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==Unusual wind patterns==
==Unusual wind patterns==
[[Image:Wrigleyboard_8_27_05.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|The main scoreboard at Wrigley Field. This photo was taken on the [[August 27]], [[2005 in baseball|2005]] Cubs-[[Florida Marlins|Marlins]] game. Note the video board below the scoreboard, as it was added in 2004.]]
[[Image:Wrigleyboard_8_27_05.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|The main scoreboard at Wrigley Field. This photo was taken on the [[August 27]], [[2005 in baseball|2005]] Cubs-[[Florida Marlins|Marlins]] game. Note the video board below the scoreboard, as it was added in 2004.]]
At no other current major league ballpark does the weather affect game play as much as at Wrigley Field. In April and May the wind often comes off [[Lake Michigan]] (less than a mile to the east), which means a northeast wind "blowing in" to knock down potential home runs and turn them into outs. In the summer, however, or on any warm and breezy day, the wind often comes from the south and the southwest, which means the wind is "blowing out" and has the potential to turn normally harmless fly balls into home runs. A third variety is the cross-wind, which typically runs from the left field corner to the right field corner and causes all sorts of interesting havoc. Depending on the direction of the wind, Wrigley can either be one of the friendliest parks in the major leagues for pitchers or among the worst.
In April and May the wind often comes off [[Lake Michigan]] (less than a mile to the east), which means a northeast wind "blowing in" to knock down potential home runs and turn them into outs. In the summer, however, or on any warm and breezy day, the wind often comes from the south and the southwest, which means the wind is "blowing out" and has the potential to turn normally harmless fly balls into home runs. A third variety is the cross-wind, which typically runs from the left field corner to the right field corner and causes all sorts of interesting havoc. Depending on the direction of the wind, Wrigley can either be one of the friendliest parks in the major leagues for pitchers or among the worst.


Many Cubs fans check their nearest flag before heading to the park on game days for an indication of what the game might be like; this is less of a factor for night games, however, because the wind does not blow as hard after the sun goes down.
Many Cubs fans check their nearest flag before heading to the park on game days for an indication of what the game might be like; this is less of a factor for night games, however, because the wind does not blow as hard after the sun goes down.

Revision as of 20:02, 20 October 2006

For the former minor league baseball park, see Wrigley Field (Los Angeles).

Template:Infobox Baseball Stadium Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales. It was also the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League from 1921-1970.

The ballpark was originally named Weeghman Park for the Whales' club owner, Charles Weeghman, who obtained a 99-year lease on the property from the city. The field became the home of the Cubs following the 1915 season when the Federal League was disbanded. Weeghman had gained part ownership of the Cubs, and moved the club to his new north side facility, abandoning legendary (and wooden) West Side Park.

Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. was part of that group of investors, led by Weeghman, which purchased the team. Wrigley gained full ownership in 1919 after Weeghman suffered financial setbacks and had to sell his shares. The field was then called Cubs Park from 1920 to 1925 before it was expanded and named after Wrigley in 1926; "Cubs Park" is still sometimes used as an alternate name. It is one of two parks that was named for William Wrigley; there was a Wrigley Field in Los Angeles that was home to the Los Angeles Angels, a Pacific Coast League team which Wrigley also owned.

Located in the residential neighborhood of Lakeview, Wrigley Field sits on an asymmetric block bounded by Clark and Addison Streets and Waveland and Sheffield Avenues. The area of close proximity to the ballpark containing bars, restaurants and other establishments is typically referred to as Wrigleyville. The ballpark's mailing address, as any fan of The Blues Brothers could tell you, is 1060 W. Addison Street. During Cubs games, Cub fans will stand on Waveland Avenue, waiting for home runs literally hit out of the park. (However, as a tradition, Cub fans -- whether inside or outside the park -- will promptly return any home run ball hit by an opposing player by throwing it back onto the field of play, a ritual depicted in the 1993 film Rookie of the Year.) Because of the relative youth and wealth of Cubs supporters and the propensity for yuppies to congregate at the park, Wrigley Field has been referred to as the "World's Largest Singles Bar". Wrigley Field is nicknamed The Friendly Confines, a phrase popularized by "Mr. Cub", Hall of Famer Ernie Banks. In 2006, its capacity will be 41,118 making Wrigley Field the fourth-smallest ballpark being used in 2006. It is the second oldest active major league ballpark (behind Fenway Park), and the only remaining Federal League park. Wrigley Field had an original seating capacity of 14,000 and cost $250,000 to build.

