Special seats at Wrigley take viewing to new level

March 2, 2004

BY RON RAPOPORT SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

The construction of 200 new field-level seats between the dugouts at Wrigley Field is good news for people with money to burn and an itch to be seen on television. Pay something like $250 -- the Cubs haven't announced the exact price yet -- and you just might have your face in the frame every time a pitch smacks into the catcher's mitt.

This could lead to certain excesses, needless to say.

"Can't those morons sitting behind the backstop waving all game long be considered a distraction to the pitcher?'' one fan of the Dodgers, who have similar field-level seats, asked of the people who can be seen calling their friends.

One thing the new section will not do is capture the magic of the private behind-the-plate seats that originally were installed when Dodger Stadium was built in the 1960s. The beauty of those seats is that they were built down into the ground, which put the fans about on the level of the players in the dugouts -- only with a better view.

"You had a feeling you were a part of the team,'' a friend of mine in Los Angeles who sat in those seats for years told me the other day. "When Sandy Koufax pitched, it was just perfect. You could tell what the pitch was going to be before he let it go.''

Because this section had a private entrance and was isolated from the rest of the ballpark by a screen, it quickly became a favorite of the Hollywood community, which led to the players and umpires stopping by before games to chat.

"It was like our little city down there,'' my friend said. "Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon had seats near us. Doris Day sat over by the Dodgers' dugout, which is where she first started flirting with Maury Wills. And during the World Series, the commissioner sat with us.''

These dugout seats were torn out in 2000 in favor of an aggressively marketed field-level stadium club, which offered catering by Wolfgang Puck, access to a private bar and other high-priced amenities. All in the name of progress, of course, but to some it meant the good old days were gone.