![]() It creates a loud, almost constant electric buzz inside the scoreboard during the games. ![]() With the press of a button, by a worker both across the field and up in the press box, electromagnetic dots flip into place to form the numbers. The only concession to technology in this 80-year-old scoreboard is a 1937 relay system that changes the number of balls, strikes and outs for each hitter. And the Pittsburgh Pirates' Roberto Clemente missed on a left-center homer onto Waveland Avenue in 1959. NO BATTED BALL has ever hit the center field scoreboard, according to the official team history, but two barely missed: In 1948, ex-Cub Bill Nicholson of the Philadelphia Phillies hit a home run near the right field side of it onto Sheffield Avenue. THERE'S NO BATHROOM, and because of the constant game action and need to update league-wide scores, employees don't have time to climb down the ladder to use the facilities. you don't sit down down."īUILT in 1937 as part of a major Wrigley Field renovation led by General Manager Bill Veeck, which included the construction of the bleachers and the planting of famous ivy on the outfield walls.ĭESIGNED by architects better known for early high-rises, Holabird & Root, a firm founded in 1880 and known for developing the groundbreaking Chicago School of skyscraper design.ĭIMENSIONS: The scoreboard is 27 feet high by 75 feet wide the top of the scoreboard is 60 feet above the ground. On a Sunday afternoon or during a weeknight game, when almost every team in the league is playing simultaneously, Wilson says, "You're working constantly. In addition to changing scores for the Cubs game, they're also running pitching changes for as many as a dozen other major league baseball games that might be happening at the same time. That's at least 18 changes of the heavy steel panels in one nine-inning game. Wilson and his two younger colleagues repeat that routine each half-inning. When the half-inning ends, the yellow number is replaced with a white one for the rest of the game. "That yellow 2 means the inning is still active," he says, "and that number's going to stay yellow until the top of the first ends." "Slide it up, slam it in," Wilson says, his words punctuated by loud "bangs" as he locks the plate into place. He then replaces that blank plate with one painted with a yellow numeral 2. "Most of the time they're wedged in there 'cause they're a little rusty, so you have to give them a little quick punch to pop 'em out," he says, in between banging hard on the steel plate. "You see the coaches and players in the dugout you see some of the players talking to people in the bleachers you see some things that a lot of people don't see sitting in their seats." "You see everything, that's the thing about it," says Wilson, 52, who has been working inside the scoreboard for 26 years. From that perch, high above the center field bleachers, Wilson has a view like none other in the ballpark. Sitting on the second level inside the scoreboard, Darryl Wilson removes two of the 15-by-20-inch steel panels from a later game to watch the action. ![]() Five other games are listed above them on each side, though it should be noted that, because of space limitations, the 80-year-old scoreboard can fit only 24 of MLB's 30 teams. ![]() When looking at the scoreboard from the stands, there are two columns one for National League (Chicago Cubs) games, the other for the American League (Chicago White Sox). From those floors, three Cubs employees can change out the steel plates for the runs scored in every inning, for each one of 12 games that could be going on simultaneously. Inside, there are three levels of platform floors, connected by steel staircases. The only way to get to that giant metal box in the sky is to climb up a steep ladder from the top of the bleachers through a trapdoor in the bottom of the scoreboard. Wrigley's forest green scoreboard sits atop the highest point of the center field bleachers.
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