Overview

Wrigley Field is known for the Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) planted against the outfield wall in 1937 by Bill Veeck, whose father had been team president until his 1933 death. If the ball is hit into and lost in the ivy, then it is ruled a ground-rule double, provided that the defensive outfielder raises his hands to signify that the ball has been lost in the ivy; if the player attempts to search for the ball, the play is considered live, and no ground-rule double is ruled. Wrigley is also known for the manual scoreboard Veeck also erected. No batted ball has ever hit the scoreboard; indeed, very few home runs have even landed in the "upper deck" of the center field bleachers. Sam Snead did manage to hit the big board with a golf ball teed off from home plate.

For some time prior to 1937, though not initially, the Wrigley outfield was rather more spacious. The early history is explained well in A Day at the Park, by William Hartel, 1994. There were other buildings on the west side of the property in 1914, and this compelled the designers to squeeze the structure between those buildings, resulting in the ballpark having a short right field, some 298 feet to the outer wall. The only bleachers were in the left and center field areas. The stands were single-decked, and also narrower than they are now, with the box seat railing being some 7 or 8 feet above ground. This was the park's configuration for its first 9 seasons.

During the off-season between 1922 and 1923, with the extraneous buildings cleared off, engineers took the unusual move of slicing the single-deck grandstand in two places, and rolling those stands 60 feet to the west. The gap was filled in with more seating, resulting in the noticeable "dog leg" in the stands on the first base side, barely visible at the lower right of the "friendly confines" photo accompanying this article. The diamond and the foul lines were rotated 3 degrees counterclockwise, providing room for additional rows of box seats all around foul ground, but resulting in a shallower left field. The bleachers were removed from that area and re-installed across right field. It was then about 360 feet to the outer right field wall, but an inner fence was constructed to cut the distance to 321.

File:Wrigley Field split upper deck 1927.JPG
Wrigley's split-level stand, 1927

During the mid-1920s, the ballpark was upper-decked in two stages, the third-base (shady) side first, and then the first-base (sunny) side. But the bleachers were set. By the early 1930s, distance markers were posted: left field line, 364 feet; left-center against the outer wall, 372; left center, corner of bleachers, 364; deep center field, 440; right center, 354; right field line, 321.

Wrigley - 1935 World Series

In 1937, the Cubs announced plans to rebuild the bleachers in concrete instead of wood, to be fronted by brick that would soon be covered in ivy, and to build a new scoreboard. To make the outfield look more symmetrical and graceful, the plans called for extending the left field bleachers to a point closer to the corner. The gentle curves between the ends of the left and right field bleachers would become popularly known as the "wells". That summer, the Chicago Tribune ran a series of articles about major league ballparks, and the writer sharply criticized the Cubs for a remodeling that he suspected would result in too many "cheap" home runs. The writer later retracted when he saw that the final plan was somewhat more spacious than originally announced.

File:Wrigley Field Sign.jpg
Wrigley Field sign on W. Addison St., Chicago

Be that as it may, construction went on behind a temporary fence during the summer, and the finished product was unveiled in time for the last month of the season. Bill Veeck's famous ivy was planted not long after, but it would be another year before it fully took hold. According to his own autobiography, Veeck as in Wreck, he planted Bittersweet, which would grow quickly, and also the more famous Boston ivy, which would eventually take over. Another part of the arboretum was to be a series of Chinese elms on the large "stairsteps" up to the scoreboard, as well as one apiece in the little triangle at the top of each "well". According to Veeck's biography, that plan did not fare so well as the winds kept blowing the leaves off. Management finally gave up "after about twenty tries," so the trees are long gone, leaving just the large bare steps and (until 2006) the little flat trianglular supports at the tops of the "wells". According to Veeck, the trees themselves were inexpensive, but the special construction for them in the bleachers cost about $200,000.

