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I went to my first baseball game at Wrigley Field this weekend, and I have to say, I was pretty impressed. It’s a gorgeous stadium just steeped in history. Here are 10 facts everyone ought to know about this Jewel Box park.
1. The famous ivy backdrop was planted by Bill Veeck in 1937. It was originally 350 bittersweet plants and 200 Boston ivy plants, but the Boston ivy eventually took over. If a ball gets lost in the ivy, it’s considered a ground-rule double as long as the outfielder raises his hands to indicate that the ball is lost. If he doesn’t, it’s considered fair play. There used to be Chinese elm trees leading up to the scoreboard, but the leaves kept blowing off and the trees kept dying, so the idea was eventually given up.
2. The scoreboard has been around since 1937 too, and is still manually operated. Despite it’s prominent placement, it has never been struck with a batted ball. Golfer Sam Snead teed off from home plate and hit it once, though.
3. Fans inside and outside of the park sweetly return any home run ball hit by the opposing team. They’re thoughtful like that. I did see this happen – a ball was hit out into the street and was promptly returned to the outfield.
4. Wrigley Field used to be Weeghman Park. William Wrigley was an investor and kept increasing his shares, then eventually bought out Weeghman in 1918. He was full owner by 1921 and expanded the park in 1922.
5. Lights weren’t added to Wrigley until 1988. They were scheduled to be added in the early ‘40s, but P.K. Wrigley donated the materials to the war effort instead of having them installed. The City of Chicago issued an ordinance against night games at Wrigley because the lights would be distracting to people that actually lived in the neighborhood, but the organization and the city came to an agreement in time for the ’88 season.
6. The first night game was supposed to be against the Phillies but it got rained out. While waiting on the rain delay, some of the Cubs took the opportunity to act out a scene from Bull Durham and played slip-and-slide on the tarp covering the field. The players who participated were fined $500 each.
7. The Bears played at Wrigley from 1921 to 1970. They were called the Staleys for the first season but then renamed themselves to coordinate with the Cubs.
8. It’s one of the only ballparks where neighborhood residents can sit on the roof and watch the game. This wasn’t really a problem for the Cubs organization until the 1990s, when owners of the apartments built bleachers on their roofs and started charging people to come watch the game from their stands. The owners of the apartments agreed to share some of the proceeds with the Cubs and the Cubs agreed not to block the view with a fence.
9. Babe Ruth’s famous Called Shot happened at Wrigley. During the 1932 World Series, The Babe pointed to centerfield to indicate exactly where he was going to hammer the next ball. And he did. It’s much argued among baseball fans as to whether Babe Ruth actually called the shot or if he was pointing at the pitcher or if he was gesturing to the Cubs bench. Whatever he did, it happened at Wrigley.
10. Harry Caray’s famous seventh-inning stretch rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” almost never happened. Radio producer and broadcaster Jay Scott approached Caray about singing the song before, but Caray declined. So, during one game, Scott turned the mikes on in the announcer’s booth without telling anyone and a tradition was born.
I know I haven’t hit on everything, so if you’ve got some stadium factoids (Cubs or not), let’s hear ‘em in the comments.
Comments (32)
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the Babe Ruth myth has pretty much been debunked – a video from the game was found and restored, and it pretty clearly shows the Babe pointing at the pitcher, not the outfield fence
posted by Clotho on 7-28-2008 at 2:42 pm
In the movie “The Blues Brothers”, 1060 W. Addison was the address that Elwood Blues had listed on his driver’s license.
posted by Stuart on 7-28-2008 at 3:05 pm
Wrigley Field is built on the former site of the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary. According to legend, the pulpit for the seminary chapel is located at the exact same spot as the pitcher’s mound.
Go Cubs! ReCAPTCHA: Finds prize — Maybe this is the year!
posted by Kevin on 7-28-2008 at 3:57 pm
The origin of the phrase “Out in left field” is from on of the Cubs’ pre-Wrigley parks… the West Side Grounds. The Cook County Hospital had a mental ward on the other side of the left field fence… thus being “out in left field” means the lights are on, the gates are down… but there’s no train a-comin’.
BTW, also, the West Side Grounds were actually where the Cubs won their back-to-back World Series in 1907 and 1908, NOT in Wrigley.
posted by John on 7-28-2008 at 4:01 pm
Wrigley field is a dump…it smells like urine and the roof is falling apart (and instead of fixing it, they put nets up to catch the falling debris). I cant wait til they bulldoze it and build some new futuristic park..then cub’s fans wont have anythingn to talk about.
Go Sox
posted by ANDY on 7-28-2008 at 4:20 pm
Can we also add that Randy Johnson has never lost here, nor anywhere else when pitching against the Cubs, in his entire career?
posted by David on 7-28-2008 at 4:26 pm
Andy, the great thing about Wrigley is that it’s *not* futuristic. When I’m in that ballpark, I feel a connection to every fan who’s sat in those stands throughout the years. Comiskey/”The Cell” is nice, but feels institutional. And I don’t think Wrigley smells bad! (Though, I’ve never been in the men’s room, and maybe that’s to what you are referring!)
