In 1990, Jack McDonald took a slight detour on his way to his new job at the University of Denver.

McDonald worked as a member of the scoreboard crew at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

As such, he was one of several people responsible for operating the park’s scoreboards, which include the electronic scoreboard above the center field bleachers, the National League scoreboards on the facade of the left field and right field stands, and the manually run scoreboard built into the “Green Monster,” the fabled left field wall.

McDonald related what happened during his first day on the job:

“The first night my job is to read the ticker tape, put the stuff in the computer,” McDonald said. “The Natonal League scores go out to the first- and third-base lines, and the American League scores go out to the wall. This is April 8th, and I’m really nervous.

“I’m looking out there and it’s `Yankees 4, Toronto 3,’ an out-of-town score. I look again and the guy out there, who’s been there for 10 years, had it wrong. He had `Toronto 4, Yankees 3.’

“I’m thinking, should I call? Should I call? It’s my first day, I’m not going to tell someone else. This is not important, it’s only April.

“Finally, I said, `this isn’t right, it’s been over 3 1/2 innings now and it’s still 4-3 and this guy’s got it wrong. I’ve got to call him.’

“I pick up the phone and call him. I said, `hey, you’ve got the wrong numbers for the Yankees-Blue Jays game. It should be 4-3 Yankees instead of 4-3 Toronto.’

“The guy goes, `who is this?’ ”

“I go, `this is Jack McDonald in the video scoreboard room, who’s this?’ ”

” `This is Joe Morgan in the dugout. You’ve got the wrong number,’ ” answered the Red Sox manager.

“So that was my first day at Fenway,” McDonald chuckled.