Another mistake was constructing bleachers in straightaway center field: The batters could easily lose sight of the ball in the white shirts worn by spectators on sunny days, because the wall was not high enough to provide a full batter's background by itself. Various methods were tried to get around this. At one time a flat canopy was extended over the area, to try to put the spectators in shadow, but that was ineffective. For awhile in the mid-1960s, a screen was attached to the top of the wall and the ivy twined its way up. Batters and bleacher fans disliked it, and it was removed after a couple of seasons. Later, for a number of years, a green tarp covered those seats.

After generally being closed to spectators sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, the last time those three problem sections were used for baseball was during the 1962 All-Star game. The seats continued to be used for other events such as football and soccer, during the years when the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Sting played their games here.

By the 1990s, the area was occupied by juniper plants, which nicely complemented the ivy. Also, the layout was tweaked a bit, to open up a few seats on either side of the straight center field area while still providing a rectangular background from the perspective of the batter.

After the 2005 season, the plants were temporarily removed during reconstruction (see below). Over the following winter, a lounge was constructed in the upper part of this area and new rows of juniper bushes were placed in the lower part.

By the end of 1937, the dimensions were set: 355 feet to the left field corner, a few feet behind where the corner wall tangents the foul pole; 368 to fairly deep left-center; 400 to the deepest part of center; 368 to right center; and 353 to the right field foul pole. There are other intriguing distances that have never been posted. In the original Encyclopedia of Baseball, by Hy Turkin and S.C. Thompson, 1951, measurements of 357 feet to the left field "well" and 363 to the right field "well" were revealed. That would put the closest point of the left end of the bleachers no more than about 350 feet from home plate, a fact many pitchers have cursed over the years. Left-center in general is shallow. Straightaway center is probably about 390. Deep center and the right field area in general are better balanced. But the shallowness of the left-center power alley, really too cozy for major league standards, and the resultant increase in home runs in the decades since 1937, suggest that the Chicago Tribune's original skeptical assessment was correct.

Panoramic view of Wrigley Field

Lights installation

Early attempts

Lights were scheduled to be added to Wrigley Field in 1942, but after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, then-owner Philip K. Wrigley (son of the late William) donated the materials intended for lighting Wrigley Field to the war effort. Baseball boomed after the war, allowing P.K. Wrigley to procrastinate on the issue. He eventually decided never to install lights for a variety of publicly stated reasons, so Wrigley Field remained a bastion of day baseball until the Chicago Tribune Company acquired the Cubs in 1981.

1981-1983

The Cubs had been run almost like a hobby by the Wrigleys, but the Tribune Company was interested in the Cubs strictly as a business. The new owners started talking about lights and began stirring debate on the matter. One of P.K.'s stated reasons for not installing lights was that it would upset the neighborhood, and the initial negative reaction to the Tribune Company's intentions validated P.K.'s prediction.

The City of Chicago had passed an ordinance banning night events at Wrigley Field, due to its presence in the residential Lakeview neighborhood, so the Tribune Co. was unable to install lights unless the ordinance was repealed. They compromised by scheduling a significant number of 3:00 starts, which typically carried games into the evening but did not require lights for games that completed within three hours or so.

1984

This debate continued for several years, and became more intense as the Cubs returned to competitiveness during the 1980s. When the Cubs won the National League Eastern Division title in 1984, then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn announced that the Cubs would lose home field advantage should they advance to the World Series (home field advantage alternated between the champions of the National League and American League until 2003). After winning their two scheduled home (day) games in the National League Championship Series, the Cubs lost all three games in San Diego, so Kuhn's threat became moot. But the next year, new commissioner Peter Ueberroth announced that because Wrigley Field had no lights, the Cubs would have to play any postseason games at another ballpark, probably St. Louis' Busch Stadium, but also possibly at Milwaukee County Stadium or Comiskey Park.

The Cubs also explored moving to several suburban locations, including a site adjacent to Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois and another in Schaumburg, Illinois. Cubs President Dallas Green, with characteristic bluntness, publicly stated that "if there are no lights in Wrigley Field, there will be no Wrigley Field." However, the Cubs fell out of contention for the next several years, and the possibility of playing post-season "home" games in other cities did not arise.

