Rick Fuhs
Wrigley Field scoreboard operator
The scoreboard, I've been doing since 1989. I do batter number, balls, strikes, out, hits and errors in the center part of the main scoreboard.
I'm working off a panel that's from 1937. It's the original panel. It's pretty cool, the history behind it. The neat thing about it, last year Curt Hubertz came out to a ballgame. He was 20 years old when he and his father put part of the scoreboard in. They put all of the targets in and the electronic parts in the center part. He still has some parts in his garage.
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
They say I'm pretty fast. That goes back to Curt Hubertz and how they designed the electronic part of the scoreboard. You touch the button, it's up there. That's how fast it is. So, if I get a good read on the umpire -- and I know most of them -- I can put the ball or the strike up pretty quick. A lot of times, what I'll do is I'll watch their movements. If they move their foot to the right, they're calling a strike.
"I've jumped the gun a couple of times. There's this guy, Tim McClelland, he's a guy that's really hard to read. He'll stand there for almost four or five seconds, and -- boom! -- he'll throw his right hand out and throw a strike up. And I'll already have a ball up. So I've had to switch it a few times when he's umping. But overall I'm pretty accurate.
If I make a mistake, they put their hand up. If I got 1-2, and it's 2-1, he'll put his fingers up 2-1. It hasn't happened much this year. I've been pretty good this year and the last couple of years.
The scoreboard knocked off on us in the 2003 playoffs in October. A woman made the funniest comment. She says, "I guess it's not used to working in October."
Every time I go somewhere, if they find out I'm the scoreboard operator, they say, "How do you do it so fast?"
I cut the grass. I do the outfield and the sidelines. Roger Baird, the head groundskeeper, he cu ts the infield.
If you ride the mower one way, you get a corduroy effect. If you were to push it with your hand, you get a light effect. So if you push it one way, it's light. When you come back, it's light that way, but it looks dark. Light. Dark. Light Dark. Some days you look at it, and you're not perfect every day. It's wavy in spots.
There's been bats up here. Especially with the windows open, you're going to see some bats up here. There was a squirrel in the winter.
I wish I had bought some property around here. When I first started, it was rougher. As time went on, these greystones -- people started fixing them up nice.
The governor's been up here. Michael Jordan's father was up here. The governor's daughter put up a batter number. The governor, he put a batter number up.
This panel was used for football, too. Under "balls" here, it says "downs." And over here it says "yards to go."