They're close enough to hear outfielders slam pitchers for walking in a run or curse themselves for a botched play. "I don't know what it's like to watch a game in the stands, but this is an unbelievable perspective. We've seen misplays and great plays," says Elias, who lives in Arlington, Mass., and is the assistant athletic director and baseball coach at Emerson College.

At age 27, Elias has been a Fenway scorekeeper for 10 years. He got the job when he was a UNH undergraduate majoring in communications. On game days in the fall and spring, he'd go to class in the morning and then make the 90-minute commute to Boston, taking his homework assignments with him. He remembers studying for exams and writing papers inside the wall's four-foot-wide cavity while keeping one eye on the game. Should his concentration stray, all it took was the ear-ringing THWACK of a line drive off the metal scoreboard to get his attention. "To this day, I still jump every time the ball smacks the scoreboard," he says.

Elias is not one to name-drop, but inside the narrow confines of the scorekeepers' room, he is literally surrounded by some of the greatest names in baseball. Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk '69 and countless others have left their autographs on the concrete walls. "They say Ted Williams' signature is back here, but I haven't found it yet," he observes. But he has found an avocation as a tour guide for visiting players who want a close-up look at Fenway's famed landmark. "Almost all the National League players have come back here to take pictures and ask questions," he says.

He tells his visitors that the wall's reputation as a monster goes back to 1912, when the ballpark was built. Only 310 feet down the left field line, the wall not only robs batters of home runs, but also embarrasses outfielders who have trouble handling a "wall ball." It became the Green Monster in 1947, when a coat of emerald paint was applied to cover old advertisements.

Like many Red Sox fans, Elias will miss this piece of baseball history when Boston's much-discussed new ballpark is built. But he won't miss being stuffed into a stifling concrete box for three hours on sweltering August afternoons. In fact, he's already lobbying for air conditioning in the scorekeepers' room at the new Fenway.