1987-1988

In the Fall of 1987, Chicago mayor Harold Washington proposed a compromise ordinance to the Chicago City Council providing for the Cubs to install lights but play a limited night schedule. Washington died a week after the compromise was proposed, but the city eventually approved a compromise in February 1988 under interim mayor Eugene Sawyer. Major League Baseball responded by awarding the Cubs the 1990 All-Star Game.

August 8 & 9, 1988

The first major league night game at Wrigley was attempted on August 8 against the Philadelphia Phillies, but was rained out after 3 1/2 innings. During the rain delay, several Cubs players, imitating a scene in the recent film hit, Bull Durham, played "slip-and-slide" on the tarp. One source says the group included Greg Maddux, Al Nipper, Les Lancaster and Jody Davis. Manager Don Zimmer was not amused, and they were fined $500 apiece.

The first official night game was achieved the following night, August 9 against the New York Mets, ending a streak of 5,687 consecutive home day games. However, this was not the first night game of any kind at Wrigley, as in the 1940s, some AAGPBL night games were played in Wrigley Field using temporary lighting structures.

1989

Starting with their first full season with lights, in 1989, as part of the compromise with the city, the Cubs were limited to 18 night games within their 81-game regular season schedule, plus any post-season games that might have to be played at night for TV scheduling reasons. The timing of the lights' installation proved fortuitous, as the Cubs did indeed reach the post-season in 1989. Their first two post-season night games were the first two games of the NLCS, on October 4 and 5. They lost the first game 11-3, and won the second game 9-5.

Recent events

Their post-season appearances since then (as well as their one-game regular-season playoff with San Francisco in 1998) have featured mostly night games, the lone exception (as of 2005) being the fourth game of their 2003 Division Series matchup with the Atlanta Braves, which was played on Saturday afternoon, October 4.

In recent years, the Cubs have successfully lobbied for additional regular-season night games. However, they continue to play a significant majority of their home games during daylight hours.

Unusual wind patterns

The main scoreboard at Wrigley Field. This photo was taken on the August 27, 2005 Cubs-Marlins game. Note the video board below the scoreboard, as it was added in 2004.

In April and May the wind often comes off Lake Michigan (less than a mile to the east), which means a northeast wind "blowing in" to knock down potential home runs and turn them into outs. In the summer, however, or on any warm and breezy day, the wind often comes from the south and the southwest, which means the wind is "blowing out" and has the potential to turn normally harmless fly balls into home runs. A third variety is the cross-wind, which typically runs from the left field corner to the right field corner and causes all sorts of interesting havoc. Depending on the direction of the wind, Wrigley can either be one of the friendliest parks in the major leagues for pitchers or among the worst.

Many Cubs fans check their nearest flag before heading to the park on game days for an indication of what the game might be like; this is less of a factor for night games, however, because the wind does not blow as hard after the sun goes down.

With the wind blowing in, pitchers can dominate, and no-hitters have been tossed from time to time, though none recently; the last two occurred near the beginning and the end of the 1972 season, by Burt Hooton and Milt Pappas respectively. In the seventh inning of Ken Holtzman's first no-hitter, on August 19, 1969, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hammered one that looked like it was headed for Waveland, but the wind caught it just enough for left fielder Billy Williams to leap up and snare it in "the well".

With the wind blowing out, some true tape-measure home runs have been hit by well-muscled batters. Sammy Sosa and Dave "Kong" Kingman broke windows in the apartment buildings across Waveland Avenue several times. Glenallen Hill put one on a rooftop. Batters have occasionally slugged it into, or to the side of, the first row or two of the "upper deck" of the center field bleachers. Sosa hit the roof of the center field camera booth on the fly during the NLCS against the Florida Marlins, some 450 feet away.

But the longest blast was probably hit by Dave Kingman on a very windy day in 1976 while with the Mets. According to local legend, one day, Kingman launched a bomb that landed on the third porch roof on the east (center field) side of Kenmore Street, some 550 feet away.

No matter the weather, many fans congregate during batting practice and games on Waveland Avenue, behind left field, and Sheffield Avenue, behind right field, for a chance to catch a home run ball.

