fences jut out to 380+ feet in left and right-center.
The intrigue: Storms have blown the wall down twice, Sadek said.
- Carpenter Steve Earl's former company later led a project to restore the wall's plywood, he told Axios in an email.
💭 Kyle's thought bubble: While historic ballparks' odd shapes resulted from teams wedging their fields into oblong city blocks, I can't see a practical reason for Eagan's tall wall.
- The high school's softball field sits behind it, but the wall likely wouldn't stop a home run ball hit that far.
Yes, but: That just makes Eagan's ballpark feature all the more fun.
Weigh in: In a state known for Town Ball, we figure there have got to be more quirky ballparks in our midst.
- If you know of any, make a call to our bullpen: [email protected].
