BOSTON—One of the rites of passage for young players is a visit inside the left-field scoreboard at Fenway Park. As they prepare to walk through the manual dash door, they are handed a Sharpie to sign their name inside.
There isn’t much headroom or room at all. On Tuesday, pitchers DL Hall and Jake Reed, infielder Gunnar Henderson and outfielder Kyle Stowers took turns with first baseman coach Anthony Sanders.
Oriole broadcasters Geoff Arnold, Kevin Brown and Brett Hollander, three reporters who cover the Orioles and the team’s public relations executives were also invited.
There are so many things about the dashboard. Perhaps the most famous story is when an NBC camera operator had to keep moving his position during Game 6 of the 1975 World Series because he was escaping rats. He finally found a safe place and pulled out his camera in time to capture Carlton Fisk waving his home run.
“It was pretty cool to go there and see all the players that have been there, see all the names and stuff,” Henderson said. “The whole story that goes with it is really awesome and special.”
Henderson said there was a strategy to find a place to sign his name.
“We tried to find the area with the fewest signatures to make it a bit more personal for us and it was pretty cool to be able to find a place in there and hopefully have it forever,” did he declare.
Henderson grew up in Selma, Alabama, and this is his first trip to Fenway.
“You can see the whole story of it…watching World Series games and playoff games,” he said. “You’re like, ‘Man, that would be cool to play there’ and then have the experience of being on that ground where everything that’s happened is great.”
Manager Brandon Hyde said he had been inside the scoreboard a few times. “Earlier this season I went inside with my son. My son signed the wall,” Hyde said. Hyde signed the wall when he coached the Chicago Cubs.
“It’s a pretty cool time to be in there. That’s the story in there,” Hyde said.
Akin’s Demotion: It came as a surprise when southpaw Keegan Akin was sent off to Triple-A Norfolk about an hour before Monday night’s game.
“It was tough,” Hyde said. “He’s been a big part of our bullpen this year. He had a great first year. He had good moments in the second half, not the results lately. The reason was that we really needed someone to go several innings last night and we were really short in the bullpen yesterday.
The Orioles recalled right-hander Logan Gillaspie, who pitched the final 2 2/3 innings of the Orioles’ 14-8 win over the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.
“We had to make a move to get a guy available last night,” Hyde said.
Remarks: Ramón Urias is back in the lineup at third base after missing two games with neck spasms. Terrin Vavra, who has been slowed by a hamstring injury, is available, Hyde said. … Mike Baumann will start Thursday afternoon, Hyde said. … Norfolk’s season ends Wednesday and the Orioles are discussing whether to add additional players to the taxi squad in the event of injuries.
Comments are closed.