Home to "Da Bears"

The Chicago Bears of the National Football League played at Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970 before relocating to Soldier Field. Wrigley Field, however, still holds the record for the most number of NFL games played in a single stadium, to soon be passed by Giant Stadium in New Jersey. The team had transferred from Decatur, and retained the name "Staleys" for the 1921 season. They renamed themselves the "Bears" in order to identify with the baseball team, a common practice in the NFL in those days.

Initially the Bears worked with the stands that were there. Eventually they acquired a large, portable bleacher section that spanned the right and center field areas. This "East Stand" raised Wrigley's football capacity to about 46,000. After the Bears left, it would live on for several years as the "North Stand" at Soldier Field, until it was replaced by permanent seating.

The football field ran north-to-south, i.e. from left field to the foul side of first base. The remodeling of the bleachers made for a very tight fit for the gridiron. In fact, the corner of the south end zone was literally in the visiting baseball team's dugout, which was filled with pads for safety, and required a special ground rule that sliced off that corner of the end zone. One corner of the north end line ran just inches short of the left field wall. There is a legend that Bronko Nagurski, the great Bears fullback, broke through the line, head down, and ran all the way through that end zone, smacking his leather-helmeted head on the bricks. He went back to the bench and told Coach "Papa Bear" George Halas, "That last guy gave me quite a lick!" That kind of incident prompted the Bears to hang some padding in front of the wall.

The Bears are second only to the Green Bay Packers in total NFL championships, and all but one of those came during their tenure at Wrigley. After a half-century, they found themselves compelled to move, because the NFL wanted every one of its stadiums to seat at least 50,000. The Bears had one experimental game at Dyche Stadium on the Northwestern University campus, but otherwise continued at Wrigley until they transferred to the lakefront, finally ending their long and glorious run on the north side.

In another brand of football, the professional soccer team called the Chicago Sting called Wrigley their home for awhile during the 1980s. Their games occurred during the baseball season, so there were no special stands in evidence, just added wear-and-tear on the field.

Rooftop seats

Fire Engine 78 across Waveland from Wrigley

Old-time ballparks were often surrounded by buildings that afforded a "freebie" look at the game for enterprising souls. In most venues, the clubs took steps to either extend the stands around, or to build "spite fences" to block the view. Perhaps the most notorious of these was the one at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, which caused a rift between the residents and the team that never healed. The Cubs themselves had built a high fence along the outfield at West Side Park, to hide the field from flats whose back porches were right next to the outer fence of the ballpark.

But at Wrigley it was different somehow. The flat rooftops of the apartment buildings across Waveland and Sheffield, which actually pre-date the ballpark, were often populated with a reasonable number of fans having cookouts while enjoying the game for free. The Cubs tolerated it quietly, until the 1990s, when some owners of those apartments got carried away: they began building little bleacher sections, and charging people to watch the games. That was a whole different ball game, and the Cubs management became very vocal in expressing their displeasure, threatening legal action. In 2003 they went so far as to line the screens that top the outer walls with opaque strips, to block the best exterior sight lines. That was the closest thing to a spite fence that Wrigley had seen. Therefore the bleachers are sometimes called 'The Spiteless Fence' as well as 'The Ivy Wall'. Tradition dictates that when a home run is hit by an opposing team player, the fans in the bleachers must throw the ball back onto the field (as if almost rejecting it). Fans that don't adher are often heckled till they oblige. 'Take Me Out To The Old Ballgame' is often sung in the seventh inning stretch, accompanied usually by a celebrity.

View from a rooftop across Waveland Avenue

This led to meetings and to a peaceful settlement among the various parties. The building owners agreed to share a portion of their proceeds with the Cubs, and the Cubs obtained permission from the city to expand the ballpark's own bleachers out over the sidewalks and do some additional construction on the open area of the property to the west, bordered by Clark and Waveland, and to close the remnant of Seminary Avenue that also existed on the property.

