Scorekeeper at Wrigley Practices Dying Art

Wrigley Field is just one of two major league ballparks with manual scoreboards

Inside a dusty, dimly lit chamber of steel catwalks, Darryl Wilson peers out a square hole and into one of baseball's most revered shrines.

For 23 years, Wilson has been a scoreboard operator at Wrigley Field, one of only two major league ballparks with manual scoreboards.

Running the tall, green manual scoreboard is one of the most unique jobs in baseball.

Each run and every inning, there is a flurry of activity and noise inside as operators yank metal plates with numbers on them out of the scoreboard and slam others into place.

About the only thing that's changed since it was built in 1937 is that the scores coming in from, say, Baltimore or St. Louis no longer arrive on a tickertape machine. They now pop up on a laptop that's a bit out of place atop a dusty counter near Wilson's duct-taped seat.

Wilson says he feels "unique" and a bit like a "landmark."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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