**Writer’s
Correction: In earlier posts, I mentioned we would be having a five-part series
on the 100th Anniversary of Wrigley Field. That was an erroneous comment
on my part: Wrigley Field actually opened in 1914. The Chicago Cubs started
playing there in 1916, meaning they have played in Wrigley for 100 years. It is
this milestone that this series was meant to celebrate. My apologies if I
misled anyone.**
The Cubs at Wrigley 100 Years
Part I: The Ball Park
Depending on who you talk to,
the best ballpark in all of Baseball is either Fenway Park in Boston or Wrigley
Field in Chicago. While I’ve never been to either (they’re both on my bucket
list) I would probably favour Fenway over Wrigley. But we’re going to take a
look at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. While Wrigley
opened in 1914 as home of the Chicago Whales of the Federal League, the Cubs
were the first Major League club to call Wrigley home, and 2016 is the 100th
anniversary of the Cubs at Wrigley.
While the ballpark is known for
it’s lovely view of the downtown Chicago skyline and the famous, beautiful ivy
covering the outfield walls, it wasn’t much to look at back when it first
opened. It was a ballpark, plain and simple.
Originally named Weeghman Park,
after the owner of the Whales, Charles Weeghman, the park was constructed the
way most of the parks were at the time: angular and shaped by the surrounding
streets. The outfield fence was wooden and the distance down the right-field
foul line was only 300 feet. Down the left-field foul line, old Seminary
buildings blocked the view to Waveland Avenue.
The park capacity was only
14,000, but that was expanded when the Seminary buildings were knocked down
prior to the 1915 season. The capacity increases to 18,000 and a scoreboard was
constructed in centre-field, where it has been since (in one form or another).
But the Federal League folded
after the 1915 season and Weeghman Park would have a new tenant for 1916: the
Chicago Cubs of the National League. In 1918, Charles Weeghman would sell his
stake in the club to William Wrigley, who renamed the park “Cubs Park” for the
1919 season. By 1922, Wrigley decided that he needed to expand the ballpark in
order to seat more fans and have some updated facilities.
By Opening Day in 1923, Cubs
Park would have a seating capacity of 31,000. The wooden bleachers had been
replaced by steel-framed wooden seats. In 1926, the grand stand would be
double-decked. The following season, Cubs Park would be renamed “Wrigley
Field.”
But it wouldn’t be until 1937
that the ivy would start to grow on the outfield walls. First the wooden
bleachers would be replaced by concrete, fronted by brick and then the ivy
would be added. A new scoreboard was built and the outfield wall would have a
symmetrical and graceful look to it.
The next major change to Wrigley
would not happen for another 51 years. While all parks around MLB would
introduce night games, Wrigley would be the only park not to follow suit as there
were no lights towering over the stadium. The Cubs had been scheduled to put up
lights for the 1942 season, but after the attack of Pearl Harbor and America’s
entry into World War II, Wrigley’s son (Philip) donated the materials to the
war effort.
Philip Wrigley would then decide
never to install lights and it wasn’t until the Wrigleys no longer owned the
Cubs that the lights would be installed. But by the time the new owners took
over in 1981 (The Tribune Company), the city of Chicago had instituted an
ordinance that prohibited night events in the area as it was primarily a
residential neighbourhood.
Finally, in February of 1988, a
proposal for night games, provided it was for a limited number of nights during
the year, was agreed upon and the lights were installed atop Wrigley Field,
with the first night game being on August 8th of that year against
the Philadelphia Phillies.
Some other traits of the
stadium, include the “W” and “L” flags that are flown depending on what the
result of the last game was: obviously the “W” flag flies if the Cubs won and
the “L” flag if they weren’t so fortunate. During the seventh-inning stretch,
the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is usually led by a celebrity of
some sort. Past singers have included football’s Mike Ditka and Jay Cutler,
hockey’s Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, actors Tom Arnold, Bill Murray and
Gary Sinse, and musicians Ozzy Osborne and Eddie Vedder.
Besides the Cubs and the Whales,
other teams who have called Wrigley Field home are past and present NFL teams,
the Hammond Pros (1920-26), the Chicago Cardinals (1931-39) and the Chicago
Bears (1921-70).
On February 1st,
2004, Wrigley Field was designated as a Chicago landmark.
Next week: we will look at some of the
great Chicago Cub players who called Wrigley “home”.
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