Amidst this debate, a potentially more serious problem arose. On at least two separate occasions during the summer of 2004, small chunks of concrete fell from the upper deck, nearly injuring spectators. The city ordered an inspection of the 90-year-old park, and there was much concern about whether the structure was falling apart. It turned out that the pieces that fell were merely shielding around wires, not part of the main structure. To improve safety, netting was strung under the upper deck to catch any more pieces that might fall.

The rooftop seats are now effectively part of the ballpark's seating area, although they are not included in the seating capacity figure. Some of the rooftops have become legendary in their own right. The Lakeview Baseball Club, which sits across Sheffield Avenue (right-field) from the stadium proudly displays a "calendar" demonstrating the Cubs' futility. The calendar is flanked by a sign that reads Eamus Catuli! which means "Let's Go Cubs!" in Latin (catuli means "whelps" in Latin, the closest Latin translation to the word "Cubs"), and the calendar is labeled "AC," for "Anno Catuli," or "In the Year of the Cubs." The first two digits display the number of years since the Cubs' last division championship as of the end of the previous season (02; their last division championship was in 2003), the next two digits display the number of years since the Cubs' last trip to the World Series (60; their last Series was in 1945), and the last two digits display the number of years since their last World Series win (97; their last win was in 1908). It is not currently known what the LBC will do with the "calendar" if the Cubs reach 100 years without a World Series title.

Recent renovations and additions

After lengthy debate, the reconstruction and expansion of the bleachers (by some 1,900 seats) finally began after the close of the 2005 season. The first part of the process was to remove the outer brick wall, one of the last vestiges of the 1914 structure. Additionally, much of the 1937 construction behind the inner ivy-covered wall was removed (except for the steel supports and the center field upper tier) and the former sidewalk was excavated. The work progressed quickly throughout the winter, aided by the relatively mild midwestern January.

The original concept called for the bleachers to simply extend out over the sidewalks, supported by open steel columns in cantilevered design, connecting new steel to the existing steel that supported the old bleachers. That plan was altered somewhat when it was feared the area would become an impromptu homeless shelter. Thus the vertical part of the supporting structure for the new bleachers was encased in a wall constructed of new bricks, in a style reminiscent of the original wall, and the sidewalk (repaved in brick) became a few feet narrower. The only part hanging over the sidewalk is the flat walkway behind the bleachers. The upper part of the formerly vacant center field area is occupied by a large luxury suite, fronted by darkened, slanted windows so as not to interfere with the batters' sight lines, and the lower part by juniper plants that had been temporarily removed. Another notable change to the configuration was to replace the solid door in the right field corner with a chain-link fence gate, so passers-by can see part of the ballfield (an idea borrowed from AT&T Park).

Various Internet sites displayed photos tracking the progress of construction. The results support what management had stated, that the changes would not depart radically from the previous structure. [1] [2] [3].

On March 30, 2006, the Cubs announced the bleachers would be renamed the Bud Light bleachers. A sign to that effect was soon posted over the bleacher entryway [4] which contrasts significantly with its previous look[5]. The Cubs management has also planted ivy on the rebuilt exterior walls, in a soil trough that was provided as part of the construction. Conventional Boston ivy was planted on the east-facing Sheffield wall. It should get a fair amount of sunlight during morning hours. The north-facing wall along Waveland, which will receive little direct sunlight in the summer and none in the winter, has an "evergreen" variety, English ivy, which thrives in shade.

In the movies

Wrigley Field had a brief cameo in the movie The Blues Brothers (1980), starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as Jake and Elwood Blues. Elwood listed 1060 W. Addison as his fake home address on his Illinois driver's license.

The ballpark was featured in a scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), starring Matthew Broderick.

An early 1990s film about Babe Ruth had the obligatory scene in Wrigley Field about the "called shot". A scoreboard similar to the one existing in 1932 was used, atop the ivy wall which of course did not exist until later in the decade.

The Natural (1984), starring Robert Redford, had a scene set at Wrigley but it was actually filmed at All High Stadium in Buffalo, New York. The other baseball scenes in that movie were also shot in Buffalo, at the since-demolished War Memorial Stadium.

Wrigley Field was also used for a lengthy establishing scene in A League of Their Own (1992), a Hollywood account of the women's baseball league which the eccentric but visionary Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley had, in fact, championed during World War II. Garry Marshall (older brother of the film's director Penny Marshall) has a cameo as "Walter Harvey", P.K.'s fictional alter ego. The big sign behind Wrigley Field's scoreboard was redone to read "Harvey Field".

