Daley heckles Cubs chief over Wrigley

August 25, 2004

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Mayor Daley advised Cubs President Andy MacPhail on Tuesday to "get a team" and "put a clamp on his mouth" for accusing City Hall of demolishing significant portions of Wrigley Field -- only to find the 90-year-old stadium is safe.

With Buildings Commissioner Stan Kaderbek at his side, Daley defended the unprecedented threat to close Wrigley, which prompted a weekend search for shoddy repairs that tore up concrete but found nothing.

"If a piece of concrete fell on your head . . . and your child, what would you do? You'd be yelling at the city every day. You know that," the mayor said.

As for the wild card-leading Cubs, Daley made a surprisingly provocative comment for a diehard fan of the swooning Sox. "They should get a team," the mayor said.

He also had a few choice words for MacPhail. "Poor guy. He should really put a clamp on his mouth."

MacPhail refused to comment on the latest mayoral jab for fear of intensifying the bitter feud between Daley and the Tribune Co., the media company that owns the Cubs, Wrigley Field, the Chicago Tribune and WGN radio and TV.

Earlier this week, MacPhail openly referred to those tensions, arguing that "the city has conducted enough inspections of Wrigley Field by now that they should be satisfied we are not printing a newspaper here."

He also wrote a letter to Kaderbek accusing the city's handpicked consultant of "demolishing significant portions of Wrigley to review repairs, some of which were done many years ago," only to find what two other structural engineering firms had already found: the ballpark is safe.

For the second straight day, Kaderbek made no apologies for putting Wrigley under the microscope -- and the jackhammer -- to verify that ramp and structural steel repairs made in response to a 2001 report on the stadium's structural integrity were made correctly.

At the direction of City Hall, Construction Technology Laboratories took seven concrete core samples and broke up concrete in six places where ramp repairs were made. The "inspection openings" were used to examine the structural steel beneath.

"We told them exactly what we would be doing -- that we would be opening up areas of the ballpark to look at previous repairs," Kaderbek said. "That's what we did. We did it with their contractor working with us. At least when I was out there, nobody ever raised the issue with me concerning damaging the ballpark."

Three times over a six-week period, loose chunks of concrete have fallen from Wrigley's upper deck. The Cubs were allowed to continue playing at the landmark stadium only after installing safety nets to protect seating areas for the remainder of the season.

Kaderbek's renewed threat to close Wrigley was based on a comment made, then retracted, by the Midwest bureau chief of the Tribune Co.-owned Los Angeles Times. Kaderbek said reporter P.J. Huffstutter told him she had inside information that shoddy repairs caused concrete to fall at Wrigley.

"It was worth it. Absolutely. I stand by that. As a matter of fact, just yesterday I got word from another news outlet about another alleged case of shoddy workmanship. . . . And frankly, we did the analysis to shut down the criticism. That's it," Kaderbek said.