Hand-Painted Scoreboard

Lore & Background

Wrigley Field's scoreboard is a manually operated scoreboard, using numbers painted on metal sheets hung by people working inside the scoreboard. It is one of the few remaining examples of manual scoreboards in baseball, particularly at older venues.

In Their Own Story

The late afternoon sun cast long shadows across the diamond as the ninth inning wore on. A young fan in the bleachers didn't look at his phone; instead, he looked up toward the brick wall. The operator high above shifted a card from three balls to four. The sound was sharp and satisfying in the warm air. For a moment, the crowd held its breath, united by the mechanical click that signaled a walk. In that instant, the game felt timeless, stripped of noise, reduced simply to the score on the wall.

Did You Know?

• The Wrigley Field scoreboard uses numbers painted on metal sheets hung by people working inside the scoreboard.
• Manually operated scoreboards are rare in baseball, with only a few remaining in MLB.
• Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago are well-known examples of manual scoreboards.