Wrigley Field was also heavily featured in the 1993 film Rookie of the Year. The movie is about a young boy who becomes a Cubs relief pitcher after injuring his arm. The injury seemed to cause a strong tension in the boy's rotator cuff, which consequently allowed him to throw a 100 mile-per-hour plus fast ball.

The field can also be seen in the opening credit sequence of the 1980s sitcom Perfect Strangers.

On the small screen, the stadium was featured in an early episode of Crime Story. Several episodes of the Chicago-based program ER also contain scenes shot at Wrigley Field.

Wrigley Field was also the location of the opening scene in the 2006 film "The Break-Up" starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.

Travel and accessibility

The back of Wrigley Field, with old fashioned scoreboard taken during an offseason before the reconstruction of 2005

The Red Line stop at Addison is less than one block from Wrigley Field. The stadium was originally built where it is due to its proximity to the train tracks. At the conclusion of games the scoreboard operators will raise to the top of the scoreboard either a white flag with a blue "W" to signify a Cubs victory, or a blue flag with a white "L" to signify a loss; this is done to allow passengers on the train heading home from the Loop to see the outcome of the game. However, the flag colors used to be the exact opposite of the colors used today, with the rationale that white is the traditional color for surrender.

Parking in the area remains scarce, but that does not seem to bother fans who want to come to this baseball "mecca", which drew over 3 million fans in 2004 and 2005, averaging to a near-sellout every day of the season, even with those many weekday afternoon games. The little parking that is available around the park can go for as much as $25 or $30 per space.

Wrigley Field has continuously evolved over its 90-plus seasons. There is relatively little left of the original that is visible to the casual viewer. One of the more obvious originals were the brick portions of the outer bleacher wall, visible in the "back of Wrigley Field" photo. The Cubs' bleacher expansion resulted in removal of those bricks, which were later sold to the public individually at a "garage sale" at the start of the 2006 season.

Commemorative stamps

In 2001, a series of commemorative postage stamps on the subject of baseball parks was issued by the U.S. Postal Service. Most of them were engravings taken from old colorized postcards, including the illustration of Wrigley Field. In the case of Wrigley, the famous scoreboard was sliced off, presumably to hide the original postcard's banner containing the park's name. It may also be observed that the original black-and-white aerial photo, presumably from the 1945 World Series, was taken from nearly the identical spot as the photo of the 1935 Series, allowing a comparison before and after the 1937 alterations to the bleachers. The stamp and its sources also provide a rare look at the center field bleachers filled with spectators, a practice which was later discontinued due to the risk to batters, who might lose the flight of a pitch amidst the white shirts.

File:Wrigley1945composite.JPG

Historic moments

1910s

1920s

  • June 26, 1920: In a high-school "inter-state championship" game between New York City's Commerce High and Chicago's Lane Tech, just-turned-17 New York boy Lou Gehrig slugs a grand slam home run to lead his team to a comeback victory.
  • August 25, 1922: The Cubs defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 26-23 in what remains (through 2005) the highest-scoring game in major league history (49 runs total).
  • September 18, 1929: The Cubs clinch the National League pennant, losing their game, but the second place team also loses and is eliminated on the same day.