How about the fact that Weeghman originally built the park for use with the Federal League?
posted by Sara on 7-28-2008 at 4:43 pm
The “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” tradition started at Comisky Park when Harry Carey was with the White Sox and not at Wrigley Field when he was with the Cubs.
posted by Bob on 7-28-2008 at 5:29 pm
One of the coolest things:
On January 1, 2009, the Chicago Blackhawks will square-off against the Detroit Red Wings for the NHL Winter Classic in Wrigley.
posted by John on 7-28-2008 at 8:07 pm
heres fact eleven,drive a few miles south stacy and you can see real baseball!!!!!!!!!!!!1
posted by frank on 7-28-2008 at 8:09 pm
I am going to Chicago on Labor Day weekend and can’t wait to see the Cubs play the Phillies.
posted by Eric on 7-28-2008 at 11:29 pm
I completely agree with you Frank…Real baseball is played on the south side.
Go to the north side if you wanna talk on your cell phone and drink crappy bear (old style…the official BAD beer of a BAD baseball team).
Let’s all raise our beers to 100 years of bad cubs baseball and hope for 100 more!!!
posted by Andy on 7-29-2008 at 8:19 am
Haha…Sox fans are exactly like their pr*ck manager. So jealous that their slum-ridden stadium and team gets no love. Stacy, go South if you want to get mugged and see a bunch of so called fans with a huge inferiority complex. It’s fun to see and hear them whine.
posted by Envy on 7-29-2008 at 8:55 am
One more thing about the Wrigley scoreboard. You can ignore the numbers for pitchers in the out of town games. As far as I can tell, they’re completely random. How do I know? Well, they had #7 starting for the Yankees, and last I checked, Mickey Mantle has never pitched in the bigs and is dead.
posted by Jere on 7-29-2008 at 9:26 am
I miss the days of friendly competition between fans of opposing teams. The key word here being “friendly”.
posted by mandapanda on 7-29-2008 at 11:06 am
I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic here, but the throwing the ball back is meant as an insult.
posted by Florida on 7-29-2008 at 11:10 am
Last i checked, the sox won the world series in 2005 and the cubs havent won since 1908…so what is there to be jealous about. I would take a good baseball team in a “slum-ridden stadium” (even though it’s not) than a bad baseball team that plays in a “historical” (by that, i mean old and decrepit) ballpark.
posted by Andy on 7-29-2008 at 12:24 pm
Jere
The number for the pitchers column on the scoreboard correlates to the number shown for that pitcher in the program, and not the jersey number.
posted by Einstein217 on 7-29-2008 at 12:31 pm
Wrigley Field is a bum!
posted by Fury on 7-29-2008 at 12:35 pm
@Florida – tongue firmly in cheek.
posted by Stacy on 7-29-2008 at 12:41 pm
There’s one thing significantly better about the Cell, the 2005 World Series champs flag that flies there…
posted by Go Sox on 7-29-2008 at 1:17 pm
Gotta love the Whiskey Tango Sox fans. . . .
posted by Cubbies4Life on 7-29-2008 at 2:07 pm
Frank, I thought you meant about 300 miles south, where real baseball is played! Go Cards!
posted by Jessi on 7-29-2008 at 5:56 pm
i can’t figure out why a sox fan would explore cub related web content unless he were truly interested in the cubs.
posted by anniefromtexas on 7-30-2008 at 3:04 pm
to Anniefromtexas,
In order to truely hate your enemy, you must first know your enemy.
Go Sox
posted by Andy on 7-30-2008 at 5:21 pm
this is one park i have to get to. i am from new york and love yankee stadium but i have always wanted to see wrigley
posted by Levitra on 8-21-2008 at 10:56 am
To extend on #7. “Wrigley Field once held the record for the most NFL games played in a single stadium with 365 regular season NFL games, but this record was surpassed in September 2003 by Giants Stadium in New Jersey, thanks to its dual-occupancy by the New York Giants and New York Jets.”
posted by ananmoose on 8-25-2008 at 11:45 pm
it looks like it will be another cold and lonely october for wrigley
posted by Thanksgiving Recipes on 10-8-2008 at 3:04 pm
#10
Harry Caray began singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame when he was the White Sox announcer, not the Cubs announcer.
posted by Sags on 11-17-2008 at 12:27 pm
#11. The Cubs still suck.
posted by Bart on 5-31-2009 at 10:27 pm
Andy, you give the Sox’(proper grammar check needed) fans a bad name. I myself am a Sox fan, but the Cubs are pretty sweet too. And Wrigley is byfar the best stadium. Just walking in gives me such a sense of nostalgia, it’s amazing.
posted by Airile on 10-15-2009 at 11:33 pm
Wrong. Harry Caray was singing Take Me Out to The Ballgame for the White Sox YEARS before he did it at Wrigley. The Cubs just take credit for the tradition because the Cubs suck and never win. Don’t be fooled! Go to a Sox game instead when you’re in Chicago.
posted by umokayno on 10-18-2009 at 8:16 am