The Wrigley Scoreboard No Baseball Has Ever Hit

Wrigley Field's center-field scoreboard has loomed over the bleachers since 1937, mounted well above field level rather than at ground height. In more than eight decades of major league baseball, the Cubs say no batted ball has ever reached it. A golfer got there before some Cubs hitters even finished batting practice.

A Board No Hitter Has Touched

The scoreboard sits high above the center-field bleachers, a position that makes it far harder to hit than a wall-mounted board would be.

The closest anyone has come with a bat is still talked about. Roberto Clemente's towering home run during a doubleheader on May 17, 1959, is generally considered the longest in Wrigley Field history. It sailed just to the side of the scoreboard rather than into it.

Cubs outfielder Bill Nicholson is also remembered for a near miss of his own. Neither he nor Clemente, nor anyone else swinging a bat, has ever actually struck the board.

The Golfer Who Stopped By

On April 17, 1951, Sam Snead was in Chicago for a very different reason. The golfing great had broken his wrist over the winter, and a doctor in the city was checking how it had healed.

Snead stopped by Wrigley Field on the Cubs' Opening Day, where a crowd of 18,211 had gathered to watch the Cubs take on the Cincinnati Reds. He decided to find out whether a golf ball could clear the scoreboard from home plate.

He had no tee. He played both shots straight off the grass, in his street clothes.

Two Swings, One Record

Snead's first shot struck the scoreboard. His second cleared it completely, sailing over the top in front of the Opening Day crowd.

The Cubs' Frankie Frisch had one reaction.

"Look, he didn't even wiggle," Frisch said, according to a Chicago Tribune account of the day.

The Tribune's reporter, Edward Burns, described the board as 89 feet high that day, towering well above anything a batter could reach from the plate.

A Forgettable Season, an Unforgettable Shot

The Cubs beat the Reds that afternoon, but the good feeling didn't last. Chicago finished the 1951 season with 92 losses, and Snead's two golf swings remained the highlight of the year.

The scoreboard is still standing today, still hand-operated by workers inside it, and still waiting for the first baseball to reach it. So far, only a golfer has ever managed the shot.