1930s

1940s

1950s and '60s

  • May 12, 1955: Sam Jones pitches a 4-0 no-hitter over the Pittsburgh Pirates, the hard way: he walks the bases full in the 9th inning, and then strikes out the side.
  • May 15, 1960: Don Cardwell, making his debut with the Cubs following a trade, pitches a 4-0 no-hitter over the St. Louis Cardinals. With 2 outs in the 9th and two strikes on him, the Cards' Joe Cunningham nearly breaks it up with a line drive to left field, but Moose Moryn makes a running, shoetop catch for the final out.
  • May 28, 1961: A literal case of a "fireman" garnering a "save" for the Cubs. During a contest with the San Francisco Giants, a hot dog stand near the right field corner catches fire, and Wrigleyville's Fire Engine House #78 (built in 1915) is called in from its "bullpen" across Waveland to extinguish the blaze.
  • July 23, 1962: Wrigley Field goes international, as Telstar transmits images from the Phillies-Cubs game (patched into the WGN-TV coverage) to overseas receiving stations.
  • July 30, 1962: Second 1962 Major League Baseball All-Star Game (two were played each year 1959-1962). Americans 9, Nationals 4. The last time the center field bleachers are open to fans, in the park's baseball configuration.
  • December 29, 1963: The Bears win the NFL Championship over the New York Giants, 14-10, on a bright, clear and frigid Sunday afternoon (it was 9 °F. at kickoff).
  • December 12, 1965: Gale Sayers of the Bears runs for a record-tying six touchdowns, as the Bears rout the San Francisco 49ers 61-20.
  • August 19, 1969: Ken Holtzman no-hits the powerful-hitting Atlanta Braves, 3-0, in what proves to be the high watermark of the ill-fated 1969 season, aided by a strong northerly wind. In the 7th inning, Henry Aaron socks one that appears to be headed for Waveland Avenue, but the wind smacks it down and into the glove of the leaping Billy Williams. Aaron also makes the final out, a ground ball from Beckert to Banks.
Statue of the beloved former announcer Harry Caray, outside Wrigley Field, Chicago.

1970s

  • May 12, 1970: Ernie Banks hits his 500th career home run against Pat Jarvis of the Atlanta Braves.
  • April 16, 1972: Burt Hooton throws a no-hitter, a 4-0 win over the Phillies. The season had started late due to a players' strike, and this one came on the second day of the season.
  • September 2, 1972: Milt Pappas pitches an 8-0 no-hitter over the San Diego Padres. He comes within one strike of a perfect game, but walks the batter. He then retires the final batter. After a relative rash of Wrigley and Cubs no-hitters, this one will be the last involving a Cubs team as of the 2005 season.
  • April 17, 1976: With a strong prevailing southerly breeze, the Cubs take a 13-2 lead over the Phillies through 4 innings, only to finally lose 18-16 in 10 innings, as the Phils tie the NL record for the largest lead overcome. Tied at 15-15, the Phils score three in the 10th, partly on the strength of Mike Schmidt's 4th home run of the game, and the Cubs are only able to come back with one in their half of the 10th.
  • May 17, 1979: In another windblown game with the Phillies, echoing the high-scoring Cubs-Phillies games of 1923 and 1976, the Phils take a large lead only to have the Cubs catch them in the late innings. However, Schmidt does the Cubs in again, hitting a homer (his third of the day) in the 10th (off Bruce Sutter) to give the Phillies a 23-22 win. Dave Kingman also hits three that day in a losing cause.

1980s and '90s

  • June 23, 1984: The nationally-televised Saturday game against the Cardinals that puts Ryne Sandberg "on the map" and comes to symbolize the season for the Cubs, who will go on to win their first title of any kind since 1945. Sandberg hits a pair of game-tying home runs in late inning action, both off ex-Cub ace Bruce Sutter, a wild one eventually won by the Cubs 12-11 in 11 innings.
  • September 8, 1985: Pete Rose hits his 4,191st career hit to tie Ty Cobb's record. (Note, however, that according to some baseball historians, this hit actually broke Cobb's record. Sources differ as to Cobb's career hits total, which has been cited as 4,189, 4,190, and 4,191.)
  • July 10, 1990: MLB All-Star Game. Americans 2, Nationals 0.
  • May 6, 1998: Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs strikes out 20 Houston Astros to set the National League record and tie the major league record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game; the Cubs win 2-0 as Wood gives up only one hit.
  • September 13, 1998: Sammy Sosa hits home runs 61 and 62 to pass Roger Maris and temporarily tie Mark McGwire for the all-time, single-season home run record. McGwire won the race 70 to 66.
  • September 28, 1998: The Chicago Cubs clinch the National League wild-card berth in a one-game playoff on a Monday night, defeating the San Francisco Giants 5-3.

2000s

See also


41°56′52.93″N 87°39′20.45″W / 41.9480361°N 87.6556806°W / 41.9480361; -87.6556806

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