Wrigley Field Tour

Those of you who know me, know that I have become a huge fan of the "first place" Chicago Cubs. I have been to many ball games, know a lot of their history and follow them pretty religiously, much to Lorraine's chagrin, who thought she married a non-sports fan.

Still, being the fabulous wife that she is, arranged for us to take an organised tour of the hallowed stadium that is Wrigley Field. A tour I might add that many long time Cubs fans, including GI Joe have never taken. This picture is of me in the entry way to the Cubs home clubhouse, and as usual there are plenty more here.

Wrigley Field was constructed in 1914, on the grounds of a disused seminary, for the Chicago Federals. The story goes that a guy by the name of Weeghman wanted to own part of a Chicago MLB franchise, however through several aborted attempts was unable to get anywhere with the Cubs or White Sox. So he and some other folks decided to create a 3rd League, the Federal League, and build a new stadium on the North side of the city, the Cubs then being located on the West, the Sox on the South and of course the lake on the East.

Through the years it has been one of the most versatile stadiums around, with soccer, American football, baseball, softball, concerts, and many other events being hosted in the friendly confines.

The Federal league only lasted a few years, and when it folded, (mostly for financial reasons) Weeghman still had a lust for MLB. As part of agreeing to remove the challenge of a 3rd league from MLB, he was permitted to acquire the Cubs from the Taft family based in Cincinatti. MLB really wanted to have home town ownership of all of the teams, hence they basically forced the Taft family to sell to Weeghman. So with effect from 1916 campaign, it became the home for the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs played their first home game there, beating the Reds 7-6 in 11 innings, and apparently there was actually a bear cub in attendance!

Unfortunately for Weeghman, war broke out, and being the owner of a German restaurant, a baseball franchise and a cinema, his empire soon came tumbling down as folks tightened their belts. He sold the franchise to the Wrigley family in 1920, when it was renamed to Cubs Park. Later it was renamed to Wrigley field (1926) in honour of the club's owner.

The original scoreboard, constructed in 1937 was a sort of brown colour, which caused some issues for the batters. It was repainted after the second world war to the colour it is today. It take between 1-3 people (depending on how many games are in progress) to climb around inside the scoreboard to keep up with the scores. The balls, strikes, outs are all maintained "electronically" from the the press box area. An interesting fact, is that no batted ball has ever hit the scoreboard, but a few have come close, flying to either side.

We were able to visit the bleachers, stands, security office, both club houses, dugouts, press box, mezzanine suites and the on deck circle. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons we were not able to walk on the field, although I was able to put a foot on the edge. I can thoroughly recommend the tour, it was a great event, almost 2 hours long and full of stories, anecdotes and information from the volunteer tour guide, part of the Cubs Care charity organisation.

As most of you know, who are in the know, the Cubs last won the world series in 1908, 99 years ago. They are serious contenders this year, and if they did, it would be the first World Series win that Wrigley has ever seen. So, altogether now :

GO CUBS GO!!!!