Wrigley Field

From BR Bullpen

Formerly Known As: Weeghman Park, Cubs Park, Whales Park, Northside Park

Capacity: 41,118

Fence distances: 355 to the left field line, 368 to left-center, 400 to straightaway center field, 368 to right-center, and 353 to the right field line.

Location: North Clark Street, Addison Avenue, Waveland Avenue (LF) and Sheffield Avenue (RF), Chicago, IL.

Tenants: Chicago Whales (FL), 1914-1915; Chicago Cubs, 1916-present.

" . . . the friendly confines . . . " - an oft-used term for Wrigley Field

"You almost wanted to give some of your money back to play there!" - Wally Westlake, who played for six major league clubs but never for the Cubs

For the last nine decades, 1060 W. Addison Avenue has been the site of major league baseball. This is the adress of Wrigley Field, the ballpark built by Charles Weeghman for his Federal League Whales on the site of an old Seminary (the name of the street on the West side of the park), and is the only remaining Federal League park in use in the majors. The park was built hastily, between March 4 and April 23, 1914 when Chicago's Federal League team played its first home game. The stadium had to be reconfigured after only three home games, because the short left field fence made it too easy to hit home runs. The park was expanded before the 1915 season, and a major expansion and reconfiguration took place after the 1922 season, bringing its current size and location into play.

When Weeghman bought out the Cubs as part of the Federal League's "buyout" agreement with the major leagues, he moved the Cubs to the corners of Clark and Addison. The actual corner, by the way, is Clark, Addison and Seminary, but the little triangle of property between Clark, Waveland and Seminary is almost completely owned by the city of Chicago.

The most famous scoreboard in the NL was built in 1937, the clock four years later. Whenever the late Harry Caray said his famous, "Cubswin! Cubswin! Cubswin!" to the fans on WGN, a blue "W" flew up the flag pole. However, there's been a few too many times the white "L" has gone up the pole, as many Die Hard Cub Fans can attest.

Bricks and ivy, Caray singing (and drinking), 74 years without lights (lights went on August 8, 1988, and the game was promptly called because of rain after a few innings), and no World Series pennants flying overhead. The Cubs are 8-24 in the World Series since 1914, 17-37 overall in the post-season – and 8-19 at Wrigley Field.

Some players don't know how to play the ivy which covers the outfield fence: in 2000, Cubs LF Julio Zuleta didn't notify the umpires that a drive by the Phillies' Kevin Jordan was stuck in the ivy – and a ground rule double turned into an inside-the-park home run. Former Cubs CF Corey Patterson refused to run into the ivy because he knows what's behind it – nothing but bricks.

The 1990 All-Star Game was the park's third – and the first under the lights.

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The Cubs in 2003 won only their third Division title in this park, but failed to win their first ever post-season series here (they did manage to win the NLDS down in Atlanta). However, thanks to two blown games in the NLCS against Florida (and, some would say, a long-time Cub fan Steve Bartman who wasn't paying attention), Wrigley is still waiting to host its World Series game since 1945.

The Tribune Company has worked hard on utilizing every inch of space in this park. Interestingly enough, the problems that made other parks of similar vintage unusable (age, neighborhood, lack of parking, physical plant) haven't happened to Wrigley – yet. People like to use the "El" to get to the park, and the neighborhood around the park hasn't disintegrated.

Plans have been approved for renovations, which would include extending the bleachers over Waveland and Sheffield, adding seats between the dugouts, and moving a lot of the interior storage facilities out to a building on the Waveland triangle. The bleacher additions have been scaled back so as to not infringe on city-owned sidewalks outside the park. For the 2002 season the Cubs put up a green mesh cover over the chain-link fence on top of the back wall of the bleachers, to discourage the "rooftop bleachers" on Sheffield and Waveland.

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In the summer of 2004, there were reports of concrete and brick "chunks" falling on patrons at Wrigley Field during games in June and July. The city ordered a thorough inspection of the park's upper deck and mezzanine suite levels. The city and the Cubs declined to release the results of those inspections, but safety netting was placed under the grandstands in several places. An off-season inspection revealed that the park was experiencing premature concrete aging from the endless freeze-thaw cycles that buildings in Chicago are subject to due to the harsh winters. The safety nets may stay up for the foreseeable future.