Historic Wrigley Field

By John Garcia

September 7, 2004 - Ninety years old but still as beautiful as ever. Over the years the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field have been home to countless baseball games -- and also football and soccer.
The Bears hosted more NFL games there for 50 years than any other stadium. The now defunct Sting played soccer at Wrigley. Now, close to 40,000 people regularly fill the park for ballgames every time the Cubs play. However, the capacity at one time was just 14,000. In fact, many of the best known features of the ballpark-- the scoreboard, the ivy, the upper deck and even the name Wrigley Field-- were nowhere to be found when the place was first christened as Weeghman Park back in 1914.

"If someone from1914 came here today they'd hardly recognize the ballpark. The ballpark was originally a single story grandstand with a small section of bleachers in right field," said Ed Hartig, Cubs historian.

The Cubs were known as the Chicago Federals back then. Owned by Charles Weeghman, a restaurateur, the ballpark wouldn't get the name Wrigley Field until 1926 when the Wrigley family bought the team. They played the 1932 World Series against the Yankees with temporary outfield bleachers. Five years later they added permanent bleachers and later the upper deck. Then in 1937 the team added the scoreboard. Since then they've added much more, including the luxury skyboxes in the late 80's and of course the lights in 1988.

"There's very little of the original ballpark still around, some of it down the in the left field corner that's some of the original stuff but over the years most of the ball park has been rebuilt," said Hartig.

The famous ivy on the outfield walls also went up in '37. It was the brainchild of former White Sox owner Bill Veeck, whose father was the Cubs team president. It's a part of the park's character that often makes Wrigley a bigger attraction than the team.

"You have sort of as people perceive a step back in time and that remains a charm and a draw whether they do the NLCS or they finish 50 games under 500," said Peter Alter, Chicago Historical Society.

The machine has acted up a bit this year though. The recent problems of falling concrete for instance. But that's happened in some of the newer sections where the work was done within the last 25 years or so. George castle has written several books on Wrigley Field and the Cubs.

"In many respects the ballpark is becoming obsolescent all it has right now is charm and intimacy but it has none of the frills and doo dads that fans want now," said Castle.

The Cubs nevertheless are on track to draw three million fans this year, a new attendance record. But even as they enjoy the good times the cubs owners have already got to be thinking of the future beyond Wrigley.

"Eventually they're going to have to concrete only lasts so long. You can make repairs for so long but eventually the core, the structure, it will have to be replaced," said Hartig.

Earlier this season the Cubs announces plans to put a new parking structure and retail building next to the park, so the Cubs obviously have no plans to leave the neighborhood any time soon. Plan on spending many more good years ahead at the Friendly Confines.

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