BOSTON
Fernando Perez stepped out of the visiting dugout and fixed his gaze on the green wall that dominates the left side of Fenway Park.
Perez was a major leaguer for little more than a week, having been promoted to the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 31. This was his first trip to Fenway Park, the historic home of the Boston Red Sox, and the outfielder's first steps took him up the left field line and through a door nearly hidden among the scoreboard that stretches across the base of the wall.
"Hallowed ground," Perez said. "I had to visit the Green Monster."
Is there a more famous wall in all of sports? A more famous landmark than the 37-foot tall wall the locals lovingly call the "Green Monsta?"
There is the ivy that grows on the outfield wall at Wrigley Field. There is the façade that hangs, for the moment, from the top of Yankee Stadium. There is the blue star in the middle of Texas Stadium.
There is Touchdown Jesus on the campus of Notre Dame, the mural of the resurrected Jesus on the Hesburgh Library that can be seen from the football stadium.
"It's like Touchdown Jesus," Rays outfielder Jonny Gomes said, "but this is in play."
And it is doubtful football players pay a visit to the mural to read the autographs of those who have paid it homage and signed their names like generations of baseball players have to the walls inside the famous wall.
"There's a whole bunch of signatures all the way down from the door," Gomes said. "It's like being in a museum. My name's in there. They had a pen in there. The dude that hangs the scoreboard letters, he's back there, he gives you a little speech. He was like a museum guide."
Perez signed his name.
So has Rays pitcher Trever Miller.
"That's respect for the game," Miller said. "My first time there in '03, went in there with my Sharpie and walked in there during batting practice. There was one guy in there. He didn't mind. He said, 'Take your time, there's a lot of names in here.' "
Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, who began his career with the Red Sox and ended it with the Rays, signed his name, but waited until near the end of his career when he was playing for Tampa Bay.
Rays left fielder Carl Crawford, a two-time All-Star who has spent many days playing balls as they ricochet off the Green Monster, hasn't signed his name and doesn't know if he will.
"I don't know," Crawford said. "It doesn't seem right. Maybe some day."
Fenway Park was built in 1912, tucked between the streets of Boston. Lansdowne Street runs behind the outfield, making for a short left field.
In 1934, a 37-foot wall was constructed. It was painted green in 1947. A 23-foot high net used to stretch across the Monster, but that was replaced by seats in 2005.
The wall is covered by ads, the scoreboard and the out-of-town scoreboard.
It also contains the standings for the American League East, which will show those attending today's Game 3 of the American League Championship Series between the Rays and the Red Sox that the Rays claimed their first division title by two games over